Maud Howe

“ Now, if things have gone as far as I suppose they have, my solemn advice to you, Gladys, is to marry Mr. Larkington. He is the sort of man best calculated to make you happy, as he brings all the things you need most,—money, an assured position, and in time a title. My dear, take the advice of a lonely woman, an old maid, and do not hesitate. You have grown, as I did before you, too difficile. It is the curse of American girls with beauty or money, that they have so many chances to marry. ”

“ There was a pause, after which Gladys said abruptly,—
"How far is it to the sea?"
"About half a mile, I fancy."
"Please go down to the shore and bring me a piece of red seaweed."
"I cannot leave you here alone."
"Why not, if I order you to go? Do you not know how to be obedient?"
"You are teaching me, Miss Carleton. I never knew before that it was pleasanter to obey than to be obeyed."
"Of course it is. There is no such luxury in the world as self-abnegation; it is the thing we all long for."
"I do not fancy that you would enjoy it; you are too imperious by nature. ”

“ Larkington had found a good deal of amusement during the dinner in his right-hand neighbor. She was a pretty woman of the Venus de Médicis type, which is by no means uncommon among American women.
Mrs. Craig was not beautiful, though he had told her before the dessert that she was; but she was the perfection of prettiness. Small, without being undersized, with charming curves of face and figure, a well-shaped face and head, blond hair, deep-gray eyes, and a mouth which, though well cut, was too narrow and bloodless to betoken a generous or passionate nature. ”

“ As Farwell rode through Chestnut Street, he said with a half-sigh,—
"Jack, I am sorry to go, for some reasons. I have not been here long enough to feel the monotony which must come, I suppose, and I still am bound by the novelty and freshness of the existence here. There is a vigor and youth about the country which we in the East have lost already; before we have grown to our prime, we are old."
"Yes," said Jack; "remember this is the boss mining camp of the world that you are turning your back upon, because of an echo in the mine that you fancy is the voice of some woman. ”

“ I have never before been told that 'managing' was one of my characteristics."
"I did not mean that; you are perverse, but it does not matter. You look just as lovely when you play at being cross as when you are smiling. I wish you would always wear that wreath of oak leaves on your hat; it makes you look so much more like the girls at home, and so much less of a great lady."
Gladys did not quite understand this speech. How could she fancy that Larkington, moved by a real feeling, had half forgotten himself, and told her frankly what was in his mind? ”

“ The air was sweet with the smell of the wild grapes which clung to the porches of the bare unpainted farm-houses. The beauty of the complete and perfect year crowned the fair earth, and the peace of the fruitful harvest was over the land. The air was fresh, and, though full of light and warmth, had a cool tinge in it, that set the blood running like new wine through the veins of the man and woman who were so unreasonably and unreasoningly happy, sitting, side by side, behind the swift horses. ”

“ Her attention was attracted to Abdul, then young and handsome (he has often assured me) as the morning star, tall as the palm-tree, and strong as the whirlwind. Abdul was at that time in great trouble; his favorite wife had died, leaving him the one daughter of his house, Zuleika, then a child of five. Instead of intrusting her to the care of the women, Abdul was always with the little girl, who was as dear to him as the spring of water in the desert. Lady Margaret was struck by the devotion of this young father to his child, and became deeply interested in the pair. ”

“ As Larkington helped her into the carriage, the wind blew the soft tress against his lips; it felt like a caress, and he sprang after her, taking the reins from the strange groom who held them.
"I have lost my man; it's a most extraordinary thing; he is usually the most steady, punctual creature. I am afraid that Mr. Gray Grosvenor treated the coachmen too well, and that Stirrups did not show himself because he knew it would be better for him not to be seen," said Larkington. ”

“ They had fallen in love of course, and when Gladys was seventeen and Farwell twenty-two, there had been an "understanding" between them. This was one of those "understandings" into which American girls are apt to enter, sometimes with more than one man at a time, in which the maiden is left quite free, and the man is bound unconditionally.
Gladys did not know her own mind,—how could she, not having seen anything of the world? She thought she loved her cousin, and was sure she cared more for him than for any other man,—but she could not promise. ”

“ No other sound was in the land, and in the sea no motion save for the white arms of a youth who was swimming by leisurely, and who slackened his strokes and looked up at the balcony, which showed him a woman who was young and graceful, the distance not allowing him to guess more.
Gladys looked at the swimmer, and thought how graceful were his motions, and how much the boyish head of gold hair and the white, supple, strong limbs, shining through the green waters, added to the scene. It brought human life into what had been be fore but an empty background ”

“ Gladys Carleton was inclined to be quiet and distraite, eating little, and that little with nervous haste. Larkington's appetite was not so voracious as it might have been, considering the fact that for the last week he had breakfasted on a roll from the bake-shop brought in surreptitiously by Stirrups, and a cup of tea made over the gas-burner by that same devoted individual, who, as financial affairs grew darker for his master, became more and more familiar with him, and comforted by a touching devotion the man to whom he was loyally attached. ”

“ You knew that she never heard that Larkington was an impostor until a week after her marriage?"
"I heard that Gladys said so," remarked Mrs. Craig, with a vicious intonation of doubt in her voice.
"I know that she did not know about it," rejoined Mrs. Fallow-Deer.
"Do you really believe that, dear Mrs. Fallow-Deer? Well, it is refreshing to find some one who is not sceptical in this day and generation. I suppose you believe also that Gladys did not know about Farwell's having made that pile of money in the Little Quickgain Mine?" ”

“ Something, however, in the young girl's eyes made him touch her hand as coolly and lightly as if she had been old and ugly instead of young and very beautiful.
There was a spirit of good-fellowship about her that fascinated him; it alternated so strangely with the grand air which seemed equally natural to her, and which was as scornful and aristocratic as if she had been born a princess.
"Do you not find the American girls very different from any others, Clawski?" ”

“ Something besides the smile of Gladys had occurred to please Charles Farwell. Loving her as he had all his life, and understanding her as thoroughly as he did, her kindness and her unkindness usually depressed him equally, when the charm of her presence was removed. ”

“ Gladys had all her life been petted and spoiled by her rich friends, and had never wanted for a good time, a fresh ball-dress, a seat at the opera, or a saddle-horse. She belonged to that class of young girls whose position in society is much better than their financial resources, and who for ther beauty or their charm are the enfants gâtées of New York society. ”

“ Gladys Carleton was not one of the women who are born possessed of a demon of coquetry. The mere suffering which a man undergoes at the hands of a coquette is not in its first effects so greatly to be deprecated. It is in the consequences that lies the deepest wrong which the insincere woman does to the man who loves her. ”

“ She dressed herself not the less with great care, and chose the dark blue gown in which Larkington had first seen her at the Casino, and which he preferred to any other of her dresses. She was going to the picnic, and had half promised to drive out with the Englishman. She knew, with the unfailing instinct of a woman, that if she drove with him to-day, she would be asked the most serious question which man can put to woman. ”

“ He is willing to do this sort of work for society, and on the whole society is grateful to him, as no one else would give the time, pains, and trouble to it. Though he is in a sense the servant of society, inasmuch as he serves it, he is also its ruler, and he is courted from fear, if from nothing else, like the French king with the little leaden images in his hat. Gray Grosvenor's images are of gold, and not of lead."
"One sees that you do not like the gentleman, Mrs. Craig?" said Larkington. ”

“ It is variety, and not quantity, she desires; and, having already become quite familiar with the manner in which a certain species of the genus homo is affected by the greatest of passions, she allows many possible victims to pass by without an effort or desire to add them to her collection; but if a specimen hitherto unclassified crosses her path, she is ready with her little dissecting-knife to peer into the labyrinths of a new phase of human nature. ”

“ The person who is deeply impressed by a fine landscape painting will often pass by the view which inspired the painter without observing its qualities of color and effects of light and shade. The sensitive woman who shrinks at the well-depicted portrait of a wretched beggar will pass the poor creature whose misery has struck the artist without a pang of pity. The girl who weeps bitterly over the sorrows of a heroine in a novel watches with more amusement than sympathy the grief and trials of the heroine of a life romance. ”

“ But Newport has now become the resort of the rich, and even the dwellers in the quiet country farm-houses demand exorbitant prices for their simple accommodations. So artists are rarely met with, and, as it has been hinted, there are few people who take time at this most brilliant of watering-places to fall in love. Love-Lane, Fairy Dell, Glen Anna, Vaucluse, and Lawton's Valley have few visitors.
It is a pity that the worldlings have found out this region of delight. Any other place would have served as well for the display of their horses and carriages, diamonds, clothes, beauty, and beaux. ”

“ You are never too busy to miss one glimpse of the beauty which you say the world is full of, and I have to be told that what I see is lovely before my dulness can understand it. All the lovely things I have seen in my life, you have shown me. ”

“ Charles Farwell, called by Gladys Carleton "Cid," was a handsome man of thirty, with certain traits which distinguished him from the hundred or two young New Yorkers who were at that time infesting Newport.
He was of the pure Saxon type sometimes found among our people, with golden hair and beard, fair skin, and eyes of that intense blue which is only seen with people of vigorous temperament. His features were almost too delicate for a man, but his six feet of height and broad shoulders, his strong well-modelled arms and legs, saved him from the charge of a too feminine beauty. ”

“ Their eyes, accustomed to the darkness of the mine, were dazzled by the light, and Farwell shaded the too sudden glory of the sunshine with his hand. In the vast open plain where they found themselves were many works, some of them deserted and dilapidated, others with every sign of busy mining life about them. The rude buildings which stood at the mouth of their mine were fallen into a lamentable state of unrepair, but to the sanguine eyes of Cartwright they were already repaired and in good condition. ”