Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-08-24
'sA>o'SA>'s
( And So They're Engaged
e The Romance of Midsummer
Luncheon In Town.
4,
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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.
1t was barbarously early for dinner,
but ridiculously late for luncheon, but
it had suited the mood of the man and
the maiden who had met by accident
and 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
well-dressed, well-tubbed specimen.
The room was almost deserted except
for those two and the occasional cackle
of a waiter was all that broke the 81
lence except their own discreetly-low
cred voices. A small East Indian man
picturesquely turbaned and robed in
white came toward their table bearing
q chatting dish upon a silver tray from
which he served them noiselessly with
rice and chicken while waiter poured
wine into two pale greenish glasses.
Iol oil ho nd
importance of rite.
The girls face took on look of in
tense satisfaction as she tasted the first
morsel. AS her sun-kissed hands moved
over her plate the man thought that
she was one of the few women who ate
gracefully. AS a 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,
by accident, of all places, at church!
Tell newly do you go to church,"
''To kill time, 1 suppose. Then the
music there is admirably good and the
sermons"
Admirably short!"
Exactly! Why did you go?"
81 always go. It's become habit
with me. But it is the very last place
I should have expected to see you. It
is remarkable coincidence that we
should have drifted there. Don't you
think things happen oddly at times ?"
"What khd of things?''
"Coincidences-fori nstance?"
"Please don't call our meeting a mere
coincidence. I call it the result of an
educated mind wave.''
mind wave?"
"Yes-a brain current. You know
in India"
That's where you go hunting lions,
isn't it:?''
"No-tigers in India"
''But you hunt lions, too-don't you %
''Never have. I gave one run once,
though"
'Oh, how perfectly lovely! Tell me
about it,
''It wouldn't interest you. You see,
I was running first"
''Ha! ha! ha!''
Funny, wasn't it? Well, in India,
where they live on this sort of thing
rice and chicken
o"And sauterne?"
"Er-well-no animal food-you I'M
derstand@they get their souls Guilt
waited to such an extent that they can
communicate with each other across
long distances"
Anybody CAM"
ooh, you must be educated up to it.
An American doesn't take to it as
quickly, but the natives believe in it.
1t is a part of their religion. They can
perform all sorts of magical tricks. ]
have no doubt that the man who cooks
this-the little chap in the urban
talks without Words
81 noticed he didn't speak. And do
you know-as he moved about so still
and quiet felt-felt-''
"Jarred?"
"No-chilled-just as though 1 were
under a spell. He has such mysterious
eyes. Did you notice."
"Never notice mems eyes. Waste OF
time''
'Ha! ha! ha! I wish he would come
in again!"
HE probably WILL
"Hush!"
''What?"
"Oh-here he comes. He has another
dish"
"Good!"
Don't let us pretend to notice. Yes,
as you were saying, quite agree with
you, that the day has been a pleasant
one-but what would people think il
Ghey came in and found us dining to-
gether-at five o'clock. I, in sailor
hat-you-"
s'In sailor hat also"