The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1926-07-31
A Girl Like
That
(Copyright.)
BY JANE OSBORN


very favorably with Rogers own.
Roger was twenty-five, feeling very
sophisticated and mellow-minded with
his newly-won degree. He had with
stood the charms of the girls he had
met at college. So when Jane, now
seventeen, went to college, Roger was
not unpleased. Jane would be bring
ing girls home for vacations, az he
had brought the boys home when he
was an undergraduate.
A bitter disappointment came to
Roger. Jane came home on her first
Thanksgiving holiday with what
Roger had referred to as the first con-
signment There were Betty and
Clara and Louise-whom Jane had
grown to know on the freshman bas-
ket ball team. Betty, beside playing
basket ball, was on the road to
achieving distinction as heavyweight
wrestler. Clara held high school rec
ord as broad jumper and Louise
was tennis player of note.
Roger endured those days OF
Thanksgiving vacation. He asked
Jane to bring another assortment for
Christmas. Jane obeyed and brought
Margot, Julie and Mabel-three young
amazons who made six-foot Roger
feel like an errand boy.
Margot would buster into q room
where Roger was sitting.
Hello, old Pip" she would say,
Hv0r,ra Iodine donau T,,cf NOR Oak
on your boxing gloves and let's have
bout before dinner. And even Mar.
COTS rose-leaf skin and crystal-clear
eyes did not seem to Roger in the
least bit attractive. When she didn't
call him "old Pip" she called him "old
sprout."
jules ideal was muscle. She in
sisted on feeling Of Rogers biceps the
second day OF her visit. and she in
sisted on being reused a half-hour
before the rest Of the family so that
she might brandish her clubs and
dumbells. Roger knew, because his
room was below hers and sometimes
she let them slip.
AS days passed Roger conceived
perfect loathing Of athletic girls. He
tried to reason things out for himself.
He hated to admit that he chung to a
mid-Victorian ideal OF women-that
he really preferred his women to be
delicate, weak, pale and dangerous.
And yet 1t seemed to him he'd almost
rather marry a girl that tainted and
went into tears at the slightest provo
cation than a girl who was always
swinging Indian clubs and prodding
your biceps and insisting on boxing.
For time be felt guilty about It.
Yet 1t didn't seem entirely unnatural,
he argued to himself, for a man to
want a girl whom he could shield and
protect. For centuries men had been
acquiring the taste for just that sort
of woman-no wonder they couldn't
give 1t up all at once. Yet you might
as well offer a trellis to a spreading
chestnut tree as to help one Of his
sisters friends into a car or across
a muddy crossing. If one Of them
dropped anything and you stopped to
pick It up you'd be sure to have your
head bumped.
Then on Sunday afternoon as Roger
sat in the cathedral listening to the
organ playing Of a college chum of
his he CHANGED TO sit beside Evelyn
Sibley. Evelyn was slender and
rather pale and, sitting there beside
her watching the light from the col
ored windows on her face and curls
that peeped out from beneath her
fiower-trimmed hat, he felt himself
falling deeply and decidedly in love
with her. Roger forgot the music and
the service. He was wondering how
he might contrive to get acquainted
with her. Wouldn't 1t be wonderful,
thought he, IL she were a true Vic
torian and became faint Then he
would have to help her-she would
lean on his arm as he helped her to
the vestibule.
1t was very crowded there In the
cathedral-the air was close and
warm. Even Roger felt the numbing
influence Of II. He looked at the
charming girl beside him and he real
lied that she had turned very pale
The older woman who was with her
helped her to her feet and started to
lead her to the aisle. Probably the
girl'would have tainted had not Roger
quickly risen and, holding her secure
ly In his arms, carried her to the yes.
thule. There she was quickly re-
vived.
"She would come" explained the
aunt as the three Of them sat on a
coping Of the wall outside waiting for
taxi which Roger had summoned
You see, the organist IL q cousin Of
hers, but told her she was much too
worn out to try to sit through a ca
thedral service"
Roger had introduced himself and
now that he could claim friendship
with the girls cousin the problem OF
continuing their acquaintance simpli-
fed itself. He would, Of course, es-
cort them to their home. Later he
would call and Iater-Roger was sure
that when a man fell 30 quickly I'm
love with a girl there must be some
thing mutual about 1t. And she had
seemed quite content to rest In his
arms, even after he had carried her
to the vestibule and she was quite
conscious.
81 told Evelyn not to come" the
aunt was saying after they had taken
their places In the taxi. "Ehe played
H.