Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1908-07-30

it" said Armifage more to the Clai-
| bornes than to Singleton. ABut must
we all be from somewhere? Is 1t so
melancholy a plight to be a man with
out a country"
| The mockery in his tone was belied
| by the good humor In his face His
eyes caught Shirley's passing1y, anG
she smiled at him. 1t seemed a natu-
| raj, a perfectly inevitable thing to do
1 She liked the kind tolerance with
| which he suffered the babble of Arthur
Singleton. whom some one had called
sn international bore. The young mans
dignity was only an expression of self
respect, His appreciation Of the exact
! prophecies resulting from this casual
introduction to herself and her brother
was perfect. He was already with
drawing. A y,S:ter had followed him
with his discarded newspaper. and AT
m1tage took it and idly dropped it on a
chair.
''Have you heard the news, Armi-
tage? The Austrian sphinx is herein
this very house!'' whispered Singleton
l.
impressively.
Eyes; 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 Singletons
| 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, Dickf''
s.At least what our friend without a
country is so interested in
He opened the paper, from which
! half a column had been torn, noted the
date, rang the bell and ordered 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.
t'Oh, Shirley, Shirley This is almost
too much.'' 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-
| illusions based upon them.
isn't that the worstr' 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 seorn."
..Well, your Mr.. Armitage didn't
seem so awfully excited at meeting
Singleton, but be seemed rather salts
fed with your appearance, to put it
mildly l wonder If he had arranged
with Singleton to pass by in that pure
ly incidental way, just for the priv
ilege of making your acquaintance
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 / see him firstr' ejacu-
| lated Claiborne.
ssWell, you might ask him who Mr..
Armitage is. 1t would be amusing
ana satisfying-to know"
Later in the day the old attaehe fel!
| upon Claiborne in the smoking room
and stopped TO discuss report that a
change was impending in the Amer
lean 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:
'sYour friend Armitage seems a good
| sort"
"Oh, yes; 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 Armitager spluttered
Singleton, with the emphasis so thrown
as to imply that of course in any other
branch of human knowledge he would
be found abundantly qualified to an
swer questions.
But you introduced us to him-my
sister and me. ] assumed
my dear Claiborne, I'm always in
PRODUCING people! It's my business to
introduce people. Armitage is all right
He's always around everywhere. I've
dined with him in Paris, and I've rare
" seen a man order better dinner