FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146  
147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   >>   >|  
ng. I don't go barking and biting at the poor sheep's heels (_have_ sheep heels?), for the sheep here are pampered and sensitive, and their feelings have to be considered, or they jump over the fence and go frisking away. Besides, I always think it must give dogs such headaches to bark as they do! Instead, I make myself agreeable and do pretty parlour tricks, which would be far beneath St. George's dignity; and, anyhow, _he_ couldn't do tricks to save his life. His place is on the mountain tops, so I sit in the valley below, and give the weakest sheep tea and smile at them or weep with them, whichever they like better." The cousins laughed, both looking very young and happy, and pleased with themselves and each other. They were almost exactly of the same age, twenty-three, and as children had played together in the pleasant old Kentucky town which had given them both their soft, winning drawl. But Dick's people had moved North, and hers had stayed in the South, until three years ago, when Rose and her father had started off on a tour of Europe. In England she met George Winter, and did the one thing of all others which she would have vowed never to do: she fell in love with a clergyman. They had been married three months ago in Louisville, had then visited his parents in Devonshire; and because Winter had not fully recovered tone since an attack of influenza, he had accepted a chaplaincy in the south of France. Rose Fitzgerald and Dick Carleton, children of sisters, had put a marker in the book of their old friendship, and were able to open it at the page where they had left off years ago. She was not in the least hurt because he had let more than a fortnight go by before calling, for she knew that he had come for the aviation, and must have had head and hands full. She was not aware that he found time to see a good deal of another young woman who had no claim of old friendship; but even if she had known, she would have understood and forgiven almost as one man understands and forgives another. For quaintly feminine as she was, Rose often said, and felt, that "before a woman can be a true lady she must be a gentleman." And, being a gentleman, she can learn to be a "good fellow"--an invaluable accomplishment for a woman. "I saw you fly, you know," she said, when they had finished laughing. "I went to Nice on purpose--that is, nearly on purpose. I combined it with buying a dress, a perfectly sweet Paris dress, which I
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146  
147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
children
 

gentleman

 

purpose

 
Winter
 

friendship

 

George

 

tricks

 

fortnight

 

feelings

 

sensitive


aviation

 
calling
 

pampered

 
considered
 
attack
 

influenza

 

accepted

 

chaplaincy

 

recovered

 

France


marker

 

Fitzgerald

 

Carleton

 

sisters

 

accomplishment

 
invaluable
 

fellow

 

barking

 

finished

 

laughing


perfectly

 

buying

 
combined
 

understood

 

forgiven

 

biting

 

feminine

 

quaintly

 

understands

 

forgives


parents
 
parlour
 

pretty

 

pleased

 

agreeable

 
played
 

pleasant

 
Instead
 
twenty
 

beneath