The Gay Cockade
had said to himself with long-drawn breath, "She's a corking kid."
And this time there had been no laughter in his eyes.
All that winter Anne worked, a little striving creature, with her head
held high!
Maxwell was in town, for Congress had convened. But he had not come to
see her. Now and then when there was a night session she went up to the
House and sat far back in the Gallery, where, unperceived, she could
listen to her lover's voice. Then she would steal away, a little ghost,
down the shadowy stairway; but there were no games now with Lafayette!
Amy and Murray were to be married in June. They had enjoyed a dignified
and leisurely engagement, and Amy had bloomed in the sunshine of
Murray's approbation. Anne's salary had helped a great deal in getting
the trousseau together. Most of the salary, indeed, had been spent for
that. The table was, as usual, meagre, but Anne had not seemed to care.
She was therefore rather white and thin when, on the day that Congress
adjourned, Maxwell came out to Georgetown to see her. It had been a long
session, and it was spring.
There were white lilacs in a great blue jar in the Merryman library, and
through the long window a glimpse of a thin little moon in a faint green
sky.
As he looked at Anne, Maxwell felt a lump in his throat. She had given
him her hand and had smiled at him. "How are the kittens?" she had asked
in an effort to be gay.
He did not answer her question. He went, rather, directly to the point.
"Anne, why wouldn't you kiss me on that last night?"
She flushed to the roots of her hair. "It--it was because I loved you,
Max."
"I thought so. But you had to prove it to yourself?"
"Yes."
"Anne, that's why I've let you alone all winter--so that you might prove
it. But--I can't go on. It has been an awful winter for me, Anne."
It had been an awful winter for her. But she had come out of it knowing
herself. And even when at last his arms were about her and he was
telling her that he would never let her go, she had a plea to make:
"Don't let me live too softly, Max. Life isn't a feather bed--You belong
to the world. I must go with you toward the big things. But now and then
we'll run back to the farm."
"What do I care where we run, so that we run--together!"
THE NOVELS OF TEMPLE BAILEY
May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
"Although my ancestry is all of New England, I was born in the old town
of Petersburg, Virginia. I went later to Richmond and finally at the age
of five to Washington, D.C., returning to Richmond for a few years in a
girl's school, which was picturesquely quartered in General Lee's
mansion."
PEACOCK FEATHERS
The eternal conflict between wealth and love. Jerry, the idealist who is
poor, loves Mimi, a beautiful, spoiled society girl.
THE DIM LANTERN
The romance of little Jane Barnes who is loved by two men.
THE GAY COCKADE
Unusual short stories where Miss Bailey shows her keen knowledge of
character and environment, and how romance comes to different people.
THE TRUMPETER SWAN
Randy Paine comes back from France to the monotony of every-day
affairs. But the girl he loves shows him the beauty in the commonplace.
THE TIN SOLDIER
A man who wishes to serve his country, but is bound by a tie he cannot
in honor break--that's Derry. A girl who loves him, shares his
humiliation and helps him to win--that's Jean. Their love is the story.
MISTRESS ANNE
A girl in Maryland teaches school, and believes that work is worthy
service. Two men come to the little community: one is weak, the other
strong, and both need Anne.
CONTRARY MARY
An old-fashioned love story that is nevertheless modern.
GLORY OF YOUTH
A novel that deals with a question, old and yet ever new--how far should
an engagement of marriage bind two persons who discover they no longer
love.
Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York