Alice Muriel Williamson

“ You are only a girl, but if you were a woman, you could not understand this thing as a man can understand it. Such a mild infatuation as this of Cyril’s will pass as some simple disease of childhood passes, without leaving a mark. If only you are kind and sweet to him now, he is yours forever, just as he was at first, and has always been at heart. But don’t be bitter with him, and make him turn to the other for his amusement. Will you have my advice, and, instead of taking chloral, take a dose of Mrs. Raleigh’s society, and give Cyril the same, in unlimited quantities? ”

“ Joan was tall as a young goddess brought up on the heights of Olympus, instead of at a French boarding-school. Despite the hardships and wretchedness of her childhood, she was strong in body and mind and spirit, with the strength of perfect nerves and a splendid vitality. Marian Fitzpatrick, broken by disappointment, and worn by months of anxiety, was fragile and white as a lily which has been bent by savage storms, and the sight of her small, pale face and big, sad, brown eyes fired the girl with an almost fierce determination to assume the rôle of protector. ”

“ He must know that he was physically unattractive, that he had an unconqueraably swaggering manner, that in moments of excitement his “h’s” trembled on their pedestal, and that it would take all his money to sweeten him as a dose in the mouth of such a girl as Pamela. His success would depend, he must see, and Jack could not help knowing, on the girl’s bringing up and disposition. If she loved the good things of the world better than she loved the real things of life, she would accept him by and by, and perhaps be contented. ”

“ There was no time to waste in useless anger. The despatch must be got back. Keen as though a dagger's point flashed through it, and bright as the steel of its blade, came an inspiration. There was a way by which she might save the situation. To try it was to risk something—to risk even her reputation; but when there is only one hope of averting ruin a woman is not squeamish—especially such a woman as Diana Hardacre.
She had not yet rung for her maid, having meant to scold Pearl for her sins before beginning to undress. ”

“ After some grumbling, she consented to try what Jordan could do; and while the second housemaid pouted over Maria's work, Maria was busy ingratiating herself with Lady Henry—ingratiating herself so thoroughly that Mathilde would have trembled jealously for the future could she have seen or heard.
Joan was one of those rare creatures, born for success, who set their teeth in unbreakable resolve to do whatever they must do, well. Being a lady herself, with all a lady's fastidious tastes, she knew how a lady liked to be waited upon. ”

“ She would be a child of the house or she would be nothing. Her beauty, her despair, and her humility were irresistible. Lady Thorndyke forgot George Gallon and clasped the child in her arms, crying in sympathy. "If you care so much, dear, how can I let you go?" she whimpered.
"I care enough to die for you, or to die if I lose you!" Joan vowed.
"You shall not die, and you shall not lose me!" exclaimed the old lady, remembering her nephew now and defying him. "You shall stay and be my little girl." ”

“ I believe I must have been a princess in another state of existence, for I always feel that the best of everything is hardly good enough for me."
As she thought this, half laughing, there came a sound from the next room—that room which might have been the grave of the strange woman who occupied it, so dead was the silence which reigned there day and night. Never before had Joan heard the least noise on the other side of the dividing wall, but now she was startled by a crash as of breaking glass, followed by the dull, soft thud which could only have been made by the fall of a human body. ”

“ Diana Hardacre's pale cheeks lit with sudden anger against Pearl, and against the man whose mind could wander from such a confession as hers to praise of a child. A malicious impulse to strike her sister down from the high place where she had climbed stung her to forgetfulness of diplomacy.
"Pearl's loyalty!" she sneered. "What is loyalty worth when it is not disinterested? Pearl has been in love with you since before she gave up dolls. She was sick with jealousy when she feared that one day you and I might be everything to each other. You call her a child. ”

“ Raleigh. What a humiliation for Aline, who would not have believed two months ago that she could need to be jealous of any woman. But jealous? No, that was not the word even now. Since he loved the woman’s society better than hers, let him have it, but let him not have both; let his wife not flatter his hypocrisy by feigning the confidence in him which once had been so true and sweet—the one most heavenly thing on earth. She would step aside; it was more dignified than to fight for him with that woman, who was never happy, people said, unless in taking somebody else’s husband away ”

“ One did not need to be told, to know that he was a soldier. As he stood talking to his friends, with his hat off, and the sun chiselling the ripples of his close-cropped hair, in bronze, his head towered above those of the other men who came and went. His face was bronze, too, of a lighter shade, blending into ivory half way up the forehead, and his features were strong and clear-cut as a bronze man's should always be. He wore no moustache or beard, and his mouth and chin were self-reliant, firm, and generous, but Joan liked his eyes best of all. ”

“ Sir Edmund laughed. He evidently considered Joan as a spoiled darling of Society with a new whim. "My dear young lady!" he exclaimed, "in what capacity, pray? We do not devote space to fashions, even in a Saturday edition. Would you come to us as a reporter, like your friend Mr. Bainbridge?"
"As a special reporter," amended Joan. "I would undertake any mission of importance——"
"There are none going begging on The Planet. But" (this soothingly by way of sugaring a dismissal) "you have only to get hold of something good and bring it to me. ”

“ He accepted; and he was the first arrival on Christmas evening. So early was he, in fact, that Mrs. Greatorex was not yet dressed for dinner, and Gwen flew down to entertain him. He looked very handsome in evening clothes, though they were a little shabby and had the air of having been put away for a long time. “Hired for the occasion,” was what Dick Pelham whispered about them in Gwen’s ear, somewhat later; but instead of prejudicing her against the Man from the Moon, the whisper made her more than ever his champion. “What if they are?” she retorted. “It’s nothing against him if he’s poor. ”

“ Joan and her chaperon kept "open house" on board. The luncheon-table was always laid for twelve, in case anyone strolled on in the morning whom it would be agreeable to detain. On fine days—and what days were not fine on these shores beloved of the sun?—tea was always served on deck under the rose-and-white awning; and Russian princes, Austrian barons and baronesses, French counts and countesses, with a sprinkling of the English nobility, came early and stayed late to drink the Orange Pekoe and eat the exquisite little cakes' provided by the confiding tradespeople of Nice. ”

“ You just listen to what I have to say, and don't interrupt. When I get an inspiration, I tell you, it's worth hearing, and I've got one now. What I want you to do is to give up trying to manage this house. You're too young and pretty and soft-hearted for a landlady, and you haven't the talent for it, though you have plenty in other ways, and one is, to be charming. My inspiration will show you how best to utilise that talent."
Then Joan talked on, and at first Marian was shocked and horrified; but in the end the force of the girl's extraordinary magnetism and self-confidence subdued her. ”

“ If Joan, a miserable, overworked slavey of twelve, nursing her tyrant's baby, had not been bitten with consuming jealousy of a child no older but a thousand times more fortunate than herself, she might have gone on indefinitely as a slavey and never have had a career. ”

“ It was not tea-time yet, and Minnie was happily asleep; Joan was certain to be scolded just as sharply on her return as if she had stopped away for hours longer, therefore she might as well have drained her birthday cup of stolen pleasure to the dregs; but the good taste of the draught was gone. She yearned only to go home, to get the scolding over, and to have a few minutes to herself in the tiny back room which she shared with the baby. ”

“ Hardacre's civilian clothing followed; and then Pearl took up the khaki jacket. As she did so a curious pang shot through her, keen and thin as a needle's point.
"He wore this in battle," the girl said to herself. "Could a woman who loved a man give away such a thing? If I——no, I couldn't do it! Anything else should go sooner."
She fumbled in the pockets, as in duty bound. There was a half-used package of cigarettes in one, which would have seemed rather pathetic if she had been fond of Lord Hardacre; but Pearl had not been able to love her brother-in-law. ”

“ Because Lady Henry posed as an ingénue, who scarcely knew politics from polo, Joan suspected her. "It is she who worms out secrets from her husband and sells them to Portheous," Joan said to herself. "Oh! to be a fly on the wall in the Borrowdailes' house for the next week!"
This wish was so vivid, that like a lightning flash it seemed to illumine the dim corners of the girl's brain. She suddenly recalled another story of the inestimable Bainbridge's, told in connection with the rivalry of The Daily Beacon and The Planet. ”