Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1915-05-19

and he might interest me for an hour"
She added: Besides, he may annoy
the others"
The purser grinned reluctantly. |
"You and the colonel don't get on. |
Well, I'll introduce this chap at din |
ner. If don't.
II 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 her character.
An absolute stranger, a man with
past, perhaps a fugitive from justice;
and because he looked like Arthur
Ellison, she was seeking his acqua1nt-
ance. Something, then, could break
through her reserve and aloofness?
She had travelled from San Francisco
to Colombo, unattended save by an
elderly maiden who had risen by grad
ual stages flom nurse to companion,
but who could not be made to remem-
Der that she was no longer a nurse. In
all these four months Elsa had not
made half dozen acquaintances, and
of these she had not sought one. Yet,
she was asking to meet a stranger
whose only recommendation was sin
gular likeness to another man. The
purser was right. It was very irregu-
lar.
Parrot & Col" she murmured. She
searched among the phantoms moving
to and fro upon the ledge; but the
man with the cage was gone. It was
really uncanny.
Elsa Chetwood was twenty-five,
lithely built, outwardly reposeful, but
dynamic within. Education, environ
ment and breeding had somewhat
smothered the glowing fires. She was
type of the ancient repression Of
woman, which finds its exceptions in
| the Aspasias and Helens and Cleo
patras of legend and history. In fea-
lures she looked exactly what she was,
well-bred and well-born. Beauty she
also had, but it was the cold beauty of
| northern winter nights. It compelled
admiration rather than invited it.
Spiritually, Elsa was asleep. The fire
was there, the gift of loving greatly,
only it smoldered, without radiating
even the knowledge of it's presence
Men loved her, but in awe, as one
loves the marbles of Phidias. She
knew no restraint, and yet she had
passed through her stirless years re
strained. Her independence was in
herent and not acquired. She had laid
down certain laws for herself to fol
i low; and that these often clashed with
the laws of convention, which are fet
ish to those who divide society into
three classes, only mildly amused her
Right from wrong she knew, and thai
sufficed her.
/ Her immediate relatives were dead
| those who were distantly related re
manned SO, as they had no part in he
life nor she in theirs. From her fathe
she had inherited remarkable AM
seldom errant judgment. To her, face
were generally book covers, they re
PEELED or attracted; and she foun'
large and undiminishing interest II
the faculty of pressing back the, Gov
ers and reading the text. Often bal
!, tered covers held treasures, and ofte,
the editions de luxe were swindlee
But in between the battered cover
and the exquisite F1orentine hand-too
:. ing there ranged a row of mediocr
, books; and it was among these tina
Elsa found that her instinct was nc
, wholly infallible, as will be seen.
! Today she was facing the first prol
. lem of her young life, epochal. Sh
was, as it were, to stop and begin lii
- anew. And she didn't know, sh
- wasn't sure.
There were few passengers aboart
There were three fussy old Englis
maidens under the protection of sti
:, fussier old colonel The quartz
greatly amused Elsa. Their mods wer
7 abrupt, and they spoke in the mos
formal manner. She was under gray