Madam Sapphira by Edgar Saltus

"This is really delightful of you. I had hardly ventured to hope -- "

"If you are going to be formal, Carol, I won't stay."

Miss Adulam, preceded by Michette, was entering the drawing room. Such outer wraps as she may have worn had been laid aside, but her frock, cut sufficiently low in the neck to be suitable for evening wear, had none of the insignia of festival.

And now, as she stood holding a hand to him, there was about her a little simple air of dignity which a princess might seek and got not.

"I won't be called formal. I am not formal. " And Nevius, raising the hand, touched the wrist with his lips.

From between the curtains at the end of the room a servant appeared, annunciant of dinner.

"But it is good of you," he continued. "It is worth while to be a bachelor to have such compensation as this."

Miss Adulam withdrew the hand.

"If Hilda had not insisted I should not be here," she said; "but she has been so good to me that it seemed stupid to refuse, particularly as it appeared, sir, that if I had, you would not have let her go."

"Aha! I'm a tyrant now, am I? All the same, Miss, I wish you would try to imply that you are here just a little for me."

"But I am," the girl exclaimed. "Really I am. If I were not very fond of you do you suppose I should be here at all?"

"There, that's something like, that's my dear old Jenny. Now let's go in and see what we are to have to eat. But afterward you must play. When I was younger, oh! ever so much younger, I swore a great oath that I would never marry a girl that did not. And Hilda, who did play at the time, has not touched a piano since. Her hand is no longer big enough for the octaves, if you please. That's the way we men get cheated. There!"

Nevius had seated his guest and taken the seat at her side.

"Put my things here," he called to the servant, for his place had been arranged at the other end. "And what is there to drink? Champagne and claret? No, I want moselle and seltzer. Serve the champagne to Miss Adulam. You won't have claret, will you? By George, I believe these are Mumford coves. I take that as being very thoughtful of Hilda. Maintenant," he added with just a glance to where the servant stood. "Causons. Et nos amours?"

"That's hardly the expression, is it? " The girl answered in French. "But after all he is so nice that call it what you like."

"He's a deuced lucky fellow, that's all I have got to say about him."

"Not so lucky, Carol. Not a penny, not one."

"And what of it? When I married I hadn't a penny either. But it's idiocy of him to stick in Texas. He won't make anything in cattle. That day has gone. This is the era of syndicates and New York is their home. Make him come back, Jenny. I can put him up to any number of things. Nevius and Tredegar! How does that sound?"

"Beautifully, Carol. But Jack won't do it. You know how obstinate he is; once an idea in his head and only a surgical operation could get it out."

"And his heart?"