The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1899-12-21

the crowd, and, with a half-Sigh half
smile, remarked:
If she thinks he is growing old she's
mistaken"
CHAPTER X.
If the meeting had been the work.
ing out of his own plans, Stanton would
nave carried his message on his tongue
AS 1T was, he held it more in Difference
waiting for an opportunity that was
slow to come.
'1our trip has changed you till ]
Believe your friends at home will hard
~ know that it is really ypu," Miss
Braddon said, in response to passing
compliment. ''You wouldn't have said
that year ago. You'd just have looked
me over solemnly, and remarked: HIN
You must have been out of doors. You
have freclzles on your nose.'"
Il certainly had a vast collection OF
disagreeable traits" Stanton replied,
seeing his first opportunity. give dis.
covered some of them and: been making
a struggle to dislodge them. I'm glad
If you see change, for you knew me
at my worst, and I'm heartily ashamed
of it. Any change at all must be for
the BETTER
"Oh, Mr.. Stanton, what an ideal" she
exclaimed. ''Of course I knew YOU at
your worst, but, truly, that worst was
so much better than the best I ever
knew of hosts of people who think
themselves very good, that 1 have al
ways considered you a remarkably
model man. Papa says it's all because
you're an Olmstead and couldn't be
anything else. And don't you think
we're all of us little ashamed every
time we look back? lam. III weren't
l shouldn't think I was making any
progress
YOU'RE comforting to say the least"
Stanton replied, and was going on to
press the opportunity, when Miss Brad
don interrupted:
we saw by the paper that you were
soon to leave for home. What lion
they will make of you'll"
''Of me?'
"Certainly"
"Why?'
Because you deserve it, of course
deserve what?"
ITO be lionized.''
For what?'
Nov. Mr.. Stanton, if I didn't know
you I should think all sorts of things;
but instead I'll begin and tell you all
about what you know just as we'll as the
rest of us, only you don't see it in the
same light. Didn't you make great
hero of yourself when your steamer was
captured by pirates in the Gulf OF
Siam?"
Indeed I did not, Miss Braddon,"
Stanton exclaimed, and his cheeks
flushed. Il swung rusty sword in the
face of a few Chinese towards, and they
ran without a scratch. That was hero
ism indeed"
"Of course don't know all the par
ticulars, but I'm sure the king of Siam
thought so, or he wouldn't have dec
Grated you with an order. The New
York papers thought so, or they'd not
have printed so much about it. The
British government thought so, or it
would not have remembered it till YOU
reached London, two months ago, and
presented you with a medal. But how
was it about your being almost killed
by tiger, in India, while saving the
life of a little native girl? There was a
story printed about that, too
II was hardly hurt at ALL" Stantonre-
piled, thoroughly confused. II simply
wanted the tigers skin as memento,
and have it,
With merry laugh Miss Braddon
replied: "How fortunate for the little
girl that that was just the tiger whose
skin you wanted, and that you wanted
it at that very moment when it was
about to kill her! But what papa
thought most of was your address be-
fore the Historical society of London,
when you gave them an old Babylonish
brick. He said he couldn't see how a
lawyer could possibly know so much
about antiquity"
Vainly Stanton endeavored to take
another step toward the end he had in
view. Before the evening was past Miss
bIduuOu 1ldu l1S4lcu lll1l 10 OTlVe WIFE
them to Vesuvius the next day, and to
sit in their box at the opera the next
evening. ...--...
The second day was failure, like the
first, so far as the message was con-
cerned; while with every atom of man.
hood in him Stanton struggled to hold
himself back from what he knew would
be fatal plunge into that bewildering
pool.
Why should she fascinate him till his
heart and brain reeled? No woman had
So much as attracted him before; and
now, OF all times, when It must not be!