Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-03-27

thinks. from some brutal villains
LUCY JOY. good-looking, biquant,
poised. She has won big prize in
the prettiest English girl contest
and Is noted film actress. Archie
has merely saved her from some GIN
SEYMOUR. movie man, her admirer.
fRANkiE. Lucy's half-grown ire
THE ADMIRAL, rubicund, choleric old
onicer, who dotes on Lucy.
MRS. JOY. gay. charming, almost as
youthful as her daughter Lucy.
MR.. EiCE-MATHEWS. ancient inva-
lid. tired Of being bossed by women.
MAUVE, his granddaughter, slim,
lovely. poised and cool, who rather
ignores the Rover.
Another AnticIimax
Like a child dissatisfied with its
dolls, our heart cries Not this, not
this "-Tagore.
She moved about the room, dress
ing; and what she did. meanwhile.
was perhaps what she had called
collecting IDEAS" For while one
hand hastily unfastened her frock,
the other sought a drawer in her bu-
reau that contained just one snap
shot Of a man in polo kit. Into the
face Of this, Mauve smiled friendly
wise, nodding as it were a good-by.
For she then tore it across and
across, putting a match to the frag-
ments. Her shoes, as she changed
them, reminded her Of something
else; from the depth Of her wardr
robe she drew quickly forth a pair
of slim white satin slippers of
obsolete shape. They had danced
and danced at some ball in May. 1914.
Why keep? Mauve dropped them
an IN hn, fe,t oil ~
followed by a sheaf Of six-year- old
theatre programs which she took
from the bottom of a faded sachet
and Crumpled, light-heartedly, again
repeating that phrase so oddly
chosen.
For, strangely enough, 1t did not
include the name of the young man
whose arm seemed still warm about
her shoulders, whose caresses still
fingered on her throat and face,
whose You darling!" sounded even
yet in her ears.
+ Was it almost as IL Mauve was not
even thinking of Archie Laverock-
not. at least, OF Archie the indivi-
dual?
The words she whispered again in
triumph before she flew downstairs,
ran, Pm cured. I'm cured. I'm
Meanwhile. what about Archie
Laverock himself?
Alas -
The phrases which he found him
self most frequently repeating were;
Good Lord. What have l done?
What have 1 let myself in for now?"
One hardly likes to think how
short n time this came after the
Rover's last good nights to Mauve,
muttered with such ardor-such
genuine ardor.
There is a type of man said to be
trough upon" his boots and socks.
1t is not that he treads badly; he
wears through. Now the Archie
type is rough upon his emotions.
He is so soon through" with his
sensations and sentiments. He Is
ready for more. for fresh. for other
ones in a space of time incredible to
the steadier, slow thinking model
Hence bitter reproaches. hurled at
the Archie-type of His feelings are
never very deep"
Deep enough in all conscience,
however, was the dismay of the
Arrant Rover on this evening. when
(having emerged from the sensuous
trance of courtship) he came pres
entity to realize two things.
One-That this afternoons inter-
view had eliminated in what must
be presently stamped officially as an
engagement to Miss Mauve Rice
Mathews.
Two-That Mauvc. after all, was
not the One Girl for him.
This second point came to him
more slowly than the first, but with
ever increasing discomfort.
He sat down alone on the cara
van steps where they had lately sat
enlaced. He gnawed the stem of
his pipe; and there. amid the star
light and the falling dew and the
soft noises of beasts moving behind
the stone hedge and the plaintive
serenade of an owl from the beech
wood and the whole fragrant
breathing of the country in i its
sleep, the young man put in hours
of thinking about his last girl to
whom he had been making love
fool that he was.
He was very angry with himself,
but even so he ragged more in sorrow
than in anger. For wasn't 1t dis
appointment once again: the in
fernal. wcll-known disappointment
that seemed to get worse each time ?
There are men who would con-
slider that Laverock had done
laundering well for himself. snafiing
the pet granddaughter of an old man
with all that money and that top
ping place in Wales 1t is not so
much that Archie was above" this
consideration as that 1t never struck
him to give it thought. His
thoughts of the place were memories
of how keen Mauve Rice Mathews
was on It. my roots are here.
c1, oil
herself to be dragged anywhere else.
Any man who married her would
have to take root beside her,
thought the appalled, Rover. He
pictured that life.
Always this valley, where the
morning paper got in at three IN the
afternoon.
Always this circle Of dull country
people. Always these same inter-
ests: he seemed to hear her COM
posed girlish voice uttering their
names.
INV rock garden ." and that.
"My Seeding geums and
those things.
MY Minorcas I" and the rest
of 'em.
"The rectory cook had very old
rccipe for" and so on.
grandfather, time you took your
sleep. Archie. I'd like you to think
over that path through the -laurels-
idea =" yards of it.
How. thought Archie now. could
one stick it day in. day out. even
for the most wonderful girl in the
worlde Mauve was stay-putter, a
Blue Rock type herself. IL that fel-
low Basil had lived, she would nave
gone ON caring for him until she
$50 , hundred and six. Now--worsc