Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 32, Number 113, 12 May 1907 — Page 6

Copyright, 1907, by Thomas H. HcKtt. M RS. ARBUTHNOT followed Barbara to her room after luncheon and inquired, in a carefully suppresed voice, whether she had noticed how abstracted Garth was when she asked him if he'd hare coffee. "He has been here hardly a week," she lamented, and he's already thinking of his work." "What is he doing?" inquired Barbara, leaning "back luxuriously in a big chintz-covered chair and tning to look unconcerned. "I don't know research work, he calls it," said Mrs. Arbuthnot; and relapsed into troubled thought. When she emerged it was with a remark seemingly irrelevant. "If Kittie Etheridge could only have come sooner," the sighed. Barbara grasping her meaning, sat up and glanced conscientiously into the mirror, surveying her own very white skin and very blue eyes, and hair that always looked as if it had just been washed. She shook her head, trying to regret her own unavailability in her hostess' dilemma. Ordinary good looks she did not disclaim, but beauty to hold the attention of a science-mad student like Garth was not hers. "When do you expect Kittie?" she asked, smothering her relief at escaped responsibility. "Not for three weeks. She is making another visit first. If we could only keep him interested in something until she comes." Barbara leaned back again, stretching her round arms comfortably above her head. "I don't believe research work is as hard as teaching school," she said, "or he wouldn't have to have his vacations with trimmings." Mrs. Arbuthnot looked sympathetically at the girl. "To think of the money your father left and you having to earn your own living," she said almost tearfully. "It is the saddest story." "The story of a trustee," said Barbara, "too old to be interesting. Anyway, the work is good for me. I am a disgracefully indolent person by nature. You don't know how heavenly your big, quiet house, seems." "And I want you to enjoy it all you can, my dear." Her kind eyes were on her guest; evidently her mind was not. "Garth thinks Kittie has a classic face," she' said. "Couldn't we hurry her up some way," suggested Barbara hopefully. "No; everyone wants her. If we could only ageBarbara wrinkled her brows with humorous resig nation. "I'll try to be a little more entertaining," she said. "But Garth never did know whether I was in the room or not, even when we were children." "No." Mrs. Arbuthnot agreed to their lack of resources. "If she understood how .much depended on her but we couldn't very well tell her that." Barbara's expression at last reflected her hostess concern. "No we couldn't do that," agreed Mrs. Arbuthnot, "but we'll try to keep him till she comes. You've a month, haven't you?" "Yes, thanks to the measles," said Barbara. "We divided things up. The little girls have the measles and I have the vacation." "And I want you to make the most of it." Mrs. Arbuthnot regarded the girl with affectionate eyes. "I shall not bother you with any more of my worries. Io you suppose Garth would like a fruit pudding for dinner?" "I'm sure he would." laughed Barbara. "I know & fruit pudding would make me forget research work." "Garth!" said Barbara. She was In her favorite corner of the library and Garth, after telling her how terribly behind his work was getting, had wandered off into the lighted end of the room and was taking the books from the shelves and returning them in vl abstracted sort of way. Another week had gone, uid it was more than evident that he was straining at his tether. "What is it, Barbara?" he said, pausing with his hand on another book. But Barbara, after speaking his name, had relapsed into silence. She was wearing the expression of a humorous martyr, but that he could not see, even after he strolled over and stood before her, politely requesting the conclusion of her speech. She was quite deliberate about making it. "You never knew, did you," she said with a queer little quaver in her voice, "that I was in love with you?" Mr. Arbuthnot knit his brows. "What do you mean, Barbara?" he demanded. "Just what I say," she repeated softly, "that you nevor knew I was in love with you" "Why, Barbara," he began, in a tone kindly but ti ncomf ort able. "Oh I am not in love with you now," reassurance lr. her voice. "Don't let it worry you." It doesn't worry me in the least, only astonishes me. You've always had the name of not caring fcr anyone, you know. There was that man from New Orleans " He was evidently groping in his rueratry for the time when Barbara's actions might have &rned him of her tender feeling?. . Barbara laughed a little. "I didn't know you no

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ticed such things." she said. "Oh, I always kept a brotherly eye on your affairs when you lived next door." She laughed again with real amusement. "Why, Garth Arbuthnot! You never knew whether I was rext door or not. You were always absorbed in something or other. It may have been your indifference " Garth waited for her to finish this, but as it had never been intended to be finished he waited in vain.

"I DON'T ''Was it before you went away to school?" he said. "It is not for me to tell you," said Barbara decidedly. "It is very unflattering that you cannot recall any occasions that might locate the time for you." As she could not recall any herself this was distinctly unfair. He remained standing before her, a puzzled scowl on his face. "We were together a good deal that summer after I came home from Europe the first time, weren't we?" he said. Her enjoyment bubbled out again. "Not that I remember." she responded promptly. "That professor from Munich was there all summer. You never looked across the hedge." "Is that so? He was a wonderful chap, that professor. I must look him up when I go over again." "I would." said Miss Grant. Garth's meditative gaze came back to her. "That vacation before my senior year," he began in a tone indicative of having at last struck a trail. "That was the time we were so devoted to going up the river in little canoes in the twilight." He looked down at her with tentative triumph. She returned the look demurely. "You may have spent your twilights in a little canoe that summer," she said, "I spent mine In the Adirondacks." It was quite ten minutes later, when Garth had gone back to the bookshelves, that a delightfully Irrepressible peal of laughter came from Barbara's dusky corner. "What are you laughing at, Barbara?" he demanded, amused irritation in his voice. "I was thinking," said Barbara, "of the past week." "Well," said Garth, towering over her with in-

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quiring gaze, "will you kindly give me, a hint as to what has happened in the past week that could be considered amusing?" "Let mc see," said Barbara. "Last night we discussed art, politics, and religion, didn't we? At least I discussed and you went to sleep metaphorically only," at a gesture of protest from him. "The night before, we " "Are you explaining why you laughed?" he said. "No," Barbara shook her head. "I don't believe,

SEE WHAT KITTIE HAS TO DO WITH IT," HE after all, I can explain that. You wouldn't understand it, and if you should, it would spoil the joke." Mr. Arbuthnot was scowling. "You used not to deal in half meanings, this way," he said. "You don't know at all what I used to do, Garth," she responded. "You really know no more about me than if we had just been introduced. Come on into the other room. Your mother is going to show me her photographs of Kittie Etheridge." Barbara sat in the sunny window-seat in the dining room, an expression of deep interest upon her countenance. Mrs. Arbuthnot, still sitting behind the silver coffee urn, and Mary Ann, standing just inside the swing door, were carrying on an antiphonal exercise with the cook books. The subject related to certain cookies which had been approved by Garth on a previous visit. "One cup butter, two cups sugar, three eggs," chanted Mary Ann, "one-half cup citron " Garth doesn't like citron." said Garth's mother. "Listen to this: One and one-fourth cups sugar, one cup butter, six eggs, one cup hickory nut meats " Mary Ann interrupted promptly in her turn. "You Can't get decent hickory nuts. One and one-halt pounds sugar, one and one-fourth pounds melted butter, five eggs " "Too rich. This sounds more like it: One cup butter, one and one-half cups " "Here!" Mary Ann planted her fat forefinger in the middle of the next page and burst into another recitative. Garth came to the door and looked in, at his mother's do-or-die - expression and at Barbara's serious mouth and mocking eyes. "What's up?" he said. "Why don't you people come into the OXher room? Has Barbara's indolence de-

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veloped so that she now plans to wait in the diningroom for the next meal?" Mrs. Arbuthnot beamed at her son. He had not previously displayed any impatience with her staying out of his way. "Ungrateful!" said Barbara. "Who played a Chopin accompaniment to your dreams last evening? Who listened politely to an article on the Science of Something or Other this morning? Who " "Weren't you interested in that?" demanded Garth. "Not in the least," said Barbara decidedly. He looked chagrined. "Why did you listen to It?" "To give you the pleasure of reading it." "But Barbara " began Mrs Arbuthnot reprovingly. "That's right, mother," said Garth. "Somebody ought to tell her what she is, and I can't." Mrs. Arbuthnot was looking as reproachful as was possible for her. "I don't see, my dear," she said plaintively, "why you needed to tell him you weren't interested." Barbara broke into a laugh and Garth joined her. Mrs. Arbuthnot, pleased but puzzled, looked from one to the other. "Which of these recipes am I going to make, Mrs. Arbuthnot?" said Mary Ann. "Make them all, Mary Ann," said Barbara; "I love cookies." "So do I, Mary Ann," said Garth. "We were trying, my so"n," said Mrs. Arbuthnot, "to decide which of these it was you were so fond of last year." "Read the recipes to hin Mary Ann," cried Barbara. "Let's see whether he'll be polite enough to listen." "I'm going out Immediately," said Garth. "Oh! oh!" cried Barbara, "both rude and untruthful." "It Is the truth," said Garth. "I am going to walk and you are coming with me." "Whether I like it or not?" queried Barbara, leaning back in her window seat. "Yes. I shall enjoy it," said Garth,

SAID. "Do go, my dear," urged Mrs . Arbuthnot. "Garth loves to walk and it is stupid walking alone. When Kittie comes " Barbara rose, the mocking laughter deepening in her eyes. "I am at your service, Mr. Arbuthnot," she said. Garth looked at her with speculative gaze as they went down the steps together. "You are a most puzzling young woman, Barbara," he said. "You had quite made up your mind not to come for a walk. I could see that; and then without any reason for changing your mind, you did change it." "I was suddenly reminded of the unavoidable absence of the leading lady," said Barbara. Garth stopped still In the street to look at her. Then he caught her arm to turn her down an attractive side-street. "We will walk until your conversation becomes rational," he said. Kittle had come. She sat in the drawing-room, talking, laughing, jumping up to examine something new, giving little exclamations of pleasure over being there, touching Mrs Arbuthnot caressingly, and bestowing glances friendly, coquettish, indifferent all kinds of glances upon Garth. Mrs. Arbuthnot smiling, placid, had the air of one who, at last, shares responsibility with capable hands. Blucber had arrived in the most charming of gowns and hats. Barbara, blinking her blue eyes in the light, came in from the dusky library. She had on a dress just not too shabby to be allowable. She had selected it after wavering in what she called a foolish manner over more becoming costumes. She was glad of her decision when she saw Kitty for her best would have been even as the one she wore, beside Kittie's, Mil

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and her most becoming could not have made hcT'-j to shine with even candle radiance beside the astou-"-" ishing gold and white and rose-colored loveliness of'-. Miss Etheridge. They had a very gay evening. Kittioplayed and sang and told, in the most charmingly" confidential ways, alt the nice things that people had r said to her at the house party, and Mrs. Arbuthnot, with thi- smile of assured repose and one eye on her son, coaxed her to tell more. Garth sat in sil-TT! ence, his smiling gaze on Kittie's classic face. Barbara, after giving a generous amount of what good" manners required, slipped back into the library, for after all Kittie was their friend, not hers, and since ' she herself was leaving in a day or two. it seemed X hardly necessary to cultivate the acquaintance. -."- "Moreover, you were only cultivating envy and all"" imeharitableness by staying," she told herself, as she settled back fn the big, deep chair. . " You were getting surer and surer that you could not live happy without a gray broadcloth trimmed with silver fur, -. and yellow hair with a wave In it. It was wisest for you to retire from that glittering scene, Barbara, and ' meditate upon the mutability of material joys." ; She had meditated for something like half an hour " when Garth stood before her. "What are you doing in here?" he demanded. "Nothing," said Barbara truthfully. He drew up a chair and sat down, leaning his head back so that he looked at her from beneath lowered lids. "I want to know, Barbara," he began " " "Garth, for gracious sake, go back to the drawing-i( room!" cried Barbara. "What for?" "Why, because Kittie's there, of course. Your mother will get to worrying again. Go back immediately." She leaned forward in her earnestness. "Why will it worry mother to have me in here with. ' -you?" "It Isn't that it is simply that you are not entertaining Kittie. She is quite the most wonderfully ' pretty girl I ever saw. Garth. You will stay, of course, while she is here. Your mother will be so Garth leaned forward too, which brought his dark eyes close to her blue ones. ' "The length of my stay," he said, "does not depend upon Kittie. I shall stay as long as you do and no longer." ; "But you know I must get back to work, and Kittie ,

"And you know that the one thing I want to do la to work for you." He reached out and took both of her hands. "I don't see what Kittie has to do with It," he said. "It is you I want." "Oh, Garth!" cried Barbara, trying to pull away her hands. "It is just because I made you think I was in love with you and so you tried " "Don't talk nonsense, Barbara," he said abruptly.. "Do you suppose a man of my age knows whether he Is in love or not. I believe I always loved you. I. guess it was sub-conscious, but anyway I'm sure it -as there." "But, Garth," Barbara was talking low and fast, trying to explain. "I maa that up. It wasn't really; 'WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT? HE ASKED. 1 an untruth, because I never said I had loved you. f, only said you never knew I had, which was true,Garth did not stop to argue this point in ethics, though had it come to a discussion his opiniaaf would have differed greatly from hers. t "That is all quite beside the question, Barbara, he said: "I love you and I am going to marry you." He pulled her toward him and put his arms aboutj her. "But can't you understand?" she protested with her face against his shoulder. "It is just as If I haI schemed to get you. You never would have thought of me if " "Don't say that again. I have always thought ofyou." "I only did it." Barbara was still explaining in muffled tones,-"because your mother wanted to keep; you till Kittie came and I knew nothing Interested ,. you except research work." He held her back to look In her face and shook her . gently. "Do you love me?" he said. She dropped her shamed eyes and he drew her , back to him again with a contented laugh. 'How long, Barbara?" he said. I don't know." said Barbara with her eves hidden again. "I didn't know it until Kittie came."

Oliver.