The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Courting Of Lady Jane, by Josephine Daskam

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Title: The Courting Of Lady Jane

Author: Josephine Daskam

Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23368]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COURTING OF LADY JANE ***

Produced by David Widger

THE COURTING OF LADY JANE

By Josephine Daskam

Copyright, 1903, by Charles Scribner's Sons

The colonel entered his sister's room abruptly, sat down on her bed, and
scattered a drawerful of fluffy things laid out for packing.

"You don't seem to think about my side of the matter," he said gloomily.
"What am I to do here all alone, for Heaven's sake?"

"That is so like a man," she murmured, one arm in a trunk. "Let me see:
party-boots, the children's arctics, Dick's sweater--did you think I
could live here forever, Cal?"

"Then you shouldn't have come at all. Just as I get thoroughly settled
down to flowers in the drawing-room, and rabbits in a chafing-dish, and
people for dinner, you skip off. Why don't you bring the children here?
What did you marry into the navy for, anyway? Nagasaki! I wouldn't live
in a place called Nagasaki for all that money could buy!"

"You're cross," said Mrs. Dick placidly. "Please get off that
bath-wrapper. If you don't like to live alone--Six bath-towels, Dick's
shoe-bag, my old muff (I hope and pray I'll remember that!) Helen's
reefer--Why don't you marry?"

"Marry? Marry! Are you out of your mind, Dosia? I marry!"

The colonel twisted his grayish mustache into points; a look of horror
spread over his countenance.

"Men have done it," she replied seriously, "and lived. Look at Dick."

"Look at him? But how? Who ever sees him? I've ceased to believe in him,
personally. I can't look across the Pacific. Consider my age, Dosia;
consider my pepper-and-salt hair; consider my bronchitis; consider--"

"Consider your stupidity! As to your hair, I should hate to eat a salad
dressed with that proportion of pepper. As to your age, remember you're
only ten years ahead of me, and I expect to remain thirty-eight for some
time."

"But forty-eight is centenarian to a girl of twenty-two,