THE DAY’S JOURNEY
“Cecily,” He Said Suddenly, “What are YouGoing to Do?”
[PAGE 260]
THE
DAY’S JOURNEY
BY
NETTA SYRETT
AUTHOR OF “ROSANNE,” “THE TREE OF LIFE,” ETC.
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1906
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1906
Published September 15, 1906
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
THE DAY’S JOURNEY
THE DAY’S JOURNEY
CHAPTER I
ROSE SUMMERS paused a moment beforeshe lifted the latch of a little gateset between two walls of yew. It was June.The sky had the blue of larkspur, the air wassweet with the scent of flowers. The gate inthe yew hedge opened upon a small flaggedcourt leading to a porch wreathed with roses.Above the porch clematis and ivy continuedthe wall of living green almost to the gablesof what had once been an Elizabethan farm-house,and was now the picturesque home ofRobert Kingslake and of Cecily his wife.
To the left, above a walled garden, greatchestnut trees reared their heads, and flungshadows across the lane in which Mrs. Summerswas standing. The stillness, brokenonly by the sleepy clucking of fowls, was ofthat peculiar peacefulness which broods overan English country-side. On the white dust[2]in the road the shadows lay asleep. Thetrees themselves drowsed against the bluesky; the very roses above the house-porchlaid their pink faces together, and, cradledin leaves, dreamt in the sunshine.
Only a moment passed before Mrs. Summerslifted the latch, yet in that moment shesaw in imagination one hill station afteranother; she hurried through adventures andexperiences which had filled five years, andcame back to the realization that, in themeantime, her cousin Cecily had just livedhere at the Priory, listening to the cluckingof the fowls, looking at the chestnut treesagainst the sky, perhaps tending the rosesround the porch. She walked up the flaggedpath and rang the bell. The door waso