News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1911-12-06
CHAPTER XXI.
What VIII You Take2

| Wnen Dan, on the minute OF two,
went to the Savoy, Higgins, as was
her custom, did not meet him. Miss
Lane met him herself. She was read
ing a letter by the table, and when
Dan was announced she put it back in
Its envelope. Blair had seen her only
in soft clinging dresses, in white Wis.
ionary clothes, or in her dazzling part
costume, where the play dress of the
dancer displayed her beauty and her
charms. Today she wore a tailor.
made gown, and in her dark cloth
dress, in her small hat, she seemed
new woman-some one he hadn't
known and did not know, and he ex.
perienced the thrill a man always feels
when the woman he loves appears in
an unaccustomed dress and suggests
new mystery.
ooh, say! You're not going out,
are you?"
In the lapel Of her close little coat
was a flower he had given her. He
wanted to lean forward and kiss 1t as
1t rested there. She assured him:
~ have just come in; had an early
lunch and took long walk-think of
it! haven't taken walk alone since
can remember"
Her walk had given her only the
ghost of a flush, which rose over her
delicate skin, fading away like furl-
ing fiag. Her frailness, her slender
ness, the air Of good breeding her
dress gave her, added to Dams deep
ening emotions. She seemed infinite
ly dear, and thing to be protected
and fostered
Cant you sit down for a minute?
I've come to make you real call"
"Of course" she laughed. But,
first, I must answer this letter"
His Jealousy rose and he caught
hold of her hand that held the enve.
lope. Look here, you are not to
write 1t If it is to that damned scoun.
drel. took you away from him last
night and you are never to see him
again"
For the first time the two really
looked ar each other Her lips part
ed as though she would reprove him,
and the boy murmured;
'"1hat's all right mean what I
say-never to see him again! viii
you promise me? Promise mel can't
bear it! | won't have it,"
A film of emotion crossed his clear
young eyes and her slender hands
were held fast in his clasp. His face
was beautiful in it's tenderness and in
a righteous anger as he bent it on
her. Instead of reproving him as she
had done before, instead of snatching
away her hands, she swayed, and at
the sight of her weakness his eyes
cleared, and the film lifted like a cur
tain. She was not fainting, but, as
her face turned toward his, he saw it
transformed, and Dan caught her in
her dark dress, the flowers in her bod
ice, to his heart. He held her as if
he had snatched her from a wreck and
in a safe embrace lifted her high to
the shore of a coral strand. He kissed
her, first timidly, wonderingly, with
the sacrament of first love on his
lips. Then he kissed her as his heart
babe him, and when he set her free
she was crying, but the tears on his
face were not all her tears.
Little boy, how crazy, how perfect
ly crazy! Oh, Dan-Dan!"
She chung to him, looking up at
him just as his boy-dreams had told
him girl would look some day. Her
face was suffused and softened, her
lips-her cOral-red, fine, lovely lips
were trembling, and her eyes were
as gray, as profound as those seas
his imagination had longed to explore.
Made poet for the first time in his
life, as his arms were around her, he
whispered: you are all my dreams
come true. If any man comes near
you I'll kill him just as sure as fate.
I'll kill him!"
Hush, hush! 1 told you you were
crazy. We're both perfectly mad. I
have tried my best not to come to this
with you. What would your father
say? Let me go, let me go; I'll call
Higgins"
The boy laughed aloud, the laugh OF
happy youth. He held her so close
that she might as we'll have tried to
loose herself from an iron image of
the Spanish Inquisition as from his
young arms. This slender, delicious,
willowy thing he held was Lefty Lane,
the adored star London went mad
over; the triumph of it! 1t flashed
through him as his pulses beat and his
heart was high with the conquest, but
it was to the woman only that he
whispered:
1--WE said lot of stuff and l am
likely to say lot more, but l want
you to say something to me. Don't
you love me?"
ITO be contiuued)