The Beloved Woman

block, feeling in the moving air what Norma felt, what all the city felt-the bold, wild promise of spring. He turned back

room with his eyes idly following the headlines. The pretty apartment was somewhat disordered, and looked d

s wife's voice, thick

thing wrong, he sprang to her couch, dropp

at is it,

ch, and he could see t

ring. Chris, wh

d the couch with rosy light. He bent in e

Don't worry, dear, don't try to talk too f

detached the fingers he had pres

hand. "But I want you to tell me, Chris, I must know-and no

art, only don't let yourself get so excited. Just tell me what it

ing up with an air of regaining self-control, "you must t

ng about, dear? Do-do try to be j

sweeping the hair back from her damp

"I told you weeks ago, after your mother made that scene, the nig

regarding him fixe

ther simply wish to befrie

water. Drinking it off, and raising herself in her cushions, she stretched her hand to touch the chair beside her, and still without a

"the minute that girl came into the room I knew that-I knew that horror had

he said,

with a keen look, "d

night, on my honour as a gentleman! A

ical voice-she looks like my father, like Theodore-she looks like us all! She and Leslie were so much alike, as they

nning to breathe a lit

heard him whisper

is?" Alice whispere

nship somewhere," he said, sensibly. "There's no reason to suppose that the thing can't be explained. I do think

lice was watching

very sure that Mama wouldn't have almost lost her min

ilence, in the utter silence o

suspect me of keeping something from you. But on my hono

with a sort of wail.

d's slow c

now more?" he as

unhappil

ntly, after anxious thought, "will you promise me never, never to spea

tell you that,

see, I've never understood Mama's feverish distress these last weeks. She's been to see me, she's done what had to be done about Leslie's engagement, but she's not herself-you can see that! Yesterday she began to cry, alm

ot this! Oh, Chris, if I'm wrong about this, I shall be on my knees for gratitude for the rest of my life; I would die, I would di

ice-now,

e lay back quietly, stroking his hand. "Chris," she resumed, co

n by surpri

ose so," he admit

to you that she might have

ent, and his eyes widened, and

now, Alice

s folly!" she

d, briefly, his eye

xed, and she stared at him wi

it is," she sa

our mother's mysterious nervousness, but then I am free to say that I don't by any means always understand your mother! You remember the pearl episode, and the time that she had Annie and

t that he was a genius, and he hadn't a pe

nd then, when he finally was sent abroad, she asked me seriously if I th

ce said, ruefully,

s of wild speculations. I wish to the Lord that your mother was a little bit more trusting with her confidences, but when it all comes out

nnie to-day I almost felt sick," Ali

no reflection on Annie!" Chris said, giving her her pape

re the fire. The cool fresh air drifted in at the half-open window, and sent a delicate breath, from Alice's great bowl of freesia lilies, throug

o worried!"

e was very ill, I know, but was there-was there any reason to suppose that

im with apprehens

lieve so. I didn't kno

t," Christopher s

e it was sixteen-eighteen years ago," Alice said. And

to whistle, but made no soun

because of mourning. Theodore had been worrying Mama to death, and had left the house then, and Mama was sending him and his wife money, I believe, but of course lots of that was kept from me. Annie was terribly wild and excitable then, always doing reckles

opher, who was listen

he was so wild about him, and Annie told me once that that was why Ida Burnett was popped into a boarding school. He was big, and dark, and he had a slight foreign accent, and he was ever so much older than A

d this go on?" C

Mama, and everything in an uproar! Finally I heard Annie sobbing-I was frightened to death of course, and I sat down on the stairs that go up to the nursery-and I heard Annie say something about being eighteen-and she was eighteen the very day before; and she ran by me, in her riding

ut?" Christ

med the door.

cour

nie had gone abroad. We had been living very quietly, you know, and nobody cared much what Annie did, then. And she really had gone abroad, she wrote Mama from Montreal, and she had been married

h later

cons

member that I went to your mother, and Act

Kate went

n't know that she was ever sure. Judge Lee put the divorce through for Annie, and Mama took her to the Riviera and petted her, and pulled her through. But all her hair came out, and for weeks they didn't think she would live. She had brain fever. You see, Annie had had some money waiting for her on her eighteenth birthday, and your own father, w

her illness didn't commence-o

ve had a baby?" Al

point almost insuffera

ow it!" A

e man echoed, alm

Hendrick was coming, in fact, she was here one day, and she seemed to feel blue, and finally I happened to say that if motherhood seemed so hard to a person like herself, whose husband and whose whole family were so mad with joy over the prospect of a baby, what on earth must it be to the poor girls who have every reason to hate it. And she looked at me rather oddly, and said: 'Ah, I know what that is!' Of course I guessed right away what she meant, and I said: 'Annie-not really!' And she said: 'Oh, yes, that was what started m

id Chris, "she herself sa

it be that she didn't know?

er with a faint an

r a fantastic theory, dear! Where

lice sai

g heart, that he was impressed. After a full moment of

I think so! But it occurred to me that it might be.

answered, thought

rs, and she tightened her fi

ought the baby home, and has raised her. That makes Miss Sh

Alice admitted

been kept quie

ses that the whole thing ended with her terrible illness. She was only eighteen, and younger and more childish even than L

of business, but I suppose there's no h

r nullification, or whatever it was! There was nothing left unexplained there. But if the child lived, she didn't know that-onl

We shall just have to make terms with these Sheridans, and keep our mouths shut. I didn't get the idea that they were holding your mother up. I believe it's more that she want

lay the game. But, Chris, I can't stand the uncertainty. Mama's coming to have luncheon with me to-morrow, an

t free! I wish, since she let it go so long, that your mother had forgotten it entirely. But, as it is, this child isn't, strictly sp

ood in th

rose, Mrs

e upstairs!" But the eyes she turned to her husband were full of a

had time to say hastily, bef