Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-04-03

He went to the door under cover Of
the movement of the various couples
to find places In the quadrille, yet ev-
cry sidelong glance in the room still
rested upon him, and he knew 1t. He
remained in the hall alone through that
dance and ut Its conclusion walked
slowly through the rooms, speaking to
people here and there as though moth
ing had happened. but when the music
sounded again he went to the dressing
room, found his hat and cloak and left
the house. For awhile he stood on the
opposite side of the street, watching
the lighted windows, and twice he
caught sight of the lilac and white bro
cade, the dark hair and the wreath Of
marguerites. Then, with a hot pain
In his breast and the step Of grena-
dier, he marched down the street.
In the carriage Mrs. Tanberry took
Betty's hand in hers. "I'll do as you
wish, child" she said, "and never
speak to you Of him again as long as
I live except this once. think 1t was
best for his own sake as well as yours,
but
"He needed n lesson" interrupted
Miss Betty wearily. She had danced
long and hard, and she was very tired.
Mrs. Tanberry's staccato laugh came
out irrepressibly. "All the vagabonds
do, princessw she cviod. And think
they are getting it,
mo, no; l don't mean
"We'ye turned their lc:ds, my dear,
betw"'m us, yoI anl |, ana we'll have
to tura 'cn again, OF they'll break their
necks looking over their shoulders at
us, tie owls!" She pressed the girls
hand affectlonately. But you'll let me
Say something just once and forgive me
because we're the same foolish age,
you know. It's only this: The next
young man you suppress, take him of
In a corner. Lead him away from the
crowd where he won't have to stand
and let them look at him afterward.
That's all, my dear, and you mustn't
mind"
I'm not sorry" said Miss Betty hot
ly. I'm not sorry!
mo, no." said Mrs. Tanberry sooth-
ingly. 1T was better this time to do
just what you did. I'd have done 1t
myself, to make quite sure he would
keep away-because like him."
I'm not sorry" said Miss Betty
again.
"I'm not sorryw she repeated and
reiterated to herself after Mrs. Tan
berry had gone to bed. She had sunk
into chair In the library with book.
and I'm not sorry" she whispered as
the open unread page blurred before
her; I'm not sorry" He had needed
his lesson, but she had to bear the rec
objection of how white his face went
when he received 1t. Her affront had
put about him q strange loneliness
the lone figure with the stilled crowd
staring, it had made picture from
which her minds eye had been unable
to escape, danced she never SO hard
and late. Cnconsclously Robert Ca.
rewe's daughter had avenged the other
lonely figure which had stood IN lonely
humiliation before the staring eyes.
"Tm not sorry" All, did they think
it was in her to hurt any living thing
In the world? The book dropped from
her lap, and she bowed her head upon
her hands. I'm not sorry" - and
tears upon the small lace gauntlets!
She saw them and with an incoherent
exclamation, half self plying, half i'm
patient, ran out to the stars above her
garden.
She was there for perhaps half an
hour. and just before she returned to
the house she did a singular thing.
Standing where all was clear to the
sky, whore she had stood after her talk
with the incroyable when he had bid
her look to the stars, she raised her
arms to them again, her face, pale with
q great tenderness, uplifted.
"You, you, you" she whispered. Z"
love you!
And yet it was to nothing definite,
to no man nor outline Of man, to no
phantom nor dream lover, that she
spoke; neither to him she had af-
fronted nor to him who had hidden her
look to the stars. Nor was 1t to the
stars themselves.
She returned slowly and thOughtful-
ly to the house, wondering what she
had meant.