Once more the Hildreth household was united, if such a thing as union could be possible, among so many diverse elements.
Isabelle’s chill hauteur had increased with the years and a peevish discontent was carving indelible lines upon her face which was rapidly losing its delicate contour and bloom. Marion’s pink and white beauty was at its zenith, and the social attentions she was beginning to receive only served to render her elder sister more than ever irritable and envious. Louis was his old nonchalant self, careless and listless, with an ever deepening expression of
She saw but little of her cousins. They passed their days in pleasure, she in work; but Marion, in her rare moments of reflection, as she thought of the strangely peaceful face of the young nurse, wondered sadly whether Evadne had not chosen the better part after all.
“Oh, Louis!” she cried one morning, and her voice was full of pain, “how you are wasting this beautiful life that God has given you!”
Louis stretched himself lazily in his arm-chair and clasped his hands behind his head. “Thanks for your high opinion, coz. Of what special crime do I stand accused before the bar of your judgment?”
“Oh, it is nothing special, but you are just frittering away the days that might be filled with such noble work, and you have nothing to show for them but – smoke!” She swept her hand through the filmy cloud which Louis just then blew into the air, with a gesture of disdain. “Now you will think I am preaching, but indeed, indeed I am not, only, it hurts me so!”
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