Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1905-04-06

| found some one that you could care for
Mt last, and then you sit and twist
your mustache and make me guess all
! the wrong people, and
II never made you guess anyone
] said. Indignantly, removing my hand
from my upper lip with a jerk. Il
merely informed you that I fell in
| love yesterday. | suppose there's no
objection to that? And when you
suggested that it happened at Lady
Toilets, agreed.
WELL said Eva, in judicial tone.
you didn't stay more than three-quar-
tiers of an hour. Directly you arrived
you took me to see the aviary, and the
rest of the time you spent in the ros-
AIRY with Mollie Richards
IF I'd known you were watching
| my movements so carefully" | be-
gan.
Elva blushcd furiously
when people make themselves con
! spicuouS," she said. frostily, their do
ings are bound to form the subject of
comment. Mollle Richards always per
SiSts in wearing maize with her par
ticular shade of red-auburn hair, and
l could see her from all over the
garden"
| Almost without looking?" | suggest
ed. carelessly.
Elva passed over this remark with
contempt, but | couldn't help noticing
that the flush deepened.
oil hA nh
served with dignity, "and as you've
called on purpose, perhaps you'll be
obliging enough to tell ME who it is.
so that | may congratulate or cOndone
with you. as the case may be-
You'll condone," said l, with con
victon.
"Why. please
Because she-this girl, who isn't
Mollle richards, you know. doesn't
| care straw for me-in that way, and
the whole thing is hopeless"
Elva softened instantly.
How can you tell II you've never
ahked herr" she demanded. "She may
be simply pining away for your sake,
if you only knew"-her gaze wan
dered through the window and settled
on bed of brilliant begonias in the
front garden-"grls don't always wear
their hearts on their sleeves, even IN
these matter-of-fact days, Monty
raised my eyes. They had been
busily engaged in tracing the pattern
| of the carpet.
Don't you think it's likely" L
asked, that any girl would really fall
in love with a man twice her age if"
"Oh, she's young" interrupted Elva.
hastily. "Do you know, I'm rather
glad of that"
| | held up deprecating hand.
please let me finish" / implored.
Twice her age. when she's tyrannized
over him, leased him and looked upon
him as an old fogy for the greater
part of her natural lifeT
| Elva eyed me sharply. The color
came and went in her cheeks in Il way
that l had never seen it come and
go before. | put my eyeglass In Or
der to better admire the effect.
You said you'd seen her only once
or twice." she resumed, severely; but
the culver in her voice robbed the Sc
verify Of any sting.
waved my hand.
Lovers licensev' | said, airily. II
couldn't dlvulge everything at once"
IF you've known her so long, how
comes it that you only-well, discov-
cred the state of your feelings yester-
day."
"'There is a tide in the affairs Of
men," | quoted. Likewise there is
psychological moment when man
suddenly realizes Il fact that may have
been staring him in the face for years"
And that psychological moment
occurred at Lady Follet's:"
occurred at Lady Follet's,"
echoed. And then there was a long ST.
lcnce.
let my eyes wander slowly round
the room. They fingered vaguely on
the ridiculous blue cats with which
Eva adorns her mantcl shelf. and
skinned the photographs of her nu-
merous admlrers-some Of them thrust
carelessly into the overmantel, and
some, the more fortunate, Sinking at
me from elaborate frames.
| think Elva's eyes must have been
wandering. too, for they came to an
| Choir at the same moment as mine and
then. without any rhyme or reason,
they filed quite suddenly with tears.
Now, ] can never see woman cry
without feeling that somethng-some-
| thing drastic must be done at once
| started up, and then the rest seem
ed to follow as natural and easy
consequence.
| In less time than it takes to chron-
iclc Elva was crying quietly on my
shoulder, and the blue cats were grin
ming diabolically from their several
coigns Of vantage.
And when," l asked, after we had
become more or less normal, and re-
turned to earth once more again,
when was your psychological mo-
ment, Elva?'
Elva fingered a gardenia in my but
tonhole-tOok it Out-smelt it, and re-
placed 1t carefully