Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1907-02-20
CHAPTER xvIl.-continued.


where you live" said 1, more to my
self than to her.
Il sleep in a bare little box" she
| replied with a laugh. Its like cell.
| A friend of ours who has the anti-germ
fad insisted on it. But my sitting
room isn't so bad"
'Langdon has the anti-germ fad"
said 1.
She answered YES" after a pause,
and in such strained voice that l
looked at her. A flush was just dying
| out of her face. HE was the friend
spoke Of she went on.
You know him very well?" asked
We've known him-always," said
she. Il think he's one of my earliest
recollections. His fathers summer
place and ours adjoin. And once-I
guess it's the first time 1 remember
seeing him-he was a freshman at
Harvard, and he came along on
horse past the pony cart in which
groom was driving me. And IL
was very little them begged him to
take me up, and he did / thought he
was the greatest, most wonderful man
that ever lived" She laughed queerly.
When l say my prayers, 1 used to
Imagine god that looked like him to
say them to-
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 than
that now"
"Yes-better," she answered, slowly
and absently. "He's-anything but a
god"
"And the more fascinating on that
account" said 1. Il wonder why
women like best the really bad, dan
gerous sort of man, who hasn't any re-
spect for them, or for anything"
l said this that she might protest,
at least for herself But her answer
was vague, musing, 81 wonder-I
wonder"
I'm sure you wouldn't" protested
earnestly, for her.
She looked at me queerly.
Can | never convince you that I'm
just a woman?" said she mockingly.
Just woman, and one a man with
your ideas of women would fly from"
Il wish you were!" 1 exclaimed
"Then-Td find it $3.50 impossible to
give you up
She rose and made a slow tour of
the room, hating on the rug before
the closed fireplace a few feet from
me. l sat looking at her.
Il am going to give you up" l said
at last
Her eyes, staring into vacancy, grew
larger and intenser with each long,
deep breath she took
II didn't intend to say what I'm
about to say-at least, not this even
ing" l went on, and to me it seemed
to be some other than myself who was
speaking. Certain things happened
down town to-day that have set me to
thinking. And-I shall do whatever l
can for your brother and your father.
But you-you are free!"
She went to the table, stood there
In profile to me, straight and slender
as sunflower stalk. She traced the
silver chasings in the lid of the cigar
cite box with her forefinger; then she
took cigarette and began rolling it
slowly and absently.
please don't scent and stain your
fingers with that filthy tobacco" said
l rather harshly.
"And only this afternoon you were
saying you had become reconciled to
my vice-that you had canonized it
along with me-wasn't that your
phrase?" This indifferently, without
turning toward me, and as if she were
thinking of something else.
$50 l have" l retorted. But my
mood-please oblige me this once"
She let the cigarette fall into the
box. closed the lid gently, leaned
against the table, folded her arms
upon her bosom and looked full at
me. I was as acutely conscious of her
every movement, of the very coming
and going Of the breath at her nos
trils, as man on the operating table
Is conscious of the slightest gesture of
the surgeon.
''You are-suffering! she said, and
her voice was like the flow of oil upon
burn. Il have never seen you like
this. didn't believe you capable of
of much feeling"
could not trust myself to speak.
II Bob Corey could have looked in on
that scene, could have understood it.
how amazed he would have been!
what happened down town to-
day." she went on. Tell me, If l
may know
'T'n tell you what didn't think,
ten minutes ago, I'd tell any human
being" said 1. They've got me
strapped down in the press. At ten
O'Clock in the morning precisely at
ten--they're going to put on the
screws" laughed. Il guess they'll
have me squeezed pretty dry before
noon"