Crossville chronicle. [volume] (Crossville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1915-03-31
CHAPTER ii-contlnued.

CHAPTER ii-continued.
He eyed her. mildly surprised. "Oh
he puzzles US all bit, you know. Well
educated; somewhere back gentle
man; from the States. or course
don't know; something shady, proba'
bly,. They don't tramp about like this
otherwise. For all that. he's rather a
decent sort; no bounder like This rol.
ter we left at Mandalay. He never
talks about himself | fancy he's loae-
some again"
"Lonesome?"
It's the way. you know. These
poor beggars drop aboard for the
night, merely to see white woman
again, to hear decent English, to dress
and dine like human being They
disappear the next day, and often we
never see them again."
What do they do?" The question
came to her lips mechanically.
"Paddy-fields. White men are needed
to oversee them. And then, there's
the railway, and there's the new oil
country north of Prone. You'll see
the wells tomorrow. Rather fancy this
Warrington chap has been working
along the new pipe line. They're rum
ming them down to Rangoon. If he's
with us tomorrow, I'll have him put
the parrot through its turns. An
amusing little beggar."
why not introduce him to me?"
Z BEG pardon?"
I'll take II the responsibility. It's
a whim."
We'll, you American girls are the
eighth wonder of the world" The
purser was distinctly annoyed. And
1t may be an impertinence on my part.
but ! never yet saw an American
woman who would accept advice or
act upon it."
Thanks. What would you adviser"
with dangerous sweetness.
Not to meet this man. It's irregu-
lar. l know nothing about him. If
you had a father or a brother on
board.
vi ONCh huoUdHu' lauSulu6.
There yor are!" resignedly. You
laugh. You women go everywhere.
and half the time unprotected"
Never quite unprotected We never
venture beyond the call of gentle
men,"
THAT is true" Frightening. you In
siSt on meeting this chap"
II do not insist; only, am bored,
and he might interest me for al hour"
She added: Besides. he may annoy
the others"
The purser grinned reluctantly.
"You and the colonel don't get on.
Well, III introduce this chap at din
ner. II don't. y. :"
Il am fully capable Of speaking to
him without any introduction what
ever" She laughed again. 1T will be
very kind Of you"
When he had gone she unused over
this impulse SO alien to hel character.
An absolute stranger, man with a
past, perhaps a fugitive from justice:
and because he looked like Arthur
Ellison, she was seeking his acquailt-
ance. Something, then, could break
her rese: We and aloofness?
She had travelled from San Francisco
to Colombo, unattended save by an
elderly maiden who had risen by grad
ual stages f4om nurse to companion,
but who could not be made to remem-
Der that she was no longer nurse. In
all these four months Elsa had not
made half dozen acquaintance, and
of these she had not sought ore. Yet,
she was asking to meet stranger
VIII, Sc only recommendation was a sim
gular likeness to another man. The
purser was right. 1t was very irregu-
lar.
Parrot G Col" she murmured She
searched among the phantoms moving
to and fro Upon the ledge; but the
man with the cage was gone. 1t was
really uncanny.
Elsa Chetwood was twenty-five, !
lithely built, outwardly reposeful, but
dynamic within. Education, environ
ment and breeding had somewhat
smothered the g,owins fires. She was
a type of the ancient repression of
woman, which finds its exceptions in
the Aspasias and Helens and Cleo
patras of legend and history In fe1-
lures she looked exrctly what she was, /,
well-bred and well-born. Beauty she
also had, but it as the cold beauty Of |
northern winter nights. 1t compelled
admiration rather than invited 1t.