AFTER SIXTEEN YEARS.
An exquisite face--patrician in style;
Note the lashes, how black, and their sweep--
The arch of the brows, and the proud lip's smile,
The flash of the eyes dark and deep.
Away from the forehead in waves the hair
Flows with the glisten of bronze;
Glorious in volume, the frame from where
The face of an houri dawns.
AMELIA V. PURDY.
"I never saw such a forgetful girl as you, Kathleen Carew. Here you sit
dreaming, instead of dressing for 'Prince Karl' to-night. Are you going
to the theater, then, or not?"
"Of course I am going, Alpine. I did not know it was so late. What, you
are dressed already? How sweet you look! That blue crêpe de Chine is
awfully becoming to you. Well, then, please ring the bell for my maid,
won't you? I'll be ready in ten minutes."
"You'd better. Mamma will be furious if you keep her waiting," Alpine
Belmont answered, crossly, as she touched the bell.
Then she looked back curiously at the graceful, indolent figure in
the easy-chair, leaning back with white hands clasped on top of the
bronze-gold head.
"Kathleen, what were you thinking about so intently when I came in? I
had to speak twice before you heard me."
Kathleen raised her dark, passionate, Oriental eyes to the speaker's
face, and, blushing vivid crimson, answered, dreamily:
"Alpine, I was thinking of that handsome young man who saved my life at
Newport last summer. I was wondering who he was, and if we should ever
see him again."
"It isn't likely we ever will," answered Alpine Belmont, carelessly.
"I don't suppose he's in our set at all--some poor clerk spending all
his winter's savings on a short summer outing, very likely. I wouldn't
be thinking about him, like a romantic school-girl, if I were you,
Kathleen. He didn't care about you, or he would have made himself known
to you before this," and, with a low, taunting laugh, Alpine Belmont
left the room just as Susette, the maid, came in.
"You'll have to do my hair in a hurry, Susie. There's no time for
prinking," laughed her mistress; and while the maid brushed out the
magnificent, rippling tresses, Kathleen relapsed into thoughts of the
unknown hero whose handsome image haunted her thoughts.
"Is it true, as Alpine says, that he did not care for me? It is
strange he did not stay to inquire who I was, after I came so near
drowning. If he was a poor young clerk, as Alpine believes, perhaps he
was too proud to reveal himself, thinking I would scorn him because I
was an heiress. Ah, how little he knew Kathleen Carew's heart!"
Her thoughts ran thrillingly on:
"Oh, how handsome he was when I first saw him in the water, that day
at Newport! He kept watching me, and I could not help looking back.
He seemed to draw my eyes. I know I wanted him to like me, for I
wondered if my bathing suit was becoming, and I felt glad my hair was
down, because I had been told it looked pretty that way, all wet and
curling over my shoulders. His brown eyes said as plain as words that
he admired me. Other men did, too, I know, but this time it seemed to
thrill me with a new pleasure. As I splashed about like a mermaid in
the waves, I kept thinking of him, wondering who he was, and hoping he
would be at the ball that night. I wanted him to see how well I looked
in my white lace and pearls. Then all at once came that treacherous
undertow that swept me from my feet, down, down, down, under the heavy
waves. Oh, how horrible it was! I thought I would be drowned, and my
last thought was----"
"What gown, Miss Kathleen?" asked the maid.
"Anything, Susette. It don't matter how I look to-night. You can't
decide? Oh, well, that new white cloth with the pink ostrich feather
trimming, and diamonds. Alpine is wearing pearls and a blue gown, and
we don't want to be dressed alike."
While Susette fastened the exquisite gown and clasped the diamonds, her
thoughts ran on:
"He rescued me, the handsome, brave fellow, and as soon as he laid me,
limp, but faintly conscious, upon the sands, he walked hastily away,
and no one at Newport ever saw him again. Neither could any one ever
find out who he was, although I'm afraid mamma did not try very hard.
But he was certainly very modest. He did not want us to make a hero
of him. Heigho, I do wish I knew his name--I do wish I could see him
again! Alpine says I am foolish and romantic, and that I fell in love
with him because he saved my life. Indeed, I think it was before--yes,
at the very moment I first met his beautiful brown eyes gazing so
eagerly into mine. A quick electric thrill seemed to dart through me,
and----"
"Kathleen, aren't you ready yet?" asked Alpine, entering. "The carriage
has been waiting ever so long, and mamma is getting furious over your
delay."
"I'm ready," Kathleen answered, composedly, without hurrying the least
bit. She drew her white opera-cloak leisurely about her ivory-white
shoulders, and followed her step-sister down-stairs to where Vincent
Carew's second wife, once the widow Belmont, poor Zaidee's governess,
was waiting in impotent wrath at the detention.
"The first act will be quite over before we get there, and it will be
entirely your fault, for Alpine and I have been ready for an hour," she
fretted as they entered the carriage.