Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-03-28
ua1GHED, BUT NOT ua1El.

while from time to time he uttered
an impatient exclamation. 1t was
evident that something had upset his
mental equilibrium-but what?
We'll, as matter of fact, it was
nothing very new. 1t had happened
before, and would probably happen
again; though he registered a mental
vow-as he had done on every occa-
sion-that it never, never, never
should.
To state the case as it stood he
had Just discovered that he had
grown tired Of the girl who but @
little time ago he had thought was
the only woman in the world for
him. He had made the discovery
80 often before that it had lost the
charm of novelty, and now aroused
q certain amount Of resentment
within his breast - resentment
against women in general for being
unable to produce woman in par
ticular fascinating enough to retain
his rowing fancy. Why on EARTH he
wondered irritably. were all women
made so that they charmed you up
to certain point and palled upon
you afterward? 1t was a problem
that had often perplexed and an
noyed him, but never more than on
this special occasion.
For Elaine Dering, the present dis
turber of his peace, was somehow
whom he had loved and left. A slim,
fair haired girl, with pale, spirit
uelle face and rapt gray eyes, she
seemed being Of different clay
from the ordinary fin de steele
maiden. Simple, child like and UNI
worldly, he felt it was impossible to
attribute to her the thousand and
one small vanities, jealousies, CO.
quetries and caprices that go to make
up the sum of the modern woman S
existence. You could not think of
them in the same breath.
No. she was no modern coquette,
no up to date firt, who could play a
man at his own game and give as
good as she got. She was innocent
and trusting and he wished to
heaven he had left her alone.
glance that she had given him the
evening before, when they said good
night by the old hawthorn tree that
was their favorite trysting place; the
soft slow blush that had risen to her
pale cheeks as she withdrew her
hands from his lingering clasp. He
had walked home dwelling upon that
eloquent look and blush in an ecstasy
of delight and then all at once
the reaction had set in, that is to
say the reaction that was inevitable
to man of his temperament.
He groaned in spirit as he thought
OF the numberless fiirtations that had
reached just that point, and then
came to an untimely end; the num-
berless women who had been left to
bewail his loss, for an hour or life
time, according to their disposition.
Some had understood him all through,
and they had escaped comparatively
easily; but there had been others
who had misunderstood him, and
who had made the mistake of expect
ing him to live up to his promises.
These last had rued their mistake
with exceeding bitterness, yet they
were not to blame, for Cyril was hard
to understand. When he loved he
loved with all his might and MAN,
and spared no pains to teach his in
amorata to love him in return; and
how was she to know that as soon as
she had learned her lesson he would
go in search of new pupil to whom
to impart the same knowledge?
The hunter instinct was strong
within him, and he was untiring in
his pursuit of shy game. So long as
the object OF his desire eluded him
he threw his whole heart and soul
into the chase; but when once I'M
certainty was merged in certainty,
and he knew that he had conquered,
in that very moment victory and van
quished alike lost their charms for
him. Like so many men he cared
only for that which he thought he
could not have.
Until the previous evening he
had never felt sure of Elaine. Up to
that time she had been shy and elu-
sive and a trifle cold and the state OF
her feelings toward him had been a
subject for speculation. But there
was no longer need for speculation.
On the previous evening the mystic
rious glamour of the twilight hour
md the subtle fascination OF her Sc
Gene gray eyes had combined together
to get the better Of him. In one
moment he had awoke to the fact
that he loved her, and madly, and in
the next to the fact that she loved
him and was to be obtained.
That was the climax, and now
after the climax the reaction.
No wonder that Cyril looked moody
and uncomfortable as he wendell his
way toward the hawthorn tree that
had been the silent witness OF SC
many meetings and partings.
He was first at the trysting place,
but Elaine soon joined him and the
moment he saw her he became con-
scious of some subtle change in her
He could not define il but he fell
that IL was there.
He threw his cigarette away auC
strolled on by her side as usual, bu
the situation had lost its piquancy
aud he soon began to cast desperately
about for some means OF getting out
OF 1t,