Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-02-01

sion that it was invisible to all indoors.
He and Mrs. Peytee were always very
good friends, and now, seized with a
sudden need of a sympathetic ear, it
was to her that he turned. That idea
about the ring that had slipped through
his head became fixed now by nothing
more or less personal to himself or Char
ley than the chance he saw of making
it an easy pretext for telling his tale to
Mrs. Peytee
"Come, sit around by the grapevine
with me-" he said when, turning back
to the house in his restless tramping,
he met her in the yard.
Mrs. Peytee was always gracious, and
she took his arm with a flattering air of
possession and interest, and dragging
her fresh trailing muslins after her she
sought with him the seclusion of tho
rustic bench beneath the shadow of the
grapevine
1t was no thanks to Harry's wisdom
that he had not made decided blunder
in his selection of a confdant, for Mrs.
Peytee, like many better woman, was
all but sure to find man in love an
odious and tiresome or anoble and graf
flying spectacle, according as he was not
or was in love with herself, but now
she was moved to an unusual patience
with Harry, because she was sure that
the colonel's eligibility for marriage
and in all probability his inclination to-
ward that state would be much increas-
ed by Charley's entrance upon it.
Il want to measure your finger, Miss
Kate, said Harry, standing in front of
her.
'Mercy on us, what for?" said Mrs.
Peytee, leaning back and looking up at
him with brilliant black eyes.
because l heard Miss Charley say
that you and she wore the same sized
gloves.
He was looking down upon her with
pleased fatuous sense of being rather
neat in his way of introducing his sub
ject and of shining little in this early
scene of the lovely happy drama he had
in his mind.
Charley in turn was looking down up
on them both from the garnet window.
She now saw him sit down on Mrs. Pey-
tees right hand, decidedly close to her,
take string from his pocket and begin
what proved to be the troublesome and
lengthy task of measuring the forefnger
of her left hand Of course it was Mrs.
Peytee who took care that the little task
should be amusingly difficult, and of
course Harry was so innocent-in the
masculine way-that he was all unwarn-
ed by his conscience of the coquettish
character of these delays
From her window Charley could even
sec the shy, happy embarrassment on his
face and the quizzical, half languishing
glance of the widow.
Naturally from all this she drew con-
illusions, and inevitably, like most hu-
man conclusions, they were erroneous.
How natural and assured her mistake
was, however, how little it rescmbled
the conduct so often displayed in tho
first act of play by heroine who sac
ritices all ordinary intelligence to the
interests of the playwright, probably
only those can fully understand who
have some knowledge of the curious and
complicated code that governs Irritation
and lovemaking in large sections of
southern society. An exposition of this
code would be interesting, it seems to
me, but my present mission will be bet
ter met by simply saying that Charley,
according to the ideas in which she was
bred, had good grounds for feeling that
she had looked upon a more significant
scene than any that had passed between
her and Harry, or that, if he were only
flirting with the naughty Mrs. Peytee,
it was only the more probable that he
was only flirting with her-a form of
amusement, this, by the way, in which
up to some rather indefinite point he
was encouraged by soCiety-that is t.
say, by the women generally Such
things are mainly regulated by women
in any society i'll the world, and it is
perhaps not aside from my story to say
that Harry Williams was exactly tho
sort of young male creature who never
has any clear idea of what are the sub
tleties Of any such code, no matter where
he lives.
The measurement for that fatal ring
was hardly finished when Charley turn
ed and flung herself face down upon
the hard floor. She had no conscious
ness of right to blame any one. She
was conscious only of pain and the de.
termination to hide it.
Now, poor Charley was blessed or
cursed, as you choose, with an unusual
command of feminine powers of dis
stimulation, and her natural pride, which
was great, was re-enforced by social
training favorable to its strongest devel-
opment. Now, it put her upon course
of self control and play acting that for
the time seemed like to cost her cruelty,
although, according to her lights, sho
was behaving with just that virtue and
discretion which, if southern women
are to be believed, should most endure
happiness She treated Cousin Kate
with deferential cordiality and met
Harry, when escape would have been
noticeable, with pleasant, elusive, mock
ing gayety. He felt and could not I'M
derstand saddening change in the tenn
perature, argue against the fact with
himself as he would.
Life in such q place as this is as il