The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-07-09
In the Hour
Before Dinner
BY ELIZABETH SEARS.
Copyright, 1908, by Daily Story Pub. Coz

nOROTHY MARSHALL sank back
IL in the big. cushioned, bamboo
chair before her driftwood fire with
a sig.l of content. She held pack
age of business papers in her hands.
Dorothy always dreaded business de-
tails. 1t would be a real relief when
Thurston should take it all off her
hands. Meantime-the fire snapped
and the embers glowed seductively.
She was tired. Positively worn
out. Thurston had upset her so
that afternoon. He had been so i'm
petuous and she was not used to
scenes. She dropped the papers in
her lap and clasped her hands be-
hind her head. She loved the fra
grant smell Of burning wood. She
loved to watch the dancing, brilliant
flames that nothing but driftwood
could produce.
She held out her dainty toes to
the heat and lazily congratulated
herself, as she admired them, that
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-built
lines as she sat there; but it was not
well in black, yet she had worn it
faithfully, even devotedly, ever since
Toms death.
Her mother had spoken her mind
plainly about it.
''You look like a fright in black, ."
ness which is permissible to rela-
tives "Tom himself would not wish
it if he knew how unbecOming it
was
Thurston had said almost the same
thing that afternoon when he had
asked her TO marry him in month
and go with him to Japan.
"Tom himself would wish you to
be happy he had urged. She loved
Thurston with every fiber of her be-
ing but he was a man and could not
understand her feelings about it.
lOUn WOultl WISH ltG 10 Dc HAPPY.
That was just it. If he had been
brute or anything OF that sort. it
would be different. He had been
more than good to her, always. She
remembered, with a choke in her
throat, all his affectionate little
ways.
Thurston was not always quite
reasonable. He had shown more
than trace of horrid temper. He
had been unnecessarily severe when
he had denounced her reasons for
delay as absurd, quixotic, unreason-
able.
Surely it was not unreasonable to
wish to show proper respect to ones
husband.
Thurston. too, had reminded heI
of the fact that she had been a
widow more than a year; that she
had mourned her husband faithful
ly and with sincere grief.
She felt a thrill of conscious vir.
tue at the thought. Not many WON.
en- would have worn black so con
stantly and so long when it was sc
unbecoming. She had really beer
very fond of Tom. Not, of course
as she loved Thurston; no one could
expect it. They were so different
She could not help but love Tom
He had been so good to her. He had
loved her so completely.
81 had his every thought" she
murmured. She remembered the day
he had brought her home the very
chair she sat in, especially for he1
comfort. And even when he ha6
gone to Japan that time he had beer
so worried about leaving her. She
had wanted to go. She had always
longed to see Japan, but Tom had
been so tied down with that tire.
sore business he had thought the
trip might not be pleasant for her
But he had promised to go again
just to take her, the dear boy.
The Grantleys had gone in the