Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-02-07
BY BERTA RUcK.

want to hear all about it. do hope
it's not going to be a long engage
ment7 No engagement ought to be
longer than three weeks"
Sure! one to be steady, two to be
ready. three to be off, eh?" This was
a gay well-known voice that broke in.
the voice Of Slim Grantham. He came
up and took me by the arm.
"Hullo, Slim" said I, mechanically
For the whole of that evening I was
fated to be saying something with n
lips and something else with my heart.
At that moment ill l was gasping out
inside myself was, my little Lady!
She's here; she's here. 1 thought
that old Dream was absolutely done in.
But she's here" -.
Slim, absolutely unconscious, went
IN cheerily to me-. "Hullo, Old Horse.
Say, here's Nis someone / wanted to
introduce you to. Step over all these
people on the floor and come along"
He swung me round; led me.
I found myself facing Her.
The girl.
voice. heres my chum Jack Smith
to me-. This is Miss Julia Parry"
! I wonder ! didn't stammer out
aloud, What? No. 1t isn't. It can't
be-" That a what I gasped in my
heart again. For don't you see? Miss
Julia Parry? Why, that was the
name of the girl Slim had told me
about hat night he'd come to my
meant-it meant she was the girl he
Slim-was going to marry. She!
I'd thought her being here at all
was the shock Of my life. =. :.
Child's play to this. -. w
I'd read OF something taking a
man like a blow between the eyes,.
That's right. 1t doe happen so. It
| got me just like that. But with this
going through me like a knife through
on looking Just As usual. Even
above the internal pain Of it l was
already thinking quickly. What have
I got to do now?"
One obvious thing to DO was to pre-
tend I'd v seen her before. Had
never passed her every morning and
got by heart every curve of her little
face. every tint Of rose-and-crcam in
her cheeks. every move of her walk.
l could pretend to forget the morning
when I'd spoken to her and when
she'd stabbed me with soft srey-blue
| eyes all turned to ice and granite. Be-
cause I hadn't been introduced. Now
when everything vas no earthly good,
I'd got this essential, this indispensa-:
BILE thing, the proper introduction. to
the girl.
How DO you do" said, ava
but in such an outwardly ordinary
way hat 1t quite took me aback my
self.
How do you do" replied in a
soft quaint little voice. Imagine it.,
I'd never heard her voice before. Her
expression was as ordinary as my own
In her face, sweet and rosy and seri-
GUS, there wasn't = q that she'd
ever set yes on Sims friend Jack
Smith before. Or IL she had flushed
up a bit to a deeper rose, that might
have been the heat Of the little Dug
Out packed with all those people.
Did she really not remember?
Or was this her hint that I'd got
to forget too? -
At this thought something "rev'd"
me up again like I'd been all rev'd up
men that night at the station. And 1
knew I meant to find out It she re-
membered before l left that room.
All this time, you know, the chatter
and stir Of the party was about me;
somebody'd squeezed through into the
bedroom and started to play one Of
those d~safening tunes on the pi4no-
pie Just raised their voices. Out Of the
din 1 caught a scrap In a mans voice,
II tell you what any tove-story: Some
body, sometimes or other. has got to
be hurt Z
Then Mrs. Louis voice put IN with
an eagerness. well, IL there's any
huItsns to be done. let my children do
Il AAw her look up af a framed
snapshot Of Son. that hung above her
writing table: in sw.rnming-kit the Big
audacious fellow stood all wet and
laughing poised ON a little landing
stage somewhere or other.)
Ruthless idea, ALou!" somebody
cried. Then somebody else, a woman,
Sounded like a prayer. The PRAYER
lof any mother. I suppose. Let not
my baby. be touched! II he must lac
, crate other hearts tant pts! but let
him be spared pain. His be tho ram
piing foot. not the neck trampled up-
On {
Found myself wondering II my
own mother would have hoped that
for me II she'd stayed. alive.
Don't argue" begged another
sofnebody-an liye-looking woman
in all Jade green. .sroa't Analy1s.
- - =. l-Ha