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American Sunday Monthly Magazine Section
two-step Freddy Burgoyne had begun at the piano,
I heard Algernon whisper to her fiercely as he
helped her up:
‘‘Pull yourself together this minute, darling -or
I'll make you— before them all.” 11 is face was
savage, and yet full of pas
sionate admiration — for any
thing so superbly beautiful as
the lovely creature looked,
pouting there on the floor and
then laughing and showing all
her white teeth, I cannot im
agine. The whole scene was
one of horrible pain, and I
determined to escape from it,
so pleading the desire also for
air I got Lord Catesby to take
me up on deck. There we
found Hugh and Letitia pac
ing up and down wrapped in
thick coats in the wind.
After a minute or two, we
four went back into the deck
house, and from below could
hear the sounds of wild
laughter, and now the rattle
of castanets. Evidently the
fun and dancing were still go
ing on. Then presently, flush
ed and panting, Kathleen and
t he t hrec young men and Lang-
thorpe appeared at the bottom of the companion.
“I tell you, 1 am not in the least afraid,” we
heard her say. “ 1 shall go with you to-morrow to
Southampton, Algernon, in your 1-ire Queen. That
jolly Neptune will look after us, and we will show
these old frumps how fast we can rush along. I
will be ready at half-past twelve sharp on the steps
by the pier-then we can get a better start in that
long piece of smooth water,” and her mocking laugh
rang out. Hugh rose from his seat and stood on
the top of the stair.
“ I simply won’t allow you to go in this weather,
Kathleen,” he said sternly. " It is dangerous enough
for Algernon alone, but with the responsibility of
another passenger —it is sheer madness—and re
member you cannot swim.”
She looked up wickedly at him.
“Don’t flatter yourself I shall pay the slightest
attention to your commands, old fidgety darling,”
she laughed. “It is a fine time of day for you to
begin taking an interest in me.”
Hugh got very pale, and his face hardened into
stone.
“I absolutely forbid you to go—do you hear?” he
said, icily. “Algernon, I request you to help me by
refusing to take her —you know the danger yourself.”
Algernon murmured something in a rather inso
lent tone, the actual words of which I could not
hear, and Letitia, with her usual tact, diverted the
ugly situation by asking if the lemon squashes were
in the saloon; and so a general move there was made,
and when I got close to Algernon I whispered my
entreaties to him not to think of starting to-morrow
if the sea was as rough as it is to-night—but he only
laughed in my face, and answered:
“ Really, Mother, you are all such a set of wretched
old mollycoddles; I wonder you don’t suggest my
running an old paddle boat thank goodness, Kath
leen is not like you; she has got some pluck.”
There was nothing more to be said, 1 saw, but as
I do not think Kathleen will dare to really disobey
Hugh, Algernon may decide to stay with her and
not start alone. 1 must comfort myself with that.
Hugh and I had hardly exchanged a single word,
but when we said good night a little while later, he
held my hand for an instant, and he whispered:
“I hope you think, Guinevere, that I bear it as
well as I can.”
And now 1 am wide awake, sleep will not come—
the hideous picture of Hugh’s unhappiness is haunt
ing me, and the defiance on the face of my son.
What will the morrow bring, only trouble of some
sort even if they do not go in the I'irc Queen—all is
at such tension 1 feel it in the air, and Letitia has not
come to chat with me in my cabin, as is her wont.
She too, is oppressed with the dreadful situation,
although I hope she does not guess the deeper
meaning which 1 know.
(Continued on pngc 12)
her wishes. She bargained for money and
freedom, and she has had them. Hardly
anything remains of the actual things we
planted together, you and 1, Guinevere,
except the vine — the grapes on it are
splendid, as I told you they would be.”
“1 know it all scorches, Hugh,” I faltered,
“but in the big pain the smaller ones are
swallowed up; we must try not to feel the
lesser hurts any longer.”
He looked down at me so tenderly, his
dear blue eyes seeking mine for comfort as
one who is starving from long abstinence,
and then he spoke again:
“When I sit alone in my sitting-room in
the evenings she never enters there, thank
Heaven!- I seem to realize more clearly than
ever how perfect you were, dear love. All
your understanding of me your indulgence
toward my selfishnesses, your sympathy,
your comprehension, your untiring thought
for me and your devotion -How I ordered
you about! And how utterly sweet and
always loving you were. Ah! there is no
other woman so gentle and tender in the
world, Guinevere. You never once crossed
my wishes or were anything but fond and
submissive, with that submission which
seems as though it were lavishing that which
its own self desires to give. I sit there in
the big leather chair and think of it all. Do
you remember you sat in it sometimes, Be
loved One, and I sat by your knees on the
low seat and you stroked my hair? And
often 1 seem to feel with a quiver the touch
of your soft fingers, and it stabs afresh my
heart. We always talked then of the ten-
derest, most beautiful things, darling, drink
ing in each other’s souls.”
We dined together on the Hermione, our
whole party in honor of Hugh’s arriv al. In
our walk back to the gardens, I had tried to
speak of lighter things to hide the agony in
my heart — and we had talked of Bransdale
and what Hugh had done there, and then we
joined Letitia again sitting now in her usual
chair by the tree on the steep, sloping lawn
above the landing stage—and Hugh went off
in his launch in the rough water. The two
yachts were lying very close together, or I
do not think we could have ventured to
have gone to dine; the incessant storms which have
blasted this summer are still going on. We were
quite splashed with spray even in our hooded elec
tric launch and glad to be hoisted on board.
Kathleen was in full evening dress—a most daring
arrangement of skin-tight twisted draperies, show
ing every line of her glorious figure. She looked
the incarnation of voluptuous young womanhood,
and the spirit of her great-grandmother seemed
strong in her to-night; she flashed her eyes and
undulated in her movements with a perpetual sug
gestion of cakewalk, which she pretended was caused
by the rolling of the yacht, until Algernon whispered
something to her, a peremptory, passionate order,
and then she was still, throwing herself among the
cushions on the sofa in the deckhouse where some
of us were sitting; the party was too large for us all
to be there, so the rest had gone below. Here she
pouted and sulked until dinner was announced, and
we all went down. Hugh had not yet appeared
from his cabin, but joined us in the saloon.
1 had not seen him and Kathleen together since
that day in February at lunch at Minton Dremont,
except in church when they could not speak, and I
saw at once that the situation between them was
more than ever strained. She spent the time in
hurling ceaseless jibes at him, or in whispering jokes
to Henry Germaine who was on her left hand,—and
making everyone at the table hideously uncomfort
able, while my son’s eyes blazed with furious passion,
and I knew that the devil was in them both.
Hugh behaved with great dignity, apparently tak
ing not the slightest notice of her, but confining his
conversation to Letitia who sat on his right hand—
and I, who was on his left, devoted my whole atten
tion to Freddy Burgoyne. Thus the dinner went
on and ended and then Kathleen said she meant
to dance she had just learned the tango and she
must teach it to Algernon and Henry Germaine.
Then Kathleen sat on the
table and dangled her feet.
The movement of the ship
was not very great but she
made the most of it
She has had a player attachment put on to Hugh’s
old piano, and she insisted upon Langthorpe sitting
down and playing it, while she gyrated about sway
ing her hips, in the rather limited space in the centre
of the saloon. The dining table is at the side, and
behind it on the sofa Letitia and Hugh and I still
sat with Lord Catesby, while Freddy Burgoyne stood
clapping his hands to keep time.
It is ridiculous for people to be disapproving or
shocked at the ways of this age—and youth must
have its expression, but never at any theatre have
I seen anything so alluringly wicked, or unmistak
ably suggestive, as was the dancing of Kathleen,
while she practised her tango with First Henry and
then Algernon. My son’s eyes swam with passion,
and Hugh’s face was very pale, and had on it an
expression of hideous disgust, and he steadily averted
his gaze. Then, when the fun was at its height, he
rose and asking Letitia if she would not like some air,
went with her out of the door and up to the deck
house.
At this, Kathleen turned and made a face at his
retreating figure, like a naughty street child, and
Lord Catesby, frowning and red with chagrin, got
up and said something in her ear. But her temper
was evidently too excited to be calmed.
“Why don’t you go to the deck house, too, then,
Papa!” she cried aloud, “and join my precious hus
band if you don’t like our fun. Lord Langthorpe’s
the only darling old man 1 have ever known!”
Algernon looked uncomfortable—he hates her to
be in this mood, 1 amid plainly see—he interposed
here, and suggested that Langthorpe might be
tired of playing, and that some lemon squashes
would be a good thing. Then Kathleen sat on the
table and dangled her feet. The movement of the
ship was not very great, but she made the most of it,
and pretended to slip off on to the floor—and while I
answered Lord Catesby in the general din of a new