Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1909-06-03
CHAPTER III.
Handsome Dan."

Standing in the middle of the road,
watching the dust cloud that trailed
the fast disappearing motor car, Mr..
Maitland cut a figure sufficiently for
lorn and disconsolate to have distilled
pity from the least sympathetic heart.
His hands were thrust stifHy at full
arms length into his trousers pockets;
a rumpled silk hat was set awry on
the back of his head; his shirt bosom
was sadly crumpled; above the knees,
to a casual glance, he presented the
appearance Of a nan carefully attired
IN evening dress; below, his legs were
Golden and muddied, his shoes of
patent leather, twin wrecks. Alas for
~jauntiness and elegance, alack for ease
md aplcmb!
"Tricked," observed Maitland, cas-
Hally, and protruded his lower lip,
thus adding to the length of a counter
nee naturally long. "Outwitted by a
chit of a girl! Dammit"
But this was crude m~elodrama. Real
i=ing which, he strove to smile; a sor-
ry failure.
Handsome Dan,'" quoted he; and
cooking his head to one side eyed
the road inquiringly. Where in thun-
der d'you suppose she got hold of that
name?"
Bestowed upon him in callow col
lege days, it had stuck burr-like for
many a weary year. OF late, however,
its use had lapsed among his ~acquain-
lances; he had begun to congratulate
himself upon having lived it down.
And now it was ~resurrected, flung at
him in %sincerest mockery by a woman
whom, to his knowledge, he had never
before laid eyes upon. Odious appella-
ton, hateful invention of an ingenious
enemy!
Handsome DAM She must have
known me all the time-all the time !
was making an exhibition of myself.
=. Wentworth | know no one of
that name. Who the dickens can
she be?"
If it had not been contrary to his
code of ethics, he would gladly have
raved, CRASHED his teeth, footed the
dance of rage with his shadow. In
deed, his restraint was admirable, the
circumstances considered. He did
nothing whatever but stand still for a
matter Of five minutes, vainly racking
his memory for a clue to the identity
of Miss Wentworth
AT length he gave il up in despair
and abstractedly felt for his watch fob.
Which wasn't there. Neither, investi-
cation developed, was the watch. At
which browning stroke of misfortune
the timepiece must have slipped
from his pocket into the water while
he was tinkering with that infamous
Observation-Disclosures turned eloquent.
ly red in the face.
The price" he meditated aloud,
with an effort to resume his pose. lis
a high one to pay fer a wave of a gray
glove and the echo of a pretty laugh"
With which final fling at Fortune hg
set off again for Maitland Manor.
trudging heavily but at a round pace
through the dust that soon settled
upon the damp cloth of his trousers
legs and completed their r~uination.
But Maitland was beyond being dis
turbed by such trifes. A wounded
vanity engaged his solicitude to the
exclusion of all other interests.
At the end of as minutes he had
covered the remaining distance be-
tween Greenfield station and Maitland
Manor. For five minutes more he
strobe YEARLY over the side path by
the box hedge which set aside his ances
trail acres from the public highway. ut
length, with an exclamation, he paused
at the first opening in the living bar
rier; a wide entrance from which a
blue-stone carriage drive wound away
to the house, invisible In the waning
light, situate in the shelter of the
grove of trees that studded the lawn.
Gasoline! Brrr!" said Maitland,
.shuddering and shivering with the
combination of a odor and
the nights coolness-the latter by now
making itself as unpleasantly promi-
nent as the former
Though he hated the smell with all
his heart manfully inconsistent he
raised his head. smiling the air fo-