United States or Montenegro ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Most women of twenty-four have had some experience of love as a passion; they have known its fullness or its blight, or more often still, they have frittered it away in successive flirtations, but with Deena it had come as a revelation and been consecrated to one. To be sure, she had tried to crush and repress it, but it had persisted because of its inherent force.
He had not been prepared to find Deena installed as hostess, and her manner of greeting him and presiding at the lunch table was so assured, so different from the timid hospitality she was wont to offer under Simeon's roof, that her whole personality seemed changed. She more than ever satisfied his admiring affection, but she was so unlike the Mrs.
Deena recognized her place in her husband's estimation when she finished his letter to Stephen, and said, with pardonable sarcasm: "Simeon saves the strong meat of observation for masculine digestion, and I get only the hors-d'oeuvres; perhaps he has discriminated wisely."
The yacht was anchored about a mile from shore her graceful outlines clearly defined against the ocean's blue. If the purity of her white paint had suffered in the long voyage it was not apparent red and white awnings were stretched over the deck. All looked hospitably gay. Once more Deena shrank into herself, the brilliant scene mocked the tragedy within.
Presently he added: "I feel tired, Deena and a little oppressed. Perhaps you had better ring the bell but stay. Will you kiss me before you ring?" She kissed him with a pity that wrung her heart, and he sighed contentedly and shut his eyes. He only spoke once more, just as the doctor came to his bedside. "I should have been glad to see the old house before I die, but it is just as well as it is."
New York does not ask too many questions in these days about the husbands of handsome married women who appear as grass widows in its midst; indeed, the suspicion of a latent romance or scandal gives a flavor to the interest, and Deena suffered not a whit from the rumor that she was a deserted wife, with money. "Oh, yes, there is a husband," the great Mrs. Star admitted.
"Hardly in your right mind, I should think," he said, coldly. "Don't you like me in my new clothes?" she asked, twirling slowly round to give him the entire effect of her costume. He was apt to be irritable when disturbed at his work, and Deena had not attached much importance to his speech. "I think," he said, curtly, "you look like a woman on a poster, and not a reputable woman at that."
The idea was not quite agreeable to Simeon the old house was part of himself; he had been born there; his love for his mother overflowed into every rickety chair; but the common-sense commercial value of the scheme made him regard Deena with revived respect. "It is hardly practicable," he said.
"Oh, Deena!" she whispered, bending over the side of the automobile, "when I came to pay for your hat today, I found I hadn't enough money, and I knew you wouldn't like me to explain the circumstances to Ben, so I told them to send the bill to you and we will settle it later." "I'll settle it!" said Deena. She was a proud woman, and hated favors that savored of cash.
Search parties persevered for two weeks. Hope abandoned. Expedition homeward bound. There was no further excuse for concealment; indeed, it was French's plain duty to tell Deena what might be told by the newspapers if he delayed. It was just nine o'clock, and he walked rapidly to the Minthrops' and rang the bell.
Word Of The Day