The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-09-20
! And So They're Engaged
Tho Romance of a Midsummer
T,s,pnh oon in Tnun

usHE neaO waiter pTtSStu DuttOu
in the wall and rose-colored elec-
fric bulbs blossomed like flowers upon
the ceiling, filling the great dining
room with soft, still radiance and show
ing the white tables surrounded with
ornate high-backed chairs, now elo-
qucntly empty. The air from the av-
enue stirred the lace that screened the
open windows and made the blooming
marguerites in great high tubs about
the room move on their fragrant stems.
II was barbarously early for dinner,
but ridiculously late for luncheon, but
Il had suited the mood of the man and
the maiden who had met by accident
md had been spending delightfully."-
unchaperoned day in town. Besides
that there were trains to be taken back
to . fashionable resort, where break
fasts, luncheons and dinners made such
Informal meetings as this quite impos-
sible. So, as the girl said, it was all
the more fun. They were not even
dressed for dinner and the head waiter.
who was punctilious in such<matters,
glanced somewhat disapprovingly at
the girls linen shirt waist and her
bamboo hat with pouf of blue, tilted
down over her brows. The man was a
xell-dressed, well-tubbed specimen.
The room was almost deserted except
Tor those two and the occasional cackle
scf waiter was all that broke the ST.
lence except their own discreetly-low-
cred voices. A small East Indian-man
picturesquely turbaned and robed in
white came toward their table bearing
= ehafng dish upon silver tray from
which he served them noiselessly with
rice and chicken while waiter poured
wine into two pale greenish glasses.
The service had all the dignity and
Importance of rite.
The girls face took on look of in
tense satisfaction as she tasted the first
norsel. As her sun-kissed hands moved
oser her plate the man thought that
she was one of the few women who ate
gracefully. AS rule, they were too
nonchalant or too enthusiastic. But
this girls appetite had all the repres-
sion Of a Duse.
Isn't it funny?" she said.
.Funny?"
why, of course, it's too funny for
anything! To think of our meeting,
~ accident, of all places, at church!
Tell newly do you go to church ?"
TO kill time, suppose. Then the
music there is admirably good and the
sermons"
Admirably short!'
Exactly! Why did you go?"
always go. It's become habit
with me. But it is the very last place
! should have expected to see you. 1t
2 remarkable coincidence that we
should have drifted there. Don't you
think things happen oddly at times?''
What kind of things?'
Neutrality-suspicious. instance?"
Please don't call our meeting mere
soincidence. call it the result of an
sdncated mind wave"
Mind wave?"
ies-a brain current. You know
y i India
6at it,"
No-tigers in India"
but you hunt lions. too-don't you p
Never have. / gave one a run once
tlough."
s Oh. how perfectly lovely! Tell me
about it."
It wouldn't interest you. You see
VAS running first"
Ha! ha! hal"
Funny. wasn't it? Well, in India
mere they live on this sort of thing
slce and chicken"
And sauterne?''
Er-well-no animal food-you un
!stand-they get their souls cult
sed to such an extent that they car
Is nmunicate with each other across
ng distances"
Anybody can?"
0n, you must be educated up to it
american doesn't take to 1t q
y, but the natives believe ip II