United States or Chad ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
After their early luncheon, Edna asked Bessie if she would go with her to see the Athertons. "Mamma indulges in a nap on Sunday afternoons," she explained, "and as I am not fond of my own company, I run in and have a chat with the girls." "If you would excuse me," returned Bessie, looking rather uncomfortable, "I would so much rather stay at home.
You are a free agent, Bessie; I cannot oblige you to go with me, but as the Athertons are all engaged, I could not get one of them in your place." "But if I say I cannot go, what will you do then?" asked Bessie anxiously. "In that case I should go alone," returned Edna coldly; "but I should think you were unkind to desert me."
Craven had no clear impression of the run back into Yokohama and he looked up with surprise when the men stopped. He stood outside the gate for a moment looking over the harbour. He stared at the place in the roadstead where the American yacht had been anchored. Only last night had he laughed and chatted with the Athertons? It was a lifetime ago! In one night his youth had gone from him.
Just as they were starting for the homeward walk they were joined by a cousin of the Athertons. Bessie had seen her the previous day. She was a fair, interesting-looking girl, dressed in deep mourning. Her name was Grace Donnerton. Richard seemed to know her well. He had evidently waited for her to overtake them, and they all walked on happily together. Bessie was much taken with her.
Many a girl has thought like Edna Sefton, and yet a royal princess could enter a squalid cottage, and take the starving babe to her bosom; and from that day to this Princess Alice has been a type of loving womanhood. Edna had not returned from the Athertons when Bessie entered the house, so she went alone to the evening service.
One evening, a year later, the Athertons sat talking over a letter from Halleck, which Atherton had brought from Boston with him: it was summer, and they were at their place on the Beverley shore. It was a long letter, and Atherton had read parts of it several times already, on his way down in the cars, and had since read it all to his wife.
"I was far too lazy to play tennis that afternoon, so Edna made me get into the hammock, and I had a nice, quiet time with my book, while she and the Athertons had their usual games, and bye and bye Grace Donnerton came and sat by me, and we had another nice talk. "The next morning Edna said she would ride with us, so Mr.
She was not much used to the typical girl of the period; after all, she was an old-fashioned little person. The Athertons were really nice girls, although they talked slang like their brothers, and conformed to all the foolish fashions of the day, disguising their honest, womanly hearts under blunt, flippant manners. "What a pity," said Bessie to herself, when she came to know them better.
They sat in the cool drawing-room a little while after luncheon, until the Athertons arrived with their rackets; and then they all went down to the tennis lawn. The Atherton's were nice-looking girls, and Bessie was rather taken with them, but she was somewhat surprised when they opened their lips.
She evidently did not take the same liberal view in the practical application of the matter expressed by her chief. I set it down to the ardor of youth in a new cause, which often becomes the saner conservatism of maturity. "Of course, you found it much easier than usual to get at the true family history of the Athertons," pursued Kennedy.
Word Of The Day