The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1922-03-09

| the Mater was sick, perhaps. My God
! that worried me- he broke of bit
terly. "Blondin came with me; we
stopped on the road for dinner and
the man had a paper there. Is that
what you wanted me fOr-I don't be-
lieve 1t! It's dirty lie. and the boun-
der that put that in the paper"
I'm glad you came home. my boy"
Richard said. I've been waiting for
you-"
Harriet heard no more; she slipped
from the room. There were genuine
tears in her own eyes now; for the
boy had flung himself face downward
| against a great chair. and was crying.
| All the household knew it; Harriet
could read it in Bottomley's carefully
usual manner and quiet speech. In the
little music room across the hall Royal
Blondin was waiting.
This is u terrible thing" he said,
seriously.
"Oh, frightful," Harriet agreed. A
rather fiat silence ensued. She seemed
to have nothing To say to Royal now.
bul silt NdS Ibl SUI lllNtu NiINlls a
moment later, Nina came softly in, the
picture of girlish distress, with her wet
eyes and fresh white gown.
81 thought it best to leave Ward
with Granny and Father" Nina said.
in vague explanation, going straight to
Blondin, who rose, dusty and weary,
but with a solicitous manner that was
infinitely soothing.
His manner, Harriet had grudgingly
TO admit, was perfection. When Rich
ard and Ward joined them few mo-
ments later, he expressed himself with
manly brevity to the older man. He
realized, said BlOndin, simply, that he
: was absolutely de trop; he had merely
imagined, as "the lad" had imagined.
that the sudden summons from camp
meant illness or ordinary emergency,
or he would not have intruded at this
time He would not express a SYM
: pathy that must sound extremely airy
: they would lend him Hansen, he would
go over to the club
Nonsense !" Ward said. you're all
dirty and tired and hungry, and so anu
/. Well clean up, and then well have
something to eat first! Miss Harriet
will look out for u.s."
=. "And I'd like to see you for a mo-
:, ment in the library, Miss Field" Rich
I ard said, rather YEARLY. II want
i something sent to the papers," he ex'
planned in an undertOne.
r Ah-they all wanted her, and needed
: her! How quick, and how efficient
5 and how self-effacing Harriet was as
d she went about the business of making
them all comfortable!
They talked deep into the night
I Harriet knew, for she herself was
: sleepless, and she could see from the
upper balcony that a stream of COLDER
D light was pouring across the brilliant
4 flowers beneath the library windows.
"A She reviewed the incredible event:
a of the past few days, and the actors
drifted before her vision fitfully: lisa
belle, white-bosomed and beautiful, il
a her prime; Tony Pope, passionate anC
a wretched; Royal, low-voiced, dreamy
DOellC, Will tlOuutnl bldCh tNtS
Nina, newly awakened; Ward, weak
q boyish, ardent; Madame Carter, full o
theatrical dignity and well-roundet
= phrases, and lastly-simple, strong
4 anxious to protect them all, even from
their own follies-Richard.
Not one word of blame, not on
l ugly insinuation," she unused, "yet sh
| has shamed him, and he is so honor
\ able; and she has made him conspicu
Gus, when he is so modest"
I She thought of Isabelle, fresh fror
! Germaine's careful hands, lying in he
>. exquisite white against the cushion
/ of deck chair, smiling, in the rros
| fattering light under the green avn
ing, at the infatuated man beside hel
| "Ugh!" said Harriet. with health
uprush of utter disgust. These fey
months would not be cloudless for lisa
belle. by any means. And after then
what? Was ii conceivable that thOS
st fatal sixteen years would fail to ider
tify Tony and Isabelle wherever the
went, even though the press was no
m eagerly assisting them? Supposin
y that Isabelle never thought of Crown
"a lands. of her handsome son and he
he young daughter, of the man whose pa
thence and cleverness had lifted her
e, all this luxury from an apartment In
er small town, would no memory of tn
IN place she had held, and the FRIEND
NJ ships she had commanded, haunt her
y Truly there was always society for tn
ID Isabelles, but to Harriet's clean sens
y. it seemed but the society of Jail.
"a 81 wouldn't change places with her
O, Harriet decided, In the soft silence an
1 darkness of the summer night.
DR. From Isabelle's problem her thought
~ went to her own, to Royal BlOndin. Sh
"a was wakeful and restless tonight sin