The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-12-24

|
your hour" she said, gravely, and be-
fore the surprise on Ames' face at this
unexpected greeting had time to fade
or change she continued in the same
strain with the fitting sequence: .'For
this relief much thanks, tits bitter cold
and / - and with The pronoun she
paused, and the unexpected quotation
drifted away into a sigh: Ames said
| the only thing he could very well say
under the circumstances He said:
Let me hope you are not sick at
hear IT,
The woman looked away for mo-
men, looked at the suIlen river and the
shining distant lights, then her great
dark eyes fixed their gaze again upon
Philo's face.
Perhaps | am she answered. ct
was very good of you to come, and yet
felt sure that you would come; and
you see that I was right
Philo felt and appreciated the eccen-
tricity of the oces sion
'sYou sent for me- he said, with a
manner of grave courtesy, s'and / am
here. Can be of any service to your"
The woman replied, after the fashion
of women, to one question with an
other
DO you care for life?' she asked,
slowly and earnestly.
There was something absurd in the
utterance of such a question, at.such a
| time and under such conditions, which
would usually have made Philo laugh
But, though the position was incon-
gruous, though the question was gro
| tesque, Philo did not feel moved to
! laughter The woman appeared to be
in earnest; the woman certainly was
| beautiful, and her eyes seemed, in the
| fine phrase of Portia, to have over
| looked her companion of moments
| time. He did not allow himself time
to reflect upon the queerness of this
eccentric encounter, upon the amazing
abruptness Of the Interrogation, upon
the sinister possibilities that might be
associated with the adventure. In
! deed, sinister possibilities never count
| ed for much in Philo Ames' estimate
of an interesting situation, and the
present situation had at least the merit
Of being exceedingly interesting. So
! he gave back an earnest gaze into the
!. dark eyes Of his companion while he
thought of some appropriate reply to
her question. But he could think Of
I. nothing on the spur Of the moment
more appropriate than the vague and
/ non committal formula Of ssThat de.
pends," and SO he said that with an
! effort to make it seem informed with
many meanings. 1t did not have a
very satisfactory effect upon the wo
man. A look of disdain shadowed hel
i eyes with a deeper darkness and tight
4 ened the tension of her red lips
You declared once, !" she said, thai
man like yourself, q man with ne
4 special purpose in life, always ought
to be ready to place his life at the ser
i vice of a beautiful woman. Do yor
q remember
Philo shrugged his shoulders slight
4 ". Tt was very likely, indeed, that hi
had said something of the kind, al
some time or other, to some one OF
II other Indeed, it was probable that hi
had said those words, or words resem
bling them, many times to many per
4 sons. But he could not recall any spe
cial occasion and he said so. The WO
man frowned at his explanation.
You said SO once. she replied, st,
one who was then dear friend o
q yours, who happened to besa dea
q friend of mine, and who repeated you
. phrase to me. Never mind the name
81 you may very well have forgotten 1t
:, and at least you never knew my name
and never saw my face before
ours is not a face said Philo
! shat q man, once seeing 1t, is at al
likely to forget s S