Part 33 (1/2)
”Grant!” she cried As he turned she rose, advanced with a friendly smile and put out her hand for his ”Thank you,” she said ”You have shown yourself OUR best friend”
”I meant to be,” he answered earnestly, as he pressed her hand ”When I pull ether I think you'll realize I'm some decenter than I've seemed of late”
Mada So all attention was concentrated upon theof the two impossibilities The old lady took her new relative's hand with a gracious, queenly srateful and of keeping hi out the announceer, respectful reply
She gave hi in her left hand
It was her own private paper, heavy, quiet, rich, engraved with aristocratic si ”This,” said she, ”is to be given out in addition to the formal notice which Grant will send to the newspapers”
Craig read:
”Mrs Bowker announces the aret Severence, and Joshua Craig, of Wayne, Minnesota, and Washi+ngton, by the Reverend Doctor Scones, at the Waldorf, this 's friend, Mr Grant Arkwright, were present The e occurred sooner than was expected, out of consideration for Mrs Bowker, as she is very old, and wished it to take place before she left for her su glance of a satisfied expert in public opinion Their eyes ured in his i ”Splendid!” cried he, with hearty enthusiasm ”You have covered the case exactly Grant, telephone for an associated Press reporter and give him this”
”I'll copy it off for hied aive it to hi ”You told Scones to keep his mouth shut, when you paid hiaret reddened slightly at this coarse brusqueness of phrase ”Yes,” said Grant ”He'll refuse to be interviewed I'll go and attend to this”
”We're having a gala lunch, at once--in the apartment,” said the old lady ”So, coone she said to the two: ”And nohat are your plans?”
”We have none,” said Craig
”I had thought--” began Margaret She hesitated, colored, went on: ”Grandet the Millicans' camp in the Adirondacks? I heard Mrs Millican say yesterday they had got it all ready and had suddenly decided to go abroad instead”
”Certainly,” said the old lady ”I'll telephone about it at once, and I'll ask the Millicans to lunch with us to-day”
She left the his bride covertly, had a sense of her remoteness, her unattainability He was like a man who, in an hour of rashness and vanity, has boasted that he can attain a certain mountain peak, and finds himself stalled at its very base He decided that he must assert himself; he tried to nerve himself to seize her in his old precipitate, boisterous fashi+on He found that he had neither the desire to do so nor the ability He had never thought her so full of the lady's charm That was just the trouble--the lady's char's; not the charm feminine for the male
”I hope you'll be very patient with me,” said she, with a wan s for several days whether or not to give up and send for the doctor”
He did not see her realthe way for the forerly believed her, was grateful to her, was glad she was ill So quaint is the interweaving of thought, there flashed into his mind at that moment: ”After all, I needn't have blown in so et 'em to take back those two suits of twenty-dollar pajamas Grant went in too deep” This, because the reatly, the situation that would arise when his savings should be gone; for now it seee to discuss hts she would have been well content; there was every indication of easy sailing for her scheme to reconstruct his career
”When do you think of starting for the Adirondacks?” he asked, with a ti that made her turn away her face to hide her smile How completely hers was the situation! She felt the first triuht,” she replied ”We can't put it off”
”No, we can't put it off,” assented he, hesitation in his voice, glooh,” he added, ”you don't look at all well” With an effort: ”Margaret, are you glad--or sorry?”
”Glad,” she answered in a firm, resolute tone It became a little hard in its practicality as she added: ”You were quite right We took the only course”
”You asked me to be a little patient with you,” he went on