The St. Johns herald., 1922-12-14

she had found, a certain amount of this to be gone through before Bobby would focus on the personal. At length she was obliged to say, Like me todayT And then he entered upon personal talk with the same zest with which he had discussed bait.
 Bobby" said Di, sometimes I think we might be married, and not wait for any old money"
 They had now come that far. It was partly an authentic attraction, grown from out the old repulsiOn, and partly 1t was that they bOth-and es- pecially Di-so much wanted the ex- periences of attraction that they as- sumed its ways. And then each cared enough to assume the pretty role re- quired by the other, and by the Occa- sion, and by the air of the time
 Would you2" asked Bobby-but in the subjunctive.
 "She said: "Yes, will"
 "It would mean running away, wouldn't it?' said Bobby, still sub junctive.
 T suppose so. Mamma and papa are so unreasonable"
 "Di," said Bobby, ''I don't believe you could ever be happy with me-"
 ''The idea! I can, too. You're go- ing to be a great man-you know you are"
 Bobby was silent. Of course he knew it-but he passed it over.
 Wouldn't it be fun to elOpe and surprise the whole schOOl7" said Di, sparkling.
 Bobby grinned appreciatively. He was good to look at, with his big frame, his head of rough, dark hair, the sky warm upon his clear skin and full mouth. Di suddenly announced that she would be willing to elope now.
 i've planned eloping lots of times" she said ambiguously.
 It flashed across the mind of Bobby that in these pl1nc of hers he may not always have been the principal, and he could not be sure .. But she talked in nothings, and he an- swered her so.
 Soft cries sounded in the center of the stream. The boat, well out of the strong current, was seen to have it's oars shipped; and there sat Dwight Herbert gently rocking the boat. Dwight Herbert would.
 "Bertie, Bertie-please l" you heard his Ina say.
 Monona began to cry, and her fa- ther was irritated, felt that 1t would be ignominiOus to desist, and did not know that he felt this But he knew that he was annoyed, and he took refuge in this, and picked up the oars with: "SOme folks never can enjoy anything without spelling it."
 "That's what I was thinking" said Ina, with flash of anger.
 They glided toward the shore in huff MonOna found that she enjoyed crying across the water and kept 1t up. It was almost as good as an echo. Ina, stepping safe to the sands, cried ungratefully that this was the last time that she would ever, ever go with her husband anywhere. Ever. Dwight Herbert, recovering, gauged the moment to require of him humOr, and observed that his welded wife was as skittish as a colt. Ina kept silence head poised so that her full little chin showed double. MOnOna, who had previously hidden a cooky in her frOck, now remembered it and crunched sidewise, the eyes ruminant.
 Moving toward them, with Di, Bobby was suddenly overtaken by the sense of dlsliking them all. He never had liked Dwight Herbert, his employer. Mrs. Deacon seemed to him so over whelmingly mature that he had no idea how to treat her. And the child MOnOna he would like to roll in the river. Even Di He fell silent, was silent on the walk home, which was the signal for Di to tease him steadily. The little being was afraid of silence It was too vast for her. She was like a butterfly in a dome.
 But against that background of ru- ined occasion, Lulu walked homeward beside Ninian. And all that night, be- side her mother who groaned in her sleep, Lulu lay tense and awake. He had walked home with her. He had told Ina and Herbert about going to the city. What did 1t mean? Sup pose oh no; oh not
 "Either lay still or get up and set up." Mrs. Bett directed her at length.