Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-02-19

2-R zee with halr an eye that you weFS
born for the open and that the wallis
! OF no prison house can ever hold you
\ again"
7 She nodded q dreamy acquiesence.
, Men she turned two very brown eyes
iull upon me and demanded;
What is your name. please?"
| mentioned II.
! And you doctor chimneys? Thar
sounds very amusing"
| Pm glad you like it. Most people
| think 1t absurd"
What are you doing here? There's
not chimney in sight"
"Oh, | have commission In the
neighborhood. Hopeheld Manor. You
may have heard of Miss HOLSTERS
place"
"Of course, every one knows of her"
And now that | think of ii, it was
she about whom you asked in the Aso-
i lando that afternoon. You wanted to
know what she said about the tea
! ROOM
Il remember perfectly"
She was quiet for a moment. then
she threw back her head and laughed
that rare laugh of hers. You might
let me into the joke"
1T wouldn't mean anything to you.
l have Il lot of private jokes that are
for my own consumption"
your way of laughing is adorable.
1 hope to hear more of it, In the Aso-
lando you repulsed me in a manner
that won my admiration. but venture
to say now that. If you roam these
pastures, am the grass beneath your
feet. and if yonder tuneful water be
sacred to you l sit beside the brook to
learn its song"
You talk well. sir. but from your
tone ] fear you can't forget that we
met first in the Asolando. That day
of my life is past. and l am by no
means what you might call an Asolan-
ded. l don't seem TO impress you with
that fact. I'm a human being. not to
be picked like red apple. or trampled
upon like grass. or listened to as though
/ were a foolish little brook. I'm great
ly given to the highway, and | prefer
macadam. l like asphalt pavements.
too, for the matter of that. | should
love a motor, but lacking the coin I
pedal a bicycle. My wheel lies down
there in the bushes You see, Mr..
Chimney Man, l am a plain spoken
person and have no intention OF deceiv-
ing you. Ny name was francesca for
one day only. 1t may interest you to
know that my real name is Hezekiah"
"Hezekiah! Then you are Cecilia's
sister and Miss HOLSTERS niecep
Guilty"
"And you live
"Over there somewhere beyond that
ridge" And she waved her hand
vaguely toward the village and laugh
ed again.
"Pray tell me what this particular
Joke is. 1t must be immensely fun
n.y." urged, struggling with these new
facts.
"Oh, it's Aunt Octavia! She will be
the death of me yet. You know the
/ girl who waited on Aunt Octavia that
afternoon took all that artistic nom
sense as seriously as funeral, and she
told me after you left, with the great
est horror, that Aunt Octavia had
asked for a cocktail" That laugh rip
pied off again to carry JOY along the
planet trails above us. But you
know" she resumed, that Aunt Oc-
tavia never drank a cocktail in her life
and wouldn't She doesn't know a
cocktail from soothing sirup She pines
for adventures. She is just like
boarding school girl who has read her
first romance Of the young American
engineer In a South American repub-
lie shooting the insurgents full OF
tortillas and marrying the presidents
dark eyed daughter. She reads pirate
books and is crazy about buried chests
and pieces Of eight. And they say I'm
Just like her. She is the most perfect
ly killing person in the world" Heze-
kiah laughed again.
ITO be Continued