Part 103 (2/2)

”I don't know what she will do,” she said. ”I suppose she will decide soon. It is an affair of long standing.”

Keith's throat had grown dry.

”I had hoped that my cousin Norman might prove a protector for her; but his wife is not a good person. I was mad to let her go there. But she would go. She thought she could be of some service. But that woman is such a fool!”

”Oh, she is not a bad woman,” interrupted Keith.

”I do not know how bad she is,” said Miss Abigail. ”She is a fool. No good woman would ever have allowed such an intimacy as she allowed to come between her and her husband; and none but a fool would have permitted a man to make her his dupe. She did not even have the excuse of a temptation; for she is as cold as a tombstone.”

”I a.s.sure you that you are mistaken,” defended Keith. ”I know her, and I believe that she has far more depth than you give her credit for--”

”I give her credit for none,” said Miss Abigail, decisively. ”You men are all alike. You think a woman with a pretty face who does not talk much is deep, when she is only dull. On my word, I think it is almost worse to bring about such a scandal without cause than to give a real cause for it. In the latter case there is at least the time-worn excuse of woman's frailty.”

Keith laughed.

”They are all so stupid,” a.s.serted Miss Abigail, fiercely. ”They are giving up their privileges to be--what? I blushed for my s.e.x when I was there. They are beginning to mistake civility for servility. I found a plenty of old ladies tottering on the edge of the grave, like myself, and I found a number of ladies in the shops and in the churches; but in that set that you go with--! They all want to be 'women'; next thing they'll want to be like men. I sha'n't be surprised to see them come to wearing men's clothes and drinking whiskey and smoking tobacco--the little fools! As if they thought that a woman who has to curl her hair and spend a half-hour over her dress to look decent could ever be on a level with a man who can handle a trunk or drive a wagon or add up a column of figures, and can wash his face and hands and put on a clean collar and look like--a gentleman!”

”Oh, not so bad as that,” said Keith.

”Yes; there is no limit to their folly. I know them. I am one myself.”

”But you do not want to be a man?”

”No, not now. I am too old and dependent. But I'll let you into a secret. I am secretly envious of them. I'd like to be able to put them down under my heel and make them--squeal.”

Mrs. Nailor turned and spoke to the old lady. She was evidently about to take her leave. Keith moved over, and for the first time addressed Miss Huntington.

”I want you to show me about these grounds,” he said, speaking so that both ladies could hear him. He rose, and both walked out of the parlor.

When Mrs. Nailor came out, Keith and his guide were nowhere to be found, so she had to wait; but a half-hour afterwards he and Miss Huntington came back from the stables.

As they drove out of the grounds they pa.s.sed a good-looking young fellow just going in. Keith recognized Dr. Locaman.

”That is the young man who is so attentive to your young friend,” said Mrs. Nailor; ”Dr. Locaman. He saved her life and now is going to marry her.”

It gave Keith a pang.

”I know him. He did not save her life. If anybody did that, it was an old country doctor, Dr. Balsam.”

”That old man! I thought he was dead years ago.”

”Well, he is not. He is very much alive.”

A few evenings later Keith found Mrs. Lancaster in the hotel. He had just arrived from The Lawns when Mrs. Lancaster came down to dinner. Her greeting was perfect. Even Mrs. Nailor was mystified. She had never looked handsomer. Her black gown fitted perfectly her trim figure, and a single red rose, half-blown, caught in her bodice was her only ornament.

She possessed the gift of simplicity. She was a beautiful walker, and as she moved slowly down the long dining-room as smoothly as a piece of perfect machinery, every eye was upon her. She knew that she was being generally observed, and the color deepened in her cheeks and added the charm of freshness to her beauty.

”By Jove! what a stunning woman!” exclaimed a man at a table near by to his wife.

<script>