The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1918-11-19

foreign air about him that added to
the mystery which the wind and sun
of many lands had cast in his eyes and
blended In the tan Of his face.
Hence 1t was that on q certain night
not long after his return he accom-
panied his mother to the Ackland
School of Art to view the annual
spring exhibit there. His mother was
a patron of the school-being a patron
of something was a hobby of hers
and Burke himself had contributed
largely to the museum from the fruits
of his travels. Like an automaton he
shook the hands of dozens of very
much alike young women, and boys so
evidently counting genius and flowing
ties-and then suddenly the hand he
found in his was not the stereotyped,
nervous hand, but a warm, flexible
hand of substance. And as he straight
ened up from his rather low bow his
eyes took in her gown of golden-brown
simplicity.
She herself was living, breathing,
elastic thing of gold, 1t seemed. Her
hair, almost black, with its hint of
golden shadows-the ivory gold Of her
skin-and her eyes, those oriental l.
could-love-you eyes-all reminded him
of Taluno and-Ahmeenah. In an In
slant he had passed and forgotten the
girl of the moment In memory of All
meenah, the girl of the past. There
she stood high up on the rock above
him, poised against the sky for her
dive into the deep pool below, her
dusky hair waving like banner In the
wind-then his heart turned sick at
the memory of her faulty step, his mad
rush that was too late to break the
fall of her lovely body that lay broken
and still on the rocks at his feet. With
a tired sigh he slipped out of the noisy
ehattering throng that filled the great
room and sought the lower corridor,
where he sat on stone bench and
smoked deliberately in violation of all
the rules.
Twenty minutes later he assembled
the steps again. At the landing as he
turned the corner of the stair he looked
upward and there stood the girl of liv-
ing gold with her hand on the rail
poised in the act of descending. For
moment she gazed on him thus and
then descended slowly, and when they
met at the rail in the center of the
flight-they smiled.
sYou are so very young" he said, as
If having made a strange discovery.
She half-turned to lean back against
the rail and gazed into his eyes with
her wide candid glance. 81 am twenty
two" she said, pensive yet earnest.
His hand slid up and touched hers
where it lay on the rail, but she seemed
not to notice 1t.
''They are asking for you,'' she
added, upstairs" And she gestured
with her head In the direction of the
noisy gallery
Morgan Burke looked on this COM
pcsite woman and marveled OF all
his almost-loves she seemed to be q
part. The gesture of her hand. the
supple twist Of her body as she stood
there, the polse of her head, the glance
of her eyes and the curve of her cheek
each was representative of some one
charm of those others of his past.
Il almost believe l could love you,
lie said as in a dream.
For one pulsing moment she bent
over him as he stood below her there
and caught his upturned face between
her warm young hands.
Il know you couldl" she murmured.
tensely.
But befole he could touch her she
had fled back up the stairs.
Strangely enough there is always
some one to see such things. The next
morning the principal of the art school,
who was a friend of Burke's mother,
sent for the loveliest and most tai
,'nted member of that years GRADUATE
Ing class.
Il feel that must speak to you.
Olive, for your own good, she said.
Things that are for ones own good
ere almost always unpleasant, aren't
they?" said Olive Dale, with a grave
little smile
1T is about Morgan Burke, owe,
continued the principal, kindly. "He IS
not for you Olive. You must not break
--o,,,. ho,rt ox,a, him nv dear He has