Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1912-03-02
TEMPER and
GREEN TULLE
And a Ring That Was Thought
to Be Lost.
BY SARA MCCONNELL.


be free and his own man again. She
was capriclous, inconstant, vain; she
was self willed aud full OF wlles; she
was-oh. she was Alexandra Lee. He
would not think of her.
A great deal that had happened that
night was blurred to him. But the
bang of the carriage door as they
started home reverberated in his mind
like the crack of doom. 1t had slipped
from his hand and swung to with O
crash. Alexandra's laugh Knocked him
with any one else, George, I'd have
said the door slammed"
He remembered how she looked ms
he turned, something strange In her
eyes that matched, in impression, the
misty multitudinous rulings and bill.
lowlngs of her gown--that frivolous
fiutterIng, elusive green tulle he had
watched all evening as she danced
with every other man in the ROOM
with Herbert Hartley, a dawdling,
gangling derelict, signpost to every
path but that of rectltude-of all men
in the world, Herbert Hartley!
From her carriage corner Alexandra
sighed. "I've had such a good time,
and now I suppose there's the piper
to pay"
"If you mean there is Hartley to
settle for
Herbert? You've tone that hints
at thirdly and fourthly, brethren and
poor Herbert! He's so much more of
a song than a sermon"
That began 1t. He had never meant
to quarrel, only to deal with her in a
firm, prompt fashion, as a man should
But he lectured her.
She bent down as he ended. care
you there, Alexandria" she asked Of
the floor. "Poor dear, there is nothing
left to pick up. Oh, I'm tired, tired
I'm stifled. l can't breathe. There
take 1t backp And she tossed the
ring across to him. "Now one can
draw free breath"
Alexandria he begged.
But he had cut, and she meant he
should pay. And hers was pretty
gift of table turning.
He held his anger down. No more
doors should slam by chance about
him, and 1t was only as they neared
the house that he interrupted:
1--WE haven't gained anything this
way. Discuss me again. The point is
Herbert Hartley"
''Then / must put on my bonds
again? Where is the ring?"
But he hadn't the ring.
"You had it last"
81 laid it in your lap"
But it was not in her lap, on the
seat nor In the carriage. Alexandra
laughed. "Oh, thrifty George, are you
sure you've not taken it back for safe
keepingT
He stood long moment at her door.
'And Hartley" he said.
Insistence was match to her powder.
"How can l answer unless we're en-
gagged? And people can't be engaged
without rings, can they, George? You
seem to think with mine on that /
fail to remember. Bring it back to me
and-good night"
After a week of wrath mingled with
pain he got himself under control and
wrote her. But the answer came back
the same absurd, maddening, almost
insulting reiteration-the ring, always
the ring. A perversity first or a pre-
text, did she use 1t now as a weapon?
He hadn't the ring, she knew.
Life was turmoil once Alexandra en-
tered, and he remembered with what
perverse astuteness she had said her.
self: I'm like mustard plaster on
your mind. You'd better take me off
before raise blister"
But she was in every wind that
blew, and without her nothing was
worth while that once had been.
So for fortnight he had gone about
his accustomed ways, and, though
many fiutter of familiar skirts had
set his heart a-jump, yet he never had
met Alexa since that night. Then a
case of some Importance took him out
Of town with such sharp demand upon
all his faculties that he had known a
sort of respite.
But back in the town his work was
all to do again. He went his way
down to his office. He bowed to peo-
pie who drove past with swift hope
that Alexa would not be with them.
And then Unexpectedly with group
near the Hurds-there was Alexal
Yes, 1t was Alexandra and Evelyn |
Hurd and with them Herbert Hartley. |
The group stood until he had almost |
'eached them, when Hartley turned,
md Evelyn went back to the house, |
while Alexa stopped by the Hurds'
waiting carriage.
He knew she had seen him long be- |
'ore, butt was one OF her insinceri-
les he most disliked--she acted out |
!cute surprise. He put a sitter guard
Upon himself. "a
A sitter guard! she called 1t by
mother name. She hated him when
lie was like that. How futile he made
Ter feel, how trivial, how vain! Well.
1t least she would make him feel once
more and betray 1t. She would wiring
nut of him a protest. }
And then her mind misgave her.
Vas she being left with the situation
m her hands? Would he accept with
tut protest2 Would he never speak, |
'he looked up and then down again
o her ungloved hand on which his