The Madisonian. (Richmond, Ky.) 1913-1914, 1914-05-05

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Shirley, Who Had Again Seated Her
self, Suddenly Laughed, and Point
ed to the Book.
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, leaning
from 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 a recurrent passion of ten
derness the transparency of the skin
with its violet veining and the shad-
ows beneath the closed eyes. Emma
about the dim room. at length had
whispered.
you go tub bald, honey. I stay
with Mis- Judith till she 60 tnt sleep"
Yes, go, Shirley" said her mother.
Haven't 1 any privileges at all? Can't
even faint when feel like it. without
calling out the fire-brigade? You'll
pampe1 me to death and heaven knows
/ don't need it,
You won't let me telephone for Doc
tor Southall?"
Certainly noti
"And you are sure it was nothing
but the roses?"
why, what else should it Beg" said
her mother almost peevishly. II 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. I can ring If I
want anything"
In her room Shirley undressed
thoughtfully. There was between her
and her mother fine tenuous bond
of sympathy and feeling as rare, per
haps, as it was lovely. She could not
remember when the other had not
been a semi-invalid, and her earliest
childhood recoIIections were punctu-
ated with the tap of the little cane.
Tonfght's sudden 1ndisposition 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 a wagon
load of the roses to the hospital at
Charlottesville
She slipped on pink shelI-shaded
dressing-gown Of slinky silk with a
riot of azaleas scattered in the weave,
and then, dragging her chair before
the open window, drew aside the light
curtain and began to brush her hair.
All at once her gaze fell upon the
floor, and she shrank backward from a
twisting thread-like thing whose bright
saffron-yellow glowed sharply against
the dark carpet. She saw in an in
slant, however, that it was nothing
more dangerous than fragment of
love-vine from the garden, which had
chung to her skirt. She picked up
the tiny mass of tendrils and with
slow smile tossed it over her right
shoulder through the window. eff 1t
takes root" she said aloud, my sweet
heart loves me-" She leaned from the
sill to peer down into the misty gar
den, but could not follow its fall
Long ago her visitor would have
reached Damory Court. She had a
vision of him wandering, candle in
hand, through the empty echoing
rooms, looking at the voiceless por-
traits on the walls, thinking perhaps
of his father, of the fatal duel of which
he had never known. She liked the
way he had spoken of his fatherI
AS she leaned, out of the stiffness
there came to her ear mellow sound.
1t was the bell efsthe courthouse in
the village. She counted the strokes
falling clearly or family as the slug
gish breeze ebbed or swelled. 1t was
eleven.
She drew back, dropped the curtain
to shut out the wan glimmer. and in
the darkness crept into the soft bed
as if into hiding-place.
.,
A warm sun and an air mildly mel
low. A faint gold-shadowed mist over
the valley and a soft lilac haze blend
ing the rounded outlines of the hills.
Through the shrubbery at Damory
Court cardinal darted like Grim
son shuttle, to rock impudently from
a fieering limb, and here and there
on the bluish-ivory sky, motionless as
pasted wafer hung a hawk; from
time to time one of these wavered and
slanted swiftly down, to climb once
more in huge spiral to its high tower
of sky.
Perhaps it wondered, as its tele-
scopic eye looked down. That had
been it's choicest covert that DISNEY
eled tangle where the birds held per
petual carnival, the weasel lurked in
the underbrush and the rabbit lined
his windfall. Now the wildness was
gone. A pergola, glistening white. now