The St. Johns herald., 1922-11-23

sion.
 q had to make them stop, so I teased you. Fl never wanted to-" Again the upward look. "WellW Bobby stared at her. q never thought 1t was anything like that"
 "of course you didn't" She tossed pack her bright hair, met his eyes full. And you never came where I could tell you. wanted to tell you"
 She ran into the house.
 Lulu lowered her eyes. It was as if she had witnessed the exercise of some secret gift, had seen a cocoon open or an egg hatch. She was think ing:
 ''How easy she done 1t. Got him right over. But how did she do that?"
 Dusting the Dwight-like piano, Lulu looked over-shoulder, with a manner of speculation, at the photograph of Ninian.
 Bobby moved and pondered. The magnificent conceit of the male in his understanding of the female character was uCNCAOtpCO LO Cdu6C him to welcome the improvisation which he had just heard. Perhaps that was the way it had been. Of course that was the way it had been. What fool he had been not to un- derstand. He cast his eyes repeatedly toward the house. He managed to make the job last over so that he could return in the afternoon. He was not conscious of planning this, but 1t was in some manner contrived for him by forces of his own with which he seemed to be cooperating without his conscious will. Continually he glanced toward the house.
 These glances Lulu saw. She was woman of thirty-four and Di and Bobby were eighteen, but Lulu felt for them no adult indulgence. She felt that sweetness of attention which we bestOw upon May robins. She felt more.
 She cut a fresh cake, filled a plate, called to Di, saying: ''Take some out to that Bobby Larkin, why don't yOu2"
 It was Lulu's way of participating. It was her vicarious thrill.
 After supper Dwight and Ina took their books and departed to the Chau- tauqua circle. To these meetings Lulu never went. The reason seemed to be that she never went anywhere.
 When they were gone Lulu felt an instant liberation. She turned aim lessly to the garden and dug round things with her finger. And she thought about the brightness of that Chautauqua scene 70 which Ina and Dwight had gone. Lulu thought about such gatherings in somewhat the way that futurist, receives the subjects of his art-forms not vague, but heightened to intoIerable deflniteness, acute color. and always motion-mo- tion as an integral part of the desir- able. But a factor of all was that Lulu herself was the participant, not the Onlooker. The perfection of her dream was not impaired by any long ing. She had her dream as a saint her sense of heaven.
 "Lulie!" her mother called. "You come out of that damp"
 She obeyed, as she had obeyed that voice all her life. But she took one last look down the dim street. She had not known it, but superimposed on her Chautauqua thoughts had been her faint hope that it would be to- night, while she was In the garden alone, that Ninian Deacon would ar rive. And she had on her wool chally, her coral beads, her cameo pin.
 She went into the lighted dining room. Monona was in bed. Di was not there. Mrs. Bett was in Dwight Herbert's leather chair and she lolled at her ease. It was strange to see this woman, usually so erect and tense, now actually lolling, as if lolling were the positive, the vital, and her ordi- nary rigidity a negation of her. In some corresponding orgy of leisure and liberation, Lulu sat down with no needle.
 "Inie ought. to make over her de- laine," Mrs Bette comfortably began. They talked of this, devised a mode,
 
 recalled other delaines. sDear, dear," said Mrs. Bett, T had on a delaine when I met your father" She de- scribed it. Both women talked freely, with animation. They were individuals and alive. To the two pallid beings accessory to fthe tDeacons' presence, Mrs. Bett and her daughter Lulu now bore n6' relationship. They emerged, had opinions, contradicted, their eyes were bright.
 Toward nine o'clock Mrs. Bett an- nounced that she thought she should have a lunch. This was debauchery. She brought in bread and butter, and dish of cold canned peas. She was committing all the excesses that she knew-offering opinions, laughing, eat