The Flirt

ffering a momentary disappointment, she went on, stepping silently, and passed through a door at the end of the hall into a large and barren looking dining-room, stiffly and skimpily furnished, but

nd other loathsome chalks. As Cora entered from the hall, a woman of fifty came in at a door opposite, and, a dust-cloth retained under her left arm, an unsheathed weapon ready for emergency, leaned sociably against the door-casing and continued to polish a tablespoon with a bit of powdered chamois-skin. She w

he addressed the dau

nse bitterness. He called it "Cora-lee," with an implication far from subtle that his sister had at some time thus Gallicized herse

it was Laura who we

o not ask Cora because

sfy you,

library shutters when he came up the front walk, and she wouldn't let me go to the door; she

ang around the neighbours' stables. I think

ndley sent her this morning. Laid it in the waste-basket and sneake

" said Mrs. M

am such a little sweety! Here I am all alone just reeking with Browning-and-Tennyson and thinking to myself about such lovely things, and walking around looking for my nice, pretty rose. Where can it be? Oh heavens, Mister, are you here? Oh my, I never, never thought that there was a man here! How you frighten m

e sex-war of the ages: Cora jumped lightly upon the table and sat whistling and polishing the nails of one hand upon the palm of another; Laur

rather queer,

men must expect these things, and this wa

s to sell the house,

her get out of it!" Cora exclaimed. "I hope Mr

nt to live h

mitted a der

look, in which there was a real

eign and dis

a leap as of some wild animal under a la

said Cora, her enthusiasm und

aned Hedrick.

ved him automatically. "In wh

dreamily upon the goaded boy. "He has a sp

rick whisper

ering in her brother's eyes; and observing it with quiet pleasure, s

l air! Oh, blah! `Henry Esmond!' Been readin' `Henry Esmond!' Oh, you be-yoo-tiful Cora-Beatrix-a-lee! Magganifisent torso! Gull_o_-rious

oughtfully. "Yes-about thirty. A strong, keen fa

!' Ain't his hair slightly silvered at the temples?" he cried imploringly. "Oh, sister, in pity's name let h

d his face upon his ext

es," said Cora. "They seem

slush," came in muffle

differently! You feel at once that

, his features contorted as wit

ush, luv-a

immin' in a dolla

morning, sl

y slush I'm boun

" said hi

ra went on tranquilly. "Valentine Corliss of Corliss Street-I think I rather like the sound

to resume its ordinary proportions, and spoke ano

Vil

. Cora sprang down from the

tion, added gently, i

d Dick L

as visibly agitated, and appealed hotly to her mother. "Am I to bear this

ick!" said Mrs

irl by the window wi

he said, an

ed up into her sis

flushing a little and glancin

the terrible boy. He sat where he was, asprawl, propped by his arms behind him, watching with acute concentration the injured departure o

rs, and so they sang-and from out among the chords there stole an errant melody. This was not "piano-playing" and not a pianist's triumphant nimbleness-it was music. Art is the language of a heart that knows how to speak, and a heart that knew how wa

d Hedrick, turning his head at l

higher in the middle, his body slowly forming first a round and then a pointed arch, with forehead, knees, and elbows touching the floor. A brilliantly executed manoeu

gesture in the direction of the m

turbed; she gave her son a look a

play for her. Laura's playing always soothes her when she feels out of

Vilas, you mea

eren't

her! You know why she's go

ed evasively. "Besides, it is very hot, and Cora isn't

rted after this Corliss man just like she did for Vila

off. They seem to get everything they want, just by asking: nice clothes and jewellery-and automobiles. That seems to make a great d

r doing any particular struggling." He waved h

e seashore or somewhere having a gay summer. You don't realize, but it's mortifying to have to be the only one to stay at home, with everybody knowing it's because your father can't afford to send her. And this house is so ho

red the boy. "Gilt c

hinks about. It's all

get a string o' fell

s Corliss just exactl

Vi

dri

't you know she's tryin' to make this Corliss

, n

n't that exactly what she did the first time he ever came here

little confusedly, from the glaring boy and fumbled among the silver on

k to the door. Then she pretended it had been a joke, and he was so far gone by that tim

hey're all dead except this one. His mother was a widow; she went abroad to live and too

to live in

t to him when she died, two years a

s Corliss want

he's owned it. That's why we mo

he r

other reason that could bring him back here. He's already mortgaged it pretty heavily, your father told me. I don't--" Mrs. Madison pau

ather won't ask him," he said. "But I'l

he certainty which justified so large a venture. "Oh, I hope not," she said. "Sarah's th

eat; and Laura and you'll have to stand over the stove with Sarah; and father'll have to change his shirt; and we'll all have to toil and moil and sweat

dri

e of the work: she'll strain her poor back carryin' Dick Lindley's flowers down the back stairs and stic

n the seer's mother. "Oh, no!" she exclaimed, protestingly. "W

'll

it, but if she does I'll tell her

o be my daughter," he said, the sinister implic

ively closed the int

lks, with an anxiety possibly not unwarranted, beneath the sideboard; and made his way toward the front door, first glancing, unseen, into the kitchen where his mother still pursued the silver.

lessly about the sun-flooded, unkempt lawn, fanning himself, and now and then stooping to pull up one of the thousands of plantain-weeds that beset the grass. With him the little spy had no concern

and an equally unjustifiable gallantry; "but of course I haven't: I am so utterly a stranger here. Your mother is immensely hospitable to wish you t

tory ripple of laughter. "It's purely with the mood, you see. I can

a moment

t in your buttonhole

ently I've been a

icture (possibly in part from an active memory) of Cora's delicate hands upl

. "I am all moods. I think you are too,

een to disfigure the shadow in th