The Sauk Centre herald., 1908-08-06
"Shirley-Miss Claiborne-allow m,

"Shirley-Miss Claiborne--allow mi
to present Mr.. Armitage." The young
army officer and, Armitage then shool
hands, and the three men stood for 6
moment detained. it seemed. by the
old attache, who had no engagement
for the next hour or two and resented
the idea of being left alone.
zone always meets Armitager' de
clared Singleton. He knows oul
America as we'll as we do-and very
we'll indeed-for an Englishman."
Armitage bowed gravely.
"You make 1t necessary for me to
disavow any allegiance to the powers
that rule Great Britain. I'm really a
fair sort Of American. l have some
times told New York people all about
Colorado, Montana. New Mexico"
His voice and manner were those of
gentleman. His color, as Shirley
Claiborne now observed. vas that of
an outdoors man. She vas familiar
with 1t in soldiers and sailors and
knew that it testified to vigorous and
wholesome life. !;
"Of course you're not Englishw ex-
claimed Singleton. annoyed as he re-
membered, or thought he did. that Ar
mitage had on some other occasion
made the same protest.
''Pm really getting sensitive about
It," said Armitage. more to the Clai-
bornes than to Singleton. "But must
we all be from somewhere? Is it SO
melancholy plight to be man with
out country"
The mockery in his tone was belied
by the good humor in his face. His
eyes caught Shirley's passingly, anc
che smiled at him. It seemed natu-
raj, a perfectly inevitable thing to do
She liked the kind tolerance with
which he suffered the babble of Arthur
Singleton, whom some one had called
an international bore. The young mans
dignity was only an expression Of self
respect His appreciation of the exact
proprieties resulting from this casual
introduction to herself and her brother
was perfect. He was already with
drawing. A waiter had followed him
with his discarded newspaper, and Ar
mitage took it and idly dropped it on
chair.
"Have you heard the news, Armi-
tage? The Austrian sphinx Is herein
this very house!' whispered Singleton
impressively.
"Yes; to be sure. Count Won Stroebel
is here, but he will probably not re-
main long. The Alps will soon be safe
again. | am glad to have met you"
He bowed to the Claibornes inclusive
", nodded in response to Singleton's
promise to look him up later and left
them.
When Shirley and her brother reach
ed their common sitting room, Dick
Claiborne laughingly held up the copy
Of the Neue Freie Presse which Armi-
tage had cast aside at their table.
"Now we shall know he declared,
unfolding the newspaper.
"Know what. 'Dickr'
"At least what our friend without 4
country is so interested in"
He opened the paper, from which
, half column had been torn, noted the
date, rang the bell and ordered a copy
of the same issue. When it was
brought he opened it, found the place,
laughed loudly and passed the sheet
over to his sister.
"Oh, Shirley, Shirley! This is almost
too muchr' he cried, watching her as
her eyes swept the article. She turned
away to escape his noise and after q
glance threw down the paper in dis
gust. The article dealt in detail with
Austro- Hungarian finances and fairly
bristled with figures and sage con-
clusions based upon them.
isn't that the worst" exclaimed
Shirley, smiling ruefully.
Hes certainly a romantic figure
ready to your hand. Probably bank
clerk who makes European finance his
recreation"
"He isn't an Englishman, at any rate.
He repudiated the idea with scorn."
"Well, your Mr.. Armitage didn't
seem so awfully excited at meeting
Singleton, but he seemed rather salts
fed with your appearance. to put it
mildly. l wonder if he had arranged
with Singleton 10 pass by in that pure
ly incidental way, just for the priv
ilege of making your acquaintancev'
Don't be foolish, Dick. It's unbe-
coming an officer and a gentleman
But if you should see Mr.. Singleton
again
"Yes-not if l see him firstv' 'ejacu-
lated Claiborne.
swell, you might ask him who Mr..
Armitage is. 1t would be amusing
and satisfying-to know" u.
Later in the day the old attache fell
upon Claiborne in the smoking room
and stopped to discuss report that a
change was impending in the Amer
tcan state department Changes at
Washington did not trouble Singleton,
who was sure Of his tenure. He said
as much, and after some further talk
Claiborne remarked:
'Your friend Armitage seems good
sort"
"Oh, yes; a capital talker and thor
oughly well posted in affairs"
"Yes; he seemed interesting. Do
you happen to know where he lives
when he's at homer
Lord bless you, boy, / don't know
anything about ArmitageT spluttered
Singleton, with the emphasis so thrown