The Washington herald., 1915-10-17

ment ndQ become aware uldt We HcIc swine
cast before pearl.
You beast" | said. this is half your doing.
And the other half is the fault of this cursed
country. Id better have gone back to Sleepy
town and died in wild orgy of currant wine
and buns than to have had this happen"
Stamford filled the empty street with his
roaring laughter.
You tool" he cried. And all as quick as
the popping of cork. Well. she does seem to
strike agreeably upon the retina. But don It
burn your fingers All Mojada will tell you that
Louis Devoe is the man.
I'VE will see about that" said l. And.
perhaps. whether he is man as well as the
man.
lost no time in meeting Louis Devoe. That
was easily accomplished, for the foreign colony
in Mojada numbered scarce dozen; and they
gathered daily at half-decent hotel kept by
a Turk. where they managed to patch together
the Auttering rags of country and civilization
that were left them. | soug ght Devoe before did
my pearl of the doorway. because had learned
a little of the game of war. and knew better
than to strike for prize before testing the
strength of the enemy.
A sort of cold dismay something akin to
fear-hIled me when had estimated him. |
found man so perfectly poised. so charming.
so deeply learned in the worlds rituals. so full
of tact courtesy. and hospitality. so endowed
with grace and ease and kind of careless.
naughty power that | almost overstepped the
bounds in probing him. in turning him on the
spit to find the weak point that so craved for
him to have But left him whole had to
make bitter acknowledgment to myself that
Louis Devoe was gentleman worthy of my
best blows; and swore to give him them He
was great merchant of the country. wealthy
importer and exporter. All day he sat in a
fastidiously dppointed office. surrounded by
works of art and evidences of his high culture.
directing through glass doors and windows the
affairs of his house.
In person he was slender and hardly TALL
His small. wel-shaped head was covered with
thick. brown hair. trimmed short. and he wore
thick. brown beard also cut close and to fine
point. His manners were pattern.
Before long had become a regular and
welcome visitor at the Greene home. shook
my wild habits from me like worn-out cloak
trained for the conflict with the care of a
prize-hghter and the self-deniai of Brahmin
As for Chloe Greene. shall weary you with
no sonnets to her eyebrow She was splen-
didly feminine girl. as wholesome as Novem-
Der pippn, and no more mysterious than a win
dow-pane She had whimsical little theories
that she had deduced from life, and that fitted
the maxims of Epictetus like princess gowns
wonder, after ALL if that old dufer wasn't rather
wise!
Chloe had father. the Reverend Homer
Greene. and an intermittent mother, who some
times palely presided over a twilight teapot.
The Reverend Homer was burr-like man with
life-work. He was writing concordance to
the Scriptures, and had arrived as far as Kings
Being. presumably. a suitor for his daughters
hand was timber for his literary outpourings
had the family tree of Israel drilled into my
head until used to cry aloud in my sesp: And
Aminadab begat Jay Eye See.' and so forth.
until he had tackled another book | once
made calculation that the Reverend Homer's
concordance would be worked up as far as the
Seven Walls mentioned in Revelations about
the third day after they were opened.
Louis Devoe, as well as |. was visitor and
an intimate friend of the Gresnes. 1t was there
met him the oftenest and more agreeable
man or more accomplished have never hated
in my life.
Luckily or unfortunately. | came to be &C
cepted as Boy. My appearance was youthful.
and l suppose | had that pleading and homeless
air that always draws the motherliness that is
in women and the cursed theories and hobbies
of pater-familiases.
Chloe called me Tommy and made SIS
terly fun of my attempts to WOO her. With
Devoe she was vastly more reserved. He was the
man of romance. one to stir her imagination
and deepest feelings had her fancy leaned to-
ward him. | was closer to her. but standing in
no glamour; had the task before me of win
ming her in what seems to me the American
wav of hohtino-with cleanness and nL,cl and