Zelda Dameron

“She’s like Margaret; she’s really one of us,” remarked Mrs. Forrest to her brother. “She carries herself as Margaret did in her girlhood, and she’s dark, as we all are.”

The wide windows of the heavy interurban car were open and the air of the summer night beat in gratefully upon him. Morris felt increasingly at peace with himself and all the wo...

Zelda’s days ran on now much like those of other girls in Mariona. Between Mrs. Forrest and Mrs. Carr, she was well launched socially, and her time was fully occupied. She overh...

Her father was out walking about the neighborhood. He had not been down-town since the crisis in his affairs, which had left him much broken. He had been disposed to accept his...

Copeland, the lawyer who never practised, knew Mariona pretty well, and he was responsible for the remark that while women in High Street continued to admonish their maids from...

Ezra Dameron had never been happier than during this summer. His life had run for years an eventless course; his interests had been small and he had been content to have them so...

There comes a time in the life of young men when their college fraternity pins lie forgotten in the collar-button box and the spiking of freshmen ceases to be a burning issue. T...

The law offices of Knight, Kittredge and Carr were tucked away in the rear of an old building that stood at the apex of a triangle formed by Jefferson Street and Commonwealth Av...

“I have lived on very little while you were away, Zee. With one servant it’s possible to keep down expenses. Servants are ruinous. And I’m not rich, Zee, like your Aunt Julia an...

“I’ve been here early in the morning and late at night, _mon oncle_, and it’s always the same. I’m glad to see a cigar this morning. It’s the pipe that I protest against. You’re...

The lawyer who never practised reached the Tippecanoe Club every week-day at exactly thirty minutes past twelve o’clock. Within five minutes he had usually taken one sip from a...

There are a number of things that an attorney and counselor at law is likely to do when distracted. Morris Leighton was convinced that the universe in general was out of joint a...

Captain Frank Pollock was, as many people had said at different times and in divers places, a little fellow; but there was a good deal of decision in his make-up. He walked to R...

The successful chafing-dish cook must be a good actor also. If the wicks work badly, he must smile at his audience while his fingers burn; or he must be able to tell an amusing...

The room was very still after she had spoken. Her father did not start or look directly at her, but, after an interval of silence, he lifted his eyes slowly until they met hers.

The Providence that protects children and drunkards also extends a saving hand to amateur theatricals. _Deceivers Ever_ was presented, with no more delays and slips than usually...

When Zelda asked her father one day where his office was, he answered evasively that it was in the Dameron Block. This was an old-fashioned office building, with a basement and...

The old Dameron house had known much of the pain and joy of life. Merriams had been born and had died there; but the tumult of spirit that shook it on the last night of Septembe...

It was now full summer, and when it is hot in Mariona it is very hot indeed. The old locusts in the court back of the law offices of Knight, Kittredge and Carr were green again...

Morris expected Rodney Merriam to manifest wrath and indignation at the recital of Ezra Dameron’s ill-doing, but the old gentleman in Seminary Square listened in silence, and at...

On the morning of the day set for the Dramatic Club’s most ambitious entertainment, Zelda Dameron lay in bed with blankets piled high about her and a piece of red flannel wrappe...

In a town like Mariona the tradition of riches is almost as good as the proved fact. It had been said for years that Ezra Dameron was the possessor of great wealth. How, indeed,...

“Good-by, and hail my fancy!” shouted Balcomb as Leighton entered the promoter’s office. “Excuse my quotation from Whitman, the good gray poet; but you always suggest bright col...

“She understands perfectly,” said Merriam; “but it’s quite like her to wish to shield him. Her mother did it before her. It’s a shame for the money to have gone so; but it was i...

Zelda had carried in her heart for weeks the fear of some such disclosure as that which she had just heard from her uncle. In her ignorance of business, she had not even vaguely...

“Well, I butted in all right,” said Balcomb, cheerfully. “I suppose you’re saying to yourself that it’s another case of the unfailing Balcomb cheek. Welladay! as Prexy used to s...

Jack Balcomb, walking through an alley that ran parallel with Jefferson Street, marked the unmistakable figure of Ezra Dameron ahead of him. This alley was called Ruby Street fo...

Olive’s trunks went to the farm with Zelda’s. Mrs. Merriam had gone East to visit a sister, and Zelda settled Olive’s plans immediately. Zelda’s refusal to make the rounds of th...

Rodney Merriam’s efforts to manage Zelda had not thus far been wholly satisfactory. He might, under ordinary circumstances, have submitted to what seemed to be the inevitable, b...

Captain Pollock had gone into town to mail a report to his chief, and he rode homeward through the starry August night in a tranquil frame of mind. It made not the slightest dif...

Rodney Merriam and Morris Leighton walked up High Street to the Tippecanoe Club, which occupied a handsome old brick mansion that had been built by one of the Merriams who had a...

“As a community we are nearly one hundred years old. We are an enlightened and prosperous people. Ours is a city of homes,--a city in which every man, no matter how humble, may...

“It’s always the right time,” declared Olive. “But you’ll have to excuse me for a few minutes. This is Thanksgiving Day and my headquarters are in the kitchen. There’s a new mag...

Mariona had not, when the Twentieth Century dawned, quite broken with all its traditions. It was still considered bad form to display wealth if you had it; and honest poverty st...

The front door-bell rang--it was an old-fashioned contrivance, on a wire, and pealed censoriously--and Zelda thrust the book back into the trunk and ran to the second-floor land...

“I didn’t suppose,” he said, dropping his eyes to his plate, and cutting a bit of bacon deliberately--“I didn’t suppose you would require any money for yourself as yet. There ar...