Margaret Cameron

“ The light tone conveyed no hint of the trembling that had fallen upon her. "How fortunate for them that the number is merely diminished by two! Eleventh-hour invitations are so awkward, and poor relations are usually obvious expedients."
"You intend going on somewhere from New Haven, then?" Halstead's mind was busily seeking a means to end, decently, a situation that he felt to be increasingly difficult, and his question was perfunctory.
"Yes, I'm going—home." For the first time her voice escaped control, and the last word was almost inaudible. ”

“ A party of travelers, laden with bags, golf-clubs, umbrellas, and rugs, jostled them in passing, and the voice of the train-caller came again monotonously through the long room.
"I'm afraid I must, dear," at last said Halstead. "You see, it's rather important to the man at the other end. Certain serious business interests depended upon my decision. I have accepted, and now if I fail him—"
"But the next steamer!" she begged. "Look, we have only twenty minutes!"
He frowned, pulling still at his mustache; and she pressed pleading fingers for a moment on his arm, removing them at once. ”

“ Betty laughed. "He'll not be late at the wedding!" she said, resuming her seat.
"Who is he?"
"Mr. Eldridge—Rector of 'The Three Angels' at New Rochelle. He used to be in Albany. He married—and buried—my parents, and christened me.
"And I suppose he'll marry you." Halstead used the carefully commonplace tone with which a man masks his wounds.
"I don't know." Her glance seemed to wander vaguely. "What is that megaphone man saying? It must be time for my train." ”

“ Eldridge, this is Dwight," was her conclusive reply.
The clergyman's wife turned from her scrutiny of Halstead's face as her husband joined them, panting a little from his rapid walk.
"It's all quite as it should be, James," she announced. "The dear child is exactly like her mother."
"Bless my soul! Bless my soul!" gasped the old man. "How you young people do rush things! My dear Betty," in a low tone, as he drew her apart from the others, "isn't this very sudden? ”

“ He said he would come to the train, but I told him I'd rather not."
Halstead fell back, biting his mustache, and his brain jeered at his impulsive heart.
She altered her position, sitting more easily, her lighter tone suggesting that the relaxation was not alone physical. "And you?" she asked. "Why is there no one to see you off?"
"There is," he replied. "Carter was to meet me here. He's probably waiting in the crowd over there by the door somewhere." ”

“ See that funny little man with the broad shoulders and the short legs. He looks as if he had been forty years a football-player and had gradually been telescoped. By the way, what was the score Saturday? ”