Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-09-21
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THE KNOT IN THE PEARLS


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a HE was young and remarkably
~ pretty, with prettiness that Is
~ quite unmistakable and generally
acknowledged, that can even triumph
over a frock that is not fresh or a
style of Embarrassing that is not alto
gether suitable. But then, in her case,
it was such charming hair, so bright
and 50 curly. that he told himself fash
ionable dressing, which would have re-
duccd her head to the level of rope
tition of all the other heads in the
room. would have been. mistake, a
piece of vandalism. And as for the
dress, that was, at any rate, simple
although of the kind that Is not ex-
pensive or even particularly tastefuD.
and he managed to overlook 1t. Yet
that was something of feat-tO his
credit or not. as you looked at the mat
ter-for he had the reputation of being
one of the most fastidious men in Lon
don. Moreover. the child-she was
only child as he admitted-had alb
solutely no conversation.
blue, and their gaze had a rapt and
heaven searching quality that was
unique even in his wide experience
If she could not, as it seemed, use with
any fuency the tongue of men or Of
angels Gust excepting her hesitating
"Oh, yes" "Oh. no." and such nom
committing tritles), if she was poor at
small talk. she was greatly accom-
plshed ut looking. From the first the
glance of her wide-open, innocent eyes,
straying sometimes to his from the
contemplation of heaven, seemed to
bewitch him, to allure, and, harder
still, to hold him in attentive captivity
at her side.
And she was eighteen and badly
dressed, while he owned to thirty five.
and was well known as an accomplish
ed man of the most sensitive, most
exquisite taste.
The woman wasn't born. his friends
had been in the habit of saying, who
could entirely reach up to his stand
ard of perfection; among themselves
they had often pictured her, the near
est thing possible, the woman he would
surrender to, and she was cultured and
witty, delicately sympathetic, daintily
beautiful, and certainly beautifully
dressed to the last little detail And it
must be admitted that he had always
SO pictured her himself.
But while he was man of ideals.
he was also a man of great. of recog-
niZed talents, and his world set him
up as shining light, a man to be
quoted and followed and generally I'D
held, although that is not saying that
they set him above laughter, or. at any
rate smiles. For 1t is pleasant to
smile at an exceptionally talented or
fortunate man; it is recompense and
even relief to those less distinyuish.
ed, and. without being malicious. there
We're many who smiled quite openly
and unashamed as he fingered, every
time they met, at the side of the girl
with the heaven searching eyes.
After ALL" they said. 80, after
all, the usual thing attracts him, or
course, she's sweetly pretty. and he'll
choose her frocks" They didn't feel
any less pleasure In their idol because.
at last they had discovered his feet of
clay; they We're, indeed enthusiastical-
ly inclined to applaud their newer and
more homely view of him, and thew LET
the girl with the heaven searching ewes
absorb him, while they looked on in an
attitude distinctly suggestive of hand
clapping.
after ALL" they would chorus. and
some one would invariably add, "Well.
he'll know how to spend the money!
Yet it was common knowledge that he
was not overburdened with money.
having been. apparently, too overbur-
dened with brains to acquire 1t in any
quantity.
And all the time he was with her no
thought only of her eyes and his own
power to waylay them from heaven.
But when he was not with her, many
Of his thoughts circled round the cheap
row of pearls she invariably wore, and
his mind attuned to great subjects tool,
to itself holiday and spent 1t in won.
dering why she tied knot in them.
Was 1t Of set design. or did she really
think they looked better knotted
There had come into his mind, the first
time he saw her, an old saying, lone
forgotten, that a girl knots her pearls
when she wants love letter. Now
did this girl Of the innocent eyes in
this manner deliberately advertise a
want? And was 1t simply a love letter