Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1904-08-20
Copyright, 1904, By T. c. Mcclure

| germ of love- thinks with glee that in
this unusually bad case is his chance.
| After much research he finds the love
germ and carries it carefully to his
! laboratory. But sportive soph lets
| it loose among the 'co-eds,' with the
disastrous result that every one begins
promiscuously to fall in love with ev-
cry one else. Of course the heroine gets
inoculated and falls in love with the
hero.'
"And the professor himself becomes
enamored Of the laundress," she put
in laughingly.
"Just so! was working on his So
liloquy prior to the advent of the love-
lorn youth when you came in"
"And of course began at the end, as
usual!'
"Y-yes. But the rest will come to
me- Here's the last verse anyhow:
81 have found the germ of health,
The germ of melancholia and paresis,
But my regulations lost
If can't at any cost,
Describe the germ Of love in my great
thesis.
FLOWS uhat?"
"Great"
She smiled encouragement with APP
preciative eyes and lips, but the light
died from her face as he swung back
to the desk, waving the paper hilari-
ously above his head. She bit back
sigh between her teeth and, laying
the bundle Of mail beside him, turned
away.
Don't CO." Royce was bending over
his papers and did not look up.
won't it disturb you if remain"
mo; it will help me; it always does.
/ think you are my inspiration"
The blood flashed to her face so sud-
denly that she was thankful he did
not look up and see it. She sank into a
big leather chair before the open fire
and took up a magazine. Speed,
Royce's fox terrier, got up from the
rug, stretched himself lazily and jump
ed upon her lap. The young man lift
ed his head and looked across at her
sideways.
what a picture you maker he said
meditatively.
The girl gave an unconcerned shrug
to hide the suffocating beating of her
heart in her throat. 1t was terrible
to her, the suggestion Of domesticity
in their attitude, and to think it meant
nothing to him beyond the fact that in
the coy setting Of the "den''' she made
an artistic picture.
Royce was deep in his work again,
scarcely conscious of the fact, when
she rose and left the room in answer
to a ring at the bell and the maids
knock. He heard the soft pitpat of
her feet as she ran upstairs few min
utes later and then the clash of the
front door,
Having finished the professors So
liloquy he rose and strobe into the
drawing room just in time to see Lucy
being helped into high dogcart by a
fair faced individual in immaculate
light Overcoat and dogskin gloves. The
horses paved the air when the diminu-
tive tiger left their heads and sprang
into his place. Royce had a glimpse
of Lucy's bright face as it was lifted
to her companions. How entirely in
her element she looked! He turned
away from the window, his foot trip
ping in a rug, which he kicked savage
ly back into place. "Confound those
things that are always catching in peo-
pies feetv' Well, here was another day
wasted. That stuff he had written was
rot. He strobe back into his room and
tearing the sheets in two flung them
into the waste paper basket Then be
threw himself YEARLY into the chair
which the girl he called cousin, because
he had known her all his life. though
the tie between them was remote, had
so lately occupied.
How pretty she had looked sitting
there in the fire light! What could she
see in that empty headed numskull
that she should care to go driving with
him? Was she, after all, one of the
girls to whom a well weighted pocket
book atoned for any mental lack?
He recalled the evening before when
after hard days work he had wander
ed into the drawing room where Lucy
sat playing a sweet, Elusive little mel
ody of Chaminades. Again the feel
ing of supreme content in being thus
alone with her, with no words between
them but the soft, tender chords came
over him. Suppose this tailors block
of man should carry her off to a
home of his own? Suppose she should
be willing to go? He got up and paced
through the rooms, his mind in a whirl
of fear.
He met the girl in the hall when she