Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 4, 2025
Everything fine and great in his thoughts and aims seemed tarnished. To what stage of degradation would his utter disillusion finally bring him! Of course, when Cecilia Cricklander should once be his wife, he would not permit her to lead this life of continuous racket or, if she insisted upon it, she should indulge in it only when she went abroad alone. He would not endure it in his home.
She had felt she wanted Vincent Cricklander because he belonged to one of the old families in New York and played polo well, and, being a great heiress though of no pretensions to birth, she wished to have an undisputed entry into the inner circle of her own country.
His memory had jumped the brief glimpse of her during her fledgling period, and had gone back with distinct vividness to the summer morning in the tree, almost seven years ago. He answered with a carelessness which was not altogether pleasing to Cecilia Cricklander. She saw instantly that her favorite guest was ruffled by something.
Yes, he could hope to come up with the wanderers perhaps not later than the day after tomorrow. But when Arabella entered her employer's sitting-room after wishing him good-by, she found Mrs. Cricklander in violent hysterics, and she had to have the doctor and a sleeping draught before she could be calmed.
Cricklander donned her most suitably ravishing tea-gown, one of subdued simplicity and, like a beautiful summer flower, she swept into the invalid's room when the lowered sun blinds made the light restful and the June roses filled the air with scent. It was the end of the month and glorious weather was over the land. Nothing could have been more exquisite than Cecilia's sympathy.
He was too ill yet to be troubled, and she must wait until he should send some message to her. "You do not want Mrs. Cricklander to read your letter, child," he said, when she timidly suggested one day that it would seem kinder if she wrote to say she was concerned at the accident to her old friend. The sad comedy was still kept up between them. And Halcyone had stiffened. No, indeed! not that!
Cricklander and treating her with an enchanting ease and friendliness which was completely disconcerting. She had no casus belli; she could not find fault with his manner or his words, and yet she was left with the blank conviction that her hopes in regard to him were over. She despised men in her heart because, as a rule, she was able to calculate with certainty every move in her games with them.
And it was not until after the party of four had started next morning that Miss Clinker suddenly thought, with a start: "She may have been alluding to quite the other Cheiron the Centaur and in that case I have given her some wrong lights!" Cora was being more than exasperating, Mrs. Cricklander thought, as they went through the park.
"He thinks you are madly in love with him, darling," he said, knowing this would sting, "and will stand any of his airs. Let him see you are not. Give him the snub he deserves for deserting you, and fling his dismissal in his face." Cecilia Cricklander reddened and thrilled, too. Here, at all events, was warmth. But she was not won yet. So she looked down, as if too full of emotion to speak.
Cricklander rhapsodized over them, mixing them up with delightful unconcern. They were all just bits of cheap-looking crockery to her eye, and it was impossibly difficult to distinguish which was Luca's, Andrea's, or Giovanni's; and, security having made her careless, she committed several blunders. John Derringham laid no pitfalls for her indeed, he helped her out when he could.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking