The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-01-07


| change bad, velIy bad, sometimes"
she announced, with childish candor,
a sympathetic raising OF soft brown
eyes and a deprecating motion of
well shaped, jade-braceIeted hand as
she passed me the flowers. and the
difficult change. Suddenly and I'M
accountably I found myself SYM
pathizing with Charles attitude.
! THAT must make it hard for you.
| here
! Mr. with tirnid glance toward
! Charlie, Mr. Bent teach me-
| "Ah! That is certainly good of him,
| but no doubt he enjoys it. When,
| wonder. does he find the timer
of the morning; he come here
plenty times when much folks not
here
1 knew Charlie Bent had an indie
pendent fortune. and took frequent
leisure from his not too exacting duties
as bank director, but I should not
have suspected him of trifling away his
time with a mere heather lady.
drove home and left Charlie lowering
somewhere near the flower booth.
1t was such an amazing thing,
Charles devotion to Mrs. Sing, and
the battling quality of that devotion
OF course there were eXpostulations.
Kind friends would never miss an OPP
portunity of that sort. Mrs Devin
resumed the responsibility of the lady,
and | undertook Charlie. But when, |
at a subsequent comparing of notes,
it fell out that Mrs Sing had merely |
looked with Wide-Open, ingenious
brown eyes into Mrs. Devins some |
what fluttering blue ones, and remark |
ed naively that she thought American |
men much better company than chi
nese ones, didn't Mrs. Devin find 1T |
500" and I had repeated part of what
Charlie said, all of it had been merely |
wishing, in different masculine ways, |
that people would mind their own
business, we saw the futility of that |
sort of thing, and ended by hoping that
nothing would come to the ears of the |
rector. To be sure. Charlie had turned
to me. looking little white and~care-
worn in the face, and exclaimed: BY |
CAD, Marion, I honor that little wom-
an, never fear!'' This 1 failed to re-
port.
Everybody, except Charlie himself,
knew that he was being daily watched
and gossiped about. That he could
be the hero of a scandal I think never
crossed his mind. But the facts were
quite common property. The night she
had first tasted champagne, when
Charlie watched her with absurdly
and anxious eyes; the day we
took her to view the Catholic church,
when she quantity pronounced the
crucifix sad and the day she first
went on board man-of-war, keeping
close to Charlie and me, and gently
the not-slow Mrs. DAILY, who
was seated on the 'after-deck smoking
a cigarette in company with some of
the rest of her set, and thought 1T
would be fun to teach the little
Mrs. Sing to light cigarette. Per-
maps Charlie himself was the least
aware of any of us of the real state
If things, for he was quite unsophis-
icated, in spite of Beatrice and his
dollars and the opportunities which
both afforded for a closer study of life.
AS for Mrs. Sing, her attitude abso-
utely saved the situation. She was
10 unaware, so ingenious, in her ac-
eptance of Charles attentions, as If ,
t were the customary thing for Amer q
can ladies to have admirers. She Z
allied with Charlie in his yacht, and G
anne back after long hours. serene
way; she drove and rode with him.
Why DR.. Sing let his wife do all
hese things was the unanswerable q
question, Perhaps he did not see. He c
vas very busy, managing, indeed, to G
ecome quite the rage. And, further 4
0 complicate matters, he sometimes <
ccompanied them on their jaunts, Z
nd seemed no more troubled than If Z
hey had been two children and play 4
mates. Ia
After a few weeks, I fancied Charlie 8
egan to look haggard, and his gay q
manner did not correspond with his g
ooks For gaiety was not natural to Y
'harlie Bent. But the day he told 4
ne, in answer to an attempted re- x
CONSTANCE against his conduct. that 8
her husband did not understand 3
err" / felt constrained to exclaim: Q
Mercy! Has it gone so far?'' 20
The day on which Mr.. Bent almost =
uarreled with his sister, Mrs. Bax- <
ar, because the doctors wife was not Y
lvited to be among her riding party, 4
ne matter presented a definite phase x
OF to be ignored. q
Certainly" the frivolous Mrs. Dirk o
Il nurmured to me, Charlie presents o
good figure on a horse; one can e
carcely blame hin!'' Y
But there were three or four of us <
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