Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1912-07-20

- II
II oval face, OF white and rose and
s"ory tones; scarlet lips, small, reg.
uIar nose, and chin the soft round
ness of which hid the resolute lift to
1t. To these attributes of loneliness
! was added a perfect form, the long,
flowing curves of youth, not the abrupt
contours of maturity. George couldn't
recollect when he had been so i'm
pressed by face. From the moment
she had stepped down from the car
riage, his interest had been drawn
and had grown to such dimensions
that when he entered the dining-room
, his glance Immediately searched for
her table. What luck in finding her
across the way! He questioned if he
had ever seen her before. There was
something familiar; the delicate pro
file stirred some sleeping memory but
did not wake it.
How to meet her, and when he did
meet her, how to interest her? If she
would only drop her handkerchief, her
purse, something to give him an eX-
cuse, an opening. All, he was certain
that this time the hydra-headed one
should not overcome him. To gain
her attention and to hold it, he would
have faced lion, tiger, a wild-ele-
plant. To diagnose these symptoms
might not be fair to George. Love
at first sight" reads we'll and sounds
well, but we hoary-headcd philoso-
pliers know that the phrase is only
poetical license.
Once, and only once, she looked in
his direction. 1t swept over him with
the chill Of q winter wind that he
meant as much to her as a tree, a
fence, meadow, as seen from the
window of speeding railway train.
But this observation, transient as it
was, left with him the indelible i'm
preston that her eyes were the sad
dest he had ever seen. Why? Why
should young and beautiful girl have
eyes like that? It could not mean
physical WEAKNESS, else the face
would in sone way have expressed it.
The elderly man appeared TO do his
best to animate her; he was kindly
and courteous and by the gentle way
he laughed at intervals was trying TO
bolster up the situation with jest or
two. The girl never 50 much as smiled,
or shrugged her shoulders; she was as
responsive to these overtures as mar
bic would have been.
Georges romance gathered itself for
4 flight. Perhaps it was love thwart-
ed and the gentleman with the mus
tacho and imperial, in spite of his ami
ability, might be the ogre. Perhaps
1t was love and duty. Perhaps her
lover had gone down to sea. Perhaps
(for lovers are known to do such
things) he had run away with tho
other girl. If that was the case,
George did not think highly Of that
tentative gentleman's taste. Perhaps
and perhaps again; but George might
have gone on perhapsing till the
crack o doom, with never q solitary
glimmer Of the true state Of the girls
mind. Whenever he saw an unknown
man or woman vino attracted his at
tention, he never could resist the i'm
pulse to invent & romance that might
apply.
Immediately after dessert the two
rose; and George, finding that nothing
more important than pineapple leo
detained him. got UP and followed. ar
Ryanne almost trod on his heels rs
hn,- no :,,fn
the cosy lounging-room. George
dropped into a vacant divan and wait
ed for his cafe a la Turque Mr.
Ryanne walked over to the head-pcr
ter's bureau and asked il that gentle
man would be so kind as to point ont
Mr.. George P. A. Jones, II he wero
anywhere in sight. He thoughtfully,
not to say regretfully, laid down =
small bride.
Mr. Jones?" The porter knew Mr..
Jones very well. He was generous,
and treated the servants as though
they were really human beings. Mr..
Ryanne, either by his inquiry or as
the result of his bride, went up sev.
cral degrees in the porter's estima-
ton. "Mr. Jones is over there, on the
divan by the door"
Thanks"
But Ryanne did not then seek tho
young man. He studied the quarry
from diplomatic distance. Nc; there
was nothing to indicate that George
Percival Algernon Jones was in any
way handicapped by his Arthuresqua
middle names.
mo fool, as Gioconda in her infinite
wisdom hath said; but romantic, ter
ribly romantic, yet, like the timid
bather who puts foot into the water,
finds it cold, and withdraws it. It will
all depend upon whether he is real
collector or merely buyer Of rugs.
Forward, then, Horace; q sovereign
has already dashed headlong down the
far horizon" The curse Of speaking
his thoughts aloud did not lie heavily
upon him tonight, for these cogitatioDS
were made in silence, unmarked by
I