The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Readjustment, by Will Irwin

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Title: The Readjustment

Author: Will Irwin

Release Date: March 29, 2009 [EBook #28443]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE

READJUSTMENT

BY

WILL IRWIN

AUTHOR OF "THE CITY THAT WAS," ETC.

NEW YORK

B. W. HUEBSCH

1910

Copyright, 1910, by

B. W. HUEBSCH

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

THE READJUSTMENT

CHAPTER I

After luncheon they walked over from the ranch-house--more indeed a
country villa, what with its ceiled redwood walls, its prints, its
library, than the working house of a practical farm--and down the
dusty, sun-beaten lane to the apricot orchard. Picking was on full
blast, against the all too fast ripening of that early summer.

Judge Tiffany, pattern of a vigorous age, seemed to lean a little upon
his wife as she walked beside him, her arm tucked confidently into
his; but it was a leaning of the spirit rather than of the flesh. She,
younger than he by fifteen years, was a tiny woman, her hair white but
her waist still slim. She seemed to tinkle and twinkle. Her slight
hands,--the nail of the little finger was like a grain of
popcorn--moved with swift, accurate bird-motions. As she chattered of
the ranch and the picking, her voice, still sweet and controlled,
came from her lips like the pleasant music of a tea bell. He was
mainly silent; although he threw in a quiet, controlled answer here
and there. One could read, in the shadowy solicitude with which she
regarded him now and then, the relation between that welded old
couple--she the entertainer, the hoarder of trivial detail from her
days; he the fond, indulgent listener.

"I think Eleanor must be back from the city," Mrs. Tiffany was saying,
"I notice smoke from the big chimney; and I suppose she'll be over
before noon with the sulphur samples. It's amusing and homey in
her--her habit of flying to her own little nest before she comes to
us. She'll inspect the house, have dinner ordered, and know