Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-08-06
CHAPTER VI.

|
In the leisure of what, with a curl of
her lips signifying her contempt for the
Implication, she was accustomed to term
her old age, Madame Savaran was learn
ing to recognize the hateful soundness of
the axiom, to wit. good habits are as
binding as the worst. The routine which
/ for forty years, more or less, had die
tated what she esteemed early rising,
was not to be sloughed like the cares
| OF the business which had necessitated
that routine.
| For some forty years Madame Savaran
had wakened without reluctance at the
hour of seven; but for upwards of
thirty-nine she had anticipated with the
keenest intimations of pleasure those
/ DAYS to come when she would be free to
( time her arising at her own sweet villa
faculty so highly esteemed by its pos
| SCISSOR that she was accustomed to hui
NOR its slightest whims and to see that
others either humored them or else rem
dered satisfactory explanations of their
failure to oblige.
And now at the age of sixty, Madame
savaran found herself a free agent in
every sense of the phrase-within mum
dane bounds-but slave to habits she
herself had assiduously cultivated. She
was wealthy; she was willingly a widow;
she had sold her business, retaining only
an interest large enough to permit her
/ 10 interfere when other diversions pail
ed. she had nothing to do but nurse her
crochets; and withal she was bound TO
the wheel of won't And the most dis
/ gushing link in the chain that constrain-
/ ed her she held to be this inability to
sleep as late as she liked.
! 1t was the only annoying circumstance
which, in the long run, whether through
some freak of favoring fortune or her
own contrivance, she had not peen aple
/ 70 circumvent She had got rid OF pow
] ertv she had got rid of her worthless
husband. she had got rid of the harness
/ of affairs, she had got rid OF that I'M
maturity which had once hampered hef
freedom of speech: but she couldn't get
rid of the subconscious alarm CLOCK
which aroused her unfailingly at an un-
ar,1I,, bour. whether she retired carry
or late. ,,o,,.-
/ small wonder that the poor lazy vent
! cd her resentment in what can De calleu
nothing else but a snort, when she turheu
! her handsome head upon the pillow and
ina,,a5 tbe clock in the face and discov-
! cred that on this day as on all others
/ sbe was awake at Z. 1t availed noth-
inc IN mitigate her indignation that on
I tbis dav- especially she had need TO De
mn betimes and stirring, who had three
score details demanding her ATTENTION
| ond supervision. She elected to be in
on an humor. and spent several minutes
! living there. staring at the ceiling and
making up her mind on whom TO VISIT
her wrath.
All things considered, Sidonle seemeo
TO be the 'predestined vessel.
With a grim expression madame raised
. small
YER call bell on the bedside stand.
Presently Sidonie appeared; but in the
meantime Madame Savaran had exercised
her inalienable prerogative of changing
her mind. Not that she had abandoned
her intention of making the morning an
interesting one for Sidonie: simply that
she had employed the interim to drama
tise the contemplated explosion and had
decided il would prove more effective IL
temporarily withheld but omniously pre-
saged
Therefore her mistress was merely cold
and sharply taciturn with Sidonie. She
demanded i'm icy accents her matutinal
draught of hot water and lemon juice;
she commanded her dressing-gown to be
A.oduced forthwith in the most terrify-
ing and peremptory manner; she snap
ned for her slippers and barked for her
breakfast and ordered her paper in
I phrases of sardonic humor-a form of
| expression in whose use she had few
peers; all oddly enough, without losing
lot OF title of her magnificent dig
nifty.
Let none waste sympathy on Sidonie;
not only was she INJURED to madame s
temper. but she deserved more Of it
! than she got Her name was not right
3 fully Sidonie and she was neither French
I nor young or trim nor a maid-although
/ she performed the Office of lady's maid
+ to admiration. She was Belgian wom-
an only some ten years the junior OF
I Madame Savaran, she was homely Of
feature and figure, she was an invete-
rate petty speculator, and she would
/ have sold every amazing secret Of the
morning toilet of her employer for any
/ thing that might excite her inordinate
cupidity, however trifling. Also she car
1 ried tales and, when occasion offered
] she drank.
! Why did Madame SaJaran retain Sido-
4 ME in her service? Sidonie was a habit
/ and had besides the inestimable virtue
OF ing imperturbably patient Madame
Savaran could tear the English langage
into strips and lash Sidonie with the