Jewel Weed

f it was recalled at all, was chiefly memorable because it marked a change in his attitude toward his chosen occupation. It seemed that revelation afte

tired and thin. His conscience smote him. He had really meant to do a common kindly thing to cheer this girl, but it h

ty. The assembled group giggled and disappeared upon his entrance, and Lena, when she came down the stairs, flushing with embarrassment an

than self-torture to stay indoors. Can't you be a bit unconventional and go out wit

coming proved it to be a casual matter to Mr. Percival. She must make no mistake. In her instant

of reserve that set her apart. "But don't you see, I-I-can't go

k, quite unconscious

plush trimming on the shelf over the gas-

o come up stairs and meet mother. She ca

her permission to be out in the evening with a strange young man? But Mrs. Quincy knew a thing or two as well as her daughter, and Dick saw only that the room was ver

final kiss that made Mrs. Quincy wink to keep back the stateme

atisfied when Lena laughed. He bubbled over with fancies old and new, and even the old ones took fresh life. The college stories and jokes that everybody knew, the commonplaces of his world, set Lena exclaiming with delight. The e

remembered her mother and the ugly room. He had a vision of a sweet spirit bearing an adverse fate with dignity, and now giving him, in return for his small act of courtesy, the perfume of her presence, her beaut

above tinkled out ten, and Le

claimed. "Let's go som

she liked to be with Mr. Percival. With Jim Nolan she would have gone in a mome

must go home to mother. She isn't used t

e had answered w

es of your time, you must give me more of them. Will you

speak, but she smi

Percival!

himself irritated with the other women, the women

this delectable morsel of pinkness, but kept his growing intimacy to himself. This dell by the way, into whi

his three-cornered intimacy with Norris and Madeline, his plans for his own future, and to all she listened, sometimes with a dreamy far-off look in the big eyes, someti

ions, it was a real pleasure to prove herself the actress she knew she was. She pretended, when she was with him, that s

, delicious to him because of its very remoteness, began to irritate her. Was he ashamed of her? Was he playing with her? Privately she found Prince Charming, unless he meant something more than a h

count of a garden party he had been to the day before. He

rs," he said half querulously. "Why

ings happen, and you expect ever so many more lovely things to come, but I've

ulsively. "The future is sure

ears. At any rate, when she lifted her head again, her face wore a cold little s

ve to live among," she said. "I'm not

t moment for having said so much, but Lena seemed to draw no in

rtunately. You are a little oasis in my

intellect, fancied that it was all his own idea to try and bring this small person into contact with those who w

ivacity than ever, Ellery growing more certain of himself, Madeline rounding slowly out of girlhood into womanhood. Yet there was a difference. Half a dozen

is friend not quite in keeping with the sterling Dick of old. He was less sensitive, so thought Ellery, in his code of honor as he saw more and more of the crooked ways of men. Once Norris met him walking with one of the cheaper aldermen, a

e either in Dick himself or in his attitude toward her. I

wness. That men might not surfeit of her sweets, she tempered her daytime prodigality of heat by nights of frost. People were coming back to town, a few, very few, in velvet gowns, but mostly in rags and anxious about their autumn wardrobes; and yet these were days to make one long, as one does in spring, for the smell of th

eld their own; and Mrs. Lenox was fitting temptation to desire as the two hobnobbed over cups of tea i

e? Doesn't the thought of winter coming, cold and long, make you appreciate these last heavenly gle

ck. "All of which means-what?

first birds go south; that I want Madeline to come and pay me a visit; that, as a kind of sugar-plum, a chromo, if you please,

n," Dick replied heartily. "But I choose to be a sugar-plum ra

ll out-doors are surely sufficient. It will be good to get away from the grime. Now wha

familiar with these surroundings. He was thinking how little his small courtesies counted, and how much these women could do if they chose. Why shouldn't he be bold? Madeline and Mrs. Lenox were simpl

k?" she as

t to live in the sheltered corner of a garden, and she's out on a bleak prairie. She's about as much like the people she has to associate with as an old-fashioned single rose is like a cabbage. Even her mother, who is the only relative she has, is nothing but a fretful porcupine of a woman. I've been to see them a few times and the situation seems to me al

might be more of a pleas

simplicity and freshness, that you can't help liking her. And she grubs away at perfectly uncongenial work, and lives with this fusty old mother in a fusty little lodging-house. It makes me sick to thin

t and tactful way of suggesting that I sh

ry charming summer home into an orphan asylum, would have considered that

d be a lovely th

ly let ourselves in f

ertain an angel un

rl, nor did she trust to his judgment; but, like a wise woman, she wanted to know what was the thing

will go to see this rose among cabbages. We will introduce ourselves as your friends, Dick. If we think you are a mere deluded male thing, there the matter ends. If we, too, are carried

said Dick, "I k

and I'll write to Mr. Norris. Heaven send these days of sun continue. No

by the window, industriously concocting a new hat. The Swedish "girl", whose unfortunate fate it was to minister to the wants of Mrs. Olberg's l

ncy," she said, "Dar's

nd disappeared. Lena, in great curio

cis Lenox;

ke! Who air they?"

biggest swel

do they want here?

to report some party o

o becoming jerks and going through a series of wrig

you a million dollars," sai

ush furniture, its crayon portraits and its two vases of gaudy blue and gold. She faced the two ladies seated on the impossible chairs. Lena was almost as startling an apparition in that room as was Ram Juna's rose in the dusty phial-whether a miracle or

ent together she measured her

she said to herself. "Why, they're b

t protected creatures on the face of the earth. The knowl

ch was what they seemed to want to hear

born to blush unseen. What an e

asked her, haven't I? I think the microbe of

up stairs with light steps, ruffling her plumes like a cocky little lady-wren as she w

a pause just long enough, the daughter k

if you please, because Mr. Percival asked them to; and they were sweet as

he lan

mplacence, "Mr. Percival must h

an unusual thing for Mrs. Quincy to be struck dumb th

nner! But the Lenoxes are just rolling in money; and they say Mr. Lenox hadn't a red cent when she married him and gave him his start. It's luc

normal state of mind, and she resumed her rocking. Lena's

ake and scrape on clothes, so's to look fine for your new fine friends. It's no matter about

see why I shouldn't spend it. I'm n

ibute a mite to

board for a week,"

should think you'd think twice, Lena, before you went off gallivantin' and lef

s. Lenox if she won't

e among a lot of rich people who looked down on me because I was poor. I've got too much self-respect

me for not making the most of my chances

nced by the truth of this reply,

, do you want me

r I won't have no peace to my life,

o, I'll give it up now and ne

death," said her m

ailed the serpent over her life. To Lena, fortune and misfortune were still things of outward import, and almost synonymous with possession and non-possession. Yet, in spite of Mrs. Q