Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1900-08-04
! HER LADYSHIP

nightly dismissal.
Then her wisps of hair were worked
into candle ends" and drawn away
from her wonderful white ears, and
she held fast in her bosom and Law
ished her love on hideous Indian ma
hogany doh, which she called "Katie's
sdrefful black baby"
She was n born woman, standing
three feet one; a Turk, a Terror and a
pyrant; a delicious lapful, and aged
three years.
Kntie's dada was an underwater in
Cornhill. Fitting initials under ships
names on slips of paper day by day
1seemed, an abstract. simple enough
thing to do. Yet he had served many
toilsome years that he might sit No 2
in a marine acknowledgement. He
was deep-shouldered, large-limbed and
"a kensington ratepayer. lie had a
taste for admiralty law, and passion
for athletics.
He was a straight left" with the
gloves, and a good stick at hockey.
and could sprint hundred in IL.
kensington Gore was ornamented
with polished Indian clubs and iron
dumb-bells; cross foils were linked to
the walls. There was, besides, hori-
zontal bar in the garden, and punch
ing bali suspended in his bedroom.
"hatie's mamma" was pink-finyered.
petite and unpunctual, and as fair as
gold. She made altar cloths, platonie
acquaintances and wonderful shivering
table jellies. With men she was
moody" and she had pretty way
with her words. Also she had n little
money of her own.
All along her line of life--froIn cradle
to corsets-she held in favor small
things. forget-me-nots and tiny fairies.
seed pearls and ponies, skye terriers
and dainty Moorish slippers. And she
ended, as is fit and seemingly, by mar
rying an extremely big husband, whom
first she flouted, then feared, and final
" was proud Of Now she rallied to the
royal nod, pampered his appetites,
Pandered to his whims and generally
killed the king with honey.
The fourth character is the other
man. he was almost the very ordinary
OF natures handiwork. He was not
much to look upon, as the phrase runs
Still there were certain notes and
touches appealing to the species femi-
nine; the cultivated chiyalry and the
suggestion of strength; the practiced
lboyishness of his voice and manner.
the carefully engendhred atmosphere
OF mystery. (He was, in fact, so very
secret man that, instead of putting
his eggs in open baskets, he concealed
them in his tail pockets, and occasion
ally sat on them.)
"katie's dada" was at this time i'm
Cairo, swimming in the Nile and see
ing TO something about underwriting
Egyptian halls.
She asked all her brothers and.all his
sisters to the house in North Grove
-Highgate; and the other man came,
too. So often, indeed, that people whis-
ipered and wrote TO and froi and wom-
'en offered her cold cheeks, and men
curious eyes, until she began to feel al
most that the best way of stultifying
criticism was to Justify it.
Her sister, the credentialed disputant
of:the family honor, at last represented
the general feeling in .unmistakable
terms
But hatie's mamma" was no Gull
prit, and she burned inithe cheeks and
grew tall and beautiful, to look upon.
'She felt, maybe, progressively guilty,
which is most uncomfortable feeling.
Jess" she said to her sister, you
may go,to the place whegefrom the sui
phnr comes, and there you may sit on
"a coal and eat small sour apples"
He turned up soon after ,Nith some
forced flowers and things, for she was
dancing that evening to WiIloughby's
band. She confessed to her maid that
she felt strangely fresh that evening.
lie said she looked ''rayishing," and
raEed about eternal devotion" and "a
LIE OF consacrated worship" and 9th
er strikingly absurd things. MAIDS,
Mains, trust me and test me, darling"
he concluded
The upshot was that, being q neg
iected wife and woman of moods, she
sent him away, and said she might
meet him at eight, perhaps, at the
grove. by the ksr gate.
1t was still quarter to eight, and he
stood there under dripping umbrel-
Ia, and the water tumbled from the
leaves Of the trees on to his shirt cuffs.
"A mail cart sheened past him and
FLASHED him with rich running mud
from the road.
That made him curse the driver. and
ihe dug his heels into the clay and
gravel, and eomforted himself with a
rehearsal OF his first words when the
lady should at last appear. He thought
OF the touch of her gloved hand, The
poise of her chin above her furs. and
the Eight that should live in her eve.
He did not--as men are said to do in
crises-prejudge all that was to come.
Yet now and again, in the full sound
OF passion, little biting notes came
through like the signing of a zephyr in
q gale, and left him, that was strong.
1everish, uncertain and trife trembly
at the knees.
Jack Holden had always done him
well" had always offered him a whole
hand and the choicest it was his to
offer. Then Neutrality-suspicious. into