The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-11
Our Daily Short Stories
PERIL OF AN EXPERIMENT.
BY H. S. CANFIELD.
Copyright 1901. by Authors snydicate.)

THE time was autumn and the scene
, country house in the North Carolina
tootbills. The house belonged to an
eastern millionaire, and he had as
eembled his guests from ten states.
rrbeir object was supposed to be shoot
,ne Really they fiirted and rode, flirt-
ed and hunted, fiirted and danced, fiirt-
ed and did the hundred other things
usual to a lot of idle, well-educated
rich people who want to kill time and
expend much nervous energy and brain
force in the devising of ways AMI
means. The hosts name was Robert L.
Intrim, but he is not important to the
story except that he furnished the
house and the grounds wherein and
whereon the story happened.
Donald Matthews, aged 40, a man of
the world, with ashes in him where
there used to be passions, got back
from Europe in time to receive and &C
cept an invitation to join this party.
He was wearied of himself and all 9TH
or things, and said that it would be as
good a way in which to drift through
a week OF two as any other. Matthews,
as was natural to one of his kidney,
had had experiences. His past, from
the point of view of a moralist, would
not have borne investigation, though
he was a well-meaning man enough.
His code was that of thousands of 9TH
ers of his class: Be a gentleman out
wardly, pay your debts, respect your
friends wife, avoid alcoholic excess,
and if any other woman wants to
throw herself away on you don't hinder
her. Tall and dark, with the easy man
ners which come from much rubbing
with the world, he was fitted to be
dangerous to women of a certain age
and kind. 1t has been said that he had
ashes where he used to have passions
in fact, he said that much of himself
If a spark or two fingered under the
feathery covering it was without his
knowledge.
He looked over the guests in Cloud
mere" casually on the night of his ar
rival, and decided that they were
hardly worth the cultivating. He had
seen many like them and had resigned
himself to many days of boredom. He
was not a riding man, nor a shooting
man, and he knew enough of his host
to know that the library was unlikely
to contain anything of especial attrac-
ton.
Rising next morning a little after
dawn, however, and wandering about
the grounds, he found himself in a
garden deliberately patterned after the
gardens our mothers grew. Hollyhocks
were there, cockscombs, bachelor
buttons, phlox, sweet williams, asters
straggly rosebush. which bore late
crimson blossom or two, was a girl
young and slender. About her figure
was an angular suggestion of immatu
ity. One sharp little shoulder was turn
ed to him, and he noticed flatness of
chest and narrowness of hip. He half
expected to find her brown hair in
braids, but it was taken up in woman
foshion, and over it was a light scarf
She turned to him as he approached
and showed a pale face, of irregular
outline, without a suggestion of beau
ty, save such as lay in pair of serious
and clear hazel eyes.
He lifted his hat and bowed: she
courtesied slightly.
1T is a beautiful morning" he said,
and l am an early riser; hope that
/ am not intruding. My name is Mat
thews, and am here killing time"
She smiled slightly and constrained
ly, and replied:
You are not intruding. The garden,
] think, is free to us all. l am Violet
Madden-Miss Violet Madden with an
accent on the Miss')-and / am cousin
to the Misses Untrim."
"A poor relation Matthews thought
instantly, poor and unsophisticated,
country bred and country-ideaed. Prob
ably she is the one fresh and unworn
female in the house. 1t may be worth
while to look into her. / hate bread
and-butter misses, but this girl, for all
OF her uniformed figure, is in her TWEEN
ties" He thought of all this, but said
instead
Il hope we shall be good acquaint-
ances, Miss Madden. / don't hunt nor
ride, and as you are a member of the
family l shall ask you to give me as
much of your company as you can
spare from the younger men,
She smiled slightly again, and a faint
blush came to her check She loolxed