Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-21

Nez=s pointment coupled with a most out
rageous bill, Tom must needs develop bad at
tack Of gout just when she had counted on his
spending the evening, as usual, with few con
genial spirits at the club.
Altogether it looked as though the well.lad
plan might topple down like a vertable house
Of cards, and somehow-as Mrs. Tom warmed
her pretty feet at the dressing room fret, the
plan, didn't seem half so entcing and sprghtly
as when Mrs. Burke-Weston had unfolded 1t
some days before.
We'll go to the French ball" that lively
lady had declared. "Arthur has promised for
years to take me, and being my brother Will
make IL perfectly proper Mr. Chetwood says
he will be only too enchanted TO go with you
(you know how fearfully epris he is), so we shall
make a nice little partie-carree and if we leave
at twelve we shall be quite respectable and all
that and Arthur has promised to give us some
supper at his rooms afterwards, which will be
Just the right ending for nice little frolc. AS
for our two dear old husbands, Weston always
goes to the club Immediately after dinner and
couldn't be hired TO join us in any case, and
fancy Mr.. Seaton is bit like him-so we won't
say word to either of them until the day alter,
when they couldn't raise any objections even II
they wanted to-"
How innocent and simple il had all sounded;
but now Toms cout seemed likely to prove an
insurmountable barrier, for, of course, gong 10
the club would be out of the question. il seem
ed horrid to desert him, and how could she IN
vent plausible excuse? For way down in the
DEPTHS of Kitty's soul something was making
itself heard which caused her to doubt seriously
whether dear old Tom for all his indulgent, easy
going ways might not violently object II ne got
even glimmer of the truth.
Altogether she felt strongly tempted to send
a note to Maude BurkeWeston and give the
whole thing up She even dipped into her silver
inkstand and prepared to write, when the
thought of how Maude would rage and then
far worse--laugh at her stayed her hand. NO!
IL was out of the question: she simply couldn't
live through it, remembering how Maude only
the day before had told her she was so pro-
vincia."
When the Seatons had lived at Glensde, be,
fore they moved to New York and Tom had
made his pile in Wall street. life had often
seemed horribly dull to pretty Kitty, and though
she fondly loved Tom and dear little Marjorie,
she sometimes longed with an intensity that
amounted to positive pain for a real flng-to go
to New York for a few years at least, and be
what Tom laughingly termed Gin the procession
instead of watching it from the sidewalk" But
now that they were actually there, that people
were beginning to speak of Tom a rich man,
and that they were fairly launched in the giddy |
whirl, Kitty occasionally reflected that though
those old days at Genside were undenlably dull,
they had been very restful-and as she fretfuly
rufAed the little curls above her aching fore
head she remembered, with sigh, that before
they came to New York headaches had been an
unknown quantity to her.
The little clock on the dressing-table chmed
six times-Marjories bedtime-so she went up
to the nursery where the little girl was being
undressed, and stayed a while after nurse had
tucked her charge into the pretty brass cot.
"Mummie, DEAR" said Marjorie, as she laid
her curly head lovingly on Kitty's shoulder, "are
you going out tonight"
eyes, DEAR" said Kitty family, wishing she
might say no.
7And Daddy, is he going too? But no. he
can't with his poor foots and he'll be all alone,
won't he?"
Eyes, DEAR" said Kitty again, with another
twinge.
Marjorie never noticed her mothers abstrac-
ton, but ratified on: Mamie Weston and had
most a quarrel in the Park to-day mummie,
cause she said her papa was the bestest man in
the whole world, and said he wasn't cause my
papa was, and there couldn't be two. And then
she got mad and slapped my Bully Boy and I
wonder he didn't bite her, and then 1 slapped
her and she cried. But we made it up again and