The Chanute times., 1909-12-31

She smiled, too, because his tone
was kind and, standing up, she took
out her little leathern bag again quick
ly, emptied the twists of paper into
her hand selected one by touch, and
slipped the rest back. She unwrapped
a large stone and held 1t up to the
light, turning it little as she did so.
Van Torp watched her with curiosity,
and with an amused suspicion that
she had perhaps played the whole
scene in order to mollify him and in
duce him to buy something. So many
people had played much more elabo-
rate tricks in the hope of getting
money from him, and the stones might
be limitations after all, in spite of Lo-
gotheti's penciled line of recommends
ton.
But Barak's next action took Van
Torp by surprise. To his amazement,
she pressed the ruby lightly to her
heart then to her lips, and last Of all
to her forehead, and before he knew
what she was doing she had placed 1t
in his right hand and closed his fin
NONSENSE" objected the million
iare, smiling, but holding out the stone
to her. Its very sweet of you, but
you don't mean it, and | don't take
presents like that. Why, it's worth a
thousand pounds in Bond street any
day!"
But she put her hands behind her
back and shook her head, to show that
she would not take it back. Then with
her empty hand she again touched her
heart, her lips and forhead, and
turned towards the door.
"Here, STOP" said Mr. Van Torp,
going after her Il can't take this
thing See here, l say! Put it back
into your pocket"
She turned and met him, and made
a gesture of protest and entreaty, as
if earnestly begging him to keep the
he was a judge of humanity, and saw
that she was hurt by his refusal AS
a last resource, he took out his pock-
et-book and showed her quantity of
folded bank notes.
We'll" he said, since you insist,
you, but I'll be everlastingly jiggered
if I'll take it for nothing"
Barak's eyes suddenly flashed in
most surprising way, her lower lip
pouted, and her cheek family changed
color, as drop of scarlet pomegranate
i,tip xxrilI Of
She made one step forwards, plucked
the stone from his fingers, rather than
took it, and with a quick, but girlish-
ly awkward movement, threw it to-
wards the window as hard as she
could, stamping angrily with her little
foot at the same moment Mr.. Van
Torp was extremely disconnected, as
he sometimes was by the sudden ac-
tions of the sex he did not under
stand. Fortunately the stone hit the
wall instead of going out of the win
dow.
I'm really sorry, Miss Barrack,' he
said in tone of humble apology, and
he went quickly and picked up the
gem. Il hadn't quite understood, you
see"
She watched him, and drew back in
stinctively towards the door, as if eX-
pecting that he would again try to
give it back to her. But he shook
his head now, bowed with all the
grace he could affect, which was little,
and by way of making her feel that
he accepted the gift, he pressed 1t to
his heart, as she had done, and to his
lips, but not to his forehead. because
he was afraid that might cause some
new mistake, as he did not know what
the gesture meant
Barak's face changed instantly; she
smiled, nodded, and waved her hand
to him, to say that it was all right,
and that she was quite satisfied. Then
she made a sort of salute that he
thought very graceful indeed, as if she
were taking something from near the
floor and laying it on her forehead,
and she laughed softly and was out of
the room and had shut the door before
he could call her back again.
He stood still in the middle of the
room, looking at the gem in his hand
with an expression of grave doubt
Well" he said to himself, and his
lips formed the words, though no
sound articulated them, that's queer
sort of a mornings work, anyway"
He reflected that the very last thing /
he had ever expected was a present
of fine ruby from a pretty heather |
girl in mans clothes. recommended to
him by Logotheti. Though he almost |
laughed at the thought when it oc-
CURED to him, he did not like the idea |
of keeping the stone; yet he did not |
know what to do with it, for it was
more than probable that he was never
to see Barak again, and If he ever did !
it was at least likely that she would
refuse to take back her gift. and as
energetically as on the first occasion. !
At that moment il occurred to him !