Contrary Mary

Saying which, the tropic creature in flamingo red sat down beside the

cooing dove, and continued: "You were right just now, when you said that the un-average man would

love Mary Ballard. Porter Bigelow loves her, and he tops all the other

men I've met. And he'd never love me. He will laugh with me and joke

with me, and if he wasn't in love with Mary, he might flirt with

me--but I'm not his kind--and he knows it."

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "There are other fish in the

sea, of course, and Porter Bigelow is Mary's. But I give you my word,

Leila Dick, that when I catch sight of his blessed red head towering

above the others--like a lion-hearted Richard, I can't see anybody

else."

For the first time since she had known her, Leila was drawn to the

other by a feeling of sympathetic understanding.

"Are you in love with him, Lilah?" she asked; timidly.

Lilah stood up, stretching her hands above her head. "Who knows?

Being in love and loving--perhaps they are different things, duckie."

With which oracular remark she adjourned to her dressing-room, where,

in long rows, her lovely gowns were hung.

Leila, left alone, picked up a magazine on the table beside her glanced

through it and laid it down; picked a bonbon daintily out of a big box

and ate it; picked up a photograph---"Mousie," said Lilah, coming back, several minutes later, "what makes

you so still? Did you find a book?"

No, Leila had not found a book, and the photograph was back where she

had first discovered it, face downward under the box of chocolates.

And she was now standing by the window, her veil drawn tightly over her

close little hat, so that one might not read the trouble in her

telltale eyes. The daisy drooped now, as if withered by the blazing

sun.

But Delilah saw nothing of the change. She wore a saffron-hued coat,

which matched the roses in the other room, and her leopard skins, with

a small hat of the same fur.

As she surveyed herself finally in the long glass, she flung out the

somewhat caustic remark: "When I get down-stairs and look at Mary Ballard, I shall feel like a

Beardsley poster propped up beside a Helleu etching."

After lunch, Porter took Aunt Isabelle and Barry and the three girls to

Fort Myer. The General and Mr. Jeliffe met them at the drill hall, and

as they entered there came to them the fresh fragrance of the tan bark.