Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-03-24
A Rahhiina Girl

Then. at last, she took 1t. and left
b;a paze. and read. She said, "On!
n doesn't matter in the least
on relessly enough, but with q chang
ed face. a further deepening of that
blush, He looked away from II.
hut he had seen her change OF ex-
preston; conscious, proud, amused
ANNOYED, as clearly as he had seen
those words, plainly written across
q mans visiting-card.
LAS always, Lionel"
All. At last!
Three words had broken the par
rier Of that girls mystery. Or SO
Archie Laverock thought. he
thought he saw II all now.
A present, sent evidently, on every
birthday of hers.> ca birthday date
is not remembered save by those
who care or who have cared pretty
considerably for the person whose
birthday 1t isl A present from
Persia. "Lioner'-of course, the fell
low about whom there'd been all
that talk the other day at tea.
Those people who came Cwith the
Blue Rccks) had said that Lionel
had got leave, and was even now on
his way home for the first time
since 10. Then Mauve's conscious
face.
These things added up to-a
revelation.
Here was this battling, withheld
girl who (Archie was growing to
LOPEZ might mean The One out of
the world for him; a girl without
any man in her life, as far as he
had so far seen. Now he
realized that there was another man
who cared. This fellow Lionel.
whether she cared for him or not,
meant to have her.
1t should have been a blow to
Archie Laverock. Curiously enough,
it was q stimulation only. He had "a
rival, had he? 80 Right 80 That
certainly need mot mean that he.
Archie, was "out." On the other
hand, 1t meant that this revelation
had made her what she had not SEEM
ed before; approachable. At all
events he knew now. Archie had
seen and Mauve had seen that he
saw. That counted.
She, meanwhile, was a jazz of
feelings. Oddly elated she felt that
young Laverock should realize that
there was q Lionel in her life; oddly
exasperated, oddly eager to explain
exactly how much and how little
this Lionel meant to her. All the
time, too, she was excited and
"alive" as she had not known her
self for, the last five years. Again
she looked at Archie Laverock.
Then, into that silence of the gar
den, there broke q sound from the
direction OF the house. That of a
gong. struck crescendo.
Tea" Mauve exclaimed, almost
n ftsnf VfCfd NIL hn6
sent to a difficult situation. She
shadow of the rose arches falling
across her half finished bank.
Were late. That's Grandfather
getting impatient. It's past FIVE;
come along"
She led the way, holding the
graceful silver thing; Archie follow
ed, carrying the wooden box with
all the trash of empty wrappings.
. AS he FASTENED at the land
booted heels of the boyishly clad
girl he could have allowed Grand
father TO become more impatient
still. Always and perpetually
Grandfather. Never clear half
hour of this girl did he, Archie, get
to himself. Yet he must. He felt
that now. when at last by one ac-
cidental fash he seemed to have
learned something about her that he
might not have come to know in
weeks of acquaintanceship, now he
must be allowed to talk to her, Just
once, uninterrupted, by himself. He
must manage this somehow.
So at the gate that led on to the
lawn he stopped.
Il say" he began: with an appeal
ing RlanCQ HI IN
something. Are you very busy to-
morrow? 1 mean, could you Just
spare time tomorrow afternoon to
come and have tea with me?
She said: But we always have tea
together
Il mean, couldn't you let me give
you tea for once? Up at my
caravan? You've never been to look
at 1t yet. l do wish you would?",
I-Yes. Thank you. I'll come {"
she promised at once. She suddenly
felt she must take the opportunity
OF saying something to him.
That evening old Mr.. Rice Math-
ews, over his (forbidden) cigar in
The veranda was more amicably &C.
centric than Archie Laverock had
known him in his flights from topic
TO topic; from motors and the new
Sar' Whlcn was being sent down for
ms inspection next week, to the sub
1ect Of money and the many things
1t cannot buy, thence to mild aues-
tioning about Archie's childhood and
the mother Ca girl from Wales her
selD that he scarcely remembered,
thence to the psyche analytical theo-
ries of DR.. Ernest Jones, the old
man prattled on, with scarcely a
break. to his protestations that
Archie must return to Rios after he
don.
Archie was booked to return "The
NAVARRO to its rightful owner the
following week.
You may be sure I'll come back
Sir, II the firm can spare me-" Archie
promised him, with tinge of
anxiety.
The thought Of "the Firm" dIscon-
certed him. Three weeks" they
had said. He had been in Wales.
spending fifteen 0oIdau ho,,rs - A..