The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1904-10-04
A QUESTIONING;
| ROMANCE q REALITY,
BY MISS ANNIE EDWARDS

ton than Jean Marie's!,
But Mrs. Chester is obdurate. Jean
Marie shall await her on the harbor;
Jean Marie alone shall escort her back
to Quernac, be the hour Of the night or
morning what it may
The least vain of women, the least
arrogant as to the power Of her own
charms, Daphne at heart is very
woman still, and the experience of the
last few hours make her shrink from
the prospect Of a lonely starlit walk
with Severne. His manner, after three
years. separation, Of meeting Miss
Hardcastle, his looks, his voice, thou
sand of the little nothiugs which to
feminine insight are til most imports
ant things in life, have awakened her
to a possibility of which, until to-day,
] she never dreamed.
And with all the horror of gener-
Gus, simple nature, she recoils from the
barest notion of Seyerne's disloyalty.
His liking for herself, il it exists,
must be rootless. a boyish, fancy, born
of accident, that a week of absence
must dispell. Never by word or ac-
ton of hers shall this liking be fos-
| tered into love. She owes Sir John
/ Severne everything she owes him
Paul, and feels, poor Daphne, it were
but a little thing to die for his hap
4 piness! His happiness must lie in
j truth, in honor, in fidelity to his plight
ed word, and her part, the part of a
devoted friend, is to strengthen him
in these, cost what it may. And that
it win cost her something, certain
sharp heart twinges, a certain jeal-
when Clementina will be all to him
ousy as she looks forward to the time
and she nothing, already warn her.
| They reach the yacht without adj
| venture and find Mr. Broughton and
Miss Hardcastle its only occupants.
The cousins are on deck, enjoying
the evening breezes and the soft art of
doing nothing with thoroughness
| pleasant to behold.
Clementina reclines on a low deck
| chair, her dress simple white by sim
| pie / naturally mean the most elabo-
rate complication OF muslin, ribbon
and laces that the heart of clothes ar
t4Sb COutu, ueSAtS. A<dAMJ BIG AuA 10 anu
unfurls one of the big Spanish fans
upon which South Kensington has set
the browning seal of fashion.
Felix Broughton smokes delicately
| perfumed cigarette at her feet
Their thoughts may be engaged on
sentiment scandal, probably
on pathological science. as is their
won't And cti1l fr1do;ncr from fha Nv.
preston around Clementina's lips, one
cannot but suspect that some lighter
matter than common may have made
its entrance unawares among the Ty-
lro-Phenician or Mesogothic strata about
which they discourse.
1.-THE question of whether we are to
dine or not dine is delightfully."- solved
by your arrival" says Cousin Felix, as
he rises to receive the newcomers.
! mo one belonging to the Liberia. our
hostess included has been heard Of
since the morning, but with party
of four-all people who suit each
other" adds Mr.. Broughton, with his
cheerful optimism -s'it would be folly
to think of waiting. And SO Severne
met you on the quay. Mrs. Chester? I
was sure Of it. That is my luck.
never yet got a happy opening in life
| but some energetic fellow or another
has stepped in and utilized it before
my very eyes,"
You have been spared the agony
Of expectation at all events" says
Daphne gayly. Il was five minutes be-
hind time. Think what you would
have had to suffer during those FIVE
minutes if you had really been on the
lookout for mev'
! A feeling too delicate, too ingenious
to be termed coquetry, prompts her to
smile on Felix Eroughton, willingest
recipient, let what will betide, of any
pretty wonan's smilesl Sir John and
Clementina, absolved from the neces-
| sity of being lover-like, find plenty of
themes in common as old acquaint-
ance, and the little dinner party Of
four passes OF brightly.
Fair, faces, youth, soft summer twi-
light, viands from the hand of an art
ist-all the needful property" for con-
vivial success is surely present at the
/ ASdSts Wh0tCFCh JdAAlAtt5 CtCAuCAAN may
be latent in the destinies of the feast
ers.
They dine, they take their coffee
afterward on deck Toward eleven
o'clock, and when Daphne is beginning
to think of Jean Marie and of her four
mile walk to Quernec the sound Of
voices, the splash of oars, was heard
| approaching through the stiffness. "A
minute later, and the missing mem
bers of the yachting party step upon
the scene; five people, never beheld
by Daphne save amid the Rembrandt
like effects Of this one midsummer
night, vet destined, by virtue of their
very isolation, to stand out vivid flesh
and-blood personalities from; the can
vas Of her memory forever.
i Lady Lydia birmingham first, tiny
Irishwoman. dressed like child Of
fourteen pretty, despite mregularity
Of feature, through her excess of AMI
nation, her black fringed. iron gray
eyes; tiny witch Of a woman utter
| ing, .pell-mell. in fine west country
| biogue, whatever sense or nonsense
| it il mostly nonsense may chance to
enter her wild Hibernian head.
! Next, Mrs. de Mauley, Lady Isydla's
| dearest ,momentaryl friend, widow
| bland ana blonde ten years older than