Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-11-25

out Of the question. l couldn't myself
If I didn't voluntarily suspend con-
seriousness while staving Off starvation
"a small price to pay for such days of
freedom as I've had! I'd think these
girls We're pursuing me If I didn't know
they were not But" he groaned,
they'll think it jolly lark to find me
here! They'll get out of it all there Is
in it. Damn He thumped the ground.
"Ill take care that there'll be precious
little in it for them. I'm not going to
be bullyragged into spelling my vaca-
ton by two clucky girls!"
Such the mlsanthropic sentiments and
such the language with which Peter
Kinross faced a situation complicated
by theNfact that the expected arrivals
were the daughter and niece respective
ly Of the president Of the college in
which he himself was the professor OF
psychology.
DR.. Kinross, however, had never seen
either of these girls, inasmuch as dur
ing the past year since he had taken
the chair of psychology they had both
been away at woman's college. But
he had heard a great deal about Miss
Ellery, the presidents daughter. And
some of Kinross' fellow professors who
were apt to badger him on his hard
ness of heart toward the gentler sex
had predicted his speedy surrender to
the beauty, culture and wealth of Miss
Ellery when she should return to col
lege.
"It will do me good to see her turn
you down" the professor Of literature
had declared with feeling. speaking out
Of the depth of his own bitter expert
ence at the hands of the fair Georgi-
ana.
But these predictions had made so
little impression upon Kinross that with
the immediate prospect Of meeting Miss
Ellery the only interest he felt in her
was curiosity to understand the mys-
terry Of her having chosen to come to
the Morningstar farm to spend her
summer vacation-a girl VIGOROUSLY
fastidious in her tastes and so much of
q belle among the clever men of the
college faculty that her voluntarily
coming to bury herself in such an out
of the way place as this farm seemed
to him second mystery thrust upon
his unwilling contemplation and cal
culated to supersede that other mys
terry Of the girl Eunice, which in the
past fortnight had been constantly ar
resting his attention.
The truth about DR.. Kinross was that
he was afraid Of young girls. All the
circumstances Of his boyhood and youth
had tended to petN ut natural super
sensitiveness into an awkward and
painful self consciousness in the pres
ence of women. His mother having
died in his infancy, his acquaintance
with the feminine sex In his childhood
had been almost entirely confined to
the negro servants of his fathers house
hold. With his incipient manhood he
had developed, through unfamiliarity
of intercourse, an awe of girls that
had caused him untold sufferings if
forced into any conversational response
bilities with them.
The social ease and luency Of his
younger brother, Burton seemed to Pc
ter in those days a height of achieve
ment to which he looked up with envy
and admiration. But Burton's view Of
the variation between them was rue
fully expressed one day to Miss VOL
colt, their nearest family neighbor.
"Pete plants himself in corner at a
party, scowls. hasn't a word to say,
can't dance and can't play cards. And
he'll make an average Of six brushes
at every party that dad makes him go
to. can dance, play cards, converse
and make myself agreeable, and l
don't average one crush a month. How
would you explain it,"
"Crush?" genteelly inquired Miss
Wolcott, a bachelor maiden Of thirty
five.
.Beg pardon. l mean none of the
girls get stuck on me. But they pur-
sue Pete to his corner, and when he is
rude and disag reeable to them they
say he is original and magnetic You
wouldn't suppose. would you, they'd
take to stiff like Pete?"
, cit would be much more reasonable
Of them to take to- polished and ac-
complished gentleman like you, Bur
ton," said Miss Wolcott consolingly.
And Burton accepted her sympathetic
view with complacency and with a
high opinion of Miss Wolcott's judy |
ment.
AS Peter grew older he succeeded in
after long and extraordi-
nary struggles with himself at least
the external signs Of his inward per
in the society of young la
dies. But his mental attitude toward
the sex continued to Ike mixture of
contempt, curiosity, mystiti-
cation and attraction, which 50 baffled
and irritated him that he had come to
ook upon any contact with girls as an
element disturbing to all intellectual
abor or anything else in his life that
was really worth while.
His social life at Meckville college
lad been q continual battle In trying
on the whole vainlyl to elude the fat
:ering attentions society was deter
mined to heap upon the good looking
lew young professor who had the very
attraction Of comparatively
arge independent fortune. The fact
hat he was difficult and elusive only