Wild Wings

Wild Wings - A Romance of Youth

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Wings, by Margaret Rebecca Piper This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Wild Wings A Romance of Youth
Author: Margaret Rebecca Piper
Release Date: February 19, 2004 [EBook #11165]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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WILD WINGS
A ROMANCE OF YOUTH
BY MARGARET REBECCA PIPER
1921

CONTENTS
I MOSTLY TONY
II WITH ROSALIND IN ARDEN
III A GIRL WHO COULDN'T STOP BEING A PRINCESS
IV A BOY WHO WASN'T AN ASS BUT BEHAVED LIKE ONE
V WHEN YOUTH MEETS YOUTH
VI A SHADOW ON THE PATH
VII DEVELOPMENTS BY MAIL
VIII THE LITTLE LADY WHO FORGOT
IX TEDDY SEIZES THE DAY
X TONY DANCES INTO A DISCOVERY
XI THINGS THAT WERE NOT ALL ON THE CARD
XII AND THERE IS A FLAME
XIII BITTER FRUIT
XIV SHACKLES
XV ON THE EDGE OF THE PRECIPICE
XVI IN WHICH PHIL GETS HIS EYES OPENED
XVII A WEDDING RING IT WAS HARD TO REMEMBER
XVIII A YOUNG MAN IN LOVE
XIX TWO HOLIDAYS MAKE CONFESSION
XX A YOUNG MAN NOT FOR SALE
XXI HARRISON CRESSY REVERTS
XXII THE DUNBURY CURE
XXIII SEPTEMBER CHANGES
XXIV A PAST WHICH DID NOT STAY BURIED
XXV ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE
XXVI THE KALEIDOSCOPE REVOLVES
XXVII TROUBLED WATERS
XXVIII IN DARK PLACES
XXIX THE PEDIGREE OF PEARLS
XXX THE FIERY FURNACE
XXXI THE MOVING FINGER CONTINUES TO WRITE
XXXII DWELLERS IN DREAMS
XXXIII WAITING FOR THE END OF THE STORY
XXXIV IN WHICH TWO MASSEYS MEET IN MEXICO
XXXV GEOFFREY ANNERSLEY ARRIVES
XXXVI THE PAST AND FUTURE MEET
XXXVII ALAN MASSEY LOSES HIMSELF
XXXVIII THE SONG IN THE NIGHT
XXXIX IN WHICH THE TALE ENDS IN THE HOUSE ON THE HILL

CHAPTER I
MOSTLY TONY
Among the voluble, excited, commencement-bound crowd that boarded the Northampton train at Springfield two male passengers were conspicuous for their silence as they sat absorbed in their respective newspapers which each had hurriedly purchased in transit from train to train.
A striking enough contrast otherwise, however, the two presented. The man next the aisle was well past sixty, rotund of abdomen, rubicund of countenance, beetle-browed. He was elaborately well-groomed, almost foppish in attire, and wore the obvious stamp of worldly success, the air of one accustomed to giving orders and seeing them obeyed before his eyes.
His companion and chance seat-mate was young, probably a scant five and twenty, tall, lean, close-knit of frame with finely chiseled, almost ascetic features, though the vigorous chin and generous sized mouth forbade any hint of weakness or effeminacy. His deep-set, clear gray-blue eyes were the eyes of youth; but they would have set a keen observer to wondering what they had seen to leave that shadow of unyouthful gravity upon them.
It happened that both men--the elderly and the young--had their papers folded at identically the same page, and both were studying intently the face of the lovely, dark-eyed young girl who smiled out of the duplicate printed sheets impartially at both.
The legend beneath the cut explained that the dark-eyed young beauty was Miss Antoinette Holiday, who would play Rosalind that night in the Smith College annual senior dramatics. The interested reader was further enlightened to the fact that Miss Holiday was the daughter of the late Colonel Holiday and Laura LaRue, a well known actress of a generation ago, and that the daughter inherited the gifts as well as the beauty of her famous mother, and was said to be planning to follow the stage herself, having made her debut as the charming heroine of "As You Like It."
The man next the aisle frowned a little as he came to this last sentence and went back to the perusal of the girl's face. So this was Laura's daughter. Well, they had not lied in one respect at least. She was a winner for looks. That was plain to be seen even from the crude newspaper reproduction. The girl was pretty. But what else did she have beside prettiness? That was the question. Did she have any of the rest of it--Laura's wit, her inimitable charm, her fire, her genius? Pshaw! No, of course she hadn't. Nature did not make two Laura LaRue's in one century. It was too much to expect.
Lord, what a woman! And what a future she had had and thrown away for love! Love! That wasn't it. She could have had love and still kept on with her career. It was marriage that had been the catastrophe--the fatal blunder. Marriage and domesticity for a woman like that! It was asinine--worse--criminal! It ought to have been forbidden by law. And the stubbornness of her! After all these years, remembering, Max Hempel could have groaned aloud. Every stage manager in New York, including himself, had been ready to bankrupt himself offering her what