The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-09-20


much appeal to me, you know. Will
you come out into the garden?''
Christine got up, sighed and said
that she only came because she was
tired of saying "no" to everything.
They passed out together. The garden
was almost empty now. Nearly every
body was in the supper room.
"You like this garden, don't you?"
said Christine.
well, yes" he said. "These Ian
terms and things aren't bad If you get
right up to the far end, you can hear
the music-at least, not enough to mat
ter Z"
"Did you go up to the far end just
now?' asked Christine.
"What do you mean?"
Nothing"
ooh, comet One doesn't say those
things for nothing"
Every well, then. For the last half
hour you've been hiding in the garden. :"
''Oh, comet You mustn't say such
things"
The passion deepened in her voice.
you've been hiding in the garden
with Phoebe Horton. She tried to
laugh. 81 thought you'd had time to
explore it. "
CAS- matter of fact, said the ma
ior, 81 don't suppose was out here
five minutes. If I'd been out here for
five fortnights, what would it have
mattered to your"
Nothing, she said drearily. "Noth-
ing matters to me now.
Then he observed that things were
growing more serious He took her two
hands.
TELL me, +" he said, "what is it?''
She began to cry.
An hour and half later Major Owen
got out of a hanson in Jermyn street
and went up to his chambers. He
changed his dress coat for a smoking
jacket, mixed himself a brandy and
soda, lit cheroot and sat down in an
easy chair. But his mind was too dis
turbed for inaction. He got up again
and paced the room, circling like a
planet round the little table on which
the tall glass sparkled like star under
the electric light. At last he stood still.
81 have done for myself" he said
Freedom was at an end. His comfort
able chambers, that early in the evening
he had regarded as his permanent abid-
ing place, now seemed the unsubstan-
tial fabric of a vision; the breath of
Hymen, and they were gone.
The engagement was to be short. The
drudgery of it began at once. He had
to go to many places where he had new
er been before and did not want to go
again.
He waited, a perfectly CHASTITY figure,
in the shops of fashionable milliners,
feeling that every lady customer who
entered regarded him as an insult and
outrage.
He had to sit through concerts; they
were very good concerts, and very
good concert was, from the major
point of view, the very worst sort of
concert. An ordinary tune, as he some
times observed, he could more or less
understand
He was made to dance frequently,
and in the small hours of the morning,
when respectable, middle aged gentle
men should be in their beds. 1t was
all very trying, but gradually it dawn
ed on him that there were one or two
compensations.
Christine certainly behaved very
nicely to him. He bought her a ring
diamonds and sapphires), and her re-
ception of it gave him great pleasure.
He repeated this pleasure by buying
her other things. After fortnight he
owned to himself that things might
have been worse.
But he didn't fall in love with Chris
tine definitely until she fell i'll.
Then the major went temporarily
mad. He became source of wonder
and panied surprise to his friends and
q scourge and chastisement to his valet.
He lived chiefly in telegraph offices,
hanson cabs and in the shops of the
florist and fruiterer. By a constant sue
cession of kilograms he kept himself in
formed Of Ohristine's progress during
those brief periods when he was not
driving to see her or purchasing for her
scented flowers, which she could not
bear to have in her room, or out Of sea-
son fruit, which she was not allowed
to eat.
BY the time she had recovered her
health her conquest was complete, and
with the magnanimity of a conqueror,
she decided to do something to please
him. So she told him that she meant to
have her portrait painted 1t would be
hung on the line of the academy-Del-
may was always hung on the line-and
afterward she was going to give the
portrait to him. He said that he was
charmed, and he really was.
But, he said, "the sittings will
bore you terribly, and you are really
not strong enough for them. Why don t
you have your photograph taken in
stead9''
Christine pointed out that it WASH t
the same thing at all.
"No,' he answered, 81 suppose not -
In matters of art his education had
been somewhat neglected.
"But," he went on, 81 have really
seen some photographs which I liked
better than the thing which had been
colored by hand. I"
She laughed at him and instructed
him.
But why do you go to Delmay?' he
said IF were going to have my por-
trait done, I'd have it done at bedrock
prices. Delmay charges no end of lot
just because he got some of those writ
ing chaps to scribble about him in the
papers.
"But he paints so beautifully, said
Christine. "There is no one at all like
him. -
"That is just it, - said the major.
eff you were not very pretty, it might
be lust as well to go to Q clever chap