Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 18, 2025
She hardly glanced at me before fastening sharp, suspicious eyes on Anita. "Mrs. Ball," said I, "this is Miss Ellersly." "Miss Ellersly!" she exclaimed, her face changing. And she advanced and took both Anita's hands. "Mr. Ball is so stupid," she went on, with that amusingly affected accent which is the "Sunday clothes" of speech. "I didn't catch the name, my dear," Joe stammered.
Old Ellersly, growing more and more nervous before my dark and sullen look, finally seated himself beside me. "I hope you'll stay after the others have gone," said he. "They'll leave early, and we can have a quiet smoke and talk." All unstrung though I was, I yet had the desperate courage to resolve that I'd not leave, defeated in the eyes of the one person whose opinion I really cared about.
Her face resumed its statuelike calm, her eyes did not wander; her lips, like a crimson bow painted upon her clear, white skin, remained closed. She spoke only when she was spoken to, and then as briefly as possible. The dinner and a mighty good dinner it was would have been memorable for strain and silence had not Mrs. Ellersly kept up her incessant chatter.
I even was better dressed than any of them, except possibly Mowbray Langdon; and, if he showed to more advantage than I, it was because of his manner, which, as I have probably said before, is superior to that of any human being I've ever seen man or woman. "You are to take Anita in," said Mrs. Ellersly.
"Anita, leave us alone with Mr. Blacklock," commanded her mother. The girl hesitated, bent her head, and with a cowed look went slowly toward the door. There she paused, and, with what seemed a great effort, lifted her head and gazed at me. How I ever came rightly to interpret her look I don't know, but I said: "Miss Ellersly, I've the right to insist that you stay."
But now a new factor had come into the game. I spread out the paper and stared at the head-lines: "Black Matt To Wed Society Belle The Bucket-Shop King Will Lead Anita Ellersly To The Altar." I tried to read the vulgar article under these vulgar lines, but I could not. I was sick, sick in body and in mind. My "nerve" was gone. I was no longer the free lance; I had responsibilities.
Langdon, tore it slightly, tried to get to the other side of Miss Ellersly by walking in front of her, recovered myself somehow, stumbled round behind her, walked on her train and finally arrived at her left side, conscious in every red-hot atom of me that I was making a spectacle of myself and that the whole company was enjoying it.
They would not have so crudely exploited my unconventional marriage and my financial relations with old Ellersly. But they dared not go near the battle-field; they had to trust to agents whom their orders and suggestions reached by the most roundabout ways; and they were busier with their enterprises that involved immediate and great gain or loss of money.
She looked beautiful that evening, in spite of her too great breadth for her height her stoutness was not altogether a defect when she was wearing evening dress. While she seemed friendly and smiling to Miss Ellersly, I saw, whether others saw it or not, that she quivered with apprehension at his mildly flirtatious ways.
This in his best exhibit of old-fashioned courtliness the "gentleman" through and through, ignorant of anything useful. "Don't let that matter worry you, Ellersly," said I, friendly, for I wanted to be on a somewhat less business-like basis with that family. "The market's steady, and will go up before it goes down." "Good!" said he. "By the way, you haven't kept your promise to call."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking