Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-01-16
MUCH ADO"-A NOVELETTE,,
BY FRANCES HoDGsoN BURNETT,
Author "That Lass o Lowres" louisiana" Etc. Etc
copyrighted 1851
(Confiuned.)


| shaded, fower-scented room, at the window OF
which she found her mother standing.
| Mrs. Huntington turned and looked at her
ton who stood at the gate with you?"
MINI. Jack Hamilton, Nelle"
i res mamma. And without another woro
she ned to her own room. 1t seemed to her In
the hours she spent alone, shut up in Its pretty,
| summary dimness, that surely no girl could
| ever have suffered in such strange way before.
fowery bower Of hers that it Seemed an added
| cruelty That she should sit In 1t feeling such
6ssperass unhhappinsss i was desperate era un
| alone fifteen minutes. she threw herself on
her knees by her favorite deep window and hid
heart was beating hard against her side and
| she was trembling all over.
'Oh, what Is the matter with me?" she said
again and again in piteous whisper. "Oh,
| why do feel like this?"
She could not still herself at all. There
long a time endeavoring TO ignore and control
something which had been advancing upon her
every day and every hour that now, when un.
der a too great strain she had given way for q
| moment, the reaction was greater than she was
ready to meet. There had been SO much to
ignore and set aside, there had been so many
days when she had made strong efforts-and
now 1t all seemed to come back at once. And
| try as she might she did not remember the
| right things. The things which came back TO
| her were all wrong. The times, for instance
so many of them-when she had met his eyes
4 LOOKING at Qer IN tnat nall WOUNDED, nall angry
way which was somehow pathetic. No one
could deny-oh, yes. it was quite true that he
had the most beautiful eyes-to say that they
beautiful dogs or a child's, when they ask
for something. 1t might seem absurd,
put It was ,, true, they always seemed Il, TO
feeling, even when he was not near her at all,
that he was asking and she refusing-though
when he had stood silent near her and yet it
had been as If he spoke. And the times when
they had passed each other; and the times she
had meant not to watch him as he played ten
mis-, and yet somehow had known how he
looked and moved, and that he was always
alert and graceful and ready, and his voice had
| always come to her above every other voice
not loud exactly, but clear and resonant and
with gay. laughing sound. And one day a
cidentally crushed it with her foot, and he had
seen ii across the lawn and had sauntered over
and stood by 1T moment and then stopped 70
pick 1t up-and no one but themselves had
seen-and she had stood perfectly mOtiOness as
| If she had not seen herself and yet adknOwn
| she had been angry. Her hands had trem bied
as she stood and she had played badly all
| through the rest of the game and had lost it to
her side.
And now! What could have been worse than
this afternoon! She could feel his great strong
away from her cheek as she remembered 1t.
That had been violence; that had been enough
to make , any girl dislike lis hd him ma and feel revolted
strength he had not hurt her; and in an instant
he had released her, and he had said she did
not know what she was doing to him; and he
had gone away as if he could not bear it any
longer.
ii. 1t Is not natural"
She got up and began to walk up and down
al am thinking of him as II liked him." she
whispered, as she paced to and fro fast and un-
certainly. 81 must not do that. He is not
man for any good girl to like. Any girl who
was good and refined would hate him |! I could
not possibly like him. Oh, what sort of q girl is
1t who could know what 1 do and then like a
man only because he is strong and graceful and
has "a strange voice and beautiful eyes, Only
the worst and most unrefined girl could do
that. If like him must be as bad and indif
ferent to high things as he is. Am like that
cannot be! Oh, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.! Oh,
you everything before! can tell nobodyr'
1t became torture before long, 1t was shame
1t was terror. She heaped reproaches upon her
self; to her sensitive, untried. girlish mind
him, every thought assumed the proportions OF
crime. 1t was something wrong in herself
dormant in her nature, and bad only waited TO
be called forth by some one like this. No one
could be any worse than that. She put her
self upon the rack and showed no mercy
The little blooming, 1owery room grew darker
and darker. She was quite pale and exhausted
in the end; she was overwhelmed with her own
reproacheS. and yet again and again her heart
would leap as she remembered a look-a word
She stopped at last by the mantel and stood
HE is coarse" she said, with a great effort.
hurrying the words as she forced them from
her lips. He is base; he is dishonorabIe: he is
| coward; he is a-oh, liar! He is false and
low in everything; He is contemplate: he is
cruel. Yes, it is all true. He is not like a man
And then some feeling rushed over her
some strange, wild protest against it ALI
stronger than herself,and she uttered pas
with her other hand.
oh, no! nor she cried: 'oh, no. no. no!
tempest of tears. hiding her face and shaking
with fear of this which had swept all before H.
When she went down to dinner her mother
You are really pale, Nell," she said. "You
~ do not think I am WE'LL" she said.
Perhaps 1 have been going out a little too
much
She often looked pale after this-so pale that
with bewiderment and solicitude And she
had lost more than her soft color: the elasticity
OF her spirit seemed to have left her. She
PLAYED tennis no more, to the great wonder of
Marian and Hester Beverly VINO spent DAYS
upon their lawn and with difficulty forbore to
dine with their racquets under their arms and
sleep with them under their pillows. She ceased
TO take walks alone, and no longer went out
sketching. Often when they had evening en-
gagement5 she excused herself on the plea of
fatigue and remained at home. Sometimes in
the morning she came down wi b an air of
iassitude and with slight shadows about her
"My dear" her mother would saw. "you look
as If you had not slept weil.' :, =
The first time she said this Nell glanced at
herself quickly in mirror aud family
blu he'd.
81 did not sleep very well, mamma" she an
swered.
"But, my DEAR" said Mrs. Huntingdon. "tbts
Is something new, isn't it? You used to sleep
like q baby"
II shall sleep so tonight, perhaps" said Nell
But she did not often sleep so In these DAYS
and so 1t came TO pass that one day Marian
Beverly passing the hedge-racouet over her
shoulder-with Mr.. Jack Hamilton and stop
ping TO speak TO her as she gathered few
roses-looked at her in some astonshment
pale you are?'
"Oh, DON'T" said Nell "Aunt Maria told me
lew hours ago that 1 was as white as a wrag
She says need exercise-ten miles a day"
But suddenIy sne was pale no longer, warm
carnation having spread itself over her cheek
"But you always had such q lovely COLOR
persisted Marian. "Hester and I have mated
you for IL ever since we were old enough 10
speak. What have you been doing? You are
as bad as Mr.. Hamilton. And-how oneer,
Mr.. Hamilton broke in with some haste
"Yes," he said, "she was telling me that used
TO have lovely color"
"Yol had" laughed Marian, "when you came
here, but now
If was like q blush rose," said Mr.. Hami,.
ton. "a blush rose. And now that you have
have rified me, so to speak, you hold me nm
to public scorn and draw fnvidious comparf-
sons
But he did not smile very naturally. as he
looked across the hedge at Nell.
Perhaps, said Neil, meeting his eyes with
not agree with YOU"
ut doesn't" ne answered with brevity; $50 1
am going away"
Men dropped a rose and picked It up and put
1t In 10 her girdle.