Little Eve Edgarton
CHAPTER I "But you live like such a fool--of course you're bored!" drawled the Older Man, rummaging listlessly through his pockets for the ever-elusive match. "Well, I like your nerve!" protested the Younger Man with unmistakable asperity. "Do you--really?" mocked the Older Man, still smiling very faintly. For a few minutes then both men resumed their cigars, staring blinkishly out all the while from their dark green piazza corner into the dazzling white tennis courts that gleamed like so many slippery pine planks in the afternoon glare and heat. The month was August, the day typically handsome, typically vivid, typically caloric. It was the Younger Man who recovered his conversational interest first. "So you think I'm a fool?" he resumed at last quite abruptly.
"Yes, you can have a vacation from school, but I want you to
study a little every day with Beth," said Mrs. March that evening.
"I don't approve of corporal punishment, especially for girls. I
dislike Mr. Davis's manner of teaching and don't think the girls
you associate with are doing you any good, so I shall ask your
father's advice before I send you anywhere else."
"That's good! I wish all the girls would leave, and spoil
his old school. It's perfectly maddening to think of those lovely
limes," sighed Amy, with the air of a martyr.
"I am not sorry you lost them, for you broke the rules, and
deserved some punishment for disobedience," was the severe reply,
which rather disappointed the young lady, who expected nothing but
sympathy.
"Do you mean you are glad I was disgraced before the whole
school?" cried Amy.
"I should not have chosen that way of mending a fault,"
replied her mother, "but I'm not sure that it won't do you more
good than a bolder method. You are getting to be rather conceited,
my dear, and it is quite time you set about correcting it. You
have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of
parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not
much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long,
CHAPTER I "But you live like such a fool--of course you're bored!" drawled the Older Man, rummaging listlessly through his pockets for the ever-elusive match. "Well, I like your nerve!" protested the Younger Man with unmistakable asperity. "Do you--really?" mocked the Older Man, still smiling very faintly. For a few minutes then both men resumed their cigars, staring blinkishly out all the while from their dark green piazza corner into the dazzling white tennis courts that gleamed like so many slippery pine planks in the afternoon glare and heat. The month was August, the day typically handsome, typically vivid, typically caloric. It was the Younger Man who recovered his conversational interest first. "So you think I'm a fool?" he resumed at last quite abruptly.