For the Pleasure of His Company by Charles Warren Stoddard

Author:Charles Warren Stoddard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-512-82388-2
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Published: 2022-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

II

Little Mama

Paul Clitheroe sat nursing his soul in acceptable solitude of the Eyrie. He could have declared himself in the language of the melodramatic Moor—“not easily jealous, but being wrought, perplexed in the extreme.”

He had begun to flatter himself that he knew something of the character and history of the mysterious stranger, and that perhaps she had confided to him much that the world little suspected. The confidence she reposed in him gave him an exceedingly comfortable feeling; he was ready, if necessary to champion her cause. This was his state of mind as they seated themselves in the restaurant of her choice, on the evening of the first day of their acquaintance. The entrance of Calvin Falsom upon the scene had altered the situation entirely. Once more he had resolved to foreswear the world. It was just now he was summoned to Santa Rosa to listen to the reading of Miss Juno’s maiden effort. The article had been voted a success. There was much excitement among the tenants of the cottage in the Rose Garden; preparations for departure had been nearly completed; Paul had been enjoined to hold himself in readiness to set forth with his friends for Venice, at a moment’s notice; meanwhile he was entrusted with a handsomely engrossed copy of Miss Juno’s manuscript which he was to have published for her wherever he thought fit.

He found no difficulty in placing it; it was a clever sketch of foreign life; a sketch merely, but done with a fresh bold hand, and quite brilliant with local color. The one high-class magazine of the West at once accepted the manuscript, paid for it in advance and published it in an early issue. Nothing could be more encouraging than this. Miss Juno had planned a dinner of unusual excellence, with an accompaniment of four native wines. Paul was to be present, and the health of each was to be drunk in a separate wine. All this was to be paid for out of the price of the successful literary debut of Miss Juno. It was her idea entirely, and she took great joy in perfecting it. However, Paul pleaded some excuse, and was not present. He was forgiven, but not forgotten; he received a handsome silver pocket match-box engraved as follows: “Paul from Jack, in memory of the maiden effort.”

For some weeks he had seen nothing of his friends at the Hotel de France; indeed he had not visited them since the sudden disappearance of Foxlair. When the Pompadour, in her sweet maternal way, inquired if aught had been learned concerning the welfare of the unsociable Paul, Archer had replied, “It is just possible that the boy has all along known more of the missing Foxlair than he cares to acknowledge; possibly he fears a cross examination.”

“I cannot think him capable of such duplicity,” said the Pompadour with gentle dignity.

“He may be guilty, nevertheless,” protested Archer, and then Twitter braced up and remarked with an air of uncommon archness: “A

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.