The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-01-27
CHAPTER vi.

later she seemed to have forgotten
that any such incident had ever hap
pened. She passed the usual pleas
antries of the day over the wire,
laughed as softly and unsteady as
ever, and ended by telling me that
might call that evening. When / did
| SO she received me with neither more
nor less than her customary friendli-
ness. / was mystiied. AS to what
was going on in the wonderland that
| lay behind her eyes I had no concep-
| ton further than the evident fact that
she had not been seriously offended.
| And that was solaca, enough for the
| present. OF course would renew the
assault-at-arms when the opportunity
! seemed propitious, but for the time
| being / would resort to steady siege.
| renewed my devotions.
AS had been the case before. I again
| haunted her. Necessarily this soon
/ became bruited around the circle Of
our acquaintance, and occasionally
echoes of the gossip reached my ears.
Bruce spoke of it once or twice quiz
zically, but as ignored his remarks
| he soon quit bothering me with them.
Glare, as usual, had her little say.
Il hear that you and Mrs. Dace are
| exceedingly good friends these days,
and that you are with her nearly
everywhere she began sweetly. II
| wish you would tell me about it."
| Now as matter of fact I was secret
| ly proud to be recognized as the ac-5
| cepted sutton of SO beautiful wom-
an, and Clare was an entirely differ
ent proposition from Bruce to confide
! in. So l admitted nonchalantly that
| we were on excellent terms. She
| frowned little
We'll, I suppose, of course that it
| is all right, and anyway it Is none
| of my business. But she Is such
mysterious woman. She lives like a
| duchess and everybody says her hus-
band left her scarcely anything. When
| that little is gone what will she do
unless she marries a rich man? And
how on earth could you get money
enough to support woman of her
tastes as she would demand to be sup
ported? You just answer me that,
Tom Halliday"
| Now I had rather expected some
thing like this from Clare, but never
theless the question annoyed me
somewhat It was the identical one
that had been making my sane mo-
ments bugaboo for many nights and
days past; still hated to be remind
ed Of it by another person. Even now
was beginning to feel the drain Of
her upon my resources, although l
had done nothing extravagant. had
taken her to the theater, paid for car
riages. and bought her iuncheons and
flowers, but beyond that had done
practically nothing. And in certain
way there was much satisfaction in
the thought that I had offered her SO
little in the way of allurement besides
my own society. While there were
men by the score who would have
been overjoyed to squander money
upon her, she had laughingly excused
herself to them for the sake of mex
pensive little evenings with me. As
| ASSA
seemed conclusive, and was the thing
that gave me the most hope. How
ever I did not speak and Glare went
| on:
| Some of her gowns cost more than
you earn in MONTH while as for
supporting an establishment at the
Arcadia-well, of course the very idea
/ is preposterous. Now why don't you
be sensible?" smiled, seeming what
was coming
And what is your idea of sense,
Clare?" l inquired
We'll, take up with nice little
girl like Mollie Osborn for instance"
1t was just as | had suspected, for
Clare and Mollie are ehurns and de-
voted in advancing each others in
terests. But the idea that any man,
once knowing Mrs. Dace as / knew
!. her, could be content with d girl like,