FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>   >|  
exclaimed softly, as Winnie's mildly inquiring face appeared around a narrow alley between the close-packed flowering plants. "I'm coming to-morrow, before breakfast--" Willa shook her head, the light waning in her eyes. "No, not to-morrow, Kearn. There is something that I must do, something I cannot put aside even--even for you." "In the evening, then? I must see you to-morrow sometime! It's going to be hard enough to live through to-night!" She nodded, and, not trusting herself to speak again, turned and slipped away to meet Winnie Mason. That placidly dense young man was mightily pleased with the effusive greeting with which she favored him, and had she vision enough to note it, she might have read in his worshiping eyes a like message to that which she had just heard. But she was blind, dazed in the light of her own swiftly gained wondrous happiness. The music, the dancers, the little crystal-laden supper-tables, the final romp all passed in a kaleidoscopic dream before her, and only the wintry night wind beating upon her in a frigid blast, as she stepped from the awninged passage-way to the limousine, awakened her to a sense of reality. Just then, the flash of a street-lamp in at the window fell for a passing moment on Angie's face as she sat half-turned from her cousin and Willa caught her breath to stifle a sudden startled exclamation. She had seen Angie in many fits of temper, sullen and raging, but never had the girl's expression been so fiendish! The doll-like beauty was gone in a distortion of anger, but there was a suggestion of malignant triumph, too, which aroused Willa's apprehension. She knew that in her heart Angie despised her as an upstart and bitterly resented her small success in the social world, beside blaming her for the episode with Starr Wiley. She remembered, too, how Angie had betrayed her to him. In her maddening anxiety for Tia Juana's safety, Willa had given no thought to the means Wiley must have used to reinstate himself once more in her cousin's willing eyes. Was this evidence of fury directed against her because she had been the unwitting cause of Kearn Thode's defection in the matter of the two dances, or was something deeper and more significant in the wind? Willa was not left in doubt for long. She had scarcely finished her preparations for the night and was braiding her long black hair into a massive rope, when a light, brittle tapping came upon her
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
morrow
 

cousin

 

Winnie

 

turned

 

suggestion

 
triumph
 
malignant
 

success

 
resented
 

upstart


bitterly

 

despised

 
apprehension
 

aroused

 
startled
 

sudden

 
exclamation
 
stifle
 

breath

 

moment


caught

 

temper

 

beauty

 

distortion

 

fiendish

 

raging

 

sullen

 

social

 

expression

 

dances


deeper

 
significant
 

matter

 

unwitting

 

defection

 
scarcely
 

brittle

 
tapping
 

massive

 
preparations

finished
 

braiding

 
directed
 
anxiety
 

maddening

 

safety

 
betrayed
 

blaming

 
episode
 

remembered