The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1914-06-25
CHAPTER XIX.
Night.

Night.
A quicker breeze was stirring as
John Valiant went back along the Red
Road. He had waited in the garden
at Rosewood till Shirley, aided by
Emmaline and with Ranston's anxious
face lowering in the background, haV-
ing performed those gentle offices
which a woman's fainting spell re-
7uires, had come to reassure him and
to cay Good night.
AS he threw off his coat in the
bedroom he had chosen for his own.
he felt the hard corner Of the Lucille"
in the pocket, and drawing it out, iaio
1t on the table by the bedside. He
seemed to feel again the tingle OF
his cheek where a curling strand of
her coppery hair had sprung against 1t
when her head had bent beside his
own to read the marked lines.
When he had undressed he sat an
hour in the candle-blazey dressing
gown thrown over his shoulders, striv-
| ing vainly to recreate that evening
call, to remember her every word and
look and movement. For a breath
her face would flush suddenly before
him, like live thing; then 1t would
| nysteriously fade and elude him,
| though he olenched his hands on the
arms of his chair in the fierce mental
\ effort to recall 1t. 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, leaning
! from a white chintz-covered chair, her
anxiety only partially allayed by reas-
surances, now and then STOPPING to lay
her young cheek against the delicate
arm in its lacy sleeve or to pass her
hand lovingly up and down its outline,
noting with recurrent passion of ten
derness the transparency Of the skin
with its violet veining and the shad-
ows beneath the closed eyes. Emma
line, moving on soft worsted-shod feet
about the dim room, at length had
whispered.
You go tub bald. honey. stay
with Mis- Judith till she go tub sleep"
Yes, go, Shirley" said her mother.
Haven't any privileges at all? Can't
l even faint when feel like it, without
calling out the t1re-brigade? You'll
pamper me to death and heaven knows
I don't need It,"
You won't let me telephone for Doc
tor Southall?"
Certainly mott" ....
And you are sure 1t was nothing
but the roses?"
why, what else should it be?" said
her mother almost peevishly. i must
really have the arbors thinned out. On
heavy nights it's positively overpower'
ing Go along now, and We'll talk
about it tomorrow. l can ring II
want anything"
In her room Shirley undressed
Ithoughtfully. 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 moi
been a semi-invalid, and her earliest
childhood recollections were punctu
ated with the tap of the little cane
Tonight's sudden indisposition had
shocked and disturbed her; to faint
at a rush Of perfume seemed to sug
gest a growing weakness that was
alarming. Tomorrow, she told herself
she would send Ranston with wagon
load of the roses to the hospital al
Charlottesville.
She slipped on pink shellshadet
dressing-gown of slinky silk with {
/ riot Of azaleas scattered in the weave
and then, dragging her chair before
the open window, drew aside the ligh
curtain and began to brush her hair
All at once her gaze fell upon tht
floor, and she shrank backward from ;
twisting thread-like thing whose brigh
: saffron.yellow glowed sharply agains
t the dark carpet. She saw in an IN
}, slant, however, that 1t was nothing
, more dangerous than a fragment o
t love-vine from the garden. which ha'
3 chung to her skirt. She picked VI
t the tiny mass of tendrils and with
slow smile tossed it over her righ
/ shoulder through the window IF
takes root" she said aloud. my sweet
: heart loves me-" She leaned from tn
D sill to peer down into the misty gal
i. den, but could not follow its fall.
! Long ago her visitor would hav
reached Damory Court, She had
e vision of him wandering, candle
l. hand through the empty echoin
|. rooms. looking at the voiceless POI
r traits on the walls, thinking perhap
4 Of his father, of the fatal duel Of whic
IS he had never known. She liked tn
way he had spoken Of his father!