Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1895-11-27

1 the hall next girl WITH reo elpoWs,
! and q satin bodice all rucks. who
seemed as partnerless as herself, and
who, being much younger, felt it far
more keenly. Susan always talked to
any girls who happened to be dull and
lonely. She remembered time when
she had been much too shy to venture
to bring out her drawing.block and
make covert sketches, as she did now,
with a cleverness that made look at
sort of pictorial diary she kept a
much-prized privilege among her
friends.
'Rather slow work, looking on, "
hazarded Susan, whose keen eyeswere
on the perpetual watch for any one at
all like Peroline's rapturous descrip-
tion of Captain Bridgenortb. "He
isn't so very good-looking, perhaps,
but he has something quite, quite dill
ferent from other men about him."
She of the red elbows looked sur.
prised but grateful. as she replied :
"I think it is horrible. Every time 1
go out it is just the same, and yet /
always want to come; I seem to fancy
that it will really be nice at last
"I used to think that, too," said
Susan, eheerfully, "but it is mis-
take. Home is the best place for some
of u.s."
"I know it's wrong" said the other
girl, hesitatingly, "but oh, I do feel
SO dreadfully jealous of pretty people.
Look at that girl by the door with the
blue velvet bow in her hair; her
mother is very i'll, dying, they say,
and yet she is here"
She was young, only about eighteen,
and was taking the harsh inevitable
very hardly. Susan had learned her
own lesson quickly and with serenity.
Stake my advice" she said, cheer
fully, s'don't come to balls unless you
are obliged. The little pin pricks one
has hurt, know. But if you are COM
PEELED to do it, make the best of it
try to enjoy the flowers and the
music"
"well, I call you downright WON
derful, and if there were more girls
like you / shouldn't mind things half
as much" She did not specialize the
things she meant. But Susan was not
attending; she was staring with all
her might at short man with fair
mustache and an eyeglass. In his but
tonhola there was an orchid. which
might have been blossom plucked
from the spray she wore upon her
badly hanging lace berthe. She
rushed to prompt, and, as it hap
pened, a correct conclusion. The
orchid was so peculiar. No one else
had anything like it. Still, the con-
clusion was something of blow to
her. lie was looking about and in
specting the various couples curiously,
but evidently failed to find the object
of his search. Susan and her friend
were partly hidden by a screen, and
with few rapid touches she sketched
him as he stood. A healthy, ordinary
young Englishman, quite common
place, and with no especial character
istic beyond an attractive soldierly
aleftness. 1t was q very good like
ness. for he kindly gave her ten min
utes in which to do it.
Her companion watched her pencil
admiringly." You have made him
rather. better looking than he is, she
| commented.
Susan laughed softly. "Ihat is be-
cause this portrait is to be u present
to somebody who thinks Captain An
thony Bridgenorth is different from
every one else in the world, hut can't
see it myself, SO have had TO imagine
q little. But now white you look. Do
you feel faint or ill?'
'Ihardly know. lam little giddy (;
I suppose it is the heat, or the flow.
ers, or something"
Susan looked positively pleased.
She had formed q bold scheme, and
found an unconscious coadiutor ready
to hand. 81 will go and get some
water for you. Just lie back on the
cushions--nobody can see you behind
the screen"
The fact was, Susan had decided on
little experiment. For two months
she had heard of Anthony Bridgenorth
as a quite peerless person. At last,
she, too, had made hero of him, SO
that this ordinary young man came as
revelation. Yet she was certaiu it
was he. The question to be decided
was whether he was worthy of Pero.
lines tears. Straws show the drift OF
the wind. The fashion in which he
treated this little emergency would be
good gauge of deeper matters. To
play preux chevalier to Peroline Ill
the graceful languor of M indisposi-
tion that would be certain to become
her as everything else did, was quite
another matter to squirting two such
damsels as herself and her protegee.
She walked up to him quite simply
and said, without preamble, in the
quiet tone of an old acquaintance:
"Oh, Captain Bridgenortb, my
friend is unwell. wonder if you
would mind fetching her glass of
iced water?"
1t was bold stroke, but it sue.
ceeded. Had she hit on the wrong
man, she was prepared with an excuse.
1t was not needed, however.
"Of course, shall be only too glad
to be of any service; only L am not
sure where the refreshment room is.
Perhaps, if you would come. too-He
paused, for he could not supply a
name, and yet she was evidently per-
fectly familiar with his. Susan ao-
ceded, with a sense of growing satls-
faction. She liked his voice; she
liked his utter Indifference to being
seen with such dress as hers.
'tNo bounce" she decided, and
bounce was a quality Susan loathed.
What was odder still. he seemed
really interested in her conversation
and Indifferent to stray glances from
| l.