Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1916-01-04

satin toe of her small slipper. ha
given opuIent scope to my painter
fancy In those island days, and ha'
Imagined her, in the color of life, a
being expressed in the souls of OF
chids. Now realized, with a terri
BE yearning, that I had not done he
justice.
Z ! started to speak, then halted, per
/ picked over a ridiculous point. How
should address her?
! On the island had called her Fran
ces, and now I could no more compe
my rebe1lious tongue to frame ths
i title Mrs. Weighborne" than ] coult
have forced it to utter an epithet.
you are a great traveller, aren't
you, Mr. Deprayne?" she suggested.
i I had always been accounted talk
| alive man. One could read in hel
| face that she had the wit to sparkle ii
conversation like champagne in cut
glass, yet, under the constraint thai
had settled over us, we labored as
4 platitudinously as a knickerbockere
boy and a schoolgirl entertaining her
| first caller.
II have travelled a little," answered
"And encountered unusual adven
/ tures?"
"No-just travelled"
"Billy says" she went on as gra-
ciously as though I had not rebuffed
every conversational advance. that
you were shipwrecked in the South
| Seas and wounded by savages."
"Billy!"
| My bruised consciousness flinched
| under the familiarity Of the title, and
I fell back upon shameless churlish-
ness.
"a niger stuck me with spear"
I admitted shortly.
She, glanced quickly up with per-
plexity. Her eyes seemed to read that
was not at heart boor, and her gra-
ciousness remained impervious to my
ruffianism
Il WISH" she said slowly, "you
would tell me about 1t; or are you
one Of the men who tell women only
empty and pretty things?"
There was a vagrant hint of wist.
fitness in the tone Of the question. l
wondered il she had been fed, like the
girl of our diary, too much on sweet
meats, and wanted more nutritious
fare.
ut wouldn't interest you," I apollo
gized, melting at once to penitence.
Then for a moment came mild
upsweep OF semotion. 1t was one of
those impulses which master men and
when the trend is violent, make the
eyes swim with blood and the hand
to rise to murder. With me it swept
to sentiment, and carried me uncon-
trollably in its undertow.
Il wish," fsaid with an intensity
which must nave carried note Of
: wildness, 81 wish to God were back
on that island now!"
The perplexed questioning of her
eyes steadied me again into self-com-
mand.
II crave your pardon" said, with
disingenious laugh. tits the call
of the Wild"
perhaps understand something of
that CALL" was her enigmatical reply.
wondered. Could she understand?
This woman with the perfect drawing
room poise; this creature of exqui-
site art? Even if were absolutely
free to tell her the whole story, from
Suez to the Golden Gate. how much
and how little would it mean to her?
Could she comprehend passion fired
with no touch Of the physical, painted
horizon-wide against canvas OF CO
bait sky? Perhaps not, but wished
as 1 had never wished any other thin.
that might have been privileged to
learn.
Her personality, even in silence,
wove an aura Of subtle magic about
her. She wore at her breast several
dollhouse orchids. They were pale and
exotic, quick-wilting and artificial. Al
ready the edges of their petals were
curling and darkening.
was she like them? Could she have
carried her splendid shoulders with
the same grace through jungles and
over mountains? Could she bloom
with the wild splendor of those other
orchids in the sterner environment
of Gods great out-of-doors?
Sha smiled as she questioned me.
''You are skeptical of my power to
understand things, aren't your"
81 was wondering" answered, "just
what you meant by it."
II mean" she said slowly, as her
eyes clouded again with her wistful-
ness which had cost me my self-cor.
troi, .sthat civilized women lead mar
rover lives than civilized men. May
be they feel even more strongly than
men the longing for wider, freer
things"
"But in these times" namely sug-
gested, woman has a full measure
of liberty"
She tossed her head with a delicious
contempt for my reasoning, and bent
her eyes for a moment On the tip OF
her satin slipper. "About as much
as a canary in a cage" she announc-
- ao.,d ,,,oe,rn oxpocfod In sing low