Part 19 (2/2)
”The hair went up well this , didn't it?”
”Lovely--especially in the back It looks as if it had been marcelled, without that coood And I like this blouse I must wear it oftener”
”You can't afford to favor it too ot over thirty, all of theet tiive you a lot of them What DOES become of the time? Here it is, nearly eleven See if breakfast has co afterward if it has”
It had It was upon a sold boudoir And the sun, shi+ning softly in at the creeper-shaded , rejoiced in the surpassing brightness and cleanness of the dishes of silver and thinnest porcelain and cut glass Margaret thought eating in bed a ”filthy, foreign fad,” and never indulged in it She seated herself lazily, drank her coffee, and ate her roll and her egg slowly, deliberately, reading her letters and glancing at the paper A char picture sheaway fro off the clean, smooth healthiness of her skin, the blackness of her vital hair; from the white lace of her petticoat's plaited flounces peered one of her slim feet, a satin slipper upon the end of it At the top of the heap of letters lay one she would have recognized, she thought, had she never seen the handwriting before
”Sure to be upsetting,” reflected she; and she laid it aside, glancing now and then at the bold, nervous, irregular hand and speculating about the contents and about the writer
She had gone to bed greatly disturbed inwell to marry the obstreperous Westerner ”He fascinates me in a wild, weird sort of a hen I' to sleep, ”and the idea of hi in certain moods And it is a temptation to take hold of hi But is it interesting enough for--for et horribly tired? Wouldn't Grant and hu?” And when she awakened she found her proble and take Grant,” she found herself saying, ”unless so otherwise appears
Grand myself to him was a mood” Once more she was all for luxury and ease and cal ”A cold bath or a rough rub-do and then, once in a long while, is all very well It makes one appreciate co every day--aret felt her nerves rebelling as at the stroking of velvet the wrong way
She read all her other letters, finished her toilette, had on her hat, and was having Selina put on her boots when she opened Craig's letter and read:
”I must have been out of , but you are not for me If I led you to believe that I wished to et it We should make each other unhappy and, worse still, uncoed I hope you will ht; a fine fellow, in every way suited to you, and, I happen to know, ive er than friendshi+p you will surely get over it
”Anyhoe couldn't marry That is settled
”Let me have an answer to this I shall be upset until I hear” No beginning No end Just a bald, brutal casting-off A hint--more than a hint--of a fear that she would try to hold him in spite of himself She smiled--small, even teeth clenched and eyelids contracted cruelly--as she read a second ti The hu jilted! And by such aup, crunching her foot hard down upon one of Selina's hands ”What is it?” said she angrily, at her , Miss,” replied Selina, quickly hiding the wounded hand ”You moved so quick I hadn't time to draay That was all”
”Then finish that boot!”
Selina had to expose the hand, Margaret looked down at it indifferently, though her heel had torn the skin away froe of the palm and had cut into the flesh
”Hurry!” she ordered fiercely, as Selina fuled
She twitched and froith i the boot, then descended and called Willia on the telephone,” she said
”He's been calling you up several tiaret, eyes flashi+ng with sudden delight
”But ouldn't disturb you”
”That was right,” said Margaret She was beaood hulisten in her si up! Poor fool, not to realize that she would draw the correct inference from this anxiety