PAGE 10
The Purple Parasol
by
FRIDAY NIGHT.
“Havens and Mrs. W. went hill-climbing this afternoon and were gone for an hour before I missed them. Then I took Aunt Jo and Debby out for a quick climb. Confound Aunt Jo! She got tired in ten minutes and Debby wouldn’t go on without her. I think it was a put-up job. The others didn’t return till after six. She asked me if I’d like to walk about the grounds after dinner. Said I would. We did. Havens went with us. Couldn’t shake him to save my life.”
SATURDAY NIGHT.
“I have to watch myself constantly to keep from calling her Mrs. Wharton. I believe writing her real name is bad policy. It makes me forget. After this I shall call her Miss Dering, and I’ll speak of him as Dudley. This morning he asked me to call him ‘Jim.’ He calls me ‘Sam.’ Actors do get familiar. When she came downstairs to go driving with him this morning I’ll swear she was the prettiest thing I ever saw. They took a lunch and were gone for hours. I’d like to punch his face. She was very quiet all evening, and I fancied she avoided me. I smelt liquor on his breath just before bedtime.
“One A. M.–I thought everybody had gone to bed, but they are out there on the veranda talking. Just outside her windows. I distinctly heard him call her ‘dearest.’ Something must have alarmed them, for they parted abruptly. He walked the veranda for an hour, all alone. Plenty of evidence.”
SUNDAY NIGHT.
“For appearance’s sake he took Miss Crozier for a walk to-day. I went to the chapel down the hill with Miss Dering and Aunt Josephine. Aunt Josephine put a ten-dollar bill in the box. Thinks she’s squaring herself with the Lord, I suppose. Miss Dering was not at all talkative and gave every sign of being uncomfortable because he had the audacity to go walking with another girl. In the afternoon she complained of being ill and went to her room. Later on she sent for Dudley and Mrs. Van Haltford. They were in her room all afternoon. I smoked on the terrace with Debby. She is the most uninteresting girl I ever met. But she’s on to their game. I know it because she forgot herself once, when I mentioned Miss Dering’s illness, and said: ‘Poor girl! She is in a most trying position. Don’t you think Mr. Dudley is a splendid fellow?’ I said that he was very good- looking, and she seemed to realize she had said something she ought not to have said and shut up. I’m sorry she’s sick, though. I miss that parasol dreadfully. She always has it, and I can see her a mile away. Usually he carries it, though. Well, I suppose he has a right–as original owner. Jim and I smoked together this evening, but he evidently smells a mouse. He did not talk much, and I caught him eying me strangely several times.”
MONDAY NIGHT.
“Dudley has departed. I believe they are on to me. He went to Boston this afternoon, and he actually was gruff with me just before leaving. The size of the matter is, some one has posted him, and they are all up to my game as a spy. I wish I were out of it. Never was so ashamed of a thing in my life; don’t feel like looking any one in the face. They’ve all been nice to me. But what’s the difference? They’re all interested. She went to the train with him and–the rest of us. I’ll never forget how sad she looked as she held his hand and bade him good-by. I carried the parasol back to the hotel, and I know I hurt her feelings when I maliciously said that it would look well with a deep black border. She almost looked a hole through me. Fine eyes. I don’t know what is coming next. She is liable to slip out from under my eye at any time and fly away to meet him somewhere else. I telegraphed this message to Grover & Dickhut: