The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-06-19

In the tran with Max a sudden shyness seized
Mrs. Arbour though she smiled at it and her.
self This was the first time that she and Max
had met since the week before he sailed His
last words her had been words of the utmost
tenderness his last letter cry of pain
Sooner than harbor shadow of disloyalty by
would have died. Yet-this had loved her,
had declared her to be necessary to his happiness.
and now he seemed to have found that happiness
with someone else Had he?
1t was Elinoras old way. This of the
ness-aeither9 did she depend upon etchings or
beautiful rings. But it was moment which
gave certain pleasant spice to the day which she
possess And now she remembered
she was a sn ~ ms Cottage and Arbour coming
TO the door to meet her, delighted in her beauty
and her buoyancy klinora ran up the steps WIN sa
poured it all out to hini--ihe Bannisters, Emily,
Patty Max, the t tolre Fr .ns eoon To John Ar
bour as he listened it seemed as If doors in his
sogetbine ontched his heart These things were
necessary to her, they had come back TO claim her
Ing par 5he she did not know She did not
what her buoyancy meant She was acknowledg-
WHO had declared herself ready>to walk with him.
casting off her allegiance to the old, putting on the
new now welcomed the first call to former things.
and she did not know And he was poweress to
tell her If only she were ten years younger, he
not now The usual feminine immaturity which
outlives youth not in his reckoning Because
Enora was past her first youth ne ha sna ehe
quality. If only he could have known her ten
aWhat a funny little look in your eyes, John
dear Einora said. "of what were you think
fng?"
Il was wondering he said slowly, what you
were like at twenty"
ment brutality in the question, the keener that
ooh ;, she said lightly .brimming with opinions.
I affected very slow speech. believe. and fancied
myself critical
..sDid you Hke-did you want" her husband per-
sisted almost against his will, admiration?
mean-fattery, Elinora?"
t'Ah, you appreciation she pleaded gayly.
mo woman will confess to liking the other two.
No, rather courted reserve, remember. 1
afraid of being detected in my choicest tastes.
Of, course. that only shyness and certain
girlsh snobbishness which the family ought to have
oh no. said Arbour wistfuly. NO Elinora."
In the afternoon Arbour went to his study and
found that Elnora had been there Her mail was
scattered about, foreign wrapper lay on the floor
aud visitor had to his desk.
was a photograph, leaning against pile OF
books The face smiled out at Arbour and Devil
him o With Its # sad e TO onv like
beauty more fragile, less conscious. less mellow.
thug, to whom nothing is tried or determined. It
face of wondering, of enchanting hesitation,
of-youth! The girl was quite ten years younger
than Elinora, but strangely like that she might
have been the Elinora of ten years ago, before he
knew her He caught up the picture in breathless-
ness, turned it In his hands and with sudden un-
Outstanding the with love, Linda scrawled
enccElinoras little sister as she was wont to call
her. But to him it was EHnora herself in the days
for which he had been longing the days before the
world had touched her. in the youth when she had
dreamed even as he dreamed now.
his knees before the desk the in his hands,
the girls eyes meeting his and seeming to
answer them. dream for dream
"1nora,' he said in underbreath, "oh God
-Elinora"
Without delay the Bannisters carried out their
promises of festivity. The next week their house
filled with guests, and every night there were
rival dinner parties-one in the dining-room and
one the ballroom-with place laid at each table
for Toby. There soiree. and there were daily
garden parties, and the feld-party a triumph.
1t was September. but Toby pinned for May party
at which he might wind Maypole SO Maypoe
was set up in the south pasture and wound by
moonlight And in all these delights Elinora was
among the Bannister's guests.
That week Arbour usually dined at the Ban
nisters, spending the evening in the smoking-room
or on the veranda. At night he and Elinora would
drive home in what she called the really country
moonlight, or beneath the soft drip of the road
side ems, and Arbour would listen quietly to her
witty recital of things said and done. And always
1t was the surprise not less than disappointment
which bewildered him. It was such surprising
thing that Eiinora should be falling him now
after they had once stood together in the charmed
circle of the life which they had proposed. DELHI
crate treachery could hardly have disarmed him
more than this unconscious apostasy of hers.
While he looked on wistfully, in silence and with
he found companionship. The picture
OF Linda lay on his desk in his study. When he
shut himself away from the babel of the hours, the
girls face. with its eternal magic and questioning,
solaeed him, even though it set seal upon his
pain. For she become to him EInora-speak-
ing to him with the voice of Elinora's youth the
youth which had belonged to others and in which
he had had part. Arbour wondered about
Linda, wfstfully recalled what Elinora had told
hin, of her, listened hungrily when she read him
scraps of Lindas letters-pleasant, gosspy letters
with a good bon-mot two and a touch of pretty
petuIance at the winter fashions. Then he would
90 back to his study and yearn the picture
She had been like this, Elinora had been like
his-remote, wrapped in world of realities which
he Pannisters and their kind could have
At the Bannisters' all pleasant paths led at
engfh
aced with wires and to be splendid with little
owery points of light. The preparation had in
olved Enora in daily Journeys to the great house
o advise and to suggest She had looked forward
nth frank pleasure hardly abating when,
n the night of the cotIfon. she home before
inner-tinle in a driving rain to find from
er husband regretting that he could
her he moi OF liz of /