Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-03-22
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.
lCOnfinuedl

Some years had passed since our
| hero had invaded the temple of
/ Perpischore. Under similar condi-
tons and with similar experience OF
the gentle art, an angel would have
winged away like a buzzard. But
/ out hero rushed in.
Great and Broadcast was the earn
age that ensued. Paled before it
Gettysburg, Verdun, and the Rus
sian advance along the Bug. Seiz-
ing in a firm and plastic grip the
pliable Therese, who thought she
| was about to perform the hesita-
ton, our hero embarked upon his
terpischorean emprise.
As has. been said, Therese
thought she was about to perform
the hesitation. Theresa was wrong.
There was involved no hesitation at
all; not the slightest 1t WIS ali
action from the start.
Gathering close to him the PHI
ant Therese, who, being slender,
did not cramp his style in the least
except once in a while TO get be-
tween his feet, our hero slid out on
the polished floor of the pergola,
beneath the great round moon. He
slid a bit better than that, even.
For. as he gaily turned, indulging
in a coquettish pirouette, his foot
inserted itself between those of
debutante who was being backed
across the floor by her partner to
the tune of Il Didn't Raise My Boy
To Be a Soldier" Which. Incl
i HI fnVs
hero For. had such been the up
bringing of the partner in ques-
ton, the whole affair would have
wound up in battle right there.
AS it was, however. the debuante
hesitated in her flight. cried, ON"
turned frantic eyes abouo for help,
like an American tiZen in Mexico
appealing TO Bryan, leaned slowly
backward a little more and then
fell like a giant redwood beneath
the hand of the destroyer.
She had been going fast at the
time; probably over four miles an
hour. Also she was clinging to the
neck of her partner as clings a
drowning man to another kind of a
straw. Whereas said partner gaZed
about him like a gentleman in the
electric chair, and as futilely. For
him was not to chose. For him was
but to go where duty called. .
His toes caught beneath those of
the clinging debutante, beside
whom the well-known vine of sim
liar repute would have appeared
cid and repugnant, and over he
went
Came from the cupid bow lips of
the champing debutante maidenly
"Oooof!" That was all.
But as I have said. great was their
momentum. Whereof the partner.
though striking heavily, riochetted
twice and. sliding along on his
powdered chin. managed to get
all mixed up among dow ,
a ger whose luck at bridge had been |
so rotten that she was taking 1t |
out on her husband by teaching
him to dance.
Said husband danced only under
and with protest; but he was do |
ing the best he could.
On his creased and sweating Wis !
age was the expression of man
trying 10 push a safe down Fifth |
Avenue at its busiest Intent was /
he on the Iabors of breath and
mind. 1t would have been as we'll |
had lie reserved one eve at least for /
his feet. But he didn't So were
regrets in vain
Obsessed OF brain with the sole
thought OF steering a two-hundred
pound wife through the maze of !,
human obstacles about him. the
while his soul eraved for a peri
scope, he did not notice that which
lay beneath. Whereof he and the
wife that was his struck IL going
sidewiEe.
Clj4LGhiRz aAeh othar tranttcallY. !