The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-28


poriZe by opening an argument. The
half playful struggle always ended in
Molly's gaining her point, but the VIC
tory was laughing. and so Cheyenne
Harry was encouraged to reopen the
attack on new grounds.
AS one of the inevitable results, the
emotion which Molly experienced in at
once denying herself and combating
Harry was gradually translated into a
fascinated sort of passion for him.
Then, too, since naturally the interest
of these indecisive encounters increas-
ed with each, the two came to see
each other oftener and oftener, until the
habit of companioship was we'll es-
tabhshed This habit is very real. The
approach of the accustomed hour for
meeting causes the heart to beat fast
err the breath to come quicker, the
ina gination to kindle; while the fore
going of a single appointment is a dull
loss difficult to bear with patience
1t counterfeits we'll many of the symp-
toms of love, and for a short time is
nearly as burning passion.
Sometimes the ATTACH would be
more direct. Cheyenne Harry's stock
of sophistry would give out, as we'll
as his stock of patience.
"Oh, come on, Molly ne would cry;
Gust one! I've been real good, now
haven't 1? Oh, come on"
you've been nothing but great
big brute. Mr.. Cheyenne Harry" she
cried in a tone that implied he had
not.
Harry advanced a little, holding out
his hands, much as one would ap-
prdach a timid setter dog. She put
one finger on her lips, and watched
him, bright-eyed. When he was near
enough, she boxed his ears, and twisted
her slender young body out of reach,
laughing mockingly, and wrinkling her
nose at him.
But then when they had returned to
camp, and once more she found herself
alone, the delicious questions always
came up: how far did he intend to
go? Did he see through such and such
a stratagem? Was he really veXed at
such and such a speech, or was he
merely feigning? In what manner
would he dare accost her when next
they met? And so another meeting be-
came necessary soon-at once. They
saw more and more of each other to
the neglect of many real duties.
For time the influence of Jack Ora
ham did something to stem the drift
of this affair, but that lasted only
until he himself fell in love with her.
With him her first emotion had been
of eager intellectual awakening; her
second, that of piqued curiosity; her
third of reactionary dizziness. AS time
went on she came to pass and repass
through those three phases with ever
increased rapidity, until at the last
their constant reiteration might al
most have relegated them to the cate
CORY of whims. She liked to be with
him. because he made her aware of
new possibilities in herself. She could
not understand him, because his atti-
tude toward her was never that of the
lover She experienced moments of We
volt, when she cried out passionate
w hut iron
ence which would compel her to eleva-
lions rarer than the atmosphere of her
everyday, easy-going, pleasure TAX
ing life. Intellectually say, for some
things always forced her back.
Not that Graham ever preached.
Preaching would have presented some
thing tangible against which to re-
volt something orthodox to be cried
down. In fact, reformation of Molly
Lafond's manners of mind or body was
the farthest from Grahams thought
He merely represented to her a state
of being to which she must rise. The
rise was slight. but it was real It
meant the difference between thinking
in the abstract or in the concrete. 1t
meant that she was compelled to feel
that to men like him, or to women
like her, this animal existence, with
its finer pleasures of riding climbing
flirting and sitting on bars, while we'll
enough in its way, was, after all, but
a small and incidental part of life. If
the girl had been requested to formu-
late it, she would not have been able
to do so. She apprehended it more in
It's result; which was to make her just
little ashamed of her everyday man.
ner of existence, without, however,
furnishing her with a strong enough
motive to rise permanently above it,
This, in turn, translated itself into a
certain impotent mental discomfort.
AS long as Jack Graham preserved
the personally Indifferent standpoint
the mere fact that he caused her mo-
mentary disquiet did not antagonize
Molly Lafond against him. Rather it
added certain piquancy to their in
terviews. He threw out his observa-
tons on men and manners lazily, with
the true philosophers delight in roll
ing a good thing under his tongue.
None of them possessed an easily fit
ted personal application. And his ut
Ter indifference as to whether she
talked or listened went or tarried, al
ways secretly pleased her. She liked
his way of looking at her through half
closed lids, in the manner of one ex-
aiming a strange variety of tree or
fern; the utter lack of enthusiasm in
the fashion of his greetings when she
came, or his farewell when she de-
parted; his quite impersonal manner
of pointing truths which might only
too easily have been given a personal
application. And this was the very
reason OF 1t, although again she might
not have been able to formulate the
idea; that although his methods of
thought, his mental standpoints, his
ways OF life constantly accused hers
OF inertia, carelessness and moral tur-
plture, nevertheless his personally in
dlnerent attitude toward her relieved
them OF too direct an application. She
enjoyed the advantages of a mental
cold shower, with the added satisfac-
zion that no one saw her bedraggled
locks.
But when in time the young man
went the way of the rest of the camp
ana began to show more intimate in
terest In her, the conditions were quite
altered We may rejoice in anathema
against the sins Of humanity in which
we may acknowledge a share; we al
ways resent being personally blamed.
Graham indeed went the way of the
rest OF the camp. His progress from
indifference to love he could not have
traced himself. although he might with
tolerable accuracy have indicated the
landmarks-a look, a gesture a flash
OF spirit, revealing by a little more
the woman whom he finally came to
ldeallze That hers was a rich ma
ture he had early discovered. That it
was not Inherently a frivolous or vi
clous nature, he saw only gradually,
ana AFTER many days. Then his self
disguise OF philosophic Indifference fell.
ne realized fully that he loved her,
not Tor what she did or said htIf for