Beyond the Rocks

Theodora hummed to herself a glad little chansonnette as she changed

her breakfast negligee for the freshest and loveliest of her spring

frocks. She did not know why she was so happy. There had been no word of

any one else being of the party, only she and Mrs. McBride, but

Versailles would be exquisite on such a day, and something whispered to

her that she might not yawn.

The most radiant vision awaited the widow, when, with unusual

punctuality, her automobile stopped at the hotel door. She came in. She

was voluble, she flattered Josiah. So good of him to take Mr. Tubbs--and

she hoped it would not tire him. Theodora should be well looked after.

They might be late and even dine at Versailles, she said, and Mr. Brown

was not to be anxious--she would be responsible for the safe return of

his beautiful little wife. (Theodora was five foot seven at least, but

her small head and extreme slenderness gave people the feeling she was

little--something to be protected and guarded always.) Josiah was affable. Mrs. McBride's words were so smooth and so many, he

had no time to feel Theodora was going to dine out without him, or that

anything had been arranged for ultimate ends.

The automobile had almost reached Suresnes before the widow said to her

guest: "Your father and Lord Bracondale have promised to meet us at the

Réservoirs. Captain Fitzgerald told me how you wanted to go to

Versailles, and how your husband is not strong enough to take these

excursions, so I thought we might have this little day out there, while

he is engaged with Mr. Clutterbuck Tubbs."

"How sweet of you!" said Theodora.

As they rushed through the smiling country, both women's spirits rose,

and Mrs. McBride's were the spirits of experience and did not mount

without due cause. Since she had been a girl in Dakota and passionately

in love with her first husband--the defunct McBride was a second

venture--she had not met a man who could quicken her pulse like Captain

Fitzgerald. It was a curious coincidence that they both had already two

partners to regret. It was an extra link between them, and Jane

McBride, who was superstitious, read the omen to mean that this time

each had met his true mate.

"If he is irresistible to-day, I think I shall clinch matters," she was

saying to herself.

While Theodora's musings ran: "How beautiful Versailles will look, and I dare say he will know all

about its history, and be able to tell me interesting things; and oh! I

am so glad I put on this frock, and oh! I am so happy."