Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-01-25

lent 10 pr6IeQQ surprise anu u0QlUS
reproach easier, told him that he had
no business to permit her to forget.
His smiling serenity under the re-
buke aroused in her a slight resent
ment, as though he had taken some
thing for granted.
Besides, she had grown uneasy. She
had wired Quarter, saying she would
meet him and drive him over. He had
replied at once, naming his train. He
was an exact man and expected
method and precision in others. She
didn't exactly know how it might af-
feet him if his reasonable demand was
unsatisfied She did not know him
very well yet
And, thinking Of him now, she again
made up her mind to give him the
answer which he now had every rea-
son to expect from her. This decision
appeared to lubricate her conscience.
1t ran more smoothly now, emitting
fewer creaks.
You say that you know Mr.. Quar-
rier?" she began thoughtfully.
'Not we'll"
II hope you will like him, Mr.. ST.
ward"
81 do not think he likes me, Miss
Lands. He has reasons not to-"
She looked up. suddenly remember
ing: "Oh-since that Scrape? What
has Mr.. Quarter to do''- She did not
finish the sentence. A troubled silence
followed. She was trying to remember
the details-something she had paid
small attention to at the time; some.
thing so foreign to her, so distant from
her comprehension, that it had not
touched her closely enough for her to
remember exactly what this young
man might have done to forfeit the
good will of Howard Quarter.
She looked at Siward. 1t was i'm
possible that anything very bad could
come from such man. And, pursuing
her reasoning aloud: cit couldn't have
been very awful" she argued; some
thing foolish about an actress. was it
not? And that could not concern Mr..
Quarter
Il thought you did know; thought
you = remembered = while you were
driving me over from the station-that
1 was dropped from my club"
She flushed up. "Oh. but what had
Mr.. Quarter TO do with that?"
HE is a governor OF that club"
"You mean that Mr.. Quarter had
you-drOpped"
what else could he do? A man who
is idiot enough to risk making his own
club notorious must take the cOnse-
quences, and they say took that risk.
Therefore Mr.. Quarter, Major Bel
wether-all the governors did their
duty. II naturally concluded that no
governor of the PATRONS club feels
very kindly toward me-"
Miss Lands sat very still. her small
head bent, a flush Stall Frightening her
fair face.
She recalled a few of the details
now-the Notwithstanding Of the
story. Which particular actress it was
she could not remember, but some men
who had dined too freely had made the
wager, and this boy sitting beside her
had accepted it and won it by bring
ing into the sacred precincts of the
PATRONS club foolish girl disguised
in a mans evening dress.
That was bad enough. That some
body promptly discovered it was worse.
but worst of all was the publicity, the
clubs name smirched, the young man
expelled from one OF the best two
clubs i'm the metropolis.
To read OF such things in the col
umns of daily paper had meant little
to her except to repel her. To hear ii
mentioned among people of her own
sort had left her injurious and indif-
ferent but now she saw it in new
light, with the young man who had
figured in it seated beside her. Did
such men as he-such attractive, well
bred, amusing men as he-do that sort
of thing?
'Is that the kind of man you are,
Mr.. Siward?" she said impulsively.
1T appears that was. l don't
know what l am or may be-"
''The pity of it," she said, still sway
ed by impulse. "Why did you do
didn't you know-realize what you
were doing bringing discredit on your
own club?'
Il was in no condition to know, Miss
Landis."
The crude brutality of the express
sion might merely have hurt or dis,
gusted her had she been less intel
ligent, nor, as it was, did she fully
understand why he chose to use it un-
less that he meant it in self punish