Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-05-05

$50 that really your championship
hasn't been so great help to her AFTER
all, has it?"
''No"
"And l suppose It ruined the busi-
ness Of the man that owns the Sea
Siren"
81 don't reckon so. I've settled for
the furniture. And Muldoon says
when it gets goin' again the Sea Siren
will do a big business on account OF
the fracas. It's Kitty Pm worried
about"
II wouldn't worry about her If l
were you. She'll land on her feet" the
girl said lightly.
Her voice had not lost its sweet
cadences, but Clay sensed in it some
thing that was almost a touch of cool
contempt. He felt vaguely that he
must have blundered in describing
Kitty. Evidently Miss Whitford did
not see her quite as she was.
The young woman pressed the start
er button. 1--WE must be going home.
l have an engagement to go riding
with Mr.. Bromfeld."
The man beside the girl kept his
smile working and concealed the little
stab of jealousy that dirked him.
Colin Whitford had contided to Lind
say that his daughter was practically
engaged to Clarendon Bromfield and
that he did not like the man. The
range-rider did not like him either, but
he tried Loyalty to kill his distrust of
the clubman. If Beatrice loved him
there must be good in the fellow. Clay
meant to be a good loser anyhow.
There had been moments when the
range-rider's heart had quickened with
a wild, insurgent hope. One of these
had been on a morning when they were
riding in the park, knee to knee, In
the dawn of a new clean world. 1t had
come to him with a sudden clamor OF
the blood that in the eternal rightness
of things such mornings ought to be
theirs till the youth in them was
quenched in sober age. He had looked
into the eyes of this slim young Diana.
and he had throbbed to the certainty
that she too in that moment of
tangled glances knew a sweet confu-
sion of the blood In her cheeks there
had been a quick flame of flying color
Their talk had fallen from them, and
they had ridden in a shy, exquisite ST
lence from which she had escaped by
putting her horse to a canter.
But in the sober sense of sanity Clay
knew that this wonderful thing was
not going to happen to him. He was
not going to be given her happiness to
hold in the hollow Of his hand. Bee
Whitford was modern young woman,
practical-minded, with a proper sense
of the values that the world esteems.
Clarendon Bromfield was a catch even
in New York. He was rich of a good
family, assured social position, good
looking, and manifestly in love with
her. Like gravitates to like the land
over.
Bromfield, too, had no doubt that
Bee meant to marry him. He was in
love with her as far as he could be
with anybody except himself. He
wanted her-the youth, the buoyant
life, the gay, glad comradeship Of her
and he had always been lucky In
getting what he desired. That was
the use of having been born with a
silver spoon in his mouth.
Q But though Clarendon Bromfield
had no doubt of the issue of his suit,
the friendship of Beatrice for this fel-
low from Arizona stabbed his vanity.
1t hurt his class pride and his personal
that she should take pleas
ure in the mans society. Bee never
had been well-broken to harness. He
set his thin lips tight and resolved
that he would stand no nonsense Of
this sort after they were married. II
she wanted to fiirt it would have to be
with some one in their own set.
Beatrice could not understand her
self. She knew that she was behav-
ing rather indiscreetly, though she did
not fathom the cause of the restless
ness that drove her to Clay Lindsay.
The truth is that she was longing for
an escape from the empty life she was
leading, had been seeking one for years
without knowing it. Surely this round
Of social frivolities, the chatter of
these silly women ana SNUG tailor
made men, could not be all there was
to life. She must have been made
for something better than that.
And when she was with Clay she
knew she had been. He gave her a
vision of life through eyes that had
known open, wide spaces, clean, whole
some, and sun-kissed. He stood on his
own feet and did his own thinking.
Simply, with both hands, he took hold |
II problems and examined them
stripped of all trimmings. The man
vas elemental, but he was keen and
broad-gauged. 1t amazed her one dav
o learn that he had read William
iames and understood his philosophy |
Ouch hotter than chn did