Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-07-02
An
Adventure
Romance


and get away with 1t. She won't look
over her shoulder and read the record
Of an endless losing run on the black"
Miss Van t. smiled.
I'm already beginning on my re.
ward" she said. you've never talked
so well before in your life"
ITS more than talk" said Bobby,
flushing angrily. "And the ways of,
access that YOU have imagined = he
continued. You read happy stories
to the public taste Of mldinettes, show
room girls, and dress-models, aud per.
haps you think they mirror the life.
Why, Madge. the taunts that those
girls fling indifferently at virtue and
at vice are so vile that they couldn't
be repeated even among half-decent
men, And the other way, the private
door for the private secretary. That's
a road of burned bridges. Every
man, decent or indecent, feels a queer
sinking Of the heart when he hears of
a woman taking IT," He looked at her
shrewdly. And yet you may do IT,"
he said, half to himself. IF You are
n OF the hungry women. God help
you, for they all walk blindfolded.'
"Phey don't walk said Madge.
flushing, and her eyes cleaning
strangely. That's just the point. they
rush, whirl, and
HAnJ nroHb - a.tnboa nnlhx,
THAT'S the very word,' said Madge.
IF you'll only keep on the way you've
started, I'd love to talk to you all
night"
mo chance of that" said Bobby.
straight-lipped. "I'm through, and I'm
going" He turned toward the door.
mot without kissing me good-by,
Bobby /" cried Madge.
lie looked over his shoulder with a
polite but impersonal smile.
I'm not much on kissing strange
women he said lightly. 1T would
take me years to learn to kiss you
again.
He left the room and the house.
With his top-hat pushed back on his
head, the ends Of his muller flying
loose. his oyercoat half unbuttoned.
he swung up the deserted loWer
reaches OF the Avenue, p~unctnating
his thoughts with the solid rap Of his
stick on the pavement. II might be
supposed That he was thinking and
mourning oyer the sudden demise OF
the Miss Van Teller he had thought
he had known for many years, but
such was not the case.
MIR. Randolph was not BUILT on
mourning lines at the moment under
review, he was thinking about himself
and the strange fate that had made
him a foster-child Of fortune. He pro-
ceeded to look back ten years. Just q
decade ago he had had his one meet
ing with the young lady whose disap-
pearance had brought him an unstable
afluence 1t had taken place on this
very ayenue and less than forty short
blocks away. He had reason to res
member the encounter, for 1t had
brought into sudden conjunction a
lovely Persian cat, a lovely w~lre.haired
terrier, d lovely chii6 AID himself,
The cat had dashed from a proud
front door to cross Forty-something
street under the nose of a taxi-cab.
the dog had flown In yapping pursuit
and, In the act, yanked his young mis-
tress Off her pins. He, Mr.. Randolph,
had seized one Of her flying feet,
hauled her and the terrier back to
safety, and no sooner placed her up
right and smoothed down her absurdly
short skirts than he, she, and especial
ly II, the dog, became the center and
circumference o. an animated pin
wheel.
Her mistaken determination to hold
to the leash, whatever happened,
brought disaster. The said leash
wound three times round her ankles
and those OF Mr.. Randolph, bringing
them both down kerplunk and facing
each other. "My, what a bumpl" she
had cried. In startled tones. and then
thrown back her curly head and
laughed.
IL was so that he remembered her
a child Of ten OF eleven summers and
no. winters, merry as a sunny day,
dark-haired, dark-eyed, pi~nk-cheeked.
pampered but unspoiled. She had
risen and taken his hand. told him
her name. thanked him, ordered a
iurried nurse to thank him, shaken
her finger at the terrier, and said,
"Good-by' and "Come on, Maggie" all
while he was sti'i rubbing the seat Of