Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-05-31
p I.
THE ANTECEDENTS OF PATRICK
CAMEL.

THE ANTECEDENTS OF PATRICK
CAMBEL.
HE has," said Fairfax. "a genial in
science of manner which seems rather
taking with some people. But | confess
| shouldn't have thought him the man
you would have cared to see twice,
Amy"
You are ~prejudiced obviously, and
I've a good mind to say maliciously
prejudiced. | don't know how much
YOU saw Of him because l can't be in
vlted to a Wanderers club dinner. You
don't know how much / saw of him be-
cause { missed some distant train
and didn't come here to the ball last
night. But I'll tell you. / saw all l
could. He's perfectly and entirely
charming, He's been everywhere, done
everything, and isn't a bit blase.''
Il heard" said Fairfax, that Mrs.
Shelf was trotting him around, last
night as the great traveller. Is he Of
the advertised variety OF a globe trot-
ter? Did he sit in a side room and hold
a small audience s~pellbound with a Sc
lection from his adventures"
Miss Rivers shrugged her shoulders.
Not he, but you know what Mrs.
Shelf is when she gets any show per-
son at one of her functions. He had
10 stand 1T for a while because she
held on to him as though he might
have been her fan. But he escaped as
soon as he decently could by saying
that he wanted to dance. He asked me
TO give MIN the fourth waltz. l did
1T out of sheer pity, because / saw
Mrs. Shclfs thumbscrews were making
him writhe."
Shows how little a man may know
about the girl he is engaged to. Now,
| had always imagined that. having
the pick OF the men, you invariably
wrote down the best dancers, and
never saddled yourself with a stranger
who was a very possible duffer.'
Amy Rivers laughed. That's gen
eralizing. But ii was different l1st
night because l am, so to speak. "a
member Of the household here. A want
counts as a sort of a niece, doesn't she,
or between that and an adopted
daughter? But anyhow 1t was out of
sheer pity for Mr.. Cambel in the first
instance, and ii was with distinct
qualms that l let him take me down to
dance. / quite intended after half a
round TO say the room was too crowd
ed and go and sit somewhere. That is
TO say, | made up my mind to do this
when he asked me.
However, when | dropped my fin
gers on his arm to go down stairs, l
had my doubts. You know after two
seasons one gets instinctively to know
by the first touch how a nan viii
dance. And when he put his arm
around me and we moved to the music
l felt like going forever. Waiting is
lard just now because it's in a transit
ton state between two styles, but his
dancing was something to dream
about. We started off with the new
est quick waltz. Hamilton, it was just
lovely. He was SO perfect that just
for experiment | alter my step-by de-
grees, you know. Automatically, with
out anything being seen, he changed,
too, and we were dancing the old slow
glide before | knew. And his steering
was perfect. In that whirling, teem-
ing, tangled mob he never bumped me
once. / gave him two more legal
waltzes and cut another couple in his
favor"
(which makes five in all, said Fair
fax rattle stihly.
Amy Rivers took his hand and pat
ted 1t. Don't be cross, dear. You
know / love a good dance, and one
doesn't meet a partner like Mr.. Cam
bel every day. / suppose he's done
his waltzins in Vienna and Paris and
Yorkshire and New Orleans as well as
here in London, and by averaging them
all up he can't help but be good"
rs it from going to those places that
Mrs. Shelf called him the great
traveller"
"Of course not. Hamilton, how
stupid you are about him. Why. he's
rummaged about in every back corne
of the world. so they say"
80 they say, yes. Teheran to Tim
buktu. But what does he say himself
about his wanderings beyond the tram
lines? Shuffles mostly. doesn't he?
And who's met him anywhere? Not a
soul who will come forward to speak.
/ tell you, Amy, there's something UNI
oanny about this Patrick Cambel. He
turns up here periodically in London
after some vague exploring trip TO a
place which isn't mapped. and you can
never pin him to tell exactly where
he's been. He comes with money,
spends il en- prince and then goes off
again, nominally perhaps to the Cob
desert, and returns with another
cargo
'How romantic!" said Miss Rivers.
Yes, isn't it?" said her fiance dryly.
IF he'd lived q century earlier, one
would have said he'd got a sound bus
mess connection as ii pirate some
where West Indies way. AS his year
is 1893 and that explanations barred,
one simply has TO accept him as an
uncomfortable mystery"
Hamilton, how absurd you are!
Wherever did all this rigmarole come
FROM"
From the club and London gossip
ing places generally. I ppo we
ought TO be indebted to Cambel for
providing us something to talk about"
but, tell me. If his an~tecedents are
so queer. how is 1t he goes about so
much here? He's apparently asked
everywhere-at least so Mrs. Shelf says
and he knows everybody who's worth
knowing"
Fairfax laughed. why does London
society tax up with an ex-bushranger
from Australia or a giorified advertise
ing cowboy from the wild, wild west ?
Simply because London society Is ex-
trernely parochial and &c IS desperately
bored with its own little self undiluted.
Now, Cambel has undoubtedly wan
dered about outside the parish. and oc-
cnsionally he let's drop hints which
makes one guess he's seen some queer
ish rough and tumbles In places where
polite society doesn't go. and, In fact.
preserves a GOOD humcvel re~ticence