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Rose had been a dear little playmate when she had lived with her Aunt Judith in a little cottage, near Sherwood Hall. Now that she had gone to live with her Great-Aunt Rose, for whom she had been named, and some miles distant, her little friends remembered her, and wished that she were with them. Now, as Polly read the letter, it seemed as if little Rose Atherton were talking to them.
I'm going to ask you to let my friend Miss Strong stay with you; and she must pay her board; and you must let me lend you all the money you need. And, dear," Clara dropped her voice to a lower and gentler note, "you mustn't try to keep this from your friends. You must let Mr. Atherton write to your father; you must let me tell the Hallecks: they'll be hurt if you don't.
"This evening, just now. Didn't I say that?" "No," said Atherton; and he added to Halleck, gently: "I beg your pardon. Did you notice the dates?" "Yes," answered Halleck, with cold refusal of Atherton's tone of reparation. "The cause is set for hearing on the 11th," said Atherton. "This is the 8th. The time is very short." "It's long enough," said Halleck, wearily. "Oh, telegraph!" cried Clara.
"I get reams from him to that effect nearly every mail with detailed descriptions of all the eligible debutantes whom he thinks suitable. I often wonder whether he runs the estate on the same lines and keeps a matrimonial agency for the tenants." Atherton laughed with him but persisted. "If your own countrywomen don't appeal to you, take a run out to the States and see what we can do for you."
Well, if, at the end of the ten days, when you unlace me, I smile up at you in the same way, will you give a sack of Bull Durham and a package of brown papers to Morrell and Oppenheimer?" "Ain't they the crazy ginks, these college guys," Captain Jamie snorted. Warden Atherton was a choleric man, and he took my request for insulting braggadocio.
Her heart sank; she ceased to move the fan which she had been slowly waving back and forth before her face. "I was going to set about it this morning, but Mrs. Hubbard's visit " "Mrs. Hubbard!" cried Clara, and a little air of pique qualified her despair. "Yes; she is in trouble, the greatest: her husband has deserted her." "Oh, Mr. Atherton!"
"You need not carry economy too far," he said; "it is very good of you to take so great an interest in me, Marion, but you must not go to these extremes. You had five hundred pounds yesterday; go and get some pretty, elegant dresses suitable for Lady Atherton." She could not tell him that she had sent that all away, and had not a shilling left.
He abruptly turned away from Atherton and swung himself on his cane toward the door. Atherton took up his hat and coat. "I'll walk home with you," he said. "All right," returned Halleck, listlessly. "How soon shall you go?" asked the lawyer, when they were in the street. "Oh, there's a ship sailing from New York next week," said Halleck, in the same tone of weary indifference.
From hints he dropped I conclude that, probably during the last few hours, he has had an interview with someone who was connected in some way with that lurid patch in my career; that this person made so-called revelations, which were nothing but a series of monstrous lies; and these so-called revelations Mr Atherton has threatened, in so many words, to place before Miss Lindon, That is an eventuality which I wish to avoid.
Her gown was one that her great grand aunt had once worn, and it was most becoming. Uncle John Atherton had especially asked her to go to the party with Rose and himself. Her yellow hair was braided in two long braids and crowned with a muslin cap. Her frock was blue, with white blossoms upon it, and from its belt hung a steel bead bag that held her handkerchief. Gwen was not invited.
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