The Press., 1920-04-01
A WILDERNESS AND THOU
By JESSIE DOUGLAS

Alice Disbrow looked down at the i girl who sat on the railing of the
 rude camp.
 "Isn't it funny that should find
 you here?" she asked in her high-futed
 voice. How have you ever stood this
 wilderness?'
 "1 think it's funnier to see you here."
 the girl on the railing answered.
 She looked at Alice with an honest
 admiration. Alice was in all things
 her opposite. She was slender and delicate and fair; she had the look of wild-fower in her pale blue frock and the wide hat with it's lcng velvet streamerS. Under the hat, Agatha
 Holmes saw the eyes that looked like forget-menots. with the penciled brows above them, the white skin, the scar let of lips that was not quite natural.
 That was why Alice Disbrow seemed so out of place here, she decided. She
 was no more an accompaniment to camp life than an orchid. Her frail dress, her high-heeled suede slippers were not made to tramp these woods. Agatha looked down at her own high, rough boots, at her tweed skirt, her brown hands, with a sudden diStaSte.
 For one instant she longed for all the artificiaities that made the other girl
 so charming. But they would not
 have suited Agatha she was too sim l pie, too sincere, to resort to subter- fuge to cover her lack of prettiness. | Besides, she thought ruefully, nOth
 ing could make her pretty. Her fine, strong white teeth, and her eyes, large and gray and honest, were her only good features.
 | II like the wilderness" Agatha said simply. I'd been working so hard that just to get away and smell the breath of the forest and drive my canoe across the lake has made my life worth living again."
 "Oh. my dear, how do you stand working? I never could. There are so many nice things to do when there are men. dancing and flirting and" she mocked the other girl out of the corner of her blue eyes.
 "Then ! shouldn't think you would want to come up here!' Agatha said | honestly. You'll hardly see a man | all season, unless you mean the guides | or the men who only stop to get a meal on the way with their camping out l fits"
 Alice was silent She studied the other girl as a possible adversary. 1 Then complacently she took out her | tiny vanity case and powdered her nose in the very sight of the forest asles. Alice knew that Jere War ren was coming up here; that was why she had chosen to come. She had wanted him to know all winter. l Wasn't he the most prominent of the | young illustrators, and hadn't peo- pie told her time and again that she was just like the illustrations of his prettiest girl?
 Alice studied the watch on her white wrist. and then she said: "Pll leave you now"-and trailed into the camp. She had staged too many scenes to miss the chance to play this one ar tistically.
 So it was Agatha Holmes, who, still | sitting on the railing of the camp. met | the dark eyes of a stranger as he came up the trail. His first look of surprise at seeing the girl in this wilderness changed to one of pleasure when he he met her friendly eyes.
 "This is Humphries' campY he asked in a pleasant deep voice.
 "I wonder if he is expecting me. I walked over from the stage and left my duff1e to come behind"
 "IIumphries is out catching fish for dinner now." Agatha smiled.
 He stood beside her on the rough ! veranda of the camp and listened to the modulatiOns of her voice. She would be very pleasant companion, he thought, to go tramping with, to hunt out the secrets of the forest with.
 Then Jere Warren turned to see an- other girl come singing through the doorway. She lifted blue eyes of sur | prising innocence to his and dimpled: "Oh. I didn't mean to intrude-" By iove she's lovely!" the man | thought in his one swift glance. Agatha Holmes introduced them. feeling awkward somehow, and as though she were the intruder, when she heard Alice say: "Oh. you are | Jere Warren. the illustrator? If you | knew how I admire your drawings" Jere Warren seemed fiattered at | the girl; words; and Agatha bushed | hotly, for she remembered the scrap | book she had at home with his illus l irations pasted in it! But the words | she wanted to say would not come and she stood there feeling more an out | slider as she saw Jere Warren lose him. self in admiration of the other girl. | Agatha stole away in few minutes IL was .Jere Warren who insisted | that they three should dine at one | table together in the camp, whicl- sep | nrated them from the guides and trap | pers who were getting ready for the "se:,son." Agatha, watching the other | two with her clear gray eyes won | dered how man like Jere, who was | so clever in his work, could be fooled by the empty little tricks of Alice Dis brow But she was he first to agree | with Jere when he sang the praises | of the others loveIiness in her ears. | She had fought against her jealousy and won.
 She acquiesced with more pail. than pleasure in his proposal that they three take q tramp to d trout Slrcaln hr bad discovered not far away.
 If the walking's too hard, I'll carry you," he smiled to Alice Disbrow "Oh, MT. Warren, how can you say such things?" Alice pouted. Jere and Agatha, waited before the camp for Alice. When she appeared Agatha heard the man draw in his breath. Agatha was charming in her White serge skirt and short coat belted in scarlet. Her tiny white felt ha, with its pheasant's wing and her high boots of white suede made her more than ever one of hls illustrations.