United States or Austria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was only a half mile to the Willows and as they turned in, Kent took Lydia's hand and drew it through his arm. "Look," he said, "I believe there is even a little left of our cave, after all this time. What a rough little devil I was in those days. And yet, even then, Lyd, I believe I had an idea of trying to take care of you." "You were not a rough little devil!" exclaimed Lydia, indignantly.
"Oh, Madeleine, that's not a bit the way. It's so!" The first speaker protested, "Well, I guess I ought to be able to do it. I've practiced for hours in front of the glass doing it." "For mercy's sake that's nothing. So have I. Who hasn't?" Madeleine referred the question to Lydia, "Lyd has seen her later than anybody. She saw her in London.
"Lyd was talking about him to-day, and the way he acted, carrying you off for a walk, or something," Sally pursued cheerfully. "And until she happened to say that his wife is living, I declare I was frightened to death for fear he was in love with you, Mart!" Martie stared at her in simple bewilderment.
But it was more FUN! And in the evenings they walked around Pittsville, and went to the ten-cent theatre, or bought candy and divided it. COULDN'T Martie come some time to dinner? "Pa," said Martie simply. Sally's bright face clouded. She sent a kiss to Ma and darling Lyd. She and Joe would come back to Monroe in September, and then she would come see Pa and make him forgive her.
"A few ready thousands would be the making of the Estates, now," said Martie, "but naturally the town need know nothing of that!" Malcolm shrugged a careless assent, and silently finished his pie. "Your sister Lydia " he began suddenly, shaking his head. "Yes, Lyd will object," Martie assented, as his voice stopped. "Lyd is a conservative, Pa.
"Then Dave Marshall is the best fellow in our community, I suppose," said Lydia. "Oh, Gee, Lyd! After all, he's Margery's father!" Lydia looked at Kent thoughtfully. Since the day under the willows, he had not made love to her, yet she had the feeling that Kent was devoted to her and she wondered sometimes why he liked to spend as much time with Margery as with herself.
"A New England conscience must be something awful to own, eh, Lyd?" Lydia chuckled. "It's pretty bad," she admitted, then she went on soberly, "but I won't take those Indian lands." "You can give them to me," reiterated Kent, cheerfully. "She'll keep them," said Amos, shortly, "or Lydia and I'll have our first real row." "Well, save up the fight till the estate's settled," said Kent, soothingly.
Martie knew its every expression as well as she knew the brown-and-white china, and the blue glass spoon holder, and the napkin-ring with "Souvenir of Santa Cruz" on it. She could not help wondering what they would make of the new house when they got into it, and how the clumsy, shabby old furniture would look. "Pa and Lyd," she said suddenly in a silence.
"That fascinating one with the rose, where she's holding her head sideways and " Oh, yes, they had that one, their exclamation cut her short, relieved that their collections were complete. "Lyd met a woman on the steamer coming back whose sister-in-law has the same hairdresser," Madeleine went on. They were electrified. "Oh, honestly? Is it her own?"
"Kent!" she cried with the breathlessness of a new idea, "if I should give in and agree to take the land, would you go up there with me and turn it into a farm?" Kent smiled at her pityingly. "Why, Lyd, there's nothing in that! Why should we try to farm it? The money is in speculating with it. I could clear up a mint of money for you in a couple of years, if you'll give me the handling of it."
Word Of The Day