Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-24
CHAPTER VIII.

Breakfast passed smoothly, and they
fingered lated in the library. Mrs. Craig
hill seemed in no awe of her elderly hus-
band She talked more freely now. and
mentioned many foreign places where she
and her mother had lived at different
periods. Most Of them were obscure and
questionable, and some of them were
wholly unknown to Mrs. Blair; but she
erness behind this careless sketchng of
the leisurely foreign itinerary pursued by
this young woman and her widowed
mother. At the same time the back
ground which Mrs. Craighill created for
herself was shadowy; against it she and
her mother were as unsubstantial as fig
ures on screen. There was nothing that
you could put your hand on Vermont.
to Mrs. Blair. was even more remote and
inaccessible than those French and Ger
man towns where winters and summers
had been spent by the mother and daugh-
ter Mrs. Blair. in her rapid vsualiza-
ton OF their flights. saw them huddled
where the pension charges We're lghtest.
Wayne soon called for his runabout and
went to the Office, as his father had an
nounced that he WOULD remain at home
until after luncheon. Wayne had acted
becomingly. to his fathers satisfaction
and to his sisters great relief Mrs.
Blair was. in fact, quite proud of him as
he said goodbye to her and stood very
straight and tall before his stepmother
and babe her good morning. He bore the
stamp of breedi1s-she had never felt
this more than nOw-and he could be re-
lied on in emergencies.
Are you all coming over toniglA- the
children and everybody?' asked Col.
Craighill.
mo. you must have your first dinner
alone" Mrs. Blair replied. but tomor-
row night YOU are coming to US
Il am dining with Fanny tonight, so
YOU will have clean sweep said
Wayne. in conformity with his sisters
earlier instructions.
The sensation of being suddenly estab-
liShed as mistress of a home over which
another woman had presided for twenty
years. and in which she has borne and
reared children and died. was to he Mrs.
Craighilrs fully today. Mrs. Blair went
thoroughly into all the domestic arrange
ments with the hOusekeeper attending.
She revealed the repositories of linen. the
mothproof Judgments for WOODEN fabrics.
the secret Storehouses of fruit and Nese-
tables. On these rounds Mrs. Blair
evinced sincere desire to be Of help
She had fortified herself against heart
ache but there were things that hurt
The ineffaceable marks of her mothers
forethought and labor We're wrought into
She deeper history, of the house, and
could never he understood by this new
conner. who laid ignorant hands upon the
ark of the domestic covenant and yet es-
caped destruction
Several times. this tour of inspec-
ton. Col. Craighill spoke his first wife's
name, and his manner and tone gave to
his daughters sensitive intelligence a
completer idea of his perfect detachment
from the earlier tie. She felt the tighten
ing of the heart that every woman feels
when an illustration of mans forgetful-
ness strikes close home She foresees at
once her own replacement by another:
tickle flowers of remembrance rusty
patches on her grave, where the winds
of December moan forever. Fanny Blair.
already. by this provision, saw herself
forgotten anu her own successor entering
her husbands door, while her children.
unkempt and fearful. walled dolorously
before --.e gates of oblivion