Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-01-26
CHAPTER VI.

I
by Jove, she's better looking than
ever--though she's not more than a
year or two under thirty" whispered
young Lacy to a man standing in the
shadow behind high lamp.
The person addressed started. and
did not answer for moment. Then
he laughed and said, forcedly:
Eyes, wonderful for her age, she
certainly is"
As he spoke his hostess, fat and
genial lady, came blandly towards
him.
Mr.. Durrant, I'm so sorry we've no
lady for you to take in tonight One
or two people have thrown us over. l
want to introduce you to Miss Am
brose. Isn't she lovely? 0, how stupid
am! Of course you grew up in this
neighborhood. and must have known
all about her as girl"
Jim Durrant it was, in the flesh: once
the soldier, now the traveller and ex-
plorer'' of the little known interior of
Asiatic countries; to use the words
in which he described himself. His
foreign-loolsing and sun-dried face was
rather pale and set as he walked last
into the dining-room with young Lacy.
He had only arrived on that day at a
hotel in the nearest town, where he had
been accidentally met and recognized
by that young man, and asked to din
uer off hand.
Smiling and apparently unconscious
he sat down on the left side of his
hostess, talking calmly to her and
across the table to the one or two he
knew. Rosalys heard his voice as the
phantom of dead sound mingling
with the usual trivial words and light
laughter of the rest, Lord Parllhurst's
conversation about Egyptian finance,
and Mrs. Lacy's platitudes about the
She home rule question, as if she were
living through a curiously incohercnt
dream.
Suddenly during the progress of the
dinner Mrs. Lacy looked across with n
glance of solicitude towards the other
end of the table and said, in a low
voice:
81 am afraid Miss Ambrose is rather
overstrained--ss she naturally may be.
She looks so white and tired. Do you
think, Parllhurst, that she finds this
room too hot? l will have the window
opened at the top"
''She does look pale" Lord Park
hurst murmurcd, and as he spoke
glanced anxiously and tenderly toward
his betrothed. Il think, too, she has
little \overtaxed hcrsclt-she don't
usually get so white as this"
Rosalys felt his eyes upon her, looked
across at him and smiled strangely.
When dinner was ended Rosalvs still
seemed not quite herself, whereupon
she was taken in hand by her good and
fussy hostess; sal-volatile was brought,
and she was given the most comforta-
Die chair and the largest cushions the
house afforded. 1t seemed to Rosalys
as if hours had elapsed before the men
Joined the ladies, and there came that
general moving of places like the shut
fling of pack of cards. She heard
Jim's voice speaking close to her ear:
II want to have word with you"
81 can't!' she faltered.
did you get my letter."
mo" said she.
81 wonder how that was! Well, I'll
be at the door of Ambrose towers
while the stable clock is striking twelve
tonight. Be there to meet me. I'll not
detain you long We must have an I'M
derstanding."
For Gods sake, how do you come
here?"
81 saw in the newspapers that you
were going to marry. What could /
do otherwise than let you know was
alive?"
ooh, you might have done it less
cruelty"
evil you be at the door,"
81 must, suppose! Don't
tell him heretofore these people! 1t
will be such an agonizing disturbance
that
''Of course / shan't. BE there"
This was all they could say. Lord
Parkhurst came forward, and observing
to Durrant: ''Thcy are wanting you
for bezique." sat down beside Rosalys.
She had intended to go home early,
and went even earlier than she had
planned At half-past ten she found
herself in her own hall, not knowing
how she had got there, or when she had
hidden adieu to Lord Parkhurst, or
what she had said to him.
Jim's letter was lying on the table
awaiting her.
As soon as she hal got upstairs and
slipped into her dressing gown, had
dispatched her maid and ascertained
that all the household had retired, she
read her husbands note, which briefly
informed her that he had led an adj
venturous life since they had parted,
and had come back to see If she were
living, when he suddenly heard that
she was going to be married. Then
Rosalys sat down at her writing table
20 begin somehow a letter to Lord
Parlshurst. To write that was an i'm
perstive duty, before she slept. 1t need
not be said that awful, indeed, to her
was its object, the letting Lord Park
hurst know that she had husband,
and had seen him that day, But she
conld not shape single line, and the
visioned aspect that she would wear in
his eyes, as soon as he learned the
truth of her history, was so terrible
to her that she burst into hysterical
sol,hiug over the paner as she sat.