Smyrna times., 1905-01-04
ADAM
By KEITH GORDON
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Copyright. 1908. BY Frances Wilson


mouth.
How do you go about it?" was the
question that her eyes asked of the ra-
dlant landscape. It's all very well to
say that woman, if she have NOT q
hump upon her back, may marry whom
she will, but how would she 90 about
it?"
The scratching of match broke the
summer stiffness, and her meditations
were suddenly precipitated from the
general to the concrete. She GLANCED
where a mans form bulked in one of
the huge wicker chairs. With his hand
forming screen he was lighting n
fresh cigar, seemingly oblivious to ey-
erythlng 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 wears NOT
with much satisfaction, it must be con-
fessed, since he was nOtoriously
mans man." living in a mans world
ana 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 a per-
sonal affrOnt, a 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 it, 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 pidue and
amusement
1t certainly would serve him right
her thoughts ran on, if some ladv
would just wind him round and round
her finger, make him fetch and carry
at her beck and call, reduce him to a
perfect mush of sentiment. Something
In her steady gaze caused him to move
uneasily, then look up.
'Did you speak?"
He had the perfunctory manner Of a
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, Il didn't speak.
But If you don't mind very much
think l will I'd like to ask you, for
instance, if you have ever had a la
dies dayY"
"A ladies' day?" he repeated help
lessly, shaking off his eyeglasses with
a characteristic movement, while his
tormentOr watched him as if ne had
been some sort of a specimen that she
had impaled upon a pin. Then 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 a way that sug-
gested a well nigh unconquerable de-
sire to return to it. She stretched out
her hand Reluctantly he handed it
over.
did it ever occur to you" she asked
blandly, that the creature who tempt
ed Adam so successfully, who is at
the bottom of everything, as it were,
must be as-as intricate as your old
engineering prOblems|
"I have always considered Adam
weak-very weak" was his evaslve an
swer. Men aren't like that nova
days"
At these bOastful words a resolution
that had been taking form in her mind
became full fiedged. She was inspired
with the sense of a mission. Her
neglected sex should find an avenger
In her.
"You think you wouldn't have eaten
Of the apple, then?'
There was a new note in her voice.
It was at the same time a challenge
and an appeal.
As If it were something absolutely
new it came to his mind that girls were
delicate. helpless creatures, and wave
Of tenderness for the sex swept over
him. Still he was very positive that he
wouldn't have eaten the apple. and
something in the soft, babyish, yet de-
pendent way in which she looked at
him caused him to explain at great
length why.
"Has talked fifteen minutes by the
clock" she was thinking in high glee'
but outwardly she was all deferential'
honey sweet attention.
I'm sure he wouldn't have yielded
If he'd been like you" was her earnest
comment when he finished speaking
and at the words he was conscious ol
a pleasant expansiveness, a caresslne
sense of satisfaction as delightful as Il
was unusual. 1t was as If he were
growing taller, broader and more Sc
verely strong before her very eyes.
go back to your reading. I'm no
going to bother you another minute.
a n