FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   >>   >|  
ng picture theater. To her they meant something a step above the corner saloon, and a degree below the burlesque houses. They were constituted of bad air and unchaperoned young women accompanied by youths who dangled cigarettes from a lower lip, all obviously of the lower class, including the cigarette; and of other women, sometimes drab, dragged of breast and carrying children who should have been in bed hours before; or still others, wandering in pairs, young, painted and predatory. She was not imaginative, or she could not have lived so long in Anthony Cardew's house. She never saw, in the long line waiting outside even the meanest of the little theaters that had invaded the once sacred vicinity of the Cardew house, the cry of every human heart for escape from the sordid, the lure of romance, the call of adventure and the open road. "I can't believe it," she added. Lily made a little gesture of half-amused despair. "Dearest," she said, "I did. And I liked it. Mother, things have changed a lot in twenty years. Sometimes I think that here, in this house, you don't realize that--" she struggled for a phrase--"that things have changed," she ended, lamely. "The social order, and that sort of thing. You know. Caste." She hesitated. She was young and inarticulate, and when she saw Grace's face, somewhat frightened. But she was not old Anthony's granddaughter for nothing. "This idea of being a Cardew," she went on, "that's ridiculous, you know. I'm only half Cardew, anyhow. The rest is you, dear, and it's got being a Cardew beaten by quite a lot." Mademoiselle was deftly opening the girl's dressing case, but she paused now and turned. It was to Grace that she spoke, however. "They come home like that, all of them," she said. "In France also. But in time they see the wisdom of the old order, and return. It is one of the fruits of war." Grace hardly heard her. "Lily," she asked, "you are not in love with this Cameron person, are you?" But Lily's easy laugh reassured her. "No, indeed," she said. "I am not. I shall probably marry beneath me, as you would call it, but not William Wallace Cameron. For one thing, he wouldn't have grandfather in his family." Some time later Mademoiselle tapped at Grace's door, and entered. Grace was reclining on a chaise longue, towels tucked about her neck and over her pillows, while Castle, her elderly English maid, was applying ice in a soft cloth to her face. Grace sat up.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Cardew

 
Anthony
 

Cameron

 

Mademoiselle

 

things

 

changed

 
deftly
 

opening

 

chaise

 

towels


beaten

 

longue

 

turned

 
paused
 
entered
 

dressing

 

reclining

 

tucked

 

Castle

 

elderly


granddaughter
 

frightened

 
English
 

pillows

 
ridiculous
 
person
 

Wallace

 

William

 

grandfather

 
wouldn

beneath
 
reassured
 
France
 
tapped
 

wisdom

 

applying

 

family

 

return

 

fruits

 
carrying

breast

 

children

 

dragged

 
including
 

cigarette

 

imaginative

 

predatory

 
painted
 

wandering

 

corner