The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1903-12-06

You must excuse my curiosity, my
dear Kennedy, and you must put 1t
down 10 my ignorance Of the world.
No doubt it is quite a simple thing to
persuade a young lady to go off with
you for three weeks or so. and then
10 hand her over to her own family at
what did you call the placer
'Twickenham."
quite scat TwiclIenham. But 1t
is something so entirely outside of my
own experience that cannot even i'm
agine how you set about it. For ex-
ample. If you had loved this girl. your
love could hardly disappear in three
weeks, so l presume that you could not
have loved her at all But If you did
not love her. why should you make this
great scandal, which has damaged you
Kennedy looked moodily into the red
eye of TIE stove.
That's logical way of looking at it.
certainly" said he. Love is a big
word, and II represents a good many
different shades of feeling I liked her
and-well, you say you have seen her
you know how charmingly she could
look. But still l am willing to admit.
looking back. that 1 could never have
really loved her.
Then, my dear Kennedy, why did
you 90 it?"
The adventure of the thing had
great deal to do with it,
What Are you so fond of adven-
tures!"
Where would the variety of life be
without them? 1t was for an adven-
ture that 1 first began to pay my at
tention TO her. I've chased a good deal
Of game in my time, but there's no
chase like that of a pretty woman.
There was the piquant difficulty of it.
also, for, as she was the companion
OF Lady Emily Rood, it was almost i'm
possible to see her alone. On the top
Of all the other obstacles which at
tracted me, 1 learned from her own lips
very early in the proceeding that she
was engaged"
Mem Colt! To whom?"
She mentioned no name"
i do not think that any one knows
that. So that made the adventure more
alluring, did it?''
We'll, it did certainly give a spice to
IT. Don't you think 500"
Il tell you that am very ignorant
about these things
My dear fellow, you can remember
that the apple you stole from your
ne1ghbor's tree was always sweeter
than that which fell from your own.
And then l found that she cared for
me-"
"What-at once?"
"Oh. no; it took about three months
Of sapping and mining But at last I
won her over. She understood that my
judicial separation from my wife made
1t impossible for me to do the right
thing by her-but she came. all the
same, and we had a delightful time as
long asit lasted
But how about the other MANI"
Kennedy shrugged his shoulders.
suppose it is the survival of the
httest, said he. IF he had been the
better man she would not have deserted
him. Let's drop the subject, for l have
had enough Of it."
Only one other thing. How did you
get rid of her in three weeks?"
We'll, we had both cooled down a bit
you understand. She absolutely re-
fused, under any circumstances. to
come back to face the people she had
Known in Rome. Now, of course. Rome
is necessary to me. and / was already
pining to be back at my work1so there
was an obvious cause for separation
Then, again, her old father turned up
at the hotel in London, and there was
scene, and the whole thing became
so unpleasant that really-though 1
missed her dreadfully at first-I was
very glad to slip out of 1t. Now, I RELY
upon you not to repeat anything of
what have said"
My dear Kennedy. 1 should not
ASaui VI repeating III. but all mat YOU
say interests me very. much. for ii
gives me an insight, into your way of
looking at things, which is entirely diff
1erent from mine, for ] have seen so
little of life. And, now you want to
know about my new tscomb. There's
no use of my trying to describe It. for
you would never. find 1T by that There
IS only one thing for me to do. and
that is for me to take you there"
That would be splendid"
When would you like to Gomez"
The sooner the better. / am all I'm
patience to see it."
We'll, it is a beautiful night-though
a trlhe cold Suppose we start in an
hour. We must be very careful to keep
the matter to ourselves. If any one
saw us hunting in couples they would
suspect that there was something go
ing on
we can't be 300 cautious" said Ken
nedy. rs it far?"
Some miles"
Not too far to walk?"
"Oh, no; we could walk there easily"
We had better do so then. A cab
mans suspicious would be aroused II
he dropped us both at some lonely spot
in the dead of night
Quite so. / think ii would be best
for us to meet at the Gate of the Ap-
plan Way at midnight. / must 20 back
10 my lodgings for the matches and
candies and things"
'All right, Burger. ! think it is very
kind of you to let me into this secret,
and / promise you that ! will write
nothing about II until you have pub
lished your report. Good-by for the