New-York tribune., 1920-11-14

cADlC. 1ouI III iS'S SOh No w IlAAV,
haven't had any," she went on
airily-"not for years and years and
years and"----
He interrupted her, his voice
again plaint;ve. "See here, Flor
ence, how Dc you expeck me to get
my work done, with you everlastin'ly
talkin' and goin' on around here
like this? Can't you see I've got
somep'm pretty important on my
hands?"
Florence became thoughtful. 81
never did sec as many bugs before,
all together this way" she said.
"What you goin' to do with 'em,
Herbert?"
'I'm maxim my expairaments.
But her thoughtfulness increased.
ut seems to me-" she said slowly
Herbert, it seems to me there must
be some awful er'sting thing we
could do with so many bugs all to-
gether like this"
"'We'!" he cried. my goodness,
whose insecks do you think these
insecks are?'
II just know there's somep'm,"
she went on, following her own line
of thought and Indifferent to his
outburst. "There's somep'm we
could do with 'em that we'd never
forget-if we could only think of
it,"
In spite Of himself Herbert was
interested: Florence's tone was con-
vincing and suggestive. "Well,
what?" he asked. what could we
do with em we'd never forget?"
In her eyes there was far-away
light as of seeress groping: 81
don't just know exackly, but I know
there's somep 'm-if we could only
think of tiff we could JUST
And her voice became inaudble as
in dreamy concentration she seated
herself upon the discarded ice cream
freezer and rested her elbows upon
her knees ard her chin upon the
palms Of her hands.
In silence, then, she thought and
thought. Herbert also was silent,
for he, too, was trying to think, not
knowing that already he had proved
himself to be but wax in her hands,
and that he was destined further to
show himself thus malleable. Like
many and many another of his sex.
he never for an instant suspected
that he spent the greater part of
his time carrying out ideas implant-
ed within him by a lady friend.
Florence was ever the imaginative
one OF those two, maiden Of unex-
pected fancies and inexplicable con-
ceptions, a mind of quicksilver and
mist. There was already within her
being the Seeding power of great
creative artist, and as she sat there,
on the ice-cream freezer in Her
bert's cellar, with the slowly grow
ing roseate glow of deep preoccupa-
ton upon her, she looked strangely
sweet and good, and even almost
pretty.
"Do you s'pose,' she said, at last,
in musing voice" Herbert, do you
s'pose maybe there's some poor fam
ily's children scmewheres that
haven't got any playthings or
anything, and we could talk all
these" -
But Herbert proved unsympa-
thetic. "I'm not goin' to give my in
seeks to any poor peoples children" j."
he said emphatically-"I don't care
how poor they are!"
"Well, l thought maybe Just as a
surprise
II won't do it. had mighty hard
work to catch this election, and Pm
not goin' to give it away to anybody.
don't care how surprised they'd
be! Anyway, I'd never get any
thanks for it; they wouldn't know
how to handle 'em, and they'd get all
stung up; and what'd be the use,
anyhow? ! don't see how that's
goin' to be somep'm so interesting
we'd never forget it,"
"No," she said. ~ guess it
wouldn't. l just thought it would be
kind Of a bellnovent thing to do"
The word disturbed Herbert, but
he did not feel altogether secure in
his own impression that "benovva-
lent" was the proper rendition of
what she meant, and so refrained
from criticism. Their musing was
resumed.
sGT HERE'S one thing l do
l. WISH" Florence said sud-
denly after a time. 81
wish we could find some way to use
the election that would be useful for
Noblo Nil