FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   344   345   346   347   348   349   350   351   352   353   354  
355   356   357   358   359   360   361   362   363   364   365   366   367   >>  
survived in them. And so pondering, it was no wonder that Dan brought no joy to John Ware's library that night. The minister himself seemed unwontedly preoccupied; Sylvia stared at the fire as though seeking in the flames answers to unanswerable questions. Mrs. Ware sought vainly to bring cheer to the company: Shortly after eight o'clock, Sylvia rose to leave. "Aunt Sally got home from Kentucky this afternoon, and I must drop in for a minute, Dan, if you don't mind." Sylvia hardly spoke on the way to Mrs. Owen's. Since that night on the lake she had never been the same, or so it seemed to Dan. She had gone back to her teaching, and when they met she talked of her work and of impersonal things. Once he had broached the subject of marriage,--soon after her return to town,--but she had made it quite clear that this was a forbidden topic. The good comradeship ship and frankness of their intercourse had passed, and it seemed to his despairing lover's heart that it could never be regained. She carried her head a little higher; her smile was not the smile of old. He shrank from telling her that nothing mattered if she cared for him as he believed she did. She gave him no chance, for one thing, and he had never in his bitter self-communing found any words in which to tell her so. More than ever he needed Sylvia, but Sylvia had locked and barred the doors against him. Mrs. Owen received them in her office, and the old lady's cheeriness was grateful to both of them. "So you've been having supper with the Wares, have you, while I ate here all by myself? A nice way to treat a lone old woman,--leaving me to prop the 'Indiana Farmer' on the coffee pot for company! I had to stay at Lexington longer than I wanted to, and some of my Kentucky cousins held me up in Louisville. I notice, Daniel, that there are some doings at the State House. I must say it was a downright sin for old Ridgefield to go duck shooting at his time of life and die just when we were getting politics calmed down in this state. When I saw that old 'Stop, Look, Listen!' editorial printed like a Thanksgiving proclamation in the 'Courier,' I knew there was trouble. I must speak to Atwill. He's letting the automobile folks run the paper again." She demanded to know when Dan would have time to do some work for her; she had disposed of her Kentucky farm and was going ahead with her scheme for a vocational school to be established at Waupegan. This was the f
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   344   345   346   347   348   349   350   351   352   353   354  
355   356   357   358   359   360   361   362   363   364   365   366   367   >>  



Top keywords:

Sylvia

 

Kentucky

 

company

 
grateful
 

wanted

 
cheeriness
 

office

 
notice
 

Daniel

 

barred


received

 

Louisville

 

cousins

 

longer

 
supper
 
leaving
 
coffee
 

Indiana

 

Farmer

 

Lexington


automobile
 

demanded

 

letting

 
Atwill
 

Courier

 

proclamation

 

trouble

 

established

 
school
 
Waupegan

vocational
 

scheme

 
disposed
 

Thanksgiving

 
shooting
 

locked

 

Ridgefield

 

downright

 

Listen

 

editorial


printed

 

politics

 

calmed

 

doings

 

afternoon

 

minute

 

teaching

 
Shortly
 

library

 

minister