Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-06-13

CHAPTER v. (Continued)
All the way down to the beach she
Kept the three of us in such shout
If laughter that staider people glanced
aside at us. made the change into
bathing suit with abandoned haste, yet
found her waiting. The sea was
evidently a passion with her as 1t was
With me. Her eyes were shining with
excitement, her head thrown back, ana
1er slim body, tender IN every grace,
Jul line, was vibrant with the thrill
If the salt air. She gave me her mana
as a child might have done, and we
turned up the beach, running lightly
lntil the voices of the bathers died be-
aind US. 80
Suddenly she stopped. "Do you. feel
chat way about it, too?" she asked. !.
What way? AS II the first plunge OF
he year web sort Of sacred rite!"
eyes" sh4 answered. There IS
something about it-you feel as II 1t
we're such splendid thing that after
all your waiting for it-now, when
tho water Is there before you, you
must walt little sacrificial moment.
[ didn't feel like going in just at the
irst among all those people. Do you
understand what Il mean? suppose It's
because on the first day 1 have always
gone in alone early in the morning.
I nodded, for that had been my Gus.
.om also. Without word we turned
:ogether and went slowly down into
the water. When it reached her waist,
She threw her hands above her head
and dived, swimming under the water
with long, easy strokes. looked after
her a moment, then followed. We
came to the surface together. drawing
our breath deep and shaking the salt
water from our eyes We swan Slowly
back to the more crowded beach,
mutually glorying in our pagan rite OF
baptism.
We stretched out lazily in the hot
sand, leaning hack against battered
and upturned dory. Lady had shaken
down her hair, which her bathing cap
had failed to keep altogether dry; and
spread it lustrously dark upon the
clean, sun-bleached planking.
ri think understand you now
little better, Mr.. Crosby" she said.
"Why?" I asked. ..
81 suppose because of the solemn
rite Of the first plunge. 1t somehow
makes you clearer. If that is what you
mean by romance, why I can agree
with you"
had to be honest. mo. that's not
all mean--only part. I want things to
happen % me, not merely sensations.
I'm foolishly expecting some tilt with
fortune at the next turn of the road.
I suppose you were right that nothing
much has happened to me, or l
shouldn' hunt 80 for the physical p
lift Of the unexpected. don't want to
be merely SELFISH want to help in
the world, not to harm. know that
sounds crudely sentimental. but it's
hard to say. ! mean, for instance, that
don't want distress to prove myself
against. but do want the shock OF
battle where distress exists"
"Then people must seem to you
merely means to an end"
II suppose it must look that way to
YOU" l said uncomfortably. "1'm get.
ting tangled. but want you to under
stand" I hesitated when I asked
questions in the hurry Of the other
night, 1t wasn't any desire to force
my way into things that didn't concern
me, to make an adventure of what dis
tressed you-you mustn't think that.
But 1t seemed to me that you were in
trouble. and wanted"
i stopped, for her face had clouded
as spoke until now dared speak no
more, blaming myself that the per-
plexities that possessed me had again
blundered across her pain. Her eyes
were upon the ground where her
fingers burrowed absently in the sand
When she raised them to mine there
were tears in them; but they were
tears unshed, and eyes that looked at
me kindly.
please don't" she said. 81 do un-
derstand. I would like to let you help
but-there is nothing you can help
about, nothing that can ask or tell"
Forgive me- / said, and looked
away from her.
l think that from that morning we
were better friends. Neither of us