Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1895-02-27

not to 60 to the dance that night at Miss
Aspinwall-J ones's. The good comrade-
ship rather pulls him out of his fit OF
the blues and he gets away early for
short walk by himself, and then he
goes over to the dance. When he gets
to the house there is misunderstand-
ing somewhere. Jerome is sent up
stairs and goes absently into the room
assigned to the men for the coats-at
least Jerome thinks it is the room. 1t
is dimly lighted, and he throws his
coat down on chair and feels for q
cigarette, for it is very early and he
means to while away the time until
some of the other men come. Then,
all at once, from far corner of the
room, he hears something that sounds
very much like sob. And he sees
the figure of girl, with her back to-
ward him, and her head bowed.
"Odd," he mutters. every odd,
indeed. Deuced awkward, too, by
Jove! Better get out Stupidity some
where!"
But Jerome does not go out, for he
recognizes something in the turn OF
the shoulders that are bent away from
him, andinstead Of escaping he merely
stands there pulling nervously at q
glove.
He steps forward and then stops
again, hesitating. Then all at once
the girl draws herself up and stands
looking at him blankly. tits Agnes!
1t does not occur to Jerome that he
should account for his presence. all
minor considerations are swept aside,
and he knows that the one last chance
has come.
He draws back, however, for she
may only frown and look bored, and
answer in that cold and hippant man
ner of hers he knows 80 we'll. But
Jerome has not seen the panied look
in her eyes give way and lose itself the
moment she caught sight of him. Man
like he has not fathomed the meaning
of the cleaning as it flashes forth one
brief instant only to DE veiled by the
lowered lids that close over those tell
tale eyes. He only knows that the
tears are gone from her face, and that
down stairs in the music room they
are playing "In Old Madrid"
The long swaying rhythm of the
Spanish music comes up to them like
the sound of water beating on far
away beach. His step unconsciously
keeps time to the music, his arms are
stretched out, and the cold, self-pos-
sessed young woman of the afternoon
forgets herself, for she does not repel
him-and Agnes Lancaster, who has
made brave fight against love, is de-
feated at last.
"I acted very badly" she admits at
length; "shockingly And I wondered
how you would take it; and do you
know, I rather liked you the better
for getting SO very angry. You are
SO amusing when your are angry? l
didn't mind SO much when you first
went away, but afterward-I got so
tired OF everyonel Somehow it
seemed" here she looks up into his
face with happy little smile. "You
know, it seemed as i'll conldn't--
live without you. -
Miss Aspinwall-Jones, strange as it
may seem, happens to look into the
room just ut this crisis, and catches
the last few words. She slips away
unseen, and when mora people come
up the stairs, she manages to detain
them.
"He said there was some stupid
blunder," one OF the girls remarked
later in the evening, speaking of the
incident, tand he added he was aw-
fully sorry, although he did not seem
to worry at all. He took his coat and
things and escaped to where he be-
longed. Some stupid blunder Do
you know, I can hardly believe that. "
And the clever Miss Aspinwall-J Jones,
who overhears this, smiles, fol. she
prides herself on her tact.-Outing.