Old Rose and Silver eBook

Myrtle Reed
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 292 pages of information about Old Rose and Silver.

Old Rose and Silver eBook

Myrtle Reed
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 292 pages of information about Old Rose and Silver.

“Two, please.”

It seemed very pleasant to Allison to sit there in the warm, sunny room, with Rose opposite him, pouring his coffee.  There was an air of cosiness and domestic peace about it hitherto outside his experience.  For the first time he was conscious of the peculiar graciousness and sense of home that only a home-loving woman may give to a house.

“I like this,” he said, as he took the steaming cup.  “I’d like to do it often.”

“We’d like to have you,” she returned, hospitably.

“I thought you all had breakfast together at some fixed hour, and early at that.”

“How little you know Aunt Francesca!  You can have breakfast in this house in any room you choose, at any hour before noon, all the year round.  Sometimes we’re all together, sometimes only two.  Usually, however I’m alone, as I seem to get up a little earlier than the others.”

“I think I’ll drop in occasionally, then.  It looks as if there’d always be somebody to bear me company.  Perhaps I’ll bring Dad, too.  He’d like to have you pour his coffee.”

There was no mistaking the admiration in Allison’s eyes and Rose turned hers away.  He sat with his back to the dining-room door and she, across from him, faced it squarely.  For the merest fraction of a second Isabel, in a pink silk negligee, stood in the doorway, then vanished, as noiselessly as she had come.  Her eyes were full of mysterious meaning that Rose was powerless to translate.

“I’d enjoy it,” Rose said quickly.  “I love to pour the coffee and Aunt Francesca always lets me on the rare occasions when we breakfast together.”

If her colour was a little brighter, if her voice was in a higher key, if her eyes had changed their expression, Allison did not notice it.  Yet, in the instant, she had attained a certain dual consciousness—­ there seemed to be two of her.  One was the woman of the world, well-schooled in self-control, tactful, watchful, ready to smooth any awkwardness, and, at every point, to guard her guest.  The other was Primitive Woman; questioning, curious, and watchful in the sense of rivalry.  She put it resolutely aside to think about later, and was very glad that Allison did not know.

She was greatly relieved when he went home, promising to return later for a few hours of work upon a difficult concerto.  “We’ll do it again,” he said, laughing, as he went down the steps.  “Ask Aunt Francesca to give me a meal ticket, to be used solely for breakfasts, will you?”

Rose only smiled in answer, but waved her hand to him as he went out of the gate.  She stood pensively in the hall for a moment or two after she had closed the door, and would have gone up to her own room had she not heard a step at the head of the stairs.

Isabel was coming down, also fresh and tailor-made, with a white linen collar and a dashing crimson tie.  Rose strolled into the library, took up a magazine, sat down, and pretended to read.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Old Rose and Silver from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.