Page:Stanwood Pier--The ancient grudge.djvu/457

446 interview she might have an opportunity to seek Lydia's coöperation. But though she lay in wait anxiously, the opportunity seemed not to come. The baby, the theatre, her approaching marriage, with the question as to who would be the bridesmaids, were the disconnected subjects which they reviewed, with never an allusion by Lydia to Floyd or Stewart. Marion was watching her observantly; and though she wore a gay red dress from which at first glance her dark beauty seemed to glow with a happy radiance, there was apparent at intervals to Marion's keen eyes the shadow that would drift down over Lydia's face and to Marion's keen ears the note that would dull Lydia's animated voice. Growing more and more aware of this spirit of sadness, Marion was touched with pity; and at last she cried impulsively,—

"Lydia! Why don't we do something about it?"

"About what?"

"Ah, Lydia, you know. The thing that's making you so sad—the thing that's a cloud on all of us. I'm sure Floyd does n't feel harshly toward Stewart; why can't we bring them together again? If you could only persuade Stewart to cease from his attacks—"

"You ask me to assume that it's Stewart who is to blame," Lydia said, with a quick flush.

Marion humored her in her defensive loyalty to her husband.

"It is n't a matter so much of who's to blame; it's the situation. That can't be improved, can it, so long as Stewart is actively hostile to Floyd—printing such things about him as that letter in the newspaper the other night, giving help to the men who are opposing Floyd. If you could only persuade Stewart to stop; then we could come together and try to adjust things between them. But as long as Stewart goes on, there's no hope of adjustment."

"Stewart's acting according to his own convictions and beliefs."