Title:  Little Eve Edgarton

Author:  Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

Release Date:  April 20, 2005 [EBook #15660]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of this project gutenberg EBOOK little Eve Edgarton ***

Produced by Robert Shimmin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

LITTLE EVE EDGARTON

BY

ELEANOR HALLOWELL ABBOTT

Author of “Molly Make Believe,” “The White Linen Nurse,” etc.

With Illustrations by

R.M.  CROSBY

  New York
  the Century Co.
  1914

Published, September, 1914

[Illustration:  “Music!  Flowers!  Palms!  Catering!  Everything!”]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

“Music!  Flowers!  Palms!  Catering!  Everything!”

“I am riding,” she murmured almost inaudibly

“I would therefore respectfully suggest as a special topic of conversation the consummate cheek of—­yours truly, Paul Reymouth Edgarton!”

“Your paper-doll book?” stammered Barton

“Don’t delay me!” she said, “I’ve got to make four hundred muffins!”

Suddenly full comprehension broke upon him and he fairly blurted out his astonishing information

“You’re nice,” he said.  “I like you!”

“Any time that you people want me,” suggested Edgarton’s icy voice, “I am standing here—­in about the middle of the floor!”

LITTLE EVE EDGARTON

CHAPTER I

“But you live like such a fool—­of course you’re bored!” drawled the Older Man, rummaging listlessly through his pockets for the ever-elusive match.

“Well, I like your nerve!” protested the Younger Man with unmistakable asperity.

“Do you—­really?” mocked the Older Man, still smiling very faintly.

For a few minutes then both men resumed their cigars, staring blinkishly out all the while from their dark green piazza corner into the dazzling white tennis courts that gleamed like so many slippery pine planks in the afternoon glare and heat.  The month was August, the day typically handsome, typically vivid, typically caloric.

It was the Younger Man who recovered his conversational interest first.  “So you think I’m a fool?” he resumed at last quite abruptly.

“Oh, no—­no!  Not for a minute!” denied the Older Man.  “Why, my dear sir, I never even implied that you were a fool!  All I said was that you—­lived like a fool!”