or without, could offer for contemplation: delicately chiseled features,
of Grecian cast; her complexion the pure snow of a japonica that is
receiving a faint reflected enrichment from some scarlet neighbor of the
garden; great, soft blue eyes fringed with long, curving lashes; an
expression made up of the trustfulness of a child and the gentleness of
a fawn; a beautiful head crowned with its own prodigal gold; a lithe and
rounded figure, whose every attitude and movement was instinct with
native grace.
Her dress and adornment were marked by that exquisite harmony that can
come only of a fine natural taste perfected by culture. Her gown was of
a simple magenta tulle, cut bias, traversed by three rows of light-blue
flounces, with the selvage edges turned up with ashes-of-roses chenille;
overdress of dark bay tarlatan with scarlet satin lambrequins; corn-
colored polonaise, en zanier, looped with mother-of-pearl buttons and
silver cord, and hauled aft and made fast by buff velvet lashings; basque
of lavender reps, picked out with valenciennes; low neck, short sleeves;
maroon velvet necktie edged with delicate pink silk; inside handkerchief
of some simple three-ply ingrain fabric of a soft saffron tint; coral
bracelets and locket-chain; coiffure of forget-me-nots and lilies-of-the
-valley massed around a noble calla.
This was all; yet even in this subdued attire she was divinely beautiful.
Then what must she have been when adorned for the festival or the ball?
All this time she had been busily chatting with Alonzo, unconscious of
our inspection. The minutes still sped, and still she talked. But by
and by she happened to look up, and saw the clock. A crimson blush sent
its rich flood through her cheeks, and she exclaimed:
“There, good-by, Mr. Fitz Clarence; I must go now!”
She sprang from her chair with such haste that she hardly heard the young
man’s answering good-by. She stood radiant, graceful, beautiful, and
gazed, wondering, upon the accusing clock. Presently her pouting lips
parted, and she said:
“Five minutes after eleven! Nearly two hours, and it did not seem twenty
minutes! Oh, dear, what will he think of me!”
At the self-same moment Alonzo was staring at his clock. And presently
he said:
“Twenty-five minutes to three! Nearly two hours, and I didn’t believe it
was two minutes! Is it possible that this clock is humbugging again?
Miss Ethelton! Just one moment, please. Are you there yet?”
“Yes, but be quick; I’m going right away.”
“Would you be so kind as to tell me what time it is?”
The girl blushed again, murmured to herself, “It’s right down cruel of
him to ask me!” and then spoke up and answered with admirably
counterfeited unconcern, “Five minutes after eleven.”
“Oh, thank you! You have to go, now, have you?”
“I’m sorry.”
No reply.
“Miss Ethelton!”
“Well?”
“You you’re there yet, ain’t you?”
“Yes; but please hurry. What did you want to say?”
“Well, I–well, nothing in particular. It’s very lonesome here. It’s
asking a great deal, I know, but would you mind talking with me again by
and by–that is, if it will not trouble you too much?”
“I don’t know but I’ll think about it. I’ll try.”
“Oh, thanks! Miss Ethelton! . . . Ah, me, she’s gone, and here are
the black clouds and the whirling snow and the raging winds come again!
But she said good-by. She didn’t say good morning, she said good-by!….
The clock was right, after all. What a lightning-winged two hours it
was!”
He sat down, and gazed dreamily into his fire for a while, then heaved a
sigh and said:
“How wonderful it is! Two little hours ago I was a free man, and now my
heart’s in San Francisco!”
About that time Rosannah Ethelton, propped in the window-seat of her
bedchamber, book in hand, was gazing vacantly out over the rainy seas
that washed the Golden Gate, and whispering to herself, “How different he
is from poor Burley, with his empty head and his single little antic
talent of mimicry!”
II
Four weeks later Mr. Sidney Algernon Burley was entertaining a gay
luncheon company, in a sumptuous drawing-room on Telegraph Hill, with
some capital imitations of the voices and gestures of certain popular