The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1909-01-07

so uelBnlIully lucky, Out everybody
asks me to dance, and every man
meet Is particularly nice. and nobody
has Teen very horiid to me-perhaps
because I like everybody"
She rode on beside him. They were
walking their horses now, and as her
silken coated mount paced forward
through the sunshine she sat at ease,
straight as slender amazon in her
habit, ruddy hair glistening at the nape
Of her neck, the scarlet of her lips al
ways vivid contrast to that wonder.
full unblemished skin of snow.
He thought to himself quite imper-
sonally: She's real beauty, that
youngster. No wonder they ask her to
dance and nobody is horrid Men are
likely enough to go quite mad about
her, as Nina predicts. Probably some
Of EN- have already-that chuckle-
headed youth who was there Tuesday
gulplng up the tea And, what
was his nameT' he asked aloud.
Whose namey" she inquired, reused
by his voice from smiling RETROSPECT
tlon.
THAT chucklehead-th young man
who continued to haunt you so per
sistently when you poured tea for
Nina on Tuesday OF course they all
haunted you" he explained politely as
she shook her head in sign of noncom
prehension, but there was one who
ah- gulped at his cup"
'Please-you are rather dreadful.
aren't your
Eyes. So was he. mean the infat
uated chinless gentleman whose facial
ensemble remotely resembled the fea
lures OF pleased and placid lizard OF
the reptilian period"
"Oh. George Fame! That is particu-
larly disagreeable of you, Captain Sell
wyn. because his wife has been very
nice TO me-ROsamund Fane-and she
spoke most cordially of YOU
(Which one was she"
"The Dresden china one. She looks
she simply cannot look rs though she
were married IT'S most amusing. for
people always take her for somebody's
youngest sister who Will be out next
winter. Don't you remember seeing
herf"
"No. ! don't. But there were dozens
coming and going every minute whom
| didn't know. Still, behaved well,
didn't II"
Pretty badly-to Kathleen Lawn.
whom you cornered so that she
couldn't escape until her mother made
her go without auy tea"
Here comes Mr.. Fame now with a
strikingly pretty girl. How beautifully
they ure mounted" smilingly returning
Fane's salute. land she-oh. so you do
know her, Captain selwyn? Who is
shei"
Crop raised mechanically in dazed
salute. Selwyn's light touch on the
bride had frightened to n clutch. which
brought his horse mp sharply.
"What Is ~" she asked, drawing
bridle in her turn and looking back
into his white, stupefied face.
"Pain," he said, unconscious that he
spoke. At the same instant the stun
her beside his strrup, leaning wide
from her seat in sweet concern, one
gloved hand resting on the pommel OF
his saddle.
Are you ill?" she asked. "Shall we
dlsmount? If you feel dizzy, please
lean against me-"
II am all right" he said coolly, and
as she recovered her seat he set his
horse In motion. His face had become
very red now. He looked at her, ther
beyond her with all the deliberate con
centration Of aloof Indifference.
Confused, conscious that something
had happened which she did not com
prehend and sensitively aware Of thu
preoccupation which, If 1t did not ig
more her, accepted her presence as o
no consequence, she permitted he
horse to set his own pace.
Neither self command nor self con
troll was lacking now In Selwyn; h
simply was too self absorbed to car
what she thought-whether she though
at all. And into his consciousness
throbbing heavily under the rushing
reaction from shock, crowded the crud
fact that Alike was no longer an ar
partition evoked in sleeplessness, in sur
lit brooding in the solitude OF crowde
avenues and swarming streets; she wa
an actual presence again in his life.