United States or Maldives ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Grahams had not returned, though daily expected; and, notwithstanding two months had elapsed without Eugene's writing, she looked forward with intense pleasure to his expected arrival. There was one source of constant pain for her in Dr. Hartwell's continued and complete estrangement.
Billy, you can't turn away! you can't find it in your heart to turn away from that dear, good man who loves you so!" Mrs. Hartwell's voice shook effectively, and even her eyes looked through tears. Mentally she was congratulating herself: she had not supposed she could make so touching an appeal. In the chair opposite the girl sat very still.
At the next speed they went forward a little faster, to be sure. Yet there was a decided lack of speed or a pull-back somewhere. "Don't lose your nerve, Gridley!" floated Hartwell's voice over the water as the Preston canoe shot by at a wind-jamming speed. "Want a tow, Gridley?" hailed someone from shore. "Next speed, fellows! Hit it up hard," called Dick Prescott.
But I have always believed she was chiefly influenced by a desire to escape from the strict discipline to which her father subjected her at home. Her mother was anything but a model of propriety; and her mother's sister, who was Dr. Hartwell's wife, was not more exemplary.
Three years passed swiftly, unmarked by any incidents of interest, and one dreary night in December Beulah sat in Dr. Hartwell's study, wondering what detained him so much, later than usual. The lamp stood on the tea-table, and the urn awaited the master's return.
Hartwell's lips, and, smoothing the bands of rippling hair which lay on her white brow, he answered in his own thrilling, musical accents: "Child, you are wasting your energies in vain endeavors to build up walls of foam that " "Sir, I am no longer a child! I am a woman, and "
She felt inexpressibly relieved when, hurried on by the crowd in the rear, they emerged from the heated room into a long, dim passage leading to the street. They were surrounded on all sides by chattering groups, and, while the light was too faint to distinguish faces, these words fell on her ear with painful distinctness: "I suppose that was Dr. Hartwell's protegee he had with him.
What do you say?" She wheeled a light table toward the hearth; but the invalid motioned it away, and answered moodily: "I am in no humor for games. Sit down and tell me about your leaving Dr. Hartwell's protection." "I have nothing to tell." "He is a singular being?" Receiving no answer, she added impatiently: "Don't you think so?" "I do, in the sense of great superiority."
"Every soul is the star of its own destiny," answered Beulah. "Well, very sorry destinies the majority make, I can tell you. Have you seen Mrs. Lockhart and Pauline?" "No. I was not aware that they were in the city." "Lockhart's health is miserable. They are all at Hartwell's for a few weeks, I believe. Pauline has grown up a perfect Di Vernon beauty." "I should like very much to see her.
Hartwell's visit and what had come of it, he only gave a discreet smile, as befitted himself and the occasion; but to his wife privately, that night, the doctor said, when he had finished telling the story: "And I couldn't have prescribed a better pill if I'd tried!" "Pill Mrs. Hartwell! Oh, Harold," reproved the doctor's wife, mildly.
Word Of The Day