The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-20

CARED of words. Once or twice she car
rled joking warfare into his very camp.
That last night their intimacy had
reached the point whore 1t allowed them
to mediate an instant In silent wonder
over a subtle coincidence In taste. He
interrupted it to say carelessly: "Oh,
what's become of that little cousin Of
yours that ] met in Worcester"
Olive knitted her brows for consider
ing second. Then an awful certainty
Zigzngged through tine crystal OF her
happiness. shattering it to million
"a little dark thing" he went on. "She
was staying with you. What Is the mat
ter?"
Olive was staring, stricken.
"Will you tell me what my name is?"
He laughed Helen Hastings, OF
course"
She pulled herself together. The now
laugh that he had helped her to find In
herself rippled out bravey, Now I've
got it," she said in triumph. From the
first I wondered how you happened TO
remember so we'll when you saw me
SO few times. And you made mis-
take; I'm not Helen Hastings. I'm tho
little dark cousin that you speak OF. My
father died soon after I met you. and
became stenographer."
You're not Helen Hastings7" he said.
stupidity.
She nodded her head in assent.
The air was so full Of things that
breathing them In
He laughed at last and with a fair de-
gree of naturalness. "Of course. l see
1t all now. You've grown to look sur
prisingly like your cousin, They told me
that Helen was doing Settlement work"
''Is Helen in town." Olive asked DULY.
"I did not know 1t. but It's not strange,
as we have not corresponded for a long
time"
They tried to talk down the constraint
I'm the atmosphere, but IT made long
pnuscs between their remarks. 1t intensi. !.
fed the ticking Of the clock that, as II
TO save the situation, seemed to be going
at double speed.
Olive lost all her sparkle; she kept
thinking that she had spent with wide
flung, generous hands gold that was
not hers. Remarks that she heard whis,-
| pered of him kept coming into her head,
! Lawrence Crane will never marry any
body but a rich girl" was one of them.
They dulled the last remnant Of her Vi
| vacity.
| When he left 1t was with formal
handshake and still more formal word
| OF farewell.
once more. But his calls were silent, joy
| less on her part-a little too vivacious on
his. Then for a long time she did not
! see him.
The Sunday after his last call Merriam
| appeared. back from successful trip. He
| came into the room like sea-breeze.
stingng her into recrudescence OF her
lost hilarity with an impetuous onslaught
| OF narrative.
He insisted on taking her away for the
day; When he left her, she had regained
| all her lately lost elf-confidence.
She had little chance to lose 1t again,
for in the next month he was constantly
with her. Evenings he took her out to
dinner, TO the theater, or for long walks
III the park. When he was not with her.
the vision OF his tall figure and his fresh
colored, gray-eyed face remained. II
presence from her thoughts. Perhaps the
| fact that she saw Crane at the theator
once or twico with her cousin Helen
| helped this process
One Sunday, two months later, she was
| surprised by visit from Crane. She
was at her very best with him that day,
for his eyes had no more effect upon her
than a pair of pebbles. 1t was she who
fore he went. he startled her by m offer
of marriage, In the moment In which
she hunted for words In which to re-
fuse 1t, she wondered II Helen also had
rejected him. He refused to accept her
mo- and left almost elated. She felt
now she might be in possession OF data
that would assure him of what her own
! words evidently could not.
AS a matter Of fact, she had the evil
dence that very night, for Merriam, sit
ting on the rug and holding the corn
the firm had decided on sending him to
Goldfelds the next week Then he
abruptly asked her to marry him,
She accepted.
But there are somo things I want &c
tell you,' she said, cycling him curiously
''ln the first place, didn't get you quite
honestly. There was another man once
and l thought he cared for me-and.. SO
on the strength of his admiration"
Go on" lie said promptly.
"Wen, feel 1t on my conscience to
tell you that you're getting an article
that isn't much in demand In all my
experience l never had but ono proposal
and"
What do the dandar-log Of this towr
know about real woman" he Inter.
polated contemptuously. "Go on
"And I've never been kissed In my
/, life"
, The corn-popper fell to ruin among the
flames. you're going to be kissed now,
he said,
I'm glad waited" she admitted
after an Interval.
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