The Irish standard., 1912-10-26
COPYRIGHT 1911 - boees r1ERRILL coHpAr

Iuh0 tue Ot0erb. f1er mOt0eT calIeQ
him Horace, which the major mel
lowed into Hoddy. He was tall, blond,
good-looking. devil-may-care, edu.
Gated. witty, amusing; and in evening
dress he appeared to be what it was
quite evident he had once been, q
gentleman. At first she thought 1t
strange that he should make her, in
stead Of her mother, his confidante.
As to what vocation he pursued, she
did not know, for he kept sedulous
guard over his tongue; but his past,
up to that fork in the road where man.
hood says good-by to youth, was hers.
And in this direction, clever and artful
as the mother was, she sought in vain
to wrest this past from her daughters
lips. To the mother, 1t was really nee
essary for her to know who this man
really was, had been, knowing thor
oughly as she did what he was now.
Persistent he undeniably was, but
never coarse nor rude. Since that
time he had come back from the
casino at Monte Carlo, much the worse
for wine, she feared him; yet, in spite
Of this fear, she had for him a vague
liking, hazy admiration. Whatever
his faults might be, she stood witness
to his great physical strength and
courage. He was the only man, among
all those who appeared at the Villa
Fanny and Immediately vanished, who
returned again. And he, too, soon
grew to be part of this unreal drama,
arriving mysteriously one day and de-
parting the next.
That a drama was being enacted un-
der her eyes she no longer doubted;
but 1t was as though she had taken
her seat among the audience in the
middle Of the second act. She could
make neither head nor tail to it.
Whenever she accompanied her
mother upon these impromptu Jour-
neys, her character, or rather her at
titude. underwent a change. She
swept aside her dreams; she accepted
the world as it was, saw things as
they were; laughed, but without merri-
ment: TESTED, but with the venomed
point. It was the reverse Of her real
character to give hurt to any living
thing, but during these forced march
es, as the major humorously termed
them. and such they were in truth,
she could no more stand against Civ.
ing the cruel stab than, when alone
In her garden, she could resist the
tender pleasure Of succorii.g fallen
butterfly. She was especially happy
in finding weak spots in her mothers
armor, and she never denied herself
the thrust. Mrs. Chedsoye enjoyed
these sharp encounters, for 1t must
be added that she gave as good as
she took, and more often than not her
thrusts bit deeper and did not always
heal.
Fortune never asked questions rela-
tive to the family finances. II she
harbored any doubts as to their origin,
to the source Of their comparative lux.
ury, she never put these into speech.
She had never seen her father, but
she had often heard him referred to
as ''that brute or "that fool" or that
drunken imbecile." If portrait Of
him existed, Fortune had not yet seen
1t. She visited his lonely grave once
a year, in the Protestant cemetery,
and dreamily tried to conjure up what
manner of man he had been. One day
she piled her old Italian nurse with
questions.
Handsome? Yes, but it was all so
long ago. cara mia, that can not
describe him to you"
Unfd hn c,}~I, pohf1A Att, ~,.>.
ton there was no sense of moral
obloquy as applying to the dead.
"Sainted Mary! didn't all men drink
their ver..v souls into purgatory those
unreligious days?"
Had he any relatives?"
II never heard of any"
''Was he rich?"
mo; but when the signora, your
mother, married him she thought he
was"
II was not till later years that For
tune grasped the true significance Of
this statement. It illumined many
pages. She dropped all investigations.
concluding wisely that her mother, II
she were minded to speak at all, could
supply only the incidents, the details.
It was warm, balmy, like May in the
northern ATTITUDES. Women wore
white dresses and carried sunshades
over their shoulders. A good band
played airs from the new light-operas,
and at one side Of the grand.stand
were tea-tables under dazzling linen.
Fashion was out. Not all her votaries
enjoyed polo, but 1t was absolutely
necessary to pretend that they did.
When they talked they discussed the
Spanish dancer who paraded back
and forth across the tea-lawn. They
discussed her Jewels. her clothes. her
escort, and quite frankly her morals.
which of the four was by all odds the
most popular theme. All agreed that
she was handsome IN a bold way. This
modification invariably distinguishel
tho right sort Of women from the
wrong sort, from which there 10 no ap'
peal to . higher court They could
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