World War, 1914-1918 -- United States -- Juvenile fiction; Young women -- Societies and clubs -- Juvenile fiction
“He is a loyal little chap, so watchful of Sheila, and always
tells the truth. He used to belong to the Junior Police
Force,—he’s awfully proud of that,—and I think that has kept
him on the square. I have an idea that his parents must have
been refined people, for, when cleaning his room one day, his
bag flew open—it was standing in a corner—and a little blue
book fell out, scattering a lot of letters about, and a picture.
The picture was a miniature of a young woman. She had a lovely
face, it reminded me of Sheila, and her eyes had the same
laughing glints in them that Danny has in his. The blue book
seemed to be a diary, for on it in gilt letters was the name,
Sheila Gloom.
“I have told you how quaint and interesting Sheila is, and lots
about Jean, so I am going to tell you about Tony. He reminds me
of one of Raphael’s cherubs, with his soft, liquid brown eyes,
his red lips and ivory-tinted skin, and his wavy black hair that
is always in a frowse. He adores me, and has an odd, sweet
little trick of taking my hand, and then bending down and
kissing it, in such a gallant way that he makes me think of the
knights of mediæval days, who knelt to their ladies fair. And I
love to hear him say, ‘I lova you, Mees Natta,’ for his voice is
so soft and musical. But alas, he is not as open as Danny, and
will tell _teeny, teeny_ white lies, while looking right up into
your face with such a cherubic, innocent expression, that you
have the feeling that you are the guilty one, and not he.
“Did I tell you in my last letter what good friends the little
old lady in the red house and I have become? I run in there
quite often. Sometimes I read to her, or hold her yarn, and for
two days I nursed her when she was ill. I am a great chatterbox,
for, O dear! I just talk about everything to her, but she says
my chats cheer her up. But, you see, she keeps asking me
questions, first about one person of our household, and then
another. She loves to have me tell her about Janet, but she
doesn’t seem to like Cynthia very much.
“I am getting used to her queer ways now, and can tell, by the
gleam in her gray eyes,—sometimes they snap with humor,—the
mood she is in, for, frankly speaking, at times she is most
cantankerous. I feel sorry for her then, for I imagine that some
great sorrow has come into her life and soured the sweetness of
it. She is always greatly interested in Mr. de Brie, and I have
promised to take him in sometime to see her.
“Oh, I must not forget to tell you that Dick is with us for a
few days—on a furlough. And mother,—well, she goes about like
a glorified saint. Now come the funnies. Cynthia Loretto’s young
man is here. His name is Buddie, but he looks anything but a
bud, although Cyn always speaks of him as if he had just gone
into long trousers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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