The daily Alaskan., 1916-11-06
CHAPTER ". An Old College Friend.

l Dick Mlnot by the hand. You here?" he cried.
 Foolish question" commented Mir, Minot.
 "Yes, l know" said MT. Paddock. Been here so long my brains little habby. But I'm glad to see you, old man"
 Same here" Mir. Minot stared at the car. T say, Jack, did you earn that writing fletionT'
 Paddock laughed.
 I'm not writing much fiction now" he replied. '"The car belongs to Mrs Helen Bruce, the wittiest hostess in San Marco" He came closer. "My boy" he conflded. "I have struck some thing essentially soft. Some time soon in room with all the doors and windows closed md the weather strips in place I'll whisper 1t to you. I've been dying to tell somebody"
 And the car"-
 Part of the graft, Dick. Here comes Mrs. Bruce now. Did l mention she was the wittiest-of course I did. Want to meet herr We'll later then. You're at the Pax, suppose See you there"
 MIuOt devoted the next hour to sad introspection in the lobby. It was not until he was on his way In to dinner that he again saw Cynthia Meyrick. Then. just outside the dining room door, he encountered her, stin all in white, lovelIcr than ever, in her cheek flush of excitement no doubt put there by the most important luncheon of her life. He waited for her to rec ognize him, and he did not wait in vain.
 "Ah, Mr. "AIinOt"
 "Of course. In the hurry of this noon quite overlooked an introduction. I ann
 Miss Cynthia Meyrick. happen to know because met his lordship in New York May ask-was the lunch con-
 Quite without a flaw. So you know Lord uarrOwDy!
 "Er-slightly May l offer my very best wishes?"
 "So good of you"
 Formal, formal. formal Was that how 1t must be between them here after? Well, 1t was better co. Miss Meyrick presented her father and her aunt, and that did not tend to Tighten the formalIty. ICicles, both of them, though stocky pulling icicles. Aunt in- quired if Mir. Minot was related to the Minots of Detroit and when he failed to qualify at once lost all interest in him. Old Spencer Meyrick did not ac- cord him even that much attention
 Yet all was not formal, as 1t happen ed, for as Cynthia Meydck moved away she whispered, T must see you after dinner-on important business" And her smile as she said It made MI not's own lonely dinner quite cheery.
 At ' in the evening the hotel orrhes- tra gathered in the lobby for Its night ly concert, and after the way of or chestras 1t wus almost ready to begin when NIInot left the dining room at g.
 He sat down in a veranda chair and looked out at the courtyard. Tn the splendOr of its evening colors 1t was indeed the setting for romance. In the midst of the green palms and blooming things splashed a fountain which might well have been the one old Ponce de Leon sought On three sides the lighted towers and turrets of that huge hotel climbed toward the bright, warm southern sky. A dazzling moon shamed Mir. Edison's lamps. the breeze came tepid from the sea, the very latest in waltzes drifted out from the gorgeous lobby. Here romance, Minot thought, must have been born
 MT. Minot, I've been looking every where"-
 She was beside him now, a slim ! white figure in the dusk-the one thing lacking in that glittering picture. He leaped to meet her.
 Sitting here dreaming, l reckon she whispered, ''of somebody far | away"
 "No." He shook his head. T leave that to the newly engaged"
 She made no answer. He gave her bis chair and drew up another for l himself.
 MT. Minot," she said, "I was ter ribly thoughtless this noon. But you must forgive mel was 50 excited. Mir Minot-I owe you"-
 She hesitated. Miuot bit his lip say agely. Must he hear all that againT How much she owed him for bis serT- lce-for getting her to that luncheon in time-that wonderful luncheon
 "I owe you," finished the gtri softly { s'tha charges on that taxi" -.