Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1905-01-25
AIDAN N
By KEITH GORDON
W
Copyright. 1905. BY Frances Wilson,.
By KEITH GORDON

book face downward beside her,
faint, skeptical smile visible about he
mouth.
"How do you go about it?" was tn
question that her eyes asked of the ra
diant landscape. ITS all very well t,
say that woman, If she have not
hump upon her back, may marry whom
she will, but how would she go abou
it?"
The scratching of a match broke the
summer stiffness, and her meditations
were suddenly precipitated from the
general to the concrete. She glanced
where mans form bulked in one OF
the huge wicker chairs. With his hand
forming screen he was lighting a
fresh cigar, seemingly oblivious to ev-
erything In life except that and the
Engineering Journal, which lay In his
lap.
He was her brothers best friend,
and she had known him for years, not
with much satisfaction, 1t must be con-
fessed, since he was VIGOROUSLY a
mars man." living in q mans world
and regarding the rustic of feminine
skirts with something of the same feel
ing that he did the humming Of a mos
quito.
But he was good to look upon-so
good that sudden, quick resentment
shot through her heart at his indiffer-
ence. 1t assumed the likeness Of O per-
sonal affront, q sort of insult to her
| sex. 1t would serve him right If some
girl would just make up her mind to
marry him and do 1t, too, before he
knew what he was about.
Meanwhile he had tossed away the
match and picked up the Journal again
as imperturbably as If he were alone,
a pair of half indignant eyes watching
him with a combination of pique and
amusement
1t certainly would serve him right,
her thoughts ran on, If some lady
would just wind him round and round
her finger, make him fetch and carry
vt her beck and call, reduce him to q
perfect mush of sentiment. Something
In her steady gaze caused him to move
nneasily, then look up.
did you speak"
He had the perfunctory manner Of
person who knows he must keep guard
over himself or he will be guilty of
some remissness. A heroic resolution
to do his duty was visible in his face.
NO." she drawled, II didn't speak.
But if you don't mind very much l
thinl; l will I'd like to ask you for
instance, if you have ever had In.
dies day.
a ladies' day?' he repeated help
lessly, shaking off his eyeglasses with
d characteristic movement while his
tormentor watched him as If he had
been some sort of specimen that she
had impaled ppon pin. Then a light |
dawned upon him.
"You mean such as they have at the
clubs-a day when the place is given
up to your sex and other matters go
to the wall? Well, no. don't know
that l ever have had"
Don't you think it is timer" she
ventured
Possibly" he admitted, but he still
held the Journal in way that sug-
,ested we'll nigh unconquerable de-
tire to return to II. She stretched out
Ter hand. Reluctantly he handed it
,ver.
did it ever occpr.to you" she asked
dandy. that the creature who tempt
d Adam so successfully. who is Mt
he bottom Of everything, as it were,
must be as-as intricate as your old
'problems?"
II have always considered Adam
weak -yery weak" was his evasive an
wcr MEN aren't like that nova
ays."
at these boaStful words resolution
hat had -bceI ,;.,ina formiin her mind
'cca:::c fulI nf ged She was Inspired
vit,. tie se.5c OF mission. Her
a her.
You thin. you wouldn't have eaten
the apple. them
There was new note in her voice.
was at the same time a challenge
nd an appeal.
AS If II were something absolutely
ew it came to his mind that girls were
elicate, helpless creatures and wave
tenderness for the sex swept over {
FIN. Still he was very positive that he t
couldn't have eaten the apple. and {
In the soft, babyish, yet de- s
enGent way in which she looked at t
i'm caused him to explain at great v
NTH why. r
size was thinking in high glee, a
nj outTGr(iy size was all deferential. 0
oncy sweet attention.
I'm sure he wouldn't have yielded n
he'd been like you.' was her earnest "
when he finished speaking, a
nd at the words he was conscious Of Il
pleasant eXpansiyeness, n caressing h
,nse of satisfaction as>delightful as it G
as unusual. 1t was as If he were II
rowing taller. broader and more Sc
erely strong before her very eyes.
go back to your reading I'm not
Ding to bother you another minute" oil
ne jumped up and, laying her hand on II
IS arm, finished ingenuously: "You al
mt mind my bothering you, do you? W
girl gets 50 tired of woman talk! A OF
lat like this is like plunge in a cold &c
ream." And she vanished into tho st
,use and scurried to her room, where W
e threw kiss to her image In the g.
irrOr, with the remark. You're doing be
ell for beginner, my love" IN
Down OH the broad piazza the mas III
ID returned to the closely printed eel- &c