The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-20
THE EVENING STORY
Gipsx Girl.
CBy Dorothy Douglas.)

!
From the distance the lazy drones of
after-dinner picknickers drew her on.
| Upon reaching the grove by the stream
/ Gypsy paused and peered cautiously
through a clump of bushes. There
We're, perhaps, ten or a dozen huge
/ motors lying about under the trees
Laziness or mere idle interest in the
| movement of the servants who We're
clearing away the disgorged hampers,
held some forty or fifty merrymakers
IN semic1rcie- To the GYPSY girl
peering through the bushes they SEEM
| ed bored and quite ready for her in
/ tervention.
MAY I read your palms?'
! The semicircle, as one man, turned
i'll the direction whence the voice had
come. She stood against the dark
foliage perched as a bird of Paradise
/ in gay plumage.
The semicircle literally swept her
into its midst The campers had been
kind Of entertainment A real GYPSY
with long inIy hair and nut brown
skin who offered to read palms was
unheralded joy.
They were on their feet now. Gypsy
! found herself holding court in the big
gest and cosiest of the limousines and
prophesying, for the most part only
good things, to those whose hands she
held.
Dick Berwick was among the last to
venture into the limousine and seek
his fortune. He swung the door shut
and sat down in the wide seat He
seemed to fill up the entire car, and
Gypsy looked up to see the face OF so
big a man. She started and her head
bent low over Dick Berwick's palm.
Berwick was conscious of a vague
annoyance that the girl touched S~s$
hands so lightly. He scrutinized the
hands that were sending little shocks
up his arm; they were shapely and
manicured so that the curved almond
nails shone against his palm as they
pointed out crosses, triangles and
squares to his uncomprehending eyes.
You are very fond of the water,
she said finally, and Berwick imag-
ined that her voice was not quite
steady, even though you very nearly
lost your life in it,
The man looked quickly UP.
"a girl saved you" went on the
Gypsy quickly. Her eyes we're
brown"
blue" corrected Berwick. then half
seriously. II will cross your palm
twice if you tell me the color of her
hair"
you don't know then? ?"
"It was under a bathing cap-I have
perry hair" he conided, that as if he
were communing with himself. Il was
taken with a cramp and the girl came
out and pulled me in"
The girl looked up. The silence
within the limousine was intense. then
Gypsy spoke rapidly. Behind the half
mockery in Berwick's eyes she had
seen that which forced her words.
you will meet the girl who saved
your life"
'sWhen-where? 20
A slow smile dawned in the Gypsy
girls eyes and she closed them for
moment as if penetrating the future.
II see you, in the next few days.
climbing rany mountains. You Will
find, at the top of one pine-clad hill,
a small log cabin: I see you climbing
wearily toward that cabin-you must
reach it!' To emphasize her com
mand the Gypsy turned wide open eyes
full upon Berwick.
He looked hack at her and slightly
puzzled frown puckered his brow. His
manner was preoccupied as he took a
gold piece from his pocket and put it
within her warm little palm. He drew
quick, sharp breath, glanced at her
again with a startled question troubl-
| ing his eyes and jumped from the linn
CUISINE
A low laugh Knocked him as he went.
He turned. but the gypsy girl had
sprung lightly from the other side and
he saw her fitting off through the
woods.
HAS the blue-eyed Gypsy turned
your head?" a feminine voice chided
him.
It was nearing dusk on the third
day after the picnic that Berwick
found himself climbing toward the
shadowy outline of a log cabin that
perched it3elf on the summit of the
hill It had seemed. during the last
few days that feet other than his own
had impelled him from his great coy
camp. in search of a log cabin. Sleep
ing and waking he seemed to see that
cabin, and it mingled oddly with
Gypsy girl and a girl in a red bathing
cap.
ton when he reached the door of the
cabin and sank into low chair on the
veranda Apparently there was no one
at home. Berwick closed his eyes and
must have dozed off.
A low laugh had awakened him. He
sat up and looked about
A man and a woman were coming
up the hill. They were dripping wet
in their bathing suits. having come up
from swim in the lake.
The girls hair hung in coppery red
waves.
sOhi" She dropped the scarlet bath
| ing cap from her fingers.
Berwick came forward. 81 beg your
pardon" he said, "but 1 was weary
with the climb
You have come to the right place
to rest in Bob Deane looked up.
Berwick Sis! Come here and meet
an old chum of minei" The two
shook hands and the intensity of Ber-
wick's grip brought added color to the
girls face.
Dick Berwick turned abruptly to-
ward Deane Your sister saved my
worthless life-seven months ago." he
said.
sis is rather fond of doing foolish
things" laughed Bob Just now she
has rummy notion about going about
/ in gypsy clothes with her face all
b1eached up and q. wig on-she says
| it breaks the nonotony.'
| "It breaks more than monotony,"
Dick Berwick commented inwardly.
81 am not going to stand around in