The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1903-08-08
In the Hour
Before Dinner
BY ELIZABETH SEARS.
toesyrishs. isoa, By DAILY story Pub. Co.,

nOROTHY MARSHALL sank hazel
- In the big, cushioned, bambo,
chair before her driftwood fire will
sigh OF content. She held a nacL
age OF business papers in her hands
dorothy always dreaded business de.
uaiis' 1t would be real relief when
ihurston should take it all off her
hanas. Meantime-the fire snapned
ana the embers glowed seductiyely.
one was tired. Positively worn
out. Thurston had upset her so
'hat afternoon. He had been SO inn
petuous and she was not used 10
scenes. She dropped the papers in
ner lap and clasped her hands be.
h'nd her head. She loved the fra.
grant smell OF burning wood. She
,o'co 10 watch the dancing, brilliant
names that nothing but driftwood
could produce.
She held out her DAINTY toes 20
.ne heat and lazily congratulated
herself, as she admired them. that
she had never adopted the mannisb
styles either of dress or of manners
that SO many women did. Tom had
never approved of it.
Her clinging black dress hung in
essentially feminine and well-bu;It
nnes as she sat there; but it was NOT
at all becoming. She did not look
wei in black. yet she had worn r.
:, aai,nruliy, even devotedly, ever since
TOMS death.
Her mother had spoken her mind
plainly about it.
You look like a fright in h,.ol /.
sne mad said, with the brutal frank
ness which Is permissible to rela- F.
'ives. TON himself would not wish :
was" ~ S
ihurston had said almost the same
'ning that afternoon when he had
'sked her to marry him in a month :
md go with him to Japan. ?
Tom himself would wish Won 70 :
., e hapPy,' he had urged. She loved -
hurston with every fiber of her he :,
hg, out ne was a man and could not
nuersfand her feelings about It. .,
Tom would wish her to be bannv :;
nat was just it. If he had been :.
brute or anything o. that sort. II 81
'ouid be different. He had been -
ore than good to her, always. She
'membered, with choke in b.r
'roat' all his affectionate little 20
avs. i''ie 10
inurston was not always quite ON
'asonable. He had shown mo-s ~,
an trace of horrid temper. He az,
"a been unnecessarily severe when J.,
had denounced her reasons for ~,
lay as absurd, quixotic, unreason. an,
lie. AM
surely 1t was not unreasonable "a .,.
sn 10 show proper respect to ones
sband 1
lhurston, too, had reminded her ,o ,,
the fact that she had been LIZ a
low more than year; that she nc.
mourned her husband faithful.
and with sincere grief. cor
ne felt thrill of conscious v,r. 90.
at the thought. Not many WON. 80
would have worn black so CON ,"'o
ntly and SO long when II WINS laus
becoming. She had really been , Ine
1ond OF Tom. Not, of course
she loved Thurston; no one conl5
ect 1t. They We're so different ~ ,,o'
could not help but love Tom -
had been so good to her. He had WI WI
d her so completely. sne
INJURED Oh. oueh', she bent
nad brought her home the verv =, s -
she sat in. especially for her .r a.
tort. And even when he had In
10 Japan that time he had been up !
Worried about leaving her. sh. mlap
w wanted TO go. She had always IN :,
Ell to see Japan, but Tom bod On y
SO tied down with that t;r.- 'u,a n |.
business he had thought tbe h;.. ..
might not be pleasant for ber 49, 81