United States or Mayotte ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
While she was dancing with Arnault, Graydon, with Madge, appeared upon the floor. She was almost reckless in her efforts to secure his attention. In this endeavor she did not fail, but she failed signally in winning any recognition, and the ill-concealed importunity of her eyes hastened Graydon's departure with Madge, and gave time for the long interview described in the previous chapter.
Mary had accompanied her to her room, and was asked, in a careless tone, what had become of Miss Wildmere. "I was told incidentally the other day that she was as great a belle as ever. I had hoped that she would be out of Graydon's way before this time. I have heard, however, that great belles are often slower in marrying than the homeliest girls.
After all, the time that intervened between Monday and Friday afternoon was spent in waiting, and even the hours toward the last were counted. The expression in Graydon's dark blue eyes was always the same when he greeted her, and recalled the line: "Kinder than Love is my true friend." On Saturdays they took long tramps, seeking objective points far beyond the range of ordinary ramblers.
If she could believe herself first in Graydon's thoughts she would not be cast down, but now the truth was overwhelming. She leaned away from him in the corner of the carriage, but he put his strong arm round her and drew her to his breast. She tried to resist, but was powerless.
It grew out of the dread that he might, after all, deny her the place that no one else in the world could give. Graydon's cold face was suddenly illumined; the incomprehensible sweetness of pain rushed through his blood. He had given up his hope as blighted after the harsh hour with Droom; he could not believe his newfound success.
It is even more strange that the covering letter should refer to Graydon's sufferings and hardships and the danger to his person, without apparently realising that Borrow HAD ACTUALLY suffered what the Committee feared that Graydon MIGHT suffer. There is no doubt that Borrow's impulsive letters had greatly offended everybody at Earl Street, where Lieut.
This statement was true enough to both ladies, although a very prosaic impression was conveyed to Mrs. Muir's mind. To Madge, Graydon's absence contained a strong element of hope. He would not have gone away if all had been settled between him and Miss Wildmere, and, as Mary had said, there appeared stronger evidence of uncertainty now than at first.
All day long, the letter hung like a cloud over young Mr. Rigby. He was to have lunched with Graydon, and was much relieved when young Bansemer telephoned that he could not join him. Rigby found himself in a very uncomfortable position. If the stories from New York were true, even though he knew none of the inside facts, Graydon's father was pretty much of a scalawag, to say the least.
The anxious mother was eager to return to her fretting child, and her daughter was much inclined to resent Graydon's prolonged absence. "If it were politic, and I had other acquaintances, I would punish him," she thought. It was a new experience for her to sit in a corner of the parlor, apparently neglected, while others were dancing.
"Your heart?" satirically. She made no answer. "You are taking no slight risk," he resumed, after a moment. "Either Arnault is misleading you, or Graydon is deceiving me, and I would believe him in preference to Arnault any day. I won't be duped." "But I tell you, Stella, that under the circumstances Graydon's ignorance is not at all strange.
Word Of The Day