The Connecticut labor press., 1920-05-22

T advise you not to; your remark
 was highly improper from nephew to an auntl I have told you about all 1 know of this Italian gentleman. I am going to ask a favor. He telephoned from Stamford this afternoon to know whether we had arrived, and bade him call tonight. I should be glad if you would remain until he leaves. should like to know what you make Of him."
 Certainly" assented, pleased that she had taken me into her confidence and deeply curious as to the Italian connoisseur. What she had told me so frankly and plausibly did net, how ever, touch upon the matter of the in- terest shown by the American state de- partment in my aunts arrival at Bar ton, which troubled me much more than the antics of the Italian who had followed the women across the Pacific.
 Count Montanf arrived shortly and was received in the drawing room. The ladies greeted him with the greatest cOrdiality. AS he crossed the room I verified the limp and other points of Antoine's description. His bearing was that of gentleman; and in his very correct evening dress he hardly looked like a man who would disguise himself and attempt to rob a house. He spoke English all but perfectly and proceeded at once to talk great deal.
 "I was sad when I found I had so narrowly missed you at Seattle, and again at Chicago. You travel far too rapidly for one of my age!"
 His age might have been thirty. He was a suave, polished, sophisticated person. Nothing was more natural than that he should pause in his trav- els to call upon two agreeable women he had met on Pacific steamer. Pos sibly he was in love with Alice Bash ford; this was not a difficult state of heart and mind for a man to argue himself into. She was even more strikingly beautiful tonight than I had thought her before. She was again in white-it was only in daytime that she wore black-and white was exceeding ly becoming to her. AS we talked she piled listlessly a fan-a handsome trinket of ostrich plumes. A pretty woman and a fan are the happiest possible combination.
 There is no severer test of grace than woman's manner of using a fan. A clumsy woman makes an implement of this plaything, fourishing it to en- phasfze her talk, or. what is worse, pointing with 1t like an instructor be- fore blackboard. But in graceful hands it is unobtrusive, mere bit of decoration that leases and fascinates the .beholder's eye.
 With all his poise and equanimity I was distinctly conscious that Monta- ni's dark eyes were intent upon the idly swaying fan. thought at first it was her hands that interested him as they unfailingly interested me, but when, from time to time, she put down the fan his gaze still followed it. And yet there was nothing novel in the delicate combination of ivory and feathers. I had seen many fans that to all appear ances were just like it. Once, as she picked it up and lazily opened it, saw him bend forward eagerly, then, find ing that had noted his eagerness, he rose, pretending that brass screen before the fireplace had caught his eye, and asked whether it was not a Flor entine production, which shook my faith in his connoisseurship, as I had bought the thing myself from a New York brassworker who had made it to my order.