Lila

“ He is the image of cher Papa; and you will see how Mamita Lila doats upon him. She must have loved Papasito very much. Then I had a daughter that died in a few days; then I had my Rosen Blumen, and you will see who she looks like; then some more came and went to the angels. Last of all came little Lila, who looks just like her father,—flaxen hair, pink cheeks, and great German forget-me-nots for eyes."
"How I shall love them all!" exclaimed Rosa. "And you will love our Eulalia. I had a little Alfred and a little Flora. ”

“ For the first few years of her marriage she had kept on seeing the people with whom she had been brought up, especially those who lived not far away on Long Island. Though they were poor and Bethson's hours long and irregular, they would often motor twenty miles in their jiggly little car to some great dinner or ball. But as time went on Lila began to see that she was no longer one of them; she was asked to the less amusing parties, almost as a favor.
She was too proud to be anything but an equal, and she suddenly cut herself off from all her old group. Except for her husband she lived alone. ”

“ Her beautiful white hair was still arranged, over a high cushion, in an elaborate fashion, and her gown of fine embroidered linen was pinned together with a delicate cameo brooch.
"I have been talking very seriously to Lila," she began at once, as he sat down by the bedside. "My age is great, you know, and it is hardly probable that the good Lord will see fit to leave me much longer to enjoy the pleasures of this world. Now, what troubles me more than all else is that I am to die feeling that the family will pass utterly away. ”

“ Lila raised her shoulders slightly. “She isn’t worth noticing, I dare say. Such people never are. I can’t help wishing that you were not acquainted with her. I want you all to myself. I’m glad she belongs to another class anyhow.”
Into Bea’s puzzled face crept a troubled expression. “You’re a funny girl, Lila,” she said; “let’s go to the orchard.”
On their way across the campus, they passed countless girls hurrying from building to building. Every doorway seemed to blossom with a chattering group, a loitering pair, or an energetic single lady on pressing business bent. ”

“ She was not aware that she herself made quite as charming a picture. The spirit of laughter still flitted over her face, from eyes to dimples; her shining black curls were lighted up with a rope of cherry-colored chenille, hanging in a tassel at her ear; and her graceful little figure showed to advantage in a neatly fitting dress of soft brown merino, embroidered with cherry-colored silk. On her lap was little Lila, dressed in white and azure, with her fine flaxen curls tossed about by the motion of riding to "Banbury Cross." The child laughed and clapped her hands at every caper ”

“ The young man started the motor, and presently his clumsy craft was dragging herself, like a crippled duck, down Pelham Bay toward the more open water of Long Island Sound.
Lila felt herself abandoned. She would have gone straight home but for the long walk to Westchester and the fact that she had no car fare. She could have cried. The heat on the end of the dock and the glare from the water were intolerable. She was already faint with hunger, and her shoes pinched her so that she could hardly walk without whimpering. It seemed to her that she had never seen so many people at once. ”

“ Lila flung herself face downward on her unmade bed. She was utterly alone. No young and beautiful rival could have taken away her husband as completely as Azra had taken him. He lived in another world.
Azra had become a very great personality. She had always held the belief that the dealer in magic should be like a Greek oracle, not as accessible, but as inaccessible as possible; that the shrine should be approached with difficulty and delay. The tremendous publicity that had come to her after her prophecies to Bethson made it possible for her to erect barriers. ”

“ It was when she had just passed through one of these states that Lila came out on a Sunday afternoon to find Christopher at the woodpile, and told him, with a burst of tears, that she thought the end had come.
"She's quite herself and wants us all," she said, sobbing. "And she's even asked for the house servants, every one—for Phyllis, and Tobias, and so many of them who have been away for years. It's just as if she knew that she was dying and wanted to say good-by." ”

“ Lila caught her breath hard.
Bea opened her candid eyes wider in astonished curiosity. “But didn’t you want to know about the maid?”
“She mortified me. Do you know how it feels to be mortified? The—the awfulness—” Lila stopped and swallowed once or twice as if something stuck in her throat. “She might have told me in a different manner so as not to wound me so heartlessly. She isn’t a lady.”
“Please.” Bea twirled the door-knob in worried protest. “Don’t talk that way. She is my friend. We live in the same town. 15 She’s nice, really. You’ve only seen the outside. ”

“ She laughed, but her eyes filled with tears, and she wiped them with hard rubs on a twisted garment, which she afterward shook in the air to dry.
"Well, you're a saint, Cynthia, and I wish you weren't," declared Lila almost impatiently. "It makes me feel uncomfortable, as if it were somehow my fault that you had to be so good."
"Being a saint is a good deal like being a woman, I reckon," returned Cynthia dryly. "There's a heap in having been born to it. Aunt Polly, have you put the irons on the fire? The first batch of clothes is almost dry." ”

“ Even Lila, whose glowing face in its nimbus of curls lent an almost festive air to her end of the white pine board, ate with a heartiness which Cynthia, with her outgrown standard for her sex, could not but find a trifle vulgar. The elder sister had been born to a different heritage —to one of restricted views and mincing manners for a woman—and, despite herself, she could but drift aimlessly on the widening current of the times.
"Christopher, will you have some coffee—it is stronger now?" ”

“ And yet, after she had learned to make allowances for the oversensitiveness, Bea found Lila more lovable and winning week by week. She was philosopher enough to recognize the fact that every one has the “defects of his qualities.” The very quality that sent Lila hurrying up-stairs in an agony of mortification because a senior had forgotten to bow to her, was the one that inclined her to enter into Bea’s varying moods with exquisite responsiveness. It was delightful to have a 21 friend who was ever ready to answer gayety with gayety and sober thoughts with sympathy. ”

“ My aunt is ill; only Lila, my foster sister, will accompany me. If the footman or coachman notice you or question you, give them money; they are rascals. Addio, until to-morrow."
To reply, to promise, to swear, to express my thanks, and to hand to Lila the most bombastic of love-letters, was an affair of a few moments only. But when I attempted to slip a gold piece into the messenger's hand, I was checked by a glance instinct with melancholy dignity. From pure devotion to her mistress she had yielded to her caprice ”

“ A strange suppressed excitement pervaded the house. Even little Floyd showed an unusual desire to hang about her, and once he asked shyly: “Why did Marie go away like that, Cousin Lila? There are not such things as ghosts, are there?” ”

“ I think she is very unusual,” said Leslie with just the least bit of hauteur.
“Well, it wouldn’t be wise to get her into things. 186 It might keep some others out if we made her prominent,” put in Lila Cary with some asperity. “We must have some social distinction, you know.”
“In our frat one fellow is as good as another if he has the right kind of character,” remarked Allison dryly. “That girl sounded to me as if she had some drag with your alumni. But of course you know her better than I.”
“She is a good girl all right and real religious,” hastened Lila to amend. ”

“ Then came two little ones, who soon went to live with the angels. And, lastly, there was the five-year-old pet, Lila, who inherited her father's blue eyes, pink cheeks, and flaxen hair.
These children were told that their grandfather was a rich American merchant in New Orleans, and their grandmother a beautiful and accomplished Spanish lady; that their grandfather failed in business and died poor; that his friend Mrs. Delano adopted their mother; and that they had a very handsome Aunt Rosa, who went to Europe with some good friends, and was lost at sea. ”

“ At least Lila held the nails while Berta mended the top tray and I did the heavy looking on. When Berta stopped hammering and put her thumb in her mouth, I remarked that nobody who squealed ouch! in company could belong to our highest class in manners.
Lila’s expression changed from the pained sympathy of friendship to the scientific zeal of character study. “Girls, have you noticed 194 Mary Winchester lately? It is the strangest thing! She seems more alone and alien than ever. The girls avoid her as if she had the plague. In the library and the corridor to-day it was as plain as could be. ”

“ He was the gentle breeze to the vacillation of the playful creepers, and as the god Hari in his valour and energy. He shone as the moon on the florets of good manners, and as wildfire to the brambles of licentiousness.
25. His consort was the happy Líla, playful as her name implied, and fraught with every grace, as if the goddess of prosperity, had appeared in person upon earth.
26. She was gentle with her submissiveness to her lord, and was sweet in her speech without art; she was always happy and slow in her movements, and ever smiling as the moon. ”

“ The baby's all right, and that's enough."
As soon as mamma's hands were at liberty, she thought she would just look in and see what kept the darling so quiet. "All right," indeed! What a spectacle she beheld!
On the bricks before the fire, her pretty white skirts much too near the ashes, sat Baby Lila, having a glorious time. She had found her dear little plate empty; but the brown pitcher was full enough. She had dropped the plate, dipped the feather-duster into the yeast, and proceeded to spread it about, on her clean clothes, on the bricks, on the floor, everywhere. ”

“ There's no wind to-night. The candles won't even flicker."
As if the stopping of the automobile had been a signal, the front door swung quietly open and a Chinese [Pg 329] butler in white linen appeared against a background of soft coloring and subdued lights.
As Lila entered the house her knees shook a little. She felt that she was definitely committing herself to what she must always regret. She was a fly walking deliberately into a spider's parlor. That the young man hitherto had behaved most circumspectly, she dared not count in his favor. ”

“ Name’s Lila. She just got back from school, I understand. She’s about twenty years old. I ain’t never met the lady, but I can say she’s a mighty pretty girl. I heard a rumor that she wasn’t Angel’s sister, and that she just found out that old Rance ain’t her father. Anyway, she had quit the ranch and was livin’ in town when I left there. They say Angel is stuck on her, but she’d be a fool to marry him. He’s crooked; and it don’t pay to play crooked in that town. Them cattlemen sabe poker, and they sure declare an open season on yuh the first time yuh make a break. ”

“ In her doubt she appealed to Lilas, broaching the subject as the two girls were dressing after the performance.
"An apartment?" echoed the latter. "Why, my building is full of them.
Who wants one?"
"I do."
"You—?" Lilas turned with her mouth full of hair-pins, and her hands halted in their nimble duties.
When Lorelei had made known her decision, the other girl nodded her approval.
"I don't blame you a bit; a girl needs liberty. I have five rooms, and a Jap to take care of them; they're lovely." ”

“ Wild possibilities rose at once in the girl's mind. Could he have known from Aurelia? Could he have arranged— No, for he took no interest in her arrival; hardly glanced in her direction. He was smoking, and when the train came he got into the smoking car without so much as glancing back to see where Jonesy was bestowing Lita.
The train, which was a slow one, was empty. Lita settled herself by a window and opened her geometry. She said to herself:
"I simply will not sit and watch the door. If he means to come he'll come, and my watching won't change things one way or the other." ”

“ It was a long time since Lydia had heard any music, and the music of the second act of Samson and Delilah, the long sweeping chords on the harp, began to trouble her, as the coming thunderstorm seemed to be troubling Delilah.
Her long abstraction from any artistic impression made her as susceptible as a child. The moonlight flooded her with a primitive glamour, her nerves crept to the music of the incredibly sweet duet; and when at last Samson followed Delilah into her house Lydia felt as if the soprano's triumph were her own. ”

“ I followed her into the parlor, and I saw Lill. If you are a country girl who read, and have ever been suddenly confronted with a city young lady in the height of fashion, to whom you were expected to make yourself agreeable, you can, perhaps, understand what I felt; particularly if by nature you are not only sensitive, but somewhat vain, as I am sorry to confess I was. I had been used to think myself as well-dressed, and as well-looking as any of my young neighbors; I was neither as well-dressed nor as well-looking as Lill Simmonds.
Nelly was right. She was a beauty. ”