The Holly chieftain., 1924-02-07

people in the world are tho ones who
have been hungry and the ones who
haven't | doh't mean dIetlng.
mean against their Will"
| That brought her gaze round to him,
a look of clear wonder in her eyes.
Have you?" she asked.
1t launched him. that wondering
look, into vein of biography which
would have afforded Jennie Macarthur
a grin. You'd have to be wonderful
to her all the time. and mysterious"
Jennie had remarked, constructing
that hypothetical wife for him.
1t was the story of Ishmael. the son
of Hagar. that he told her-"his hand
against every man and every mans
( hand against him." He'd found his
real jungle. he said. In the streets and
alleys. the lumber-camps and the foun-
dry-yards of civilized society. He'd
never belonged to any union, any or
ganization Of any sort. He'd got most
Of his Jobs, back In those yeurs-the
troubled, panicky, early nineties-
working as strike-breaker. He
| Sho"cu Will IL IHtdul W PiH
iron all day. day being an eternity
of ten hours: and then. before he
could regain what shelter he called
home to have to evade. or outfight, the
pickets-to stink along In the shadows,
alert for ambuscades. ready at any mo-
<hent to fight or flee for his life.
She said very little while the tale
went on. but that extra, jungle sense
of his told him that she was COM
pletely plastic to It. She didn't lonk
at him much-sat staring off into va
cancy; and this permitted his gaze to
feed upon her at will. He devoured
every line and contour of her He
could see the faint pulse at the base
OF her throat; he watched her breathe.
1t was thus, at last, that he lost the
thread Of his story and stopped.
She allowed this silence to lie un-
broken between them for so long that
A he was upon the point of some banal
apology for having talked so much
about himself. when mt last she spoke.
"Well, l bet you're glad 1t all hap
pened. because 1t never beat you down.
You never got meek and resigned, and
you never turned socialist, wanting to
divide everything up, or anything silly
like that. suppose you didn't want
1t divided up; you wanted 1t all for
yourself So you went Off to the
jungle. and made your fortune some
how, and then you came back and
showed them"
L He didn't correct this chronological
misconceptlon of hers; the picture as
she. saw 1t accorded better with her
mood. ut wasn't much of fortune
made down there" he qualified.
"Twenty-seven hundred dollars. that
got for some curios brought out with
me In bag and sold to a museum"
She frustrated little touch OF
drama he'd prepared, by not asking
him what the curios were. She got
reluctantly to her feet. you'll have
to tell me about that next time" she
said. ~ know 1t would be like The
Arabian Nights and If let you get
started again, I'll sit here listening all
day. I've got to drive over to the
Stannards' at Lake Geneva for lunch,
with John. and l expect I'm horribly
late now Oh. that doesn't matter,
she went on, across his attempt to ex.
press contritlon. HE probably won't
speak to me all the wny, but that'll
only give me more time to think about
the things you've been telling me-"
They were walking now, she setting
a very leisurely pace. down the slope
toward the house.
What can't get over" she re-
marked. "ls the places you must have
been, the things, you must have seen I
I've never been in any place more ex.
citing than st. Moritz or Paris"
"Well. you've got It on me-" he said
1--WE never been to any of those
places"
She stopped to stare at him. "You
mean you've never been to Europe at
ALP" she asked.
He shook his head "Never had
time. III get around to 1t some day,
of course"
She laughed. II was Just thinking, +"
she explained, "that I'd like to be there
when you do. Like to go along and
show 1t to you; see how it-took you.
Oh, the galleries and the cathedrals
and such, Of course: but other things,
too: Longchamps and Henley, and the
Easter week bull-fghts In Madrid"
That's what Sorolla said" he told
her.
She stopped again to stare. $50
rolla?"
He nodded. "Just what you said
that he'd like to see how l took it, the
| bull-ring and the Pradn and nlIn