The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-09-10
CHAPTER III.

TT WAS hanging by the sheerest
thread, as the taxi trundled
down the boulevard. whether
the Princess would not direct It to
her hotel, only few squares away,
and thus truncate her adventure
Just when 1t had so mlraculously
well begun.
She was--it cannot be denied
frightened, as no one could help
being when an incredible daydream
took the guise, all at once, of liter
al fact. Ten minutes ago, rather
tired of her pedestrian adventure
among the common people In the
downtown streets, the bloom OF
novelty already rubbed off 1t, she
had been upon the point OF begin
ming 10 smile at that dream as All
infantile illusion, OF heaving an ad-
ult worldweary sigh over her lost
youth. The phrase "roo late!"
had lowered upon her lips. And
here, beyond the widest OF her
dreams, was the actually. The
most beautiful man she had ever
seen, the most utterly different
from all the rest of the species
the one with whom she had, she
suspected, fallen in love at first
sight-owed his life to her and was
now elopiug with her in taxi. 1t
was not likely that they were pur-
sued, and yet she had distinctly
the sensation OF It.
Exactly balancing her fright was
a most delicious curiosity as to
what he would do; or rather, as to
how he would do the only possible
thing. He had fallen in love with
her, no doubt--that was unescap-
able, wasn't It, in the circum-
stances? But would he attempt to
hide the fact under a cloak of
mere gratitude? How would he be
affected by the realization that the
person he loved and owed his life
to was as remotely unattainable
to him as the stars? What could
d man do or say whose life had
just been saved by Leda SwsE":
What carried the Princess past
her hotel and so fairly committed
her to the adventure was the fact
that for matter OF minutes he
did nothing at all, but sat huddled
down in his corner like one in a
trance. She wondered II anything
could be the matter with him, II
the shock OF his narrow escape
from death had perhaps destroyed
his memory. This, according to the
only literature she knew, was an
almost commonplace accident.
The next move, by all the ac-
cepted rules Of the game. was with
him, hut II he did not know who
or where he was he could not be
held accountable to the rules.
She stole a glance at him and
saw him preoccupied apparently
with his own hands, lexing the
fingers and the wrists, gripping his
forearms in an exploratory man
ner. Once her attention was
drawn to them those hands fascin-
ated her; she had never seen
pair like them. They were not
beautiful by the standard she had
always applied TO hands, not the
conventional oval with pointed
fingers: the fingers were long, but
they seemed actually to broaden
out at the tips. She observed that
they were exquisitely cared for and
that somehow they had avoided the
mud altogether. This made her
own feel grubby and she hid them
under the folds Of her skirt,
"Dld you get hurt anywhere when
/ Knocked you down." she asked.
ut is a miracle" he said slowly.
II think | am not hurt at all"
Why, he was a foreigner! Ills
speech, though not exactly broken,
made this fact unmistakable. She
might have known It from his looks
for that matter because, beautiful
as he was, he did not, somehow,
in the least resemble Bryant Wash
burn.
She was for an instant dismayed.
A foreigner couldn't be hero,
could he? Weren't they always
dangerous mercenary deceivers2
Should a girl listen to their wiles,
their romantic but insincere pro-