The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-09-11

GOOD gracious" h laughed.
"Yesl"
The applicants fiocked round her,
urging contracts for what remained.
but they did not dislodge George from
her side, though he made it evident
that they succeeded In annoying him;
and presently he extricated her from
an accommodating siege-she must have
connived in the eytrication-and bore
her off to sit beside him upon the
stairway that led to the musicians
gallery, where they were sufficiently
retired, yet had ii view Of the room.
How'd all those ducks get Il know
you so quick?" George inquired. with
little enthusiasm.
"Oh, I've been here a week"
Looks as if you'd been pretty
busy" he said. "Most of those ducks,
I don't know what my mother wanted
to invite 'em here for"
Perhaps it was on account of their
parents" Miss Morgan suggested
mildly. Maybe she didn't want to
offend their fathers and mothers"
"Oh, hardly / don't think my
mother need worry much about offend
ing anybody in this old town."
1T must be wonderful" said Miss
Morgan. ut must be wonderful, Mr..
Amherson-Mr Minafer. l mean"
"What must be wonderful?"
'To be so important as that!"
''That isn't important" George as
sured her. anybody that really Is
anybody ought to be able to do about
as they like in their own town, 1
should think
She looked at him critically from
under her shading lrshes-but her
eyes grew gentler almost at once. In
truth, they became more a~ppreciative
than critical. Georges imperiOus good
looks were altogether manly, yet APP
preached actual beauty as closely as
a boys good looks should dare; and
dance music and flowers have some
effect upon nineteen-year-old girls as
well as upon eighteen-year-old boys.
The stairway was drafty: the steps
we're narrow and uncomfortable; no
older person would have remained in
such a place. Moreover, these two
young people were strangers to each
other; neither had said anything In
which the other had discovered the
slightest intrinsic interest; there had
not arisen between them the begin
nings of c~Ongeniality, or eve Of
friendliness-but stairways hear ball
rooms have more to answer for than
have moonlit lakes and mountain sun
sets.
Age, confused by its ov long ac-
emulation of ~follies, Is everlastingly
inquiring, "what does she see In him7"
as II young love came about through
thinking-or through conduct. At
eighteen one goes to a dance, sits with
a stranger on a stairway. feels Pc
culiar, thinks nothing, and becomes
incapable of any plan whatever. Miss
Morgan and George stayed where they
were.
They had agreed to this In silence
and without knowing it; certainly
without exchanging ~glances of intelli-
gence-they had exchanged no glances
at all. Roth sat staring vaguely out
into the ballroom, and, for a time,
they did not speak. Here and there
were to be seen couples SO carried
away that, ceasing to move at the
decorous, even glide, considered most
knowing, they pranced and whirled
through the throng, from wall to wall,
%galloping b~ounteously in abandon.
George suffered a shock of vague sur
prise when he perceived that his aunt,
Fanny Mlnafer, was the lady-half of
one Of those wild couples. She few
over the floor in the capable arms Of
the queer-looking duck; for this per-
son was her partner.
The que%er-looking duck had been q
real dancer in his day, 1t appeared
and evidently his day was not yet
over. In spite of the headlong, gay
rapidity with which he bore Miss
Fanny about the big room he danced
authoritatively, avoiding without ef-
fort the lightest collision with other
couples, maintaining sufficient grace
throughout his widest moments, and
all the while laughing and talking
with his partner. What was most re
markable to George, and a little irri.
tating, this stranger in the ANDERSON
mansion had no vestige Of the air OF
Difference proper to a stranger in such
q place: he seemed thoroughly al
home. He seemed extensively SO, In
deed, when, passing the entrance to
the gallery stairway, he disengaged
his hand from Miss Fanny's for an In
slant, and not pausing in the dance,
waved a laughing salutation more
than cordial, then capered lightly out
of sight.
George gazed stonily at this mani.
festation. responding neither by word
nor sign. "How's that for a bit Of
f~reshnessT" he murmured.
what WASP" Miss Morgan asked.
THAT queer-looking duck waving
his hand at me like that. Except he's
the Sharon girls uncle I don't know
him from Adam"
"You don't need to-" she said. HE
wasn't waving his hand to you: he
meant me-"
"Oh, he did," George was not mol.