The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-11-27

tnnnem. tne grooms IooEea arrer
them. standing mOtonless al the
horses hea6s.
"Alr. Siward this Is too fne 70 miss. =
she said Il viii walk as far as the
headland with you. Please smoke il
you care 10.
The breeze blown conversation be
came fraguentary. reeriEg as capri
eiOusly as the purple wind flaws that
spread across the shoals But always
10 her question or comment she found
In his respoH the charm Of freshness.
OF quick intelli gence or OF IA humorous
ana idle perversity which stimulates
without demanding.
once glancing back at the house
where the q cart and horses stood. she
said that she had better re turn. or per
haps she only thought she said IT. for
he made no response that time, and a
few moments later they reached the
headland ami the Atlantic lay below.
flowing azure from horizon to horizon
under a universe of depthless blue.
And for a lyng while neither spoke.
+ With her the spell endured until CON
science began 10 stir Then she awoke.
uneasy. as always, under the shadow OF
+ restraint or pressure until her eyes
fell on him and fingered
A subtle change had come into his
face It's. lCanness struck her for the
first time-that and an utter detach-
ment from his surroundings, a somber
oblivion to everything and to her.
How culiously had his face altered!
How shadowy 1t had grown. etfacing
the charm of youth in it!
The slight amusement with which
she had become conscious of her own
personal exclusion grew to an interest
tinged with curiosity.
The interest continued, but when his
silence became irksome to her she said
so very frankly. His absent eyes, still
clouded, met hers unsmiling.
Il was thinking of men l knew-for
example, a man who through genera
lions has inherited every impulse and
desire that he should not harbor; a
man with intellect enough to be aware
of 1t, with decency enough to desire
decency. What chance has he with /
the storms which have been brewing |
for him even before he opened his eyes
on earth? Is that a square deal?"
The troubled concentration of her
face was reelected now in his own.
The wind came whipping and Ticking
at them from league wide tossing
efa
sea accented the silence.
Turning to the sea, he had become
engrossed in his own thoughts again,
and again she was first curious, then
impatient, at the ease with which he
excluded her. She remembered, too
that the cart was waiting; that she
had scarcely time now to make the
train.
She stood irresolute, inert, disin-
clined to bestir herself An Unborn
aptitude for drifting, which threatened
to become a talent for INDIGESTION, had
always alternated in her with sudden
impulsive conclusions and when her
pride was involved in decisions which
sometimes scarcely withstood the anal
ysis of reason.
Physically healthy, mentally una
sentimentally incredulous,
totally ignorant Of any master passion
and eonventionally drilled. her beauty
and sweet temper had carried her cas-
lily on the frothy crest of her first sea
son over the eligible and ineligible
alike, leaving her at Lenox a rather
tired and breathless girl in love with =
pleasure and the world which treated .
her so we'll
The death of her mother abroad had
made little impression upon her, her :
lncle, Major Belwether, having cared ..
or her since her fathers death. when y
The was ten years old. So, although =
he scandal of her mothers self exile
lad been In a measure condoned by a =
ardy marriage to the man for whom :,
he had left everything her daughter
lad grown up ignorant of any partic-
liar feeling for mother she could o
carcely remember. :
However, she wore black and went =,
owhere for the second winter, during =
Which time she learned a great deal :,
oncerning the unconventional procliv- b.
lies of the women of her race and a
amily, enough to impress her SO seri-
usly that ON an exaggerated impulse m
he had come to one of her character -
tic decisions. n
That decision was to break the un r.
ayory record at the first justifiable
pportunity and the opportunity came or
/ the shape of Quarrier--as though re-
'edlock were actually the sanctuary Mt
-hich an alarmed nation pretends 1t 20
, be! M
low. approaching the threshold of st
lird and last season and having put m
way her almost meaningless mourn w
g, there had stolen into her sense Of III
;" m, ty something irksome in the 10
! : + % 7 s:ss,::' w.: T.; .e.r.,,,., q;
eople at t ss lack or -