Margaret Cameron and Jessie Leach Rector

“ When they returned to their state-room, they plunged at once into discussion, Sallie favoring a return to Morristown, and Lois refusing even to consider such a course.
"Think of Jim!" she urged. "It's such an opportunity! Oh," turning an irate eye upon Fifi, "how I wish Emmy were here to 'drat' you! Who ever heard of a summer hotel where dogs weren't allowed?"
"This isn't a hotel, it's a nursery," said Sallie; and then she laughed. "There's an idea! We might swaddle Fifi in wraps and things, and smuggle her in as a baby." ”

“ Barbara began, and Tony brightly answered:
"Oh yes! Bob's told me."
"He's probably told you that it's a big project," the other replied, with a smile, "and a splendid opportunity—and that the men are good fellows. I suppose he's even told you that it will be lonely; but no man—not even a man like Bob—ever sees the things that are really essential to a woman. He's busy—and interested—and he cheerfully accepts the theory that gold in the ground is nature's compensation for a total lack of trees and vegetation. It's his compensation, too. But it doesn't always satisfy a woman." ”

“ Geoffrey Adams dropped the match with which he had lighted his after-dinner cigar, pulled his coffee-cup nearer, and squinted a little as he looked through the first clinging, aromatic tendrils of smoke at his pretty wife, smiling across a beautifully appointed table, upon which gaily petticoated candles shed their mellow beams. "I wonder whether peacefulness—one way or another—is always a matter of being fed up?"
"Apropos of food," said Suzanne, "do you realize, Geof, that we've simply got to give some dinners?" ”

“ Since blindness and gifts go hand in hand, blessed is the receiver who is also blind." Rand took his departure, and Carrington turned to the woman, asking:
"But you weren't blind, Eleanor? You knew?"
"Our eyes are holden sometimes from choice. Grove, there is such a thing as loyalty."
"How, then, could you send this here?" he asked, watching her keenly. "Since you have treasured it so long, you must once have cared for the giver, if not for the gift. How could you send it to a place like this?"
"Remember your own words. A flawed foundation brings any structure to grief in time. ”

“ Lois conceded, when each had heard the other's tale. "If I'd dreamed for an instant it would be like this, I wouldn't have come. But now we're in it, and we—or at least you—are getting hold of Mr. Robertson. And think what that may mean to Jim!"
"Jim would certainly be the first to condemn what we're doing," Sallie urged, but the wife replied:
"He won't have a chance to condemn it. If we succeed, he can't help being glad, and if we fail, he needn't—" She broke off, looking a little startled, and flushed deeply as she confessed: "Sallie, I almost said he need never know!" ”

“ Tony admitted.
"Any place is attractive with the man you love—if you love him enough." Again that keen glance. "But it's very hard to come into it unprepared. I mean to say, I've grown up out here and I'm used to it; but I can see, as the men don't, how hard it is for a woman who comes out with illusions about a cozy little home and pretty things about."
"But why? Are there no cozy little homes?" Tony asked, rather stiffly.
"They may be little—but it's difficult to be cozy in a corrugated iron house, without a growing thing in sight, oil-cloth on the floors, wooden chairs—and no cushions. ”

“ Then, in her extremity, she fell back upon Betty's parting injunction, conscious of its inadequacy, but fearing her own emotion. "New people, new books, new music, new art— Why, it's a brand-new world you've come back to! How does it feel to be born again?" ”

“ Betty was all enthusiasm, and said:
"Don't you think Suzanne's a wonder, Uncle Rhodes, to live in the suburbs, and entertain so well, and have such a house to do it in?"
Carleton paused to bite the end off a cigar before answering, rather dryly: "Very nice. But tell me something about Mrs. Adams. Hers seems to be rather a lavish hand."
"She does do things with ease, but she has the habit." Betty's tone was warmly admiring. "All her life she's been in the midst of things, and I think she's wonderful to keep it up! ”

“ I have a growing sympathy for criminals. Perhaps they don't mean to, either, when they start."
"I know," again said Lois. "But here we are, Sallie. We're in it! And what's the alternative now? If we go away, Jim loses this wonderful chance, and he may never get another like it! If we send Fifi away, we break our promise to Aunt Mary. In either case somebody's hurt. But if we merely practise a little deceit that hurts nobody—"
"It does!" hotly protested the girl. "It hurts me! I hate myself when I lie! ”

“ A man doesn't actually jilt a girl if he can avoid it. But this makes Antoinette's position more impossible than ever, and it's high time for you to end this senseless engagement—since she won't!"
"H'm—well—at any rate, there's no occasion to be precipitate."
At first impatient and incredulous, Dean found himself as the days wore on more impressed by his wife's argument than he was willing to admit, and, when he realized also that Tony's faith in McEwen was not unclouded, his feeling that he might have been mistaken in the man grew, and with it his determination to know the truth. ”

“ Enga may be stupid, but she's willing and clean—and she stays. And the greatest of these is she stays! Geof, I have an inspiration! Couldn't we achieve a company dinner on the instalment plan?"
"I'm game for anything you suggest, but I haven't the remotest notion what you're talking about."
"Listen, then! The cook-book and I have taught Enga to do two or three things really well. Why not one entire menu? One perfect dinner served at intervals to different people ought to get us through the social clearing-house with flying colors."
"Suzanne, you're the eighth wonder of the world!" ”

“ Before she could frame a reply Rand appeared in the doorway, looking very much amused, and when he discovered her only companion to be a man well known as a connoisseur of porcelains, he gleefully exclaimed, "Carrington, for once I've done you!" Then, turning to Eleanor: "I owe you a lifetime of gratitude, for if you had not kept this inveterate old bargain-hunter occupied I should never have been permitted to acquire the most unblushing white elephant now in captivity. ”

“ Sallie told her. "If Jim won't come, he won't. You're not expert in the gentle art of nagging."
"No, but if I could only see him I might persuade— Sallie!" Lois broke off with a gasp and a glint of excitement in her eyes. "That's what we'll do. We'll persuade the Robertson man!"
"What are you talking about?"
"He's at the Equival. We'll go up there—you and I—and between us surely we can coax him to stay over one ship. And that will give Jim his chance!"
"Lois, you're crazy! If a responsible engineer finds it difficult to interest this man, what on earth can we do? ”

“ So they went to the country, and Suzanne found an old red brick house which she insisted had been waiting for her; but now Geoffrey turned scoffer.
"Looks to me as though it had got tired waiting and decided to sit down," he caviled, but she buoyantly returned:
"Never you mind! Putting what we'll save in rent on the inside of that house will be like feeding the hungry. It will cast off its air of dejection and feel like a home. And think how near it is to the Post-road! Don't forget we have friends with motors, even if we do walk ourselves—and not always by preference!" ”

“ Then it became his Blue Bird, which, from the time Tony was three years old, he pursued and tried to cage for her until, as the years passed, both father and daughter saw in its promise the fulfilment of happiness and high reward. But to Mrs. Dean, in the throes of social evolution, it symbolized only a reversion to type; and even when the long struggle that had begun in the oil -fields of West Virginia was finally ended, with Barbara Ventris's help, in the gold-fields of West Australia, to Tony's mother the pink dress still loomed—an outraged convention. ”

“ You distract his attention until your thing has been discovered and I've suppressed it."
"Oh, I couldn't!"
"My dear child, you're a woman, aren't you? Talk! Talk! That was Eve's first garden implement!"
"But Eve had no temperament—and no competition. Besides, I've nothing to say to him now."
"Then talk patter—high-brow art patter," Betty prescribed, briskly. "You can do that in your sleep. You go out and find him. I'll see every parcel opened until your thing turns up— By the way, what is it?"
"My Ming statuette."
"Why—Eleanor! You've always contended that that thing was genuine!" ”

“ There was a moment of amazed silence before the constable ejaculated:
"Oh, hell! What do you take me for?"
At that instant, following a quick tap, the door from the hall opened and Emmy stood on the threshold, gaunt, rigid, and accusing. Surveying the group with a comprehending gaze, she remarked, disgustedly, "Huh! It's come, has it? I told you girls ye'd git us all into trouble!"
"The nurse," the clerk explained, and the officer sharply demanded, "Where's that kid?"
"There ain't any kid," she told him, calmly. "Never was." ”

“ Her weak inquiry about luggage was met by the assurance that everything was arranged, and her discovery that all but the steamer-trunks had gone on with the ship was made only when her normal interests were beginning to revive, stimulated by breathing the same air that blew over Government House. When Dean good-naturedly explained that they had conceived themselves birds of passage, to whom the life was more than meat and the body than raiment, she retorted:
"Oh, you may jeer! But knowing oneself well dressed is as comforting as the confidence of a certain faith! ”

“ Carrington volunteered, but again Eleanor stayed him.
"No, no; you can't go! Why should we let Clifford Rand interrupt the first talk we've had in months?" Turning to Betty, she explained, "We're endeavoring to build bridges."
"With Grove's help that should be easy," was the quick response. "Building bridges is his genius."
"But my bridges demand solid foundations," he said, looking at Eleanor, and she returned:
"Do you always find bed-rock on the surface? Betty, do go and find Cliff!" Once more alone with Carrington, she attempted to steer the conversation into less perilous channels. ”

“ Sallie seemed to answer the constable, but she looked at Robertson, resolved at last to tell him the whole truth, regardless that he, of all others, might most misunderstand her. "We had to come here because we heard that a man vitally important to my brother-in-law's interests expected to be here." Robertson's face hardened again, and the gaze he bent upon her grew piercing, but she struggled on, despite her qualms. "He was to leave the country sooner than we had expected, and as it was impossible for Jim to get here in time, my sister felt that she must come herself. ”

“ In his tall, loosely built body, his tanned skin and unconventional dress, his infectious smile and unconscious ease of manner, she saw merely one more of that vast army of adventurers attracted to the oil-fields—soldiers of fortune, socially eligible only when ripened by age and flavored by success, from whom Antoinette must be protected at any cost. ”

“ Whereat they both laughed. "Joking aside, Geof, we've got to do the civilized thing. We can't go on honeymooning for ever. We must contribute our share, and that spells dinners. And why not? We have everything but the food."
"Granting that your setting of choice wedding-gifts is perfect," he rejoined, "for dinner-giving food's really a bit important, isn't it?"
"Y-yes, I suppose it is. And Enga certainly does not—" She stopped thoughtfully, and after a moment he said, with a resigned shrug. ”

“ Where's the kid?"
"They think we have the Van Alstyne child," Sallie hurriedly explained.
"But—but we haven't! How perfectly ridiculous! Of course we haven't!" Lois looked appealingly at Robertson, who responded gravely but gently:
"It's felt that there's some mystery about your child. Perhaps, if you'll let this officer see him—"
For a moment Lois regarded him with stricken eyes. Then she looked at Sallie, and both flushed heavily.
"I—can't," the elder sister confessed. "There is no child."
"There certainly was a child when you came here," the clerk crisply reminded her. ”

“ Rand cast his fly with deliberate intention, and Betty rose to it characteristically, retorting:
"I dare say. Women have said most of the clever things men take credit for. But just the same, I've never been able to convince myself that Eleanor's decision was not influenced in some way by Miriam's arrival—and I've never really liked Miriam since." Laughing as she made this confession, she added: "Eleanor's so dear to me, I always want to fight her battles. You see, she's too generous. ”