Jewel Weed
f it was recalled at all, was chiefly memorable because it marked a change in his attitude toward his chosen occupation. It seemed that revelation afte
tired and thin. His conscience smote him. He had really meant to do a common kindly thing to cheer this girl, but it h
ty. The assembled group giggled and disappeared upon his entrance, and Lena, when she came down the stairs, flushing with embarrassment an
than self-torture to stay indoors. Can't you be a bit unconventional and go out wit
coming proved it to be a casual matter to Mr. Percival. She must make no mistake. In her instant
of reserve that set her apart. "But don't you see, I-I-can't go
k, quite unconscious
plush trimming on the shelf over the gas-
o come up stairs and meet mother. She ca
her permission to be out in the evening with a strange young man? But Mrs. Quincy knew a thing or two as well as her daughter, and Dick saw only that the room was ver
final kiss that made Mrs. Quincy wink to keep back the stateme
atisfied when Lena laughed. He bubbled over with fancies old and new, and even the old ones took fresh life. The college stories and jokes that everybody knew, the commonplaces of his world, set Lena exclaiming with delight. The e
remembered her mother and the ugly room. He had a vision of a sweet spirit bearing an adverse fate with dignity, and now giving him, in return for his small act of courtesy, the perfume of her presence, her beaut
above tinkled out ten, and Le
claimed. "Let's go som
she liked to be with Mr. Percival. With Jim Nolan she would have gone in a mome
must go home to mother. She isn't used t
e had answered w
es of your time, you must give me more of them. Will you
speak, but she smi
Percival!
himself irritated with the other women, the women
this delectable morsel of pinkness, but kept his growing intimacy to himself. This dell by the way, into whi
his three-cornered intimacy with Norris and Madeline, his plans for his own future, and to all she listened, sometimes with a dreamy far-off look in the big eyes, someti
ions, it was a real pleasure to prove herself the actress she knew she was. She pretended, when she was with him, that s
, delicious to him because of its very remoteness, began to irritate her. Was he ashamed of her? Was he playing with her? Privately she found Prince Charming, unless he meant something more than a h
count of a garden party he had been to the day before. He
rs," he said half querulously. "Why
ings happen, and you expect ever so many more lovely things to come, but I've
ulsively. "The future is sure
ears. At any rate, when she lifted her head again, her face wore a cold little s
ve to live among," she said. "I'm not
t moment for having said so much, but Lena seemed to draw no in
rtunately. You are a little oasis in my
intellect, fancied that it was all his own idea to try and bring this small person into contact with those who w
ivacity than ever, Ellery growing more certain of himself, Madeline rounding slowly out of girlhood into womanhood. Yet there was a difference. Half a dozen
is friend not quite in keeping with the sterling Dick of old. He was less sensitive, so thought Ellery, in his code of honor as he saw more and more of the crooked ways of men. Once Norris met him walking with one of the cheaper aldermen, a
e either in Dick himself or in his attitude toward her. I
wness. That men might not surfeit of her sweets, she tempered her daytime prodigality of heat by nights of frost. People were coming back to town, a few, very few, in velvet gowns, but mostly in rags and anxious about their autumn wardrobes; and yet these were days to make one long, as one does in spring, for the smell of th
eld their own; and Mrs. Lenox was fitting temptation to desire as the two hobnobbed over cups of tea i
e? Doesn't the thought of winter coming, cold and long, make you appreciate these last heavenly gle
ck. "All of which means-what?
first birds go south; that I want Madeline to come and pay me a visit; that, as a kind of sugar-plum, a chromo, if you please,
n," Dick replied heartily. "But I choose to be a sugar-plum ra
ll out-doors are surely sufficient. It will be good to get away from the grime. Now wha
familiar with these surroundings. He was thinking how little his small courtesies counted, and how much these women could do if they chose. Why shouldn't he be bold? Madeline and Mrs. Lenox were simpl
k?" she as
t to live in the sheltered corner of a garden, and she's out on a bleak prairie. She's about as much like the people she has to associate with as an old-fashioned single rose is like a cabbage. Even her mother, who is the only relative she has, is nothing but a fretful porcupine of a woman. I've been to see them a few times and the situation seems to me al
might be more of a pleas
simplicity and freshness, that you can't help liking her. And she grubs away at perfectly uncongenial work, and lives with this fusty old mother in a fusty little lodging-house. It makes me sick to thin
t and tactful way of suggesting that I sh
ry charming summer home into an orphan asylum, would have considered that
d be a lovely th
ly let ourselves in f
ertain an angel un
rl, nor did she trust to his judgment; but, like a wise woman, she wanted to know what was the thing
will go to see this rose among cabbages. We will introduce ourselves as your friends, Dick. If we think you are a mere deluded male thing, there the matter ends. If we, too, are carried
said Dick, "I k
and I'll write to Mr. Norris. Heaven send these days of sun continue. No
by the window, industriously concocting a new hat. The Swedish "girl", whose unfortunate fate it was to minister to the wants of Mrs. Olberg's l
ncy," she said, "Dar's
nd disappeared. Lena, in great curio
cis Lenox;
ke! Who air they?"
biggest swel
do they want here?
to report some party o
o becoming jerks and going through a series of wrig
you a million dollars," sai
ush furniture, its crayon portraits and its two vases of gaudy blue and gold. She faced the two ladies seated on the impossible chairs. Lena was almost as startling an apparition in that room as was Ram Juna's rose in the dusty phial-whether a miracle or
ent together she measured her
she said to herself. "Why, they're b
t protected creatures on the face of the earth. The knowl
ch was what they seemed to want to hear
born to blush unseen. What an e
asked her, haven't I? I think the microbe of
up stairs with light steps, ruffling her plumes like a cocky little lady-wren as she w
a pause just long enough, the daughter k
if you please, because Mr. Percival asked them to; and they were sweet as
he lan
mplacence, "Mr. Percival must h
an unusual thing for Mrs. Quincy to be struck dumb th
nner! But the Lenoxes are just rolling in money; and they say Mr. Lenox hadn't a red cent when she married him and gave him his start. It's luc
normal state of mind, and she resumed her rocking. Lena's
ake and scrape on clothes, so's to look fine for your new fine friends. It's no matter about
see why I shouldn't spend it. I'm n
ibute a mite to
board for a week,"
should think you'd think twice, Lena, before you went off gallivantin' and lef
s. Lenox if she won't
e among a lot of rich people who looked down on me because I was poor. I've got too much self-respect
me for not making the most of my chances
nced by the truth of this reply,
, do you want me
r I won't have no peace to my life,
o, I'll give it up now and ne
death," said her m
ailed the serpent over her life. To Lena, fortune and misfortune were still things of outward import, and almost synonymous with possession and non-possession. Yet, in spite of Mrs. Q