The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-09-01
es,a g. =.
CHAPTER xxi.
Observation-Disclosures.

Misunderstandings.
It was from the night of the ball
that the little cloud like mans hand
dated its rise above the horizon There
was no quarrel-none of those hasty
words on either side that so many
lovers Quarrels are full of. There
was no open break in their relations
with each other, no recriminations OF
a vulgar sort. Only next day, when
Winstanley went to Nutwood, he was
told that Miss Hamilton was out, but
Mrs. Shuttlewaite at home. He went
in and spent the better part of an
hour in conversation with that excel
lent lady, one eye on the drawing room
door and one ear eagerly listening for
the sound of step he would have
been able to pick out from all others
in the world. But neither did that
step sound nor did the opening door
disclose anything more welcome than
the footman with the tea. He had to
rise 20 go at last, unsatished even by
Mrs. Shuttlewaite's assurance that
Ursula must be in soon-it was the
day she always wrote to a friend in
India, and her letter took long time
to write He fingered again in the
hall, though he had an appointment in
Porthmouth that he must keep. He
was almost sure he saw the hem of a
skirt vanish round the upper staircase,
yet is was impossible that Ursula
could know he was in the house and
let him 60 without word.
Then they met. That was almost
more unsatisfactory still. It was at a
dinner where where he didn't take her
in. There was polite manner in her
greeting of him that made him want
to use forcible language; she spoke
as if he were a casual acquaintance.
He tried to throw expOstulation, re-
proach, into the lingering pressure he
gave her hand, but hers was limp in
his touch and faded away without any
response. If it had not been in public
he would have demanded to know
what she meant by it, albeit he had a
kind of miserable consciousness, but it
was out of the question at the moment
when dinner was announced.
They were far apart at the table.
Through ferns and flowers he kept
craning forward to catch a sight Of
her face. She was deep in talk with
the man who had taken her ina per-
feet idiot-odd that she seemed to find
him so interesting! For his own part,
Captain Winstanley had never been
such a dull neighbor to his dinner
companions as he proved himself that
night. If he could only have the
chance of explaining to her! 1t could
all so easily be explained! After din
ner he could surely secure his chance
But after dinner when he sought the
drawing room with eager foot, she had
a girl sitting beside her on the little
sofa in the corner, where he had fond
ly thought they would be undisturbed.
The girl had some common sense. No
doubt the resolution in his face made
itself clear to her, and she respected
it. She tried to get up and move over
to the other side of the room, an act
for which he respected her; it was al
most unbelievable that Ursula de-
tanned her, and the place by her side
remained blocked to him.
He stood about stroking his mus
tache with hand that was hardly
hot i;
so much having the upper hand Sure
ly, surely, she would help him to make
the opportunity that he had never
asked in vain before. Surely she
would let that girl go and let him say
his say. Not so. She turned to him
now and then, and included him in the
triangular conversational which
Winstanley bit his lip. It put him on
a remote civil level with the girl she
talked to-the mere level of friendly
intercourse for them, they who
stood to each other as they did!
So it went on. 1t seemed absolutely
hopeless to try and get speech with
her-they were never a minute alone.
Sometimes it certainly was by inten-
tion on the part Of Ursula-she was
too sore Of heart to let him have his
say. When the first despicable flicker
of petty jealousy had had time to die
down she could listen to him, to the
explanation that she we'll knew she
must believe. Just now she was too
hurt, too wounded that there should
be anything to explain it was thing
that would not bear talking Of till she
felt more her calm self again.
And then Winstanley, impatient, at
ter the manner of his kind, wrote tc
her, and in his letter made things per
haps a trihe worse. He b1undered in
the way he put it--=and letter is sc
often dangerous! under. such circpm