Show F T M M j M LA LADY LAN r A romance of the commonplace by FRANCES FRANCE PARKINSON KEYES parkinson keye key earlc copyright by CHAPTER I 1 IV I 1 g swallowed allowed aw said philip 1 starr s t arr to himself about two bushels of dust dont they ever oil ell their roads in vermont I 1 wonder im sure eure I 1 cant malie make bur langton tonight anyway it must be somewhere over on the other side of the map ile he interrupted his own train of thought by laughing aloud and brought hla his motor to a stop beside the thel powdery highway which he had bad been mentally condemning irish cropping out as usual he said grinning as he locked the car or maybe im still dippy typhoid bugs die hard anyway im going to see it if this brook wind far enough from the road somewhere her soon for me to get into it without being arrested in the process ue he rolled under the barbed wire fence and scrambled into the underbrush of the woods that ot skirted the road ile he was right the little brook twisting and turning wound farther and farther into tho the woods it f foamed into a tiny waterfall w widened id to a small pool ideal for a swim 1 but pulling off his coat and jerking at hla his collar the man stopped short and stared ahead of him woIn wondering dering if he were suddenly losing his senses on tile the edge of the pool just beyond ond the waterfall was a girl her face turned front from him her white feet and ankles gleaming through the c lear clear water of the brook she had on 0 n a soft short close fitting white garment and tier her bare arms were raised above her head half covered with the masses of shining hair that tell fell about albut her like a golden cloud philip had been whistling ile be stopped abruptly the girt girl shook her hair dropped her arms and turned around then after one startled second in which philip saw that her eyes were as blue as the shining sky which dappled the woods with pith its light she smiled with wit entire friendliness how do you do she asked pleasantly 6 im very well that Is im not well at all ive just had typhoid 0 ld I 1 fever philip stammered then thinking what an asinine thing that was to say he went ghent on realizing a all 11 the time that he was not becoming in gIess less asinine why im here trying to get better you know klow 1 I see said the girl with the i same serene pleasantness allm im sorry did you walli walk all the way from wherever yo came philip laughed no I 1 motored 1 I left boston early this morning but I 1 got so tired and BO so dirty and so hot that 1 I 11 left your motor by the side of tile the road and followed the brook to take a swim and now im here first spoiling polling it all what a pity I 1 ill go P oh please dont 1 I 1 dont think youre spoiling g anything particularly philip stammered again in fact you you rather ad add i t to the place and I 1 thought it was the prettiest place I 1 had ever seen anyway the girl put up her hands and began drying her hair again wont you sit down she asked you must be pretty tired philip compiled with this suggestion feeling it to be an agreeable one and an d utterly at a loss as to what to say Y or do next waited for the girl to wake make the next move at last as aa she continued to dry her h hair aar in silence he burst out Is 0 one e apt to run across persons persona like you beside vermont brooks perhaps youre not a person at all perhaps youre a dryad or a nymph or something like that 1 I wish I 1 were she said and the least shadow of discontent seemed to have crept into her voice 1 I dont remember much about dryads dreads and nymphs my cousin mary knows all about them shed have her nose in a book half the time if she have haie so much else to do she and mother an and cousin jane are all today why I 1 ran fan away id have had to help if id stayed at home never believe there ther e was so m mch cb in a house until you got it a all 11 out oat in the front bardt and paul la isso so lazy he never helps half as aa much as aa he might and alary has to stop right in the middle of everything and chase up the children and cousin janes goes bojt off to prayer meeting and oh its all plenty had bad enough to malte make anyone want to be a nymph and live in a brook where life Is just one cerp perpetual bath and there cant possibly be anything to house clean 1 philip threw back his head and roared and after a minute the girl laughed too well if youre not a nymph and you dont live in a brook would you think I 1 were awfully rude if I 1 asked what your name la Is and where you yon live uror my name Is Blanche Manning I 1 live on udy lady blanche farm lady blanche farm echoed philip what a pretty name I 1 yes tes theres quite a pretty story about it too would you like to hear tt very much all right my hairs calr s doynow dry now ill go and dress and you can have your swim ive got some lunch with roe me where my clothes are enough for two I 1 guess ill comeback back silo she slipped off thel the moulder waded to the shore and waved her hand then a little white graceful azure she lie vanis vanished lied among jijong the trees it was more than halt half ai an hour later before he heard her returning ile he had bad bathed and dressed hurriedly and was sitting greatly refreshed and tremendously hungry but growl growing extremely anxious to have her return at last she called thoo hoo oo 00 oo 00 hoo oo he answered What Wh itts name philip starr I 1 I 1 well mr philip starr Is it all right tor for TOO me to come cornel yes res ive been ready for ages do hurry she reappeared still all in white she did not 4 he noticed quickly look different n now w than when in the white bathing suit of course he had bad 4 1 41 philip had been whistling he stopped abruptly realized that this was what the slip had been she stopped on the bank a forgotten difficulty suddenly occurring to her were on opposite sides well have to walk up a little atte way theres a L shallow place where I 1 can get herisson he rosson the stones 1 I guess youve run away before you seem to know the lay of the land pretty well oh ob yes cousin jane thinks mother has let paul and we me both grow up awful shirkers shir kers only he lust just loafs and I 1 run 1 I see well im surely glad you ran this time Is paul your brother yes hes twenty the same age as my cousin mary sort of half engaged iles hes fond of her but not nearly Rs as fond of her as she Is i of him ile he likes to have hav e a good time with other girls too and for all mary can see there another boy in the world except paul iles hes perfectly sure of her and it if makes him careless J I 1 like to be engaged that way dont worry you wont be how old freyou are you seventeen its a nice age 11 I 1 it certainly Is are you going to b seventeen long almost a year philip starr stair could not remember remember when he be had laughed so BO often ile he leapt across the step stepping plug stones and took the box of lunch from blanche blance i 1 11 I meant to come over on your side I 1 of course but I 1 meant to helps help you hiross across 1 I thought of that well I 1 had sald eald P philip P abrupt ly ive been bebej thinking of f it for some minutes its ts a very pleasant thought ought to dwell dael on ashe looked at him with the same slightly startled expression as when I 1 she had first discovered him but it faded again lust just as quickly slie she put but blit her hands and he swung her lightly ti across dicross so easily that she could hardly belleve elleve she was over now dynow she wit ald sitting down and leaning against a tree lets see what mary has given me to eat well here are lettuce sandwiches and stuffed eggs and ensured doughnuts ob ah and two big pieces of angel baket arent you ti hungry tingry for some minutes they ate in sat silence do you mind it if I 1 smoke philip naked when the last inet delicious crumb was gone while you tell me that story about lady blanche farm you know oh yes yee have you ever been in the connecticut valley before im sorry to say I 1 well it was mostly settled around II Il amstead anistead anyway by men who came up the river from massachusetts chu not long before tile tho itelo gutlon tion we ave all belong to the daughters of the american revolution she elie interrupted herself witha with a touch of pride 1 they I hey nearly all had big farms and built big houses and prospered then they married each others children and lave have kept on living here ever since the descendants have I 1 mean were nearly all cousins third or fourth or bath in 11 ua anistead amstead it would be pleasant it it so BO deadly dull once in a long time wo we have a picnic or a dance or go to the movies in wal jace lace town about all and always the same people nice but tellous ted lous why its such a relief to meet someone I 1 dont know at all philip laughed aware that he was waa feeling strangely warm and comfortable for table inside at the inference that slie she might be having illusions or thrills about him thank you where does lady blanche come in oil oh the she came in right after the I 1 revolution It evolution my grent great great grand father col moses manning was waa a friend of Lafay ettes lie ile went back to france with will lafayette to visit him and be presented at court lady blanche was a countess who lived on the next estate she ana very young and lovely an and sweet and lie he fell in love with her peculiar man he murmured rn red phillp philip do you think so oh youre laughing at met mel you think I 1 am awfully silly and coun countrified trIfled and you precious kedl exclaimed philip sitting bolt upright in alarm and then as the startled look come came into the blue eyes again he went on very quickly and gently excuse me I 1 mean to be rude or fresh but ive been pretty sick and its a long time since I 1 have laughed or felt able to laugh please go on about the little french countess did she tall fall in love with him tool too oil oh yes yea head over heels I 1 at first sight toot tool just like asto a story I 1 such things do happen yes I 1 suppose so said the present blanche a trifle hurriedly once in a great while and ever so long ago of course so they were married although her family very enthusiastic about her going across the soa sea wan to an unknown wilderness but adall as nil the rest of them were guillotined guillo tined not long after she was better off than they were anyway of course colonel moses brought her to hamstead Oam stead to liv live she had a fortune in her own right and a wonderful trousseau great boxes and chests of linen and lace and clothes and silver and jewels and books and she had bad furniture sent too from the chateau and my great great grandfather built her a big brick house the handsomest one anywhere around here and its a lovely story what happened next the rest of it so lovely its rather sad bad the other farmers wives in hamstead amstead tl care for lady blanche I 1 think they were a little Jea jealous lolus of her because she was so much richer and more beautiful than they were and slie elie talk english well enough to make mabe them understand that she haughty and cold as aa they thought but just na as gentle and lonely and anxious to be friendly as she could be and for a long time she have any children that was considered almost a disgrace in those days it seems 1 almost everyone had sixteen or seventeen 1 lady blanches blancheys husband was dreadfully disappointed i of course she was too but he seem to think of that lie ile he held it up as a re bronch to her and she grew more and more lonely and sad gad what was the end of the story philip naked asked gently when she had been married about five years she had twins a boband boy and a n girl she strong like most of the pioneer dwoinen women she died moses manning ne never ver got over it blanche went on after a long pause ile he marry a second time the way most of the settlers sett lera did when their wives died some of them three or four times I 1 and he never called hla his place anything but lady blanche farm after that its never been called anything else ever since when the twins moses mosca and blanche grew up he built them each a house on hla his own place and as the boy wanted to he be a lawyer he built a little office connected with the big brick house for him they both married the children of other pioneers and had large fam lifes and inherited lady Blane blanches hes fortune of course the houses have never gone out of the family mother and paul and I 1 live la in one the big brick one and cousin jane hin manning nnIng chos never married maled in another and musin cousin seth both and his eb children ildren in n the third of course the fortunes been divided up so BO many times that it very largo large any more but its enough to make us comfortable find give us a good education if wo we want it paul und and I 1 specially and mary alary who loves lovea books had to give up going to boarding school when she ehe was almost ready for or college because her mother died and there anyone else to look after her father and the little boys all the other families in hamstead IIama tead have kept on feeling that tile the mannings fire are n little different from the rest of them we wish I 1 they nil all except mother I 1 think she rother rather likes it but they dot do I 1 and theres always ono one blanche in each generation theres a queer superstition aboud about that what is it oh I 1 cant tell you I 1 think it was awfully conceited and fresh and 11 1 I please but the girl laughing shook tier her head and got to her feet have you any idea what time it Is she asked no I 1 I 1 dont caro care what time it Is and I 1 wont you to tell mo me about the alio superstition now it if you dont want to td that la is lc if promise to tell me somo some other time you do that wont you the girl hesitated and for tile tho first time blushed then bho smiled where were you thinking of going she asked before you decided to have a swim and left your motor beside the road to burlington to visit some friends who have a big summer place near there but I 1 cant get there tonight now can 1111 II 11 he asked pleading in hla his voice 1 I 1 dont believe you can very well I 1 suppose youre not familiar with the roads Famil familiar larl I 1 im not even on I 1 speaking terms with t and there are hardly any guideposts guide posts to introduce cintr 0 duce us he smiled and as aa lie he did so he could see the lovely rosy color spreading over the girl girls a fa anco C 0 again the name of the hotel in Il amstead he asked abruptly there any hotel I 1 lut but probably its so late and youve been and everything mary would take you in 1 I dont want to intrude 11 mary feel that you yon were intruding shell bo be only to too 0 thankful to have the chance t to 0 make you comfortable that Is the way I 1 think shell feel about it at any rate we better go down there and seel II 11 L LADY ADY BLANCHE farm lay a mile or so BO south of Il amstead stretching on one side of 0 the road back to the foothills of the green mountains and on the other in broad sweeping meadows straight down to ta the connecticut river two big lenses houses one of brick with a small semidetached semi detached brick building the lawyer moses office theoph the other of wood white painted find white pillared with a large flower garden stood on it across the road was a smaller house brick with a wooden ell elf less true to line and decidedly less prosperous in appearance As they came in sight of nit all this philip starr brought his bis motor to an abrupt stop and turned to blanche who had unhesitatingly accepted hla his invitation to help belt him find the farm by riding back with him Is that where you live yes the big brick house la Is ours oura the big white one Is cousin janes banels the one across the way Is 18 where mary lives good lord ill I 1 the matter mattera matter Afat terl t its the most beautiful place I 1 ever saw in n my life I 1 tell you did I 1 im an architect |