Alice Duer Miller

“ III JACQUELINE was possessed by joy at the prospect of spending three hours of this cloudless afternoon with Dormier at a contest, of which she was, indeed, utterly ignorant, but the excitement of which was somehow in the air. Some joy, too, rose from her belief that her stepmother was irritated at Dormier's absence from the picture exhibition. She was so much absorbed in her own happiness that she did not notice a small but significant incident as the three of them—Dormier and she and Miss Salisbury—got into the car. One of the McMannis cars was always at the disposal of the duke. ”

“ My dear Jacqueline: I want to be among the first to wish you joy. I hope this new life of yours will be a very happy one. I consider the Duke of Dormier the most fortunate of men. I hope he knows he is. May I add that something in my own life has changed profoundly with the knowledge that you are to be married and go out of the country forever? ”

“ When they sat down again a reporter was in the box, asking the duke what he thought about baseball, and the duke answered, “My dear fellow, do leave me in peace. I'm keen about it. If I were an American, I should be a fan.”
The reporter, having an honest heart but an inaccurate ear, reported that the duke had said, “If I 'was' an American, I 'would' be a fan.”
In the eighth inning Jacqueline saw another home run—more and wilder enthusiasm. This time she whispered to Dormier, “But why do they call him Goose? He seems to be such a wonderful player—almost the best.” ”

“ Once inside the gates, the crowd spread out a little so that Dormier had time to buy three score cards and three bags of peanuts. Then they began their long walk round to their box, which was behind third base.
Jacqueline had not only never been to a baseball game before; she had never been before in such an immense crowd, There must have been fifty thousand people in that great arena. They were almost all men. ”

“ When they reached the house again she found she was expected to have tea in the drawing-room. A good many people had come in to tea, paying their dinner visits after the party, and Jacqueline had no chance to talk to Dormier, though he settled down in a low chair beside her. She was not discontented with these arrangements; she would not have asked anything more of life than endless days exactly like this one. She was too happy to examine the situation closely; only it did seem as if her willingness to allow Dormier to cable to his mother had not had any such definite results. ”

“ Jacqueline's heart went out to him for the first time.
“A bore?” she returned. “It's simply frightful; it's just about all I can bear.” And then, because talking of him was next best to being with him, she added, “Oh, Major Pitts-Cave, I'm so afraid of the duchess!” ”

“ It was then given to Pitts-Cave, who, feeling for his monocle and placing it in his eye with a tremendous convulsion of his jaw, observed, “Very nice, very nice. Fancy dear old Scroggles cabling!” At which Lucy simply had to be led from the room. Jacqueline herself thought it strange that a duchess should be known as Scroggles. At the same time, she did not like Lucy's laughing so much. She found herself thinking that her friend showed her gums too much when she laughed. ”

“ Although they were early, the traffic while they were still in the park was unusually thick, and by the time they had reached Seventh Avenue—or, as the duke called it, “the” Seventh Avenue—they were in packed lines of moving cars—taxis full of seedy-looking elderly men, taxis full of well-dressed young clerks, great touring cars skillfully driven and completely filled with beautifully attired negroes, little French cars with two men on the box, and trucks and delivery wagons pressed into family service for this historic day. ”

“ He was lying back in a great chair now, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, pulling at long intervals on one of Mr. McMannis' excellent Havanas—not, as the major was even then thinking, in quite as good condition as he was accustomed to in those he bought at his Pall Mall tobacconist's—but still a very good cigar.
Jacqueline, seeing him, did not address him. She had developed a technic to mitigate her suffering, as most sensitive young people who live alone must. ”

“ She was fortunate in having a local wit, with a carrying voice, sitting not far behind her.
“Where's the fire, Frankie?” he kept calling over and over again to the stalwart second baseman of the home team.
The day being chilly, several of the players showed red flannel sleeves below their normal uniforms. And when in the eighth the splendid pitching of Bentley began to weaken and Gowdy went forward to speak a word to him, the same gay spirit called out, “That's right, you two boys ought to see more of each other.” ”

“ It was that celebrated passage in Guy Mannering which Stevenson has named as the very flower of romantic fiction—the moment when Bertram, still ignorant of his name and property, stands again on the Ellangowan estate and talks with the villainous usurper:
“'Would you destroy this fine old castle, sir?' His tone and manner were so exactly those of his father in his best days that Glossin——” Jacqueline unclosed her eyes and looked at the duke. No man except her father had ever been in her little sitting room before ”

“ As they turned in under the Elevated tracks, men with megaphones rushed out upon them, offering them parking space, though the offering sounded fiercer and more authoritative than the commands of dozens of policemen directing the traffic, some of them so great that they had velvet collars on their uniforms. ”

“ But that evening after dinner she discovered that life had made one of those enormous bounds forward—further even than she had feared. Pitts-Cave was out, and she and Dormier and Mr. and Mrs. McMannis were sitting by the fire in the library; coffee had been served and the servants had taken away the cups, when Dormier had said very quietly, “Is it necessary, sir, that Jacqueline should go on going to school? ”

“ I won't invade her territory and I want her not to invade mine,”
“You don't like your stepmother?”
“I hate her,” Jacqueline answered in a violent whisper,
The next moment she regretted her candor—she had probably shocked and alienated him, though it was difficult to tell what he was thinking behind that long pale mask of his. English girls—English girls, at least, as represented by Miss Salisbury—never would permit themselves to hate their stepmothers. ”