United States or Lesotho ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
She knew he would be different. Perhaps he might show, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he was not identified with commonness.... He might bring the talk to the point of Beth thrilled at this. She was far from ready, and yet with him before her, Wordling and the sea were remote and soundless. "Could you get the good mare you ride across to Jersey?" "Yes," he said eagerly.
"He's too splendid, and yet she's the sort that twirls men. She knows he has interested all of us, and doubtless wants to show her strength. Possibly he hasn't thought twice about it. That's what Vina says. And then Mrs. Wordling was one of those first asked to meet him. I wish David Cairns hadn't done that " "David's idea was all right," Beth said slowly.
Wordling, the actress, and the other two women were Vina Nettleton, who made gods out of clay and worshipped Rodin, and Marguerite Grey, tall and lovely in a tragic, flower-like way, who painted, and played the 'cello. "Meeting Bedient this time has been an experience to me," Cairns said, toward the end of dinner. "I called together the very finest people I knew, because of that.
Beth often wished she did not discern so critically.... Just now she divined that her caller wanted to discuss Cairns' friend. The result was that Mrs. Wordling left after a half-hour, with Bedient heavier and more undeveloped than ever in her consciousness. Always a considerable social factor in her theatrical companies, Mrs. Wordling was challenged by the people of the Smilax Club.
Wordling encountered a perfectly unembarrassed young man, and a calm depth of eye that seemed to have come and gone from her world, and taken away nothing to remember that was wildly exciting.... At least three women of her acquaintance were raving about Andrew Bedient, two artists with a madness for sub-surface matters having to do with men. Mrs.
She found in his few brief questions that old fidelity to truth that had been one of his first charms. This helped to unsteady her. Was she not wrong to judge this man by the standards the world had made her accept for others?... The day came back. Why had Wordling been so far from her mind out there in the sunlight?
"Yes, I was a member of the original company, when David Cairns' Sailor-Friend was produced.... How different you seem from that night!" she added confidentially. "How is it you make people believe you so? You have been a great puzzle to me to us. "So long as I don't fall from that, it is enough," Bedient answered. "But why do you say I make people believe ?" Mrs. Wordling considered.
All had read, when Bedient entered. He went first to Beth.... "It's our own original gathering," he said, after a moment, " but Mrs. Wordling where is she?" Cairns' eye turned to Beth. She fixed hers upon him, as if it helped to hold her strength. Kate Wilkes answered: "We can find out in a moment in the West somewhere with her company " "She's in Detroit this week," came slowly from Beth.
"I should have consulted someone " "Not at all, David. It was eminently right. I am not criticising, just interested." "I've been revoluting inside. Mrs. Wordling happened three days ago, when I was first thinking out the party. I didn't know we were to get into real things. 'Ah, here's a ripe rounding influence, said I. 'Do come, Mrs. Wordling. Maybe I did figure out the contrast she furnished.
She could not evade his eyes, his question, if she refused now.... He must not see that she was whipped.... But she would not see him after that. He could not come back to her from the Wordling arms. She would not see him to-morrow. But the picture She had turned from the easel to her desk, and was fumbling with papers there, her back turned to him.
Word Of The Day