FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63  
64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   >>   >|  
oy; and they have made money, and Oscar has a nice plantation near them, and is married to a sweet little Southern girl, and his mother adores the baby; and Ned goes to college, and Mr. Marsh is a prosperous builder, high in the Scottish Rite, and growing used to his dress coat--" "But," said the hostess, "you are having them all south; they went to Dakota." "Why, so they did! I forgot," cried the Southerner. "Maybe it was a mistake; and anyhow, they would have done better to go south!" Everybody laughed and Mrs. Curtis' fine eyes lit up. "I perceive you are a psychic, Mrs. Atherton," she said gaily. "And they _did_ go south. Being a psychic, can't you tell me something? Why didn't Nannie answer my letters?" The Southerner dropped her chin and looked upward in the pose of a seer; no one noticed Mrs. Clymer's sudden movement or the ripple of quick emotion in Mrs. Curtis' face. "That's easy," she responded. "I see a slim girl with dark hair walking with another girl who answers to the name of Elsa. The dark-haired girl gives her a letter, stamped, but not addressed. She has sent a letter to her friend, which has not reached her. Letters sometimes do not reach people who are hurrying through Egypt or--or other places. This letter she gives to Elsa, who is to marry the cousin of an acquaintance of the friend. She is to post it--_voila tout!_" "She _was_ engaged to Bertha Miller's cousin; and she did try awfully hard to be intimate with Constance," whispered Mrs. Clymer in the hostess' ear; while everybody laughed again. "He drinks like a fish," returned the hostess irrelevantly. "Oh, Mrs. Atherton, don't stop, tell us more," begged the youngest member. "I feel so interested in Nannie. Has she any children?" The youngest member had just acquired the most remarkable baby in the world. "I reckon," jested the Southerner, "two or three. Two boys, let us say--" "How nice!" cried Mrs. Curtis, coloring prettily. "_I_ have two boys." "And--I think a little girl, whom she has named Constance, Constance Ridgely--Are we going, Mrs. Clymer?" Mrs. Clymer laid a kindly hand on her shoulder, saying, "Yes, my dear, I must go; but as I am stopping on my way, I shall walk; and Constance will take care of you." "Thank you, Aunt Kate," said Mrs. Curtis, so low the others--except the Southerner--did not hear. They were alone in the carriage before she made any sign of that which had stirred her profoundly. Then she tur
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63  
64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Curtis

 
Clymer
 

Constance

 
Southerner
 

hostess

 

letter

 

laughed

 

Atherton

 

friend

 

cousin


youngest

 

Nannie

 
member
 

psychic

 

returned

 

irrelevantly

 
begged
 

carriage

 
interested
 

drinks


Miller
 

Bertha

 

engaged

 

intimate

 

whispered

 

profoundly

 

stirred

 

coloring

 

prettily

 

stopping


Ridgely

 

kindly

 

shoulder

 
remarkable
 
reckon
 

acquired

 

jested

 
children
 

answers

 

mistake


forgot

 

Dakota

 

perceive

 

Everybody

 

Southern

 
mother
 

adores

 
married
 

plantation

 

Scottish