And as he saw her there, Randolph knew why he had come. To worship at a
shrine. That was where Becky belonged--high above him. The flame of the
candle was a sacred fire.
CHAPTER IV
RAIN AND RANDY'S SOUL
I
Madge came down the next morning dressed for her journey. "Oscar and
Flora are going to take me as far as Washington in their car. They want
you to make a fourth, Georgie."
Dalton was eating alone. Breakfast was served at small tables on the
west terrace. There was a flagged stone space with wide awnings
overhead. Except that it overlooked a formal garden instead of streets,
one might have been in a Parisian cafe. The idea was Oscar's. Dalton had
laughed at him. "You'll be a _boulevardier_, Oscar, until you die."
Oscar had been sulky. "Well, how do you want me to do it?"
"Breakfast in bed--or in a breakfast room with things hot on the
sideboard, luncheon, out here on the terrace when the weather permits,
tea in the garden, dinner in great state in the big dining-room."
"I suppose you think you know all about it. But the thing that I am
always asking myself is, were you born to it, Dalton?"
"I've been around a lot," Dalton evaded. "Of course if you don't want me
to be perfectly frank with you, I won't."
"Be as frank as you please," Oscar had said, "but it's your air of
knowing everything that gets me."
Dalton's breakfast was a hearty one--bacon and two eggs, and a pile of
buttered toast. There had been a melon to begin with, and there was a
pot of coffee. He was eating with an appetite when Madge came down.
"I had mine in bed," Madge said, as George rose and pulled out a chair
for her. "Isn't this the beastliest fashion, having little tables?"
"That's what I told Oscar."
"Oscar and Flora will never have too much of restaurants. They belong to
the class which finds all that it wants in a jazz band and scrambled
eggs at Jack's at one o'clock in the morning. Georgie, in my next
incarnation, I hope there won't be any dansants or night frolics. I'd
like a May-pole in the sunshine and a lot of plump and rosy women and
bluff and hearty men for my friends--with a fine old farmhouse and
myself in the dairy making butter----"
George smiled at her. "I should have fancied you an Egyptian princess,
with twin serpents above your forehead instead of that turban."
"Heavens, no. I want no ardours and no Anthonys. Tell me about the new
little girl, Georgie."
"How do you know there is a--new little girl?"
"I know your tricks and your manners, and the way you managed to meet
her at the Horse Show. And you saw her last night."
"How do you know?"
"By the light in your eyes."
"Do I show it like that? Well, she's rather--not to be talked about,
Madge----"
She was not in the least affronted. "So that's it? You always begin that
way--putting them on a pedestal---- If you'd only keep one of us there
it might do you good."
"Which one--you?" he leaned a little forward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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