The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-04-11

don! Oh feel as If could just hug the
first real Cockney | met for very joy,
Don't you feel like that"
She turned quickly to the girl by her
side
I'm not sure. I've been very happy in
India, you know except, of course, for
Reginalds death" she added, apologet-
ically.
"Oh, yes, of course" assented her sister,
Mrs. Courtney, in lnatter-of-fact tone
But all the same, one never feels settled
there; it is only en- attendant all of it.
But London"
Eve Gresham laughed.
Il had no idea you were such a Cock
ney, Hlda. / don't remember that you
were so distressed at leaving it
Distressed 1 was rather glad on the
whole, l think. My dear, ! believe ia
have done anything and everything to
get away from Eaton Place and Aunt
Grace. You don't know what sort of life II
was, Eve. Oh. the miseries of genteei
poverty!-the eternal wear and tear OF
making a last seasons gown look up to
date, and inducing a homemade hat to
assume an air of Bond-st manufacture!
She laughed. you've escaped that sort
of thing. You can't understand"
Yes, thanks to you, Hilda, and Regi
nald."
Poor old Reginald! Yes, he was always
very good to us ALL wasn't he? l expect
If you'd been grown up at the time, Eve,
that he'd chosen YOU You would have
been more in his line; serious and clever,
and-oh, heaps of things beside! l Won
der how it would have turned out for
me?" she added. thoughtfully, IF
IF what?" asked her sister. as she
stopped.
Mrs. Courtney laughed
Nothing. But oh. Eve, we are going 10
have such good times. you and I. You
won't have TO think half the night how
you can possibly make the same rags look
different | want your first London sea-
son to be brilliant. We shan't be rolling
in money you know, but there's enough
for us both and there won't be anybody
to interfere with you, and your life shan't
be made so cbeerless that you'll just he
ready to ur+rfy anybody to get out of III
oh, little sister, do so, 30 want you 20 he
happy"
Eve looked at her companion in aston
ishment. She could never remember hav-
ing heard so earnest a tone in Hildas
voice or seen such wstful look in her
eyes she put out her hand quickly.
-'Hilda---"
But with a laugh Mrs Courtney return,
ed to her ordinary manner.
''Oh, yes, we are going to have very
good time this summer, you and l., she
repeated lightly.
Il fancy you generally manage TO get
good time wherever you go. Hilda.'
"Ah, but this is going to be different"
she exclaimed with little smile; ana her
eyes became suddenly soft as they gazed
on the smooth sea through which the
steamer gided so gently
why is it going to be different? How
do you mean?" asked her sister, but Mrs.
Courtney only answered with fuller
smile. and the two were silent.
They were a charming picture. stand
ing alone at the rail of the ship, their
figures cut sharply against the starry blue
sky. Mrs. Courtney was small and slight,
very doll of a woman in build, with a
dainty little head and face rather
piquant than pretty; she was dressed in
slight mourning, but without any Of the
paraphernalia which pIoclaims the inter-
esting young widow. Her sister, -lller
and graVer-looking, might At first sight
have appeared the senior of the two.
though in reality Eve Gresham was sew
eral years younger than tlilda Courtney,
and possessed of far more claims to real
beauty; but her blue eyes and perfect
features lacked the viNacitv and change
fulness which made the elder woman so
charming People were apt TO say that
Miss Gresham took life too seriously.
while Mrs. Courtney was alive only To the
humorous side of it; ana this was like
most general statements. not nearly as
satisfactory as it sounded.
Nevertheless there was a certain excuse
for the universal opinion. Five years ago
Hilda had gone out to India as the bride
too many good qualities not TO be a ,rifc
oppressive he was a good 10 years older
than his wife. who. Notwithstanding. kept
a tolerably firm footing Oh the somewhat
slippery ground of Anglo-Indian society.
Whether she did il with as much ease, "a
success was point which had AT one
time been considerably discussed i'm lie
corous whispers. There had been va-.le
floating rumors of doings at Simla where
in certain Captain Lorraine figured -Ith-
er more prominently than the colonel:
but nothing came of it, and Mrs. Courtney
remained proVOkingly unassailable. affect
ing neither "a suspicious superiority and
strait-lacedness nor AN undue assumption
OF devil-may-caredOm.
Some two years ago Mrs. Courtnsy's
aunt, Lady Gresham. had died. ana the
colonel had promptly insisted that Eve
Gresham. his wife's younger sister and
only relative. should come out TO them at
once. II WIS some few months only after
her arrival that Colonel Courtney had
fallen in. and despite interchangeable uurs-
ing had died before anyone had fairly
realized that bee was in danger
At this luucture 10 was Eve Gresham
who had taken the direction of affairs
while Hilda had remained passive. She
made no parade Of violent grief-shc was
too intrinsicaly frank TO do that-and
people were duly scandalizcd al what they
termed Mrs. Courtney's lack OF proper
feeling.
II was not that she did anything extra
ordinary. or defied the etiquette of mourn
ing: only she did not seek 10 assume an
aspect of perennial Woe. or sigh audibly.
and speak with raised handkerchief OF
Poor. dear Reginald" And the people
who would have stigmatized such conduct
"humbug' declared its opposite to be
"shallOwness" and Indifference"
Colonel COurtney's property. which rem
dered il necessary for his widow TO spend
4