The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-06-11

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culmilati-s in the Westervelt ball on
the eve Of the forty days, and Sylvia
had not yet seen Siward or spoken to
him again across the wilderness of
streets and men.
In the first relaxation OF Lent she
had nsinctively welcomed an oppor
tunity for spiritual consolation and Il
chance to take her spiritual bearings,
not because of bodily fatigue, for in
the splendor Of her youthful yigor she
did not know what that meant
To St Berold's she went in cure of
her soul. She was fond Of Father
Curtis, who, If he were every inch
priest, was also every foot Of his six
feet a man-simple, good and brave
However, she found little opportu-
nifty, save at her brief confession, for
a word with Father Curtis. 1t was
fashionable to adore Father Curtis,
and for that reason she shrank from
/ Vcnturing any demand upon his time.
and nobody else at st. Berold's APP
\ pealed to her.
Agatha Caithness was there a great
deal, looking like saint in her Sub
dued plumage and very devout, dodg
ing nothing, neither confession nor
Quarters occasionally lifted eyes.
though their gaze, meeting, seemed
lost In dreamy devotion or drowned in
the contemplation Of the spiritual and
remote a,
Plank came dpcileIv from his DntrN
aFYt RI Jit haoido otto
As for Mortimer, once vestryman,
he never came at all. There was
new set Of men among whom, he had
recently drifted, to the unfeigned dis
gust of gentlemen like Major Bel
wether-"club" men in the Commoner
and more sinister Interpretation of the
word.
Mortimer stayed out at night very
frequently now; also he appeared to
make his money go further or was
Iuckier at his card Killings" because
he seldom attempted to bully Leila,
being apparently content with his al
lowance. !
Once or twice Plank saw him with
an unusually attractive girl belonging
to q world very far removed from
Leila's. Somebody said she was an
actress when she did anything at all
one Lydia Vyse, somewhat ceIebrat-
cd for an audacity not too delicate.
But Plank was no more interested
than any man who can't afford to en-
danger his prospects by a closer ac-
uuaintance with that sort of pretty
woman.
Meanwhile Mortimer kept away from
home, wife and church, and Plank fire.
quented them, so the two men did not
meet very often, and the less they
met the less they found to say to one
another.
Though the opera was over, theaters
Questionable, formal functions sus-
pended and dances ended, the pace
still continued at discreet and dec
orous trot, and those who had not fieI
to California or Palm Beach remained
to pray and play bridge with an
JUNCTION most edifying.
And all this while Sylvia had not
seen Siward.
6yINld W do changing AC
istic amiabIlity, the sensitive reserve,
the sweet composure which the world
had always counted on in her, had be
come exceptions and no longer the
rules which governed the caprice and
impulse always latent. An indiffer-
ence so pointed as to verge on inso-
lence amazed her intimates at times.
A sudden, flushed Impotence startled
the habitues of her shrine. There was {
\ new. unseeing hardness in her eyes, s
In her attitude the faintest hint of t
.ynicism. For the first time slight q
sense of fear tinctured the general ad-
mira ton.
In public her indifference and grow
ug Impotence with Quarter had not
cached the verge Of bad taste, but in |
,riyate she was scarcely at pains to {
her WEAKNESS and inattentlOu. y
That he noticed 1t was evident even to b
Ter. who careIessly ignored the conse- F
Iuences of her own attitude ,
At the Mi-carene dance given by the
iowa Hunt. Quarter, who was \. i =
I. led the cotllon with agreeable Pc +
ision and imperSonal accuracy, t".".' d
NO her at intervals. She returned t. c.
own next morning with Grace Fe"ai.
irritable. sulky, furious with he|'e.'. g,
N hot with self contempt, She "A. G
ack in the comfortably upholstered !.
orner of the brougham. staring
traight before her, sullen red mouth
to the occasional incon' =
.ouent questions of Grace Ferrnh. re
After awhile" observed Grace, "peo- W
le will begin to talk about the diseon- aC
,nted beauty Of your face"
Sylvia's eyebrows bent still farther
ward Al
"A fretful face, but rather pretty" III
,mmented Grace maliciously. 1T VI
ont do, dear Your role is dignitied SW
,medy. oh. dear! oh, my! She ~
filed a yawn behind her faultlessl} ba
owed hand. "Oh, dear, how do re-