Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1902-01-11
A turbulent
...NOurS0...
BY KATHERINE PRrNDIvILLE.
ccopyrizht. 1901, By Authors syndioate.l

| TT all happened in such queer, hap
hazard way. First there was that
ridiculous and embarrassing encoun-
ter at the depot when his unexpected
eloquence had forced the reluctant
cabby to remedy the mistake caused by
I the negligence of country telegraph
| operator and take herself and her lug.
gage up the dusty hill and on down the
| shady roadway which led to the home
Of her surprised friends.
That was enough of itself to make
her remember him, for indissoIubly
coupled with his unexpected appear
ance was the vision of her tired face
and disheveled costume as she saw it
later reflected in the mocking mirror
which stood in her friends dainty
dressing-room. Then she remembered
her useless efforts to cajole the lazy
teamster and her final spirited out
burst of hasty temper which amply
accounted for the look of amused mis-
chief which lurked in the eyes half hid
den by the masculine cap.
Whenever she met the man after
wards, that same look of misehievous
amusement danced suddenly into his
eyes at sight of her. And she was al
ways meeting the man and always
meeting him at her worst. Whenever
she donned her most unbecoming
gown he strolled over to call. When
ever she returned from tramp
through the woods, hot and dusty and
covered with branches of twigs and
disfguring burrs, he always intercept
ed her travels at the most inconvenient
section of its homeward route, and, I'M
daunted by her look of dismayed an
noyance, coolly proceeded to walk
back at her side, easy, affable and en-
PERTAINING, as always, while the usual
twinkle CLEANED in his eyes.
When she lost her way and her hat
one day in rainstorm, and applied for
directions to the only wind-tossed Pc
destrian whom fate had cast in her
path, she found, of course, that she
had appealed to the man with the mis-
chievous eyes, who not only led her
home in what she felt to be the igno-
minious disgrace of captivity, but as
a token of further badge of servi-
tude, he led her home with his cap
perched iauntily on her most unwilling
head
Whenever she lost the set at tennis,
the man was on hand to smile his
amusement. Whenever she fumbled
her opening drive on the golf links,
10 ct g L.
of her club, apparently lost in whim-
steal study of the contour of her pro-
file. Even when she won her game, as
she frequently did, even in spite of
her attendant of bad omen, the JOYS
of victory were turned to bitter fruit
by the mocking spirit of mischief that
laughed in pair of bright brown eyes.
The climax of her escapades came,
however, the day she sprained her ankle
during one of her solitary excursions
through the woods, when she lay for
hours out Of the frequented pathways,
half faint from pain and fright. She
had called for help til. her voice had
grown hoarse. She had cried from ex-
haustion until her eyelids were red
and swollen. She had torn her gown,
she had split her shoe, her hat had dis
appeared, and her hair had fallen IN a
disheveled mass over her shoulders.
She was half lying against tree in
compulsive submission to decree
which seemed to make a night in the
woods a necessary part of her sum
mer's experiences, when she was
reused by the swapping of twig and
startled by a sharp exclamation of
masculine wonder. OF course the man
stood before her. Nobody else would
have found her as She was. Nobody
else would have seen her al her worst.
But there was no laughter in the brown
eyes then, as he bound up her ankle
so carefully and lifted her helpless
form so gently in his arms, that in spite
Of a feeble protest which the man
stihed with a word, she was only too
glad to lay back against his breast in
thankfulness, and let him carry her TO
the house.
And he was good to her then and aft
erwards, but, of course it could not
last.ong. The mischievous spirit would
come dancing back to his eyes and a
whimsical allusion TO her accident soon
tore the flag of truce into tatters. They
quarreled in the morning, in the after
noon and at night, the man with a
teasing railery, the girl with eXas-
perated retort. They fought their way
49, VG\