FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  
h. "He'll say, 'Didn't I always tell you so?'" Hubert answered, smiling across the table at his twin sister. Afterwards they lingered on the piazza, talking and laughing, begging to see the manuscript, teasing Theodora about her secretiveness, and congratulating her again and again. It was an attractive group, Theodora in the midst, a tall, handsome girl in the full ripeness of her maidenly beauty, her arm linked in that of her twin brother, while pretty Hope stood facing them, with Archie at her side. Allyn came up to them as they stood there. "Take these, Teddy," he said, holding out his hand. "What are they, Allyn?" she asked, loosing Hubert's arm as she bent down over the child. "Clovers, four-leafed ones. They will bring you luck," he answered, with childish superstition. "How many you find, Allyn! I never see any," she said, taking the handful of green leaves. "Put them in your belt, and the first man you shake hands with, you'll marry," Phebe suggested pertly. "Not I. I'm doomed to old-maidhood," she said, laughing. "Give them to Hope, then," Phebe said, careless of Hope's blushes. "Never. They are mine. You gave them to me, didn't you, Allyn?" "Yes," the child said gravely. "You'd better keep them and put them in your belt. Hope doesn't need them as much as you do." In the midst of the laugh that followed, Theodora went away to her room to write the momentous letter which should accept the publisher's offer. It cost her some pains to write it, to attain the proper degree of indifference, equally removed from coldness and from childish eagerness. The clock beside her told that an hour had passed over her task, and a little heap of torn papers lay on the desk before her when the maid came to call her. "There's some one in the parlor to see you, Miss Theodora." "Who?" "He didn't tell me his name." "Bother take him!" Theodora remarked to herself. Then she added aloud, "Well, I'll be right down." It was characteristic of Theodora that she delayed to give no glance at the mirror. Just as she was, with her ruffled hair and in her simple pink morning gown, she ran down the stairway and entered the cool, dark parlor. As she crossed the threshold, the guest rose to greet her,--a guest with a tall, athletic figure, a sunburned face, keen blue eyes, and a mass of reddish golden hair. "Billy!" "Ted!" "Where did you come from?" "'The Ankworks package.'" "But really?" "
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  



Top keywords:
Theodora
 

parlor

 

childish

 
laughing
 

Hubert

 

answered

 

publisher

 

momentous

 

accept

 

letter


passed

 
equally
 

Bother

 
coldness
 
eagerness
 

indifference

 

removed

 

papers

 

attain

 

degree


proper

 

sunburned

 

figure

 

athletic

 

crossed

 
threshold
 

Ankworks

 

package

 

reddish

 

golden


characteristic

 

delayed

 
remarked
 

stairway

 

entered

 

morning

 

glance

 

mirror

 

ruffled

 

simple


doomed
 
Archie
 

facing

 

pretty

 

maidenly

 
beauty
 

linked

 
brother
 
loosing
 

Clovers