The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1907-01-10
By DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS

q
Soon Anita appeared--preceded and
heralded by a faint rustling from soft
and clinging skirts, that swept my
etves like love tune. I suppose for
all men there is a charm, a spell beyond
expression, In the sight of a delicate,
beautiful young woman, especially II
she be dressed iii those fine fabrics that
look as If only a fairy loom could have
woven them; and when a man loves
the woman who bursts upon his vision,
that spell must overWhelm him, espec-3
tally If he be such a man as was r.
q product Of life's toughest factories,
hard and harsh, an elbower and a
trampler, a hustler and a buffer. Then
you must also consider the exact cir
cumstances-I standing there, with de-
struction hanging over me. with the
sense that within a few hours ! should
be a paria,sto her, a masquerader strlp-
ped of his disguise n cast out from
the ball where he had been making
so merry and so free. Only a few
hours more! Perhaps now was the last
time / should yer stand so near to
her! The full realization of all this
swallowed me up as in q great, thick,
black mist. And my arms strain#4d to
escape from my tightly locked lands,
strained to seize her, to snatcn from
her, reluctant though she might be, at
least some part of the happiness tina
was to be denied me.
I hin my torment must have some
how penetrated to her. For she was
sweet and friendly-and she could not
have hurt me worse! If l had followed
my impulse I should have fallen at her
feet and buried my face, scorching, In
the folds of that pale blue, family
shirnmering robe of hers.
DO throw away that huge, hideoGs
\ ri cyar ~ Shn said ~ 1o11erhinpr IA Ehn
took two cigarettes from the box. put
both between her lips, lit them, held
n toward me. / looked at her face,
and along her smooth, bare, out
stretched arm, and at the pink, slender
fingers holding the cigarette. | took it
as if / were afraid the spell would be
broken, should my fingers touch hers.
Afraid-that's it! That's why / didn't
pour out all hat was in my heart. /
deserved to lose her.
I'm taking o away from the 9th
ers," | said. We could hear the muir
muir of many voices and of music. In
fancy I could see them assembled
round the little card tables-the we'll
fed bodies, the well-cared-for skins,
the elaborate toilets, the useless jew
eled understandable, secure, self
satisfied, idle, always idle, always play
ing at the imitation games-like their
OWL pampered children, to be sheltered
in the nurseries of wealth their whole
lives through. And mot at all in Bit
terness, but wholly in sadness, a sense
of the injustice, the unfairness of it
ala sense that had been strong in
me in my youth but blunted during the
years OF my busy prosperity-returned
for a moment. For a moment only;
my mind was soon back to realities
to her and me-to us" How soon it
would never be 'us" again!
They're mammals friends" Anita
was answering. Goldfish and tiresome.
When you leave l shall go straight on
up to bee"
I'd like TOTO see your room-where
you live said I, more to myself than
to her.
81 sleep In a bare little box" she re-
piled with a laugh. It's like a cell. A
friend Of ollrs who has the anti-germ
fad insisted on it. But my sitting room
isn't SO bad"
"Langdon has the anti-germ fad
said I.
She answered Yes after a pause,
and in such a strained voice that I
looked at her. A flush was just dying
out of her face. III was the friend
j spoke Of" she went on.
You know him very well?" I asked.
We've known him-always," said
she. Il think he's n Of my earliest
recollections. His fathers summer
place n ours adjoin. And once-I
guess it's the first time I remember
seeing him-he was a freshman at
Harvard, and he came along on a horse
past the pony cart in which a groom
was driving me And II was very lit
tie then-I begged him to take me up,
and he did. l thought he was the
greatest, most wonderful man that ever
lived" She laughed queerly. when 1
said my prayers, I used to imagine a
god that looked like him to say them
TO-"
I echoed her laugh heartily. The
idea of Mowbray Langdon as a god
struck me as peculiarly funny, though
natural enough, too.
Absurd. wasn't it?" said she. But
her face was grave, and she let her
cigarette die out.
Il guess you know him better thar
that noW?"
"Yes-better,' she answered, slowly
and absently. "He's-anything but a
god!"
"And the more fascinating on that
account" said I. II wonder why wom-
en- like hest the really bad, dangerous
sort Of man, who hasn't any respect
for them, or for anything"
I said this that she might protest,
at least for herself. But her answer
was a g musing, Il wonder
wonder"
I'm sure you wouldn't I protested
earnestly, for her.
She looked at me queerly.
Can l never convince you that Tn
just a woman?" said she mockingly.
Just a woman, and one a man with
our ideas Of women would fly from"
Il wish you were!" I exclaimed.
"Then-Pd not find it $3.50 impossible
to give you up"
She ose and made a slow tour of
the room, hating OH the rug before the
closed fireplace a few feet from me.
1 sat looking at her.
Il am going to give you up" I said
at last.
Her eyes. staring into vacancy, grew
larger n %intenser with Each long,
deep breath she took.
Il didn't intend to say what I'm
about to say-at least, not this even
ing" 1 went on, and to me it seemed to
be some other than myself who was
speaking. Certain things happened
down town today that have set me TO
thinking. And-i shall do whatever [
can for yeur brother and your father.
But you-you are free"
She went to the table, stood there in
profile to me, straight and slender as
a sunfiower stalk. She traced the sill
yer chasings@ in the lid Of the cigarette
box with her forefinger; Their she took
a cigarette and began rolling it slowly
and ahSently