The Priceless Pearl

								

unwise about Antonia."
His mind went back to his parting the evening before with this small
niece. He and his sister had been sitting on the piazza of the house
they had taken at Southampton--at least she had taken it and he had
paid for it. Only a few yards away the Atlantic, in one of its placid
lakelike moods, was hissing slowly up and down on the sand. The
struggle about a governess had been going on for several weeks. So far
Mrs. Conway had won, for this was his last evening and none had been
engaged. She had a wonderful method for dealing with her brother--a
method to be commended to all weak people trying to get the maximum of
interest and the minimum of control from stronger natures. She listened
to everything he said as if she were wholly convinced by his words and
intended to follow his advice to the last detail, and then she went
away and did just what she had always meant to do. If he reproached her
she looked at him wonderingly and said: "But, Anthony dear, I did agree
with you at the time; but afterward, when I came to think----" Oh, how
well he knew that dread phrase, "afterward, when I came to think!"
By these methods she had managed to fend off action for three weeks,
agreeing with him most cordially that the children ought to have a
governess, but thinking, after he had gone to New York for the week,
that it would be nice for them to take French lessons with that
charming French lady in the village, or that perhaps the Abernathys'
governess would come over for an hour a day----
And now on his last evening he had outmaneuvered her by announcing that
he was interviewing candidates the next morning before he took his
train, and would send her the best.
"I'm sure it's very kind of you to take all this trouble, Tony," she
said. "Don't send me anyone too hideous, will you?"
"Griggs describes the young woman I have in mind as of pleasing
appearance."
"That means perfectly hideous."
"You wouldn't want a prize beauty, would you?"
"Certainly I would. I like to have lovely things about me. I suppose
you think that's idiotic."
He assured her that he never thought her idiotic--at least not
unintentionally--and went on to obtain the famous pledge--the promise
that she would keep the governess he sent her until his return in
September. She agreed finally, partly because it was getting late and
she was sleepy, partly because she reflected that there were more ways
of getting rid of governesses than by sending them away.
"I'm so sleepy," she said, yawning, "and yet I don't quite like to go
to bed until Antonia comes in."
"Antonia?" said Wood. "I thought she went to bed at nine."
It appeared that Antonia had formed the habit lately of sleeping on the
beach--at least for the earlier part of the night--just digging a hole
and curling up there. Her mother thought it an interesting, primitive,
healthy sort of instinct.
"And yet," she added thoughtfully, as if she knew she were a little