Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-03-01
He Meets the Girl

He Meets the Girl
.yybose cruell handling when that
And saw those villiaines her so
His gentle heart with indignation
And could no longer beare so great
abuse" -Spehser'
BY the time he was Twenty-Five
Archie I .yerock (the Arrant Rover)
was Through" with girls.
Not angrily so He wasn't disiliu-
stoned, blase. or bitter at all. Mercy
he'd had enough Of them, tnougnt ne;
to last his time. The Armistice had
been for love as we'll as for war, as
far as young Laverock was con-
cerned. Personally he did not care II
he never met another woman.
It was naturally at this juncture
that he met Her. Unforeseeing ana
at peace with all his world, the young
man fooled along leafy lanes OF Sur
rey in the two-seater. Glossily ne"
she was. The Immaculate putty
color of her paint and padding, the
silver of her gadgets winking in the
sunlight would have taken the eye OF
any woman on the road. Young
Layerock was concerned with the
lightness and swiftness Of the car:
the ease with which she responded
to the least touch on the accelerator.
Thoughts and eyes free OF other pre-
occupation he drove. happily.
To be pulled up in a second by that
which was to happen.
So suddenly it leaped into that
decor of peaceful lane. Maytime
hedges, daisied fields and further
view of swaying, signing pine woods.
The crash of human storm; the flash
of passion, crude violence and trag-
edy! All of 1t so swift, so startling.
To begin with, the "Pup-pup-pup!"
of a motorcycle, growing more dis
tenet. A haze of dust Fastening down
the road toward the car, then near
ing the crossroads. The appearing
figures of q man, riding; of girl in
the sidecar. The man was heavily
built and of middle age; he wore a
well cut brown helted Burberry ana
a soft hat; the girl was smallish,
crouched down against the breeze.
one saw little of her but her tiny hat
of brilliant blue, from which there
streamed out veil of equally bril-
liant tulle. These people talked as
the motorcycle dashed up; talked
rapidly ana
"Quarreling? Married" thought
idly. the Arrant Rover. His first dis
tant glance at them showed him that
there was something odd about this
pair who turned to each other as
they sped along and had so much.
feverishly, to say. Such
agility that one cannot possibly write
or convey incidents in the flash"
that they sometimes happen! This
was all an affair of seconds The
next second there came something
even odder.
The man on the motorcycle. turn
ing once more to the girl in the car
rier, leaned over, shot out a hand,
seized her by the shoulder and shook
her as a terrier shakes a rat. This
before the eyes of the young man
in the approaching car who, seeing
this thing, could hardly believe tnar
he was seeing it.
Then he, that hefty brute on the
motorcycle, did it again. No mis-
taking it this time. Shook the girl
in savage anger, SO that her hat fell
sidewise upon her neck. and her hair
tumbled about her face; shook
Good Lord
They were now close upon the car.
Young Laverock, horror ssruck, star
ing, caught the voice of the other
man. raised and furious:
Get out of this. Hear what 1 say?
Get out"
With a jerk, the motorcycle pulled
up; the rider flung himself off, went
round to the side of the carrier and
caught at the arm of the girl. She
shrank aside.
Get out, l say!' he threw at her.
Then. roughly. as carter might drag
at the bride of n refractory horse. he
clutched that slender arm, dragged
the girl by force out of the carrier.
pushed her to the side Of the road.
She stumbled: fell against strip Of
dusty, covered turf. Then in a mo-
ment she picked herself up. She
stood, n tiny forlorn figure in corn
and gold of the hedge. holding out
in n helpless gesture. her hands to-
ward the man-all this in far less
time, indescribably, than it takes to
tell. Already the brute had grasped
the handle-ba again, had taken a
running step beside his bicycle, had
thrown himself on. with never a
glance behind. Sharply he turned of
to the right, dashed down a lane be-
tween elms.
The girl still kept that gesture of
despair toward his departing back,
calling him with the turn of her
body, the tilt of her head as much as
with the tone of her voice. An
guished, she sobbed after him one
word.
Arthur"
He had ratified out Of sight, even as
young Laverock, pulling up the ar,
had sprung out and come on to the
scene.
What else. ask you. would any
young man have done? Here was a
girl. brutally treated by something
that called itself a man. who de-
serted her IN a lonely lane at cross
roads, miles from anywhere.
. The limit. Shook her.
Turned her out of the