United States or Switzerland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And there had been no doubt of her interest in Dalton before her aunt had gone away. Randy, coming often now to Huntersfield, had his heart torn for his beloved. No one except himself knew what had happened, and the knowledge stirred him profoundly. He held that burning torches and a stake were none too good for Dalton.
"By Jove," he said, "now that I come to think of it, I am the head of a family there's Fiddle-dee-dee, and I shall have to reckon with Fiddle-dee-dee's children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will expect that my portrait will hang on the wall at Huntersfield."
It came up over her head, and she looked very slight and childish. George, surveying the room, said, "This is some contrast to Huntersfield." "Yes." "Do you like it?" "Oh, yes. I have spent months here, you know, and Sally, who whistles out there in the yard, is an old friend of mine. I played with her as a child."
He did the things he had always done, hunted up the friends he had always known. He spent weekends at various country places, and came always back to town with an undiminished sense of his need of Becky, and his need of revenge on Randy. He had heard before he left Virginia that Becky was at Nantucket. He had found some consolation in the fact that she was not at Huntersfield.
Becky was not well. Aunt Claudia, perceiving her listlessness, decided that she needed a change. Letters were written to the Nantucket grandfather, and plans made for Becky's departure. She was to spend a month on the island, come back to Boston to the Admiral's big old house on the water-side of Beacon Street, and return to Huntersfield for Christmas.
Flora, lying inert and bloodless, opened her eyes. "Say it again," she whispered. "Say it again." Randy rode straight from Hamilton Hill to Huntersfield. He found Becky in the Bird Room. She had her head tied up in a white cloth, and a big white apron enveloped her. She was as white as the whiteness in which she was clad, and there were purple shadows under her eyes.
She's a great dear. She hates to have me leave the school. She has the feeling that the world is a dark forest, and that I am Red Riding Hood, and that the Wolf will get me." Dalton found them all at dinner when he reached Huntersfield. He was not in the least prepared for the scene which met his eyes shining mahogany, old silver and Sheffield, tall white candles, Calvin in a snowy jacket, Mrs.
The old man looked up at her. "It is hardest for you, my dear. And I have helped to make it hard." He reached out his hand to her. She took it. "He is my son and I love him " "And I love you, Claudia." "May I get the blue room ready?" The blue room was the bridal chamber at Huntersfield; kept rather sacredly at other times for formal purposes. "Do as you please. The house is yours, my dear."
That was the time when she had come down for Hallowe'en, and it was on Sunday evening that they had talked it over in the Bird Room at Huntersfield. There had been a smouldering fire on the wide hearth, and the Trumpeter Swan had stared down at them with shining eyes. They had been to church that morning and the text had been, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."
There was a white lace wrap with puffs of pink taffeta and knots of silver ribbon which went with the gown. Becky with a sudden impulse put it on. She stripped the cap from her head, and wound her bronze locks in a high knot. She surveyed herself. Well, she was Becky Bannister of Huntersfield and the mirror showed her beauty. And Dalton had not known or cared.
Word Of The Day