Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1916-01-20


poise of an older woman and you
look such child-except for that
hrooding expression in your eyes"
"How old are you?" she asked
wickedly.
"How old should you Think"
"Twcnty-four?"
"I'm twenty gix," he answered en-
phatically.
~ thought I was overshooting the
mark at twenty-four."
"Now are you being unpleasant"
he said, flushing.
Unpleasant" she cried, opening
her eyes wide. "How?"
Making me out even younger"
81 forgot how boys always like to
seem old" she said, plaguing him
boldly.
at isn't how many years you've
lived" he said seriously; "it's what
you've done in them, and taught, and
what has happened to you."
The banter died in her gray eyes.
"Yes." she said: chats true" And,
studying him, it seemed to her that
he had never done anything weak CO
bad or unadmirable. There was some
thing appealingly clean about him.
81 wish you'd go home away from
here. It's getting late. And Pm di-
ming out"
She wasn't. but she began to feel
the necessity of an excuse for getting
him to go.
He rose reluctantly.
Every WELL" he said. "lf ! must,
l must"
He held out his hand.
"Good-by until you senior until
we meet by chance
"Don't forget. Good-by.
He pressed her hand with u..neccss-
sary vigor.
"Good-by." he said again and went
across the room. At the door he look
ed back again longingly. But he went.
She listened. as before, to his fo-t-
steps on the stairs and to the closing
Of the front door.
Even then she did not stir. Her
eyes-with a new expression in them,
a little troubled, little fri~htened-
rested on her empty teacup.
1t was borne in upon her that me
was finding him dangerously attract
i've. Because she was in the habit of
being honest with herself she admit
ted it. There was something about
him that absorbed her, stimulated her,
her, keenly.
And she was afraid of h"rself. She
did not overestimate her own VII
power and control. She was conscious
of strong desire to drift into this
harmless friendship. The
very strength of the desire cried eau
tion.
She determined to tell hiE the truth
about herself if they should be brought
together again. She half suspected
that she had withheld it as much from
a desire to hold him as from sense
of the risk of sharing the secret.
Durnig the first part of her married
life, when they had gone about great
deal, she found no char,ns in the
society of other men because she was
in Sedge. Afterward, when
his escapades and his uncertainness
had determined her to withdraw from
society, she had met few men, and
had been too hurt and wretched to
notice even them. But Merrol> VISA
a new type. And she vas just in
terested enough in him to beware of
him.
Feeling assured of Sedge's condi-
tion, having learned from experience
that he would sleep late and waken
and in an agony of self-loath-
ing, she telephoned to Agnes and ar
ranged to dine with her nd go to an
opera afterward.
The prospect delighted Agnes, and
when Gerry suggested that she ask
several friends the affair assumed the
of function.
Agnes phoned her music-teacher
and his wife and invited a certain
fellow boarder named Hermann Muh-
Ter, who had voice, but had neither
the time nor the necessary funds to
cultivate it.
Muller had accompanied Agnes
often before, under an arrangement
by which each paid his owns way, and
they had sat in the gallery. But to-
night she meant to demonstrate what
was possible to her in the way of gala
dressing.
Gerry used the opera car. in order