United States or Lebanon ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Don't you feel kind of givey- givey at the knees with all those pretty girls loving us in advance?" "Oh, that's what I like!" said Quintan. "I never got a glance when I used to sport a silk hat. Besides, here we are at the old stand!" Raymond regarded him with blank surprise as they turned aside and up the steps of one of the houses.
Howard Quintan fell ill with fever and was early invalided home; but Raymond stayed to the finish, an obscure spectator, often an obscure actor, in that world-drama of fleets and armies. Tried in the fire, his character underwent some noted changes.
"My aunt's rather an unusual woman," said Quintan. "She has voluntarily played second fiddle all her life; and, between you and me, you know, my mother's a bit of a tyrant, and not always easy to get along with so it wasn't so simple a game as it looks." Raymond was shocked at this way of putting the matter. "You mean she sacrificed the best years of her life for you," he said stiffly.
It is your fault for being so kind and good." He was ecstatic when he left the house with Quintan. "I didn't know there were such women in the world," he said. "So noble, so winning and high-bred. It makes you understand history to meet people like that. Mary Queen of Scots, Marie Antoinette and all those, you know they must have been like that. I I could understand a man dying for Miss Latimer!"
"Women are like that good women," said Quintan. "Catch a man being such a fool looking at it generally, you know me apart. She had a tidy little fortune from her father, and might have had a yard of her own to play in, but our little baby hands held her tight." Raymond regarded his companion's hands.
"I consider your aunt one of the most beautiful women in the world," protested Raymond. "But you can't put back the clock, old fellow," said Quintan. "What has the world to offer to an old maid of forty-two?
"Gone to Europe," said the old woman. "But Miss Latimer?" he persisted. "Gone to Europe," said the old woman. "Mr. Howard Quintan?" "Gone to Europe!" He walked slowly down the steps, not even waiting to ask for their address abroad nor when they might be expected to return. They had faded into the immeasurable distance.
"And, as I said before, it's now too late," said Quintan. "Too late for what?" demanded Raymond, who was deeply interested. "For her to take up with anybody else," said Quintan. "To marry, you know. She sacrificed all her opportunities for us; and now, in the inevitable course of things, we are kind of abandoning her when she is old and faded and lonely."
He trembled as he was led into the drawing-room, where another gracious and overpowering creature rose to receive them. "My aunt, Miss Christine Latimer," said Howard. She was younger than Mrs. Quintan; a tall, fair woman of middle age, with a fine figure, hair streaked with grey, and the remains of what had once been extreme beauty.
Amongst Raymond's comrades on the Dixie was a youngster of twenty- one, named Howard Quintan. Something attracted him in the boy, and he went out of his way to make things smooth for him aboard. The liking was no less cordially returned, and the two became fast friends. One day, when they were both given liberty together, Howard insisted on taking him to his own home.
Word Of The Day