The Beloved Woman

de known at a dinner given to forty young persons, in the home of the débutante's aunt, Mrs. Hendrick von Behrens. Miss Melrose, said the paper, was the daughter and heiress of the lat

nces were already planned

elings so confused that she could not define them, at her

gray Dedham bowls, with ducks waddling around them, and these were in the drawer, too, wrapped in tissue paper. And beside these were the length of lemon-coloured silk that Rose had had for a year, without making up, and six of her mother's fine sheets of Irish linen, and two glass candlesticks that Rose had won at a Five-hundred party. Altogether, Rose felt that she was making great strides to

er prospect than to drudge away in a bookstore all her life, or to go out on Sundays with her cousin. Norma dreamed for hours of Leslie's life, the ease and warmth and beauty of it, and when Leslie was actually heralded as engaged the younger girl felt a pang of the first actual jealousy she had ever know

na bowls and glass-towels. All the pleasant excitement of her call upon Mrs. Melrose, with Aunt Kate, died away. It had seemed the beginn

ew minutes, and Leslie had extended her Aunt Alice's kind invitation for tea. But no day had been set for the tea, Nor

e completely turned his head. He laughed at Norma, hardly heard her words when she spoke to him, and never moved his eyes from her when they were together. Norma c

Wolf?" she would ask, impatie

rrors in the lives of men about him: drink, dirt, unemployment and disease, debt and dishonour. Wolf was not quick of thought; he had little imagination, rather marvelling at other men's cleverness than displaying any of his own, and he had reached perhaps his twenty-second or twenty-third summer before he realized that these terrors did not menace him, that whatever changes he made in his work would be improvements, steps upward. For actual months after the move to New York Wolf had po

and holidays, when they could picnic up in beautiful Connecticut, or unpack the little fringed red napkins far down on the Long Island shore, life had begun to seem very pleasant

n him, Wolf began to realize that a change was near. It was the most miraculous thing that had ever come to him, althoug

t. But he had never dreamed that it would make his heart come up into his throat and suffocate him whenever he thought of

ll his days and nights. Had there ever been a time, he wondered, when he had taken her for granted, helped her into her blessed little coat as coolly as he had Rose

s mother, in the warm, fir-scented church. He remembered breakfast afterward, in a general sense of hunger and relaxation and well-being, and the girls exulting over their presents. And every time that straight-shouldered, childish figure came into hi

hem. And in the ecstasy of this new vision, which changed the whole face of his world, he was content to wait with no special impatience for the hour in which he should claim her. Of course Norma must

from his luncheon to look at the engine of young Stanley Forman's car. He had left his seat upon a pile of lumber, bolted the last of his pie, and leaned over the hood of the specially designed racer interested only in its peculiarities, and entirely indifferent to the respectful young owner, who was aware

c charm in his eyes. She was to Wolf like a baby who wants the moon. The moon might be an awkward and useless possession, and the baby

t kitchen, alone with his mother. He was seated at the end of the scrubbed and bleached little t

Wolf said, chewing a raisin, thoughtfully, "th

. Not Perseus, coming at last in sight of his Gorgon, had

at into your

know. But it's

pped nuts from the

a drop of the same blood in your veins, a

turning the egg-beater in an

think of that, Wolf

his big handsome face was suffused with happ

suddenly, her

by?" she ha

ss his chest. When he looked at her the smile had faded from h

dn't always know it. I used to think of her as just another sister-like

Kate sat staring

ny relativ

s-w

eople-who

ked at t

no one bu

aid. "I don't think Norma ever had a real affair-just kid affairs, like Paul Harrison,

ly through the packed bread. Presently she stopped, and set the saucepan down, her eyes narrowed and fixed o

r little shoes for her, Mother,"

ered, with a troubled laugh. And she gave the top of his head one of

eavy with a vague uneasiness; she had not encouraged him very much. She had not accepted this suggestion as she did almost all of the young people's ideas,

ck turned to him, busied with some manipu

child's too young to listen to you-or any one!-now. Promis

, quickly, hurt to the soul. She read his tone a

ve her to me I've hoped it would be this way! B

e me?" poor Wolf said, eagerly and humbly. He was amazed to see

announced the home-coming girls, who entered

a knife-and look at my shoe-in I went, right through the ice! Oh, Aunt Kate, let me stay here!" and locking both slender arms about the older woman's neck, she dropped he

so?" Wol

the oven. "Rose and I fell over the new lineoleum in the hall; I thought it was a dead body!" she went on, cheerfully. "I came down on my family feature with such a noise that I thought

Sheridan said, in a panic. "Go change your shoes, and come and eat your dinner. I b

gone by Friday! Because on Friday I'm going to have tea with Mrs. Liggett-her husband came in to-day and asked m

I went into the store to get her," Rose explained, "and I've had all this once, in the sub

n dinner was finished, and the table cleared, she produced a p

that the man I marry is going to

olf's slow and patient perusal of the Scientific American to announce tha

Wolf or Rose died and left a lot of children, the other one would

complete," Rose, who was neatly marking a cros

y my cousin,

like that worry you," Wolf s

anyway!" Norma reminded him, in a gale of laughter.

ot have any more of that, if you please. I see the President is making himself very unpopular, Wolf-I

is time next year," Norma said,

a She

Aunt

me to speak t

ma'

e covertly watching the game. Present

can get more words out of the let

r any sort of game. Norma, bending herself to the contest, put her pencil into her mouth, and stared fixedly at

she drowsed over the Woman's Page, decided that