Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-22

and black-1ned ral-Iehee' @S -
went. her form swan before nm.
The texture of each shadowy ous oa
seemed but gauzy drapery, sprayed
with lilies-of- valley, ana the
leaves svlIabled her name in cautious
whispers. That brief touch OF her
when he had caught her in his arms,
fingered. as the memory OF the haIp
music on his inner ear prlcklnS hds
senses like fine musk, thing Oh sole
new pulses flashing over MIN ihe
spurts of yapor.
AS he threw off his coat in the ped
room he had chosen for his own ne
felt the hard corner of the Luclle IN
his pocket, and, drawing II OUT Idlo
ii on the table by the bedside. he
seemed to feel again the tlngle Oh
his cheek where curling strand OF
her coppery hair had sprung against
IT when her head had bent beside
his own to read the marked lines.
BY now. perhaps, that riotous crown
was all unbound and falling redly
about her shoulders, those shoulders
no longer peeping from a weave OF
lilies but draped in virginia. white.
Perhaps she knelt now by her SILK
covered bed, warming the coVerld
with her breast, her bent-down face
above her locked palms. What did
she pray for, he wondered. AS
child his own prapers had been com
prehensive ones. Even the savages
who lived in Wishing House and
their innumerabe offspring had been
regularly included in these petitions.
When he had undressed he sat an
hour in the eandle-blaze, a dressing
gown thrown over his shoulders,
Vainly striving to re-create that eve
ming call, to remember her every
word and look and movement. For
a breath her face would flush sudden
ly before him, like a live thing; then
it would mysteriously fade and elude
him, though he clenched his hands
on the arms of his chair in the fierce
mental effort to recall it. Only the
intense blue of her eyes, the tawny
sweep of her hair-these and the
touch of her, the consciousness of her
warm and vivid fragrance, remained
to wrap all his senses in a mist
woven of gold and fire.
Shirley, meanwhile, had sat some
time beside her mothers bed. lean
ing from a white chintz- covered
chair, her anxiety only partially al
layed by reassurances, now and then
STOPPING to lay her young cheek
against the delicate arm in it's lacy
v
up and down its outline noting with
a recurrent passion of tenderness the
transparency of the skin with its
violet veining and the shadows be-
neath0 the closed eyes. Emmeline
moving on soft, worsted-shod feet
about the dim room, at length had
whispered:
you go tub bald, honey 1 stay
with Mis- Judith till she go tub
sleep"
Eyes, go, Shirley" said the moth
er. Haven't I any privileges at all?
Can't | even faint when I feel like
it, without calling for the fire bri-
gade? You pamper me to death and
heaven knows I don't need it,
You won't let me telephone for
Dr. Southall?'
Certainly mott"
And you are sure it was nothing
but the roses?"
why, what else should it be-" said
her mother almost peevishly. 81 must
really have the arbors thinned out.
On heavy nights it's positively over
pewerng. Go along now and we'll
talk about it tomorrow. l can ring
II | want anything
In her own room Shirley nndressed
thoughtfully. There was between her
and her mother a fine tenuous bond
OF sympathy and feeling as rare, per-
haps. as 1t was lovely She could
not remember when the other had
not been a semi-invalid and her
! earliest childhood recollections were
lapunctuated with the tap of the little
cane Tonight's sudden indisposition
had shocked and disturbed her; to
faint at rush of perfume seemed to
suggest growing weakness that was
alarming. Tomorrow. she told her
/ self, she would send Ranston with a
wagon-load of the roses to the hos
| pital at Charlottesville.
She slipped on a pink she'll shaded
dressing gown of Slinky silk with a
riot of azaleas scattered in the weave.
and then, dragging a chair before
] the open window, drew aside the light
! curtain and began to brush her hair.
! She parted the lustrous mass with
! long sweeps of her white arm for
ward first over one shoulder, then
over the other. The silver brush
! smoothed the lighter ashen ripples
that netted and fretted into a fine
amber lace. till they lay, a rich warm
mahogany like red earth. The cop
perry whorls eddied and merged them
selves. showing under glints of russell
/ anu Soios NNil ing anu tldSIliiS III
! flame-tinted burrows like a living field
, of gold under a silver harrow. Out
i side the window the stars lay on the
lapis- lazuli sky like white flower
petals on still deep water, and in the
pasture across the hedges she could
! see the form of Selim, her chestnut
hunter, standing ghostly, like an
! equine sentinel
When that shimmering glory lay in
+ two thick braids against her should
/ ers. Shirley rose with sigh ano
went to her writing desk. where lay
her diary. But she was in no mood
to write. and she turned from it,
frowning a little, with the reflection
that she had not written in it since
the night of the cape jessamines.
All at once her gaze fell upon the
floor, and she shrank backward from
a twisting thread-li1e thing whose
bright saffron-yellow glowed sharply
against the dark carpet. She saw in
an instant. however, that it was moth
ing more dangerous than fragment
J of love-vine from the garden, which
had clung to her skirt She picked UP
the tiny mass of tendrils and with a
low smile tossed it over her right