Evening star., 1924-05-11
The Eighth Wonder

never before had seen her. BY Jove,
he would not have forgotten her if
he had, nor been caused, in his day
dreaming, to invent the lovely face
that had been necessary to his
dreams. Not his fondest dream ever
had imagined anything so lovely as
this Eighth Wonder that now he
saw.
Her hair was drawn back from her
forehead and brought forward. in a
very mysterious way (Do they gum
it or drive pins clean into their skulls.
or what? I mover know over her
ears; and this gave to her face an
aspect at once benign and piquant,
serene and roguish, challenging and
calm. Her feet were beautifully
shod in shining patent-leather shoes
and ran up through lovely ankles in
biscuit -colored stockings of silk. She
was about nineteen. Her name was
Clarry. (Clarry, or Clarissa, Hunt, by
the way; daughter, as it most sur
prisingly turned out, of those two
whom Edward had so greatly i'm
pressed).
Edward, mind you, only by degrees
spread over many months, came to
realize that Clarry was the Eighth
Wonder of the World; but he knew
from the very first that she was by
far the most wonderful thing that
had ever come into his life or into
anybody's life; and within a few
weeks was knowing it ascendingly
by enjoying in her company that
paradise of being greeted by her (she
used to emerge to him when he was
able to be there from the solicitors
office in which she was employed)
and of kissing her and taking her
arm and walking with her.
1t all happened with astounding
swiftness and simplicity. At one mo-
ment Edward in the lecture hall was
the first time in his life staring upon
the Eighth Wonder; at the next to
the stupefaction of Edward, the
Eighth Wonder had crossed the room
directly to him, greeted her parents
and by her parents been introduced
to him; at the next he was walking
towards their home with the Hunts
and with the Eighth Wonder; and
at moment advanced some weeks in
point of time, but seeming to Ed
ward, existing as it were in a trance,
to be but a portion of the very same
night he was the accepted suitor of
the Eighth Wonder and their mar
riage in immediate prospect
ONLY bits Of all this can be selected
faIl ~l,
those bits on the one hand as they
seemed to Edward peculiar to him
self and never to have happened to
anybody before, and on the other
hand as they are common to all the
Eighth Wonders and to all those thrice
favored men on whom not only dis
covery but possession of an Eighth
Wonder is bestowed.
There was that first night walking
home with the Hunts and with Clarry.
Four abreast could not be walked on
the pavements they followed, and
it was contrived by the parents that
Edward walked part of the way with
Mr.. Hunt and part of the way with
Mrs. Hunt never with Clarry. The
Hunts, you see, thought he was with
them because it was their company
he desired; and Edward at every step
OF the way to their house upheld
them in this belief
"A thoroughly nice, well-informed,
good clever, agreeable
young fellow" said Mr.. Hunt, return
ing to Mrs. Hunt at the departure
Of Edward.
These adjectives were cordially in
dorsed and others added to them by
Mrs. Hunt, and their effect and
something mysterously additional to
their effect was formulated also in
the mind Of Clarry. left in the hall
by her father to close the door upon
the departing Edward
Edward had exchanged very few
sentences with the Eighth Wonder
herself. Those few had the curious
effect of sending Edward away in a
mingling of rapture and of envy,
hatred malice and uncharitableness.
The rapture resulted from the dis
every to him of the Eighth Wonder
OF the world; the envy, hatred, malice
and all uncharitablenes arose out OF
the very last words by her to him ad-
dressed.
IT expect l know" said the Eighth
Wonder cher almost last words), who
will get that prize that was offered
at the meeting tonight"
''Who?" said Edward, trembling.
He was trembling by reason of
emotions aroused in him by the hope