Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-05-01
AN OUTSIDERS A GIRLS s6tTs1 APyPNryREs S1PNTy IS
By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE Author Bowl"

parted lips breatned his name to tn
sympathetic night that never woul
betray her: "Donald-Donald-Do
Lyttleton--"
Now all the while she wasted slghirt
for him by the window Mr.. Lyttletoi
spent Idly specializing about her-loungin,
IN a corner of the smoking ROOM on Tn,
euge oil circle Of other masculine guests
making common excuse of alcohol to de
fer the tiresome formalites of going /,
ped and getting up again in the morn
ing.
II this gentleman was Sally's Junior fl
the matter Of year or two, he was over.
whelmingly her senior in KNOWLEDGE of
his world-a world into which he had
been brought neither TO toll nor yet IL
SPIN, but simply to be the life and soul
OF the party And at % he was beyond
permitting sentiment to run away with
JuuEmenti he could resist temptation with
as much tortitude as any man, always
providing he could see any sound reason
Tor resisting it--any reason, that is. prom
islng profit from the deed of abstinence.
Mr.. Lyttleton had ten thousand a wear
OF MS own income from a principal for
| tunately beyond his power TO hvpoth he
cate he spent twenty thousand with an
easy conscience; he earnestly desired to
| De aolo to spend fifty without fear of
| consequences. Talents such as his mer-
| tied maintenance - failing Independent
means, such maintenance as comes from
| marrying money and "A wife above sus-
| piclon of parsimony. II only he had been
| able, or even had cared to behave him
| SELF, Mr. Lyttleton's fortunes might long
| since have been established on some such
| satisfactory basis. But he was sorely
handicapped by the weakness of a sentl-
| mental nature; women would persist in
falling in love with him-alwnys. unhap-
PLY, women of moderate means, He
couldn't help being sorry for them and
seeking to assuage their sunernEs: he
couldn't forever be running away from
some infatuate female, and 80 he was
forever being found out and forgiven
by women. Most men. meanly envious,
disliked him; all men held him in pardon
able distrust. Devilish hard luck
Take this Mnnwaring Eirl-pretty, in
telllgent, artless little woman, perhaps q |
Dit mature, but fascinating all the same. |
nHectingly naive about her trouble, which |
was simply spontaneous combustion. one |
more OF those tirst-sight affairs He had |
noticed the symptoms Immediately. that |
night Of her Introduction to Gosnold |
House He hadn't paid much attention
TO her during luncheon, and only sought
ner out-when they got up, on the spur Of
the moment, for that informal artcr-din-
ner dance by moonlight on the veranda-
partly because he happened to notice her
sitting to one side so obviously longing
Tor MIN to ask her, partly because it was
MS business to dance, and partly because
well, because 1T was less dangerous.
everything considered, than dancing with
Mrs. Standlsh.
And then the eloquent treachery of
Sally's eyes and that little gesture of
surrender with which she yielded herself
to his guidance 1t was really too bnd,
ne thought, especially since she had
made occasion to tell him frankly she
hadn't a dollar to bless herself with.
pi iY,,ga
behaving admirably; he hadn't enCour-
aged the girl. Not much, at all events.
OF course, 1t wasn't in human nature to
ignore her entirely after that; moreover,
10 slight her would have been conspicu-
Gus, not to say uncivil. But one must
draw the line somewhere.
Ionight. for example, he had danced
with her perhaps too often for her own
good, to say nothing of his own, And
they had sat out dance or two--aw-
fully old-fashioned custom; went out
years ago-still one did it, regardless,
now and then.
Curious girl, the Manwaring: one
moment almost melting into his arms
the next practically warning him against
herself. And curiously reticent-said she
was "nobody"-let it go at that. Very
told the truth; she seemed TO
Know nobody who was anybody, and
though she was apparently very much at
her ease most of the time, and not
readily impressed, he noticed now and
then a little tenslty in her manner
covert watchfulness of other women, as
though she were waiting for her cue.
AT this juncture in his reverie Mr..
Lytteton peremptorily dismissed luckless
MISS Manwaring from his mind, COM
pounded his nightcap at the buffet, and
Joined in the general conversations
Coincidentally the reverie of Miss Man
waring at her bedchamber window di-
5ressed-to review fragmentarily the traffic d,
and discoveries OF three wonderful DAYS. .
Days in whose glamourous radiance the ,
romance of Cinderella paled to the COM
oleNion of a sordidy realistic narrative
n commonplaces; contemplating them, =.
sally. for the sake of her self-conceIt
elt constrained to adopt an aloof super !
or, skeptical pose. Conceding freely '
he incredible reality of this phase of c
Ter history, she none the less contended
hat no more true permanence inhered q
n 1t than in a dream.
She recapitulated many indisputable
iEns of the instability of her affairs.
md OF all those the foremost the most -
laring. was her personal success, at
nee actual and impossible. She saw her =
elf trom that remote and weather.
eaten coign of skepticism) moving freely
o and fro In the great world of the
ocially elect, unhindered. unquestioned,
lcitly accepted, meeting, chatting, treat