FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86  
87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   >>   >|  
ing in that afternoon. You and I have hit it off so well, and here I'm confiding in you! It was a regular luck sign, I think." Kate's voice, when she spoke, fell to its deeper, richer tones. "And I'm sure I feel flattered--any girl would. I really thank you--you don't know how much." "And you'll help me, won't you?" "With my advice--yes." "Well, that's all I want. If I win this game, I want to win it square. "Say, you are sure the goods. You're as pretty--it wouldn't be natural for a man to say you're as pretty as she is, but a man can just look at you and wonder--" and here he dropped one of his hands gently upon hers. She let it rest there a moment before she drew away. "We'd better be going back," she said. "They'll think it's I and not Eleanor, if we stay so long." As they started, he stooped to get her another drink. Standing above him, her hand lifted toward her student beri, she bent her gaze on his back. A peculiar look it was, as though an effort against pain. It faded into an expression like hunger. CHAPTER VIII It seemed afterward to Bertram Chester, reviewing the early events of a life in which he was well pleased, that his real attack on things, his virtual beginning, came with that house-party of the Masters's. The victory of his smile on the staircase he followed up that evening to a general conquest. For Masters, when dinner was over, brewed a hot punch. They drank it about the driftwood fire, and even the severe Marion Slater relaxed and made merry. The essence of the gods strips self-control and delicacy first, so that the finer wit goes by without tribute of a laugh and the wit of poked fingers--especially if it be sauced by personality--rules at the board. After the punch had worked sunshine in them, the poked finger of this young barbarian was more compelling than the sallies of Masters or the mimicry of Harry Banks. When the party dispersed at the Sausalito Ferry and scattered for a workaday Monday, he found himself accepting invitations left and right. Dr. French asked him to motor out to the Cliff House that very night; Mrs. Masters wanted him to dinner; Harry Banks must have him over to his ranch under Tamalpais. Kate Waddington, mounting the steps to Banks's automobile, slipped him a farewell word. "You were a success," she said. "That's the reward of naughty little boys when they reform!" "Well, I'd have liked to smash his face just the same--then." "Yo
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86  
87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Masters
 

pretty

 

dinner

 
personality
 
sauced
 
tribute
 

fingers

 

brewed

 

driftwood

 

conquest


general
 
victory
 

staircase

 

evening

 

strips

 

control

 

delicacy

 

essence

 

Marion

 

severe


Slater
 

relaxed

 

worked

 
mounting
 

Waddington

 
automobile
 
farewell
 

slipped

 

Tamalpais

 

wanted


reform

 

success

 
reward
 
naughty
 

sallies

 
mimicry
 

Sausalito

 

dispersed

 

compelling

 

finger


barbarian

 

scattered

 
French
 

invitations

 
Monday
 
workaday
 

accepting

 

sunshine

 
effort
 

square