The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1916-09-08

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of her and stared at it half indig-
nantly. 1t was a very lovely face.
But John MACPHERSON had seen
too many beautiful women to be
especially attracted by any one in
particular. He wondered idly what
there could be about this particu-
lar girl which so h%ypnotized all her
friends and acquaintance. In a
few weeks she had passed out of his
mind entirely.
But John MACPHERSON was not to
slip out of the clutches of deter
mined fate in this easy fashion.
With no warning whatever, no pre-
monition Of the trap before him,
he climbed the steps Of a Fifth ave-
nue. house one night to fulfill din
ner engagement.
Hi hostess was a charming wo-
man, and her dinners were famous.
He was in a very pleasant frame Of
mind. As he opened the little en-
velope containing the name of his
dinner partner he exclaimed so
sharply that the well trained foot,
man could not forbear a glance of
astonishment. On the card was the
name of Isabel Douglas.
MACPHERSON, instantly in revolt,
meditated flight for an instant,
then realized how impossible that
was and that there was nothing to
do but go downstairs and meet her.
He entered the big drawing room
and greeted his hostess.
GIVE favored you tonight" that
lady said, smiling. GIVE given you
the prettiest and incest girl here to
take out to dinner. Do you know
Miss Douglas of Kentucky"
81 do not" said the hapless John
MACPHERSON crisply, and mentally
set his teeth. In two minutes it was
all over, and he "a properly intro
duced to her. Just what he had ex-
pected Miss Douglas to do was hard
to say. He had braced himself for
resistance, but to his bewilderment,
like a dash Of cool water in his face,
he realized there was absolutely
nothing to resist.
Miss Douglas, far lovclier than
her picture, had given him one rare,
cordial smile which revealed the
secret of her power, for it was a
smile speaking a sympathetic inter-
est in the individual addressed, and
then had not paid much more atten-
ton to him, being interested in the
conversation of a returned arctic
explorer.
Macpherson studied her at his
leisure and as the moments passed
found himself grasping wildly at all
his ingrained prejudices against her.
He had wits enough to reflect in a
panic stricken way that if the mere
sight of her was SO disarming ac-
quaintance with her might work
marvellous changes in a mans feel
ings. When they passed out to the
dining room MACPHERSON found
himself hating for something to
say, a new experience for him.
The girl herself broke the ice by
remarking that she thought she
knew his sister. Was not Nan Ran
som out west that relative? She
had mentioned her brother so often.
BY the end of that dinner John
Macpherson was miserable, apollo
getic, at sea. He did not know why
he should be so upset. All he re-
allied was that he had a crazy de-
sire to explain to Miss Douglas how
sorry he was for being such an
egregious idiot as to dislike her be-
fore he had met her.
"She certainly got in her special
brand Of hypnotic work on me, all
right" he told his reflection grimly
that night as he took off his cravat
before the mirror. "But, then, she's
an exception"
John MACPHERSON was a man who
went out after what he wanted
when he got his mind made up. He
never really made up his mind
about Isabel Douglas, however
that is, deliberately. He did not
have time. It was a fatal attack
from the very first sight of her.
And when he asked her to marry
him after she had been in New
York two weeks only and she very
properly protested at his haste it
plunged him into despair so deep
that he made life unbearable for his
servants.
But Miss Douglas knew of her
own heart, too, after several years
of experience in refusing numerous
suitors, and she did not keep the
man she found she really cared for
waiting too long before she prom
Used to marry him.