Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-10-28
CHAPTER XVIII
Claudia Meets New Man

the country club dance Matthew saw
~ little of Claudia. That astute young
person knew better than to faunt her
self before her father too fagrantly, and she,
we'll most of the other girls, spent a
great deal of the time out in the cars that
were parked around the club entrance. There
it easier to take sips from TASKS, and to
smoke cigarettes, and Claudia had a new
man in tow, a stranger in Brompton Manor,
and a man older and more sophisticated
than the boys who usually danced attendance
on her. He was visiting the Bradleys and
Claudia could not quite "get his line" He
did not respond so readily to the leads she
gave him, and he seemed unimpressed by
her beauty.
But his remoteness fascinated her, his
coldness matched her own. Not once had
she been forced to say, Don't be mushy."
For although Claudia loved the thrill of
give and take, she hated to be paved and
was known as 1.-The Salamander' in her
crowd.
Somehow she wanted this man to make
love to her. 1t was probably because he
gave no evidence of wanting to do so and
although she was sitting very close to him,
her brocaded evening cloak slipped away
from one soft white shoulder, and her head,
like that of a medieval page, quite near
his shoulder he continued to smoke evenly,
nor did he even put his arm across the
back of the seat.
"These dances are an awful bore" she
remarked disdainfully. $50 many of the
older people come to them, and, of course,
they crab our style. The club is dry, you
know. There isn't a thing served inside.
SO we're forced to depend on hip TASKS, and
taking liquor straight is rather disgusting"
"Why not bring iced cocktails in thermos
bottles?" Harris Fiske remarked, a smile
lighting his dark features He had a keen,
rather clever face, with deep-set eyes and
lips that We're too thin. He wore a close
eli 6ar nd hal was
dark and had that patent leather luster so
popular among men Of today.
%That's an idea" Claudia returned, "but
not a new one. Most OF the thermos bottles
are Communicated by the older crowd.
We're not supposed to know that they ever
touch a drop, but of course they do, and of
course We all know"
Il see Well, there ought to be some
such contTaptiOn in this car if I am not mis-
taken. I know Spike Bradley put a couple
of bottles in here just before we left the
house. Let's see what we can find"
In moment they were both SO feeling
around under the seats and behind sundry
flaps, until at last Harris brought out a
shining nickel bottle. Here we are" he
said, with a grin, and pouring out a small
amount into the metal top that fitted over
the bottle, he handed it to Claudia with a
flourish.
He watched her as she drank and when
she had finished he poured out a drink for
himself before he corked up the bottle and
I slowed it away again.
"Better?' he asked after a minute.
She burned sideways and smiled at him,
and he was struck suddenly with her BIZ
Zarre appearance. Like most Of the other
girls he had met tonight. She seemed call
lous little creature. but there was something
that smacked of the Orient i'll her slanted
eyes and in the curve of her lower lip, some
thing that limited of hidden fires, and the
man was suddenly interested.
Reaching toward her. he swept her sGcht
figure into his arms. With one hand he
turned her face up toward his, and almost