The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1922-02-08

Hill
it was a mouth of secrets and Of mys
terry, OF character, a mouth that hat
known the trembling Of pain and grief
perhaps, but a firm mouth now, ant
a beautiful one.
Looking at her, an artist would
have fancied her q bold and charmin,
and boyish-looking little girl, fifteer
years ago, with hat Greek chin ant
that tawny name would have seen he
seXless and splendid in her early teens
with Il fiat breast and an untamed eye
And a rOmancer might have wondered
what paths had led her, in the super,
realization Of her beautiful woman
hood, at twenty-seven, to this subor
dinate position in the home Of a self
made rich man, and this conventional
tea table III q terrace over the Hud
son.
Nearly half-past five, Nina" she
saM, presently. "Go aud change anC
thrush, that's a darling! You lool
rather tumbled."
Nina, reaching for a marion, obedi
entity wandered away, and Immediately
the empty chair beside Harriet was
taken by a newcomer, Richard Garter
himself, the owner Of all this smiling
estate, who had come up from til,
, little launch at the landing, hat
changed hastily into white tiannels
Harriet saw at a glance, and had un
expectedly Joined them for tea.
"Tea, Mr.. Carter?" Harriet ven
tured.
He was watching his wife with 6
sort of idle interest. She had to re
peat her invitation.
IF you please. Miss Field! Tee
sounded right, somehow, to me today
It's been u terrible day"
Il can imagine i'll" Harriet's voice
was pleasantly commonplace. But the
moment had it's thrill for her. This
lean, tall, tired man. with his abstract
manner. his ~perfunctory courtesies. his
nervous, clever hands, doomed in oddly
heroic proportions in Harriet's life
His face was keen and somewhat
lined under a smooth crest of slightly
grazing hair; he smiled very rarely
but there was a certain kindness in
his gray eyes. when Nina or Ward
or his wife turned to him, that Har-
riet liked.
For Harriet he had hardly a dozen
words a year. He merely smiled
lskindly when she thanked him for the
Christmas gift TINT bore his un.
touched card; if she went to her sis.
ter for a day or two, he gave her only
a nod of greeting when she came back.
Now and then he asked with sharp
interest about Nina's teeth or his
mothers headache.
But Harriet had known other types
Of men, and for his very %silences, for
his Indifference, she had begun to ad-
aire him long ago. She had no been
born In this atmosphere of pleasure
and ease and riches; she was not en-.
tirely untitled to Judge q man.
Isabelle was always breezily civil to
her husband; he had long ago van
shed as completely from among the
vital elements of her life as If he were
NCuus pCI maps AlOIS lHdH IL lie were
lead She thOught-if she thought
about him at all-that he never saw
her little affairs; she supposed him
perfectly satisfied with his home and
children and club and business, and
incidentally with his beautiful figure
head of a wife. They had quarreled
distressingly, several years ago., when
he had bored her with references to
her duty" and her influence over
Nina, and her obligations to her true
self. But that had all stopped long
since, and o Isabelle was free to
sleep late, to dress at leisure, to make
what engagements she pleased, to see
the persons who interested her. Rich
ard interfered never was there
a perfectly discreet and gener-
Gus husband. Half the women Isabelle
knew were attempting to live exactly
as she did, to cultivate "suitors,' and
drift about in an atmosphere Of new
gowns and adulatiOn and orchids and
softly lighted drawing rooms, and in
cessant paying with fire; 1t was the
accepted thing, In lsabelle's circle,
and that she was more successful in
it than other women was not at al
to her discredit.