White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1927-11-18
Sylvia of the Minute

ulu not KNOW where she IlVeQ nor even
her name. So sure had he been that
he would hear from her in a day or
two that he had not taken the trouble
to ascertain these unimportant facts
about her.
1t had been only when, quite beaten,
he had been about to give in and try
to discover her that he had received
from her funny, crude little note.
What sport he had at his club show
ing it around for the enjoyment of his
fellow club members!
"Since you are the only Gentleman
Friend | got that's purfect Gentle
man in whom I feel I know well
enought to ask for such favur, dear,
1 ain asking you, now, to keep COM
pany with me and be my Steady Date"
That was month ago and he had
been seeing her several times week,
furtively, ever since; his ridiculous
infatuation," as he scornfully called
it to himself, growing more irresist-
ible with each meeting.
AS he reached the top Of the hill
he was greatly relieved (and thrilled)
to see her sitting there under the tree
which was their appointed meeting
place.
AT sight of him she threw away the
apple she had been eating with greedy
abandon, drew the back of her hand
across her mouth and hastily rose.
His peculiar sort of egotism derived
an almost sensual pleasure from this
girls worshipful bearing toward him,
from her timid admiration OF every
thing about him, which she so help
lessly betrayed-of his modish clothes,
his finely shaped white hands, his cul-
tivated speech, even his family super
cilious and autocratic attitude toward
herself.
She came toward, him, just now,
shyly, rubbing her soiled right hand
on her hip before offering 1T to him.
But he waved it off, and resisting,
with a strong self-restraint, the ten
derness as we'll as the desire to which
she powerfully moved him, he looked
down upon her severely as she stood
before him.
eco and sit down again"
She obeyed him like child, her
soft brown eyes fixed upon his face
with doglike anxious uncertainty
that acted on his passion for domi-
nance like a titillating stimulant.
She wore a cheap, dressy frock of
blue wolfe trimmed with tawdry white
lace, bunch of artificial flowers on
one shoulder, streamers of fiimsy blue
ribbon at the waist.
He frowned at the slovenly way she
sat and she quickly Strengthened up,
pulled her skirt over her knees and
tried to look prlm.
Spreading his handkerchief on a
flat rock a few feet in front of her,
he sat down, clasped his shapely
hands about his knees and silently,
disapprovingly, inspected her. She
became uneasy, making timid, tenta-
tive movement to come closer to him,
evidently as eager as he was (though
less controled) to begin their pet
ting party" as she most vulgarly
called it. But again he waved her on.
"Not yet" he said CURLY. lie al
WAYS held her off in suspense like
this for little while, partly to i'm
press her with proper sense of her
inferiority, partly to prolong the slim
ulating contemplation of her charms
and of her subservience, so that when
he did presently permit her to come
to him, the nearness of her beauty
would be all the more thrilling.
She relaxed against the tree, her
pretty head dropping, an adorably
childish pout on her red lips. ''I'm
sure | don't know what l done" she
said in an injured tone, on the verge
| of tears.
"Did Say did"
"What I've did," she meekly re-
peated.
"Oh!" he sighed, you hopeless
child! Didn't they teach you any Eng
lish grammar at the district school
down there?"-with an inclination OF
his head toward the valley.
swell, you see, till l was twel
years old already, Pop he wouldn't de-
it to leave me go to school no more
SO l amt just SO good educated thai
way, like you, Mr.. Creighton. You're
got an awful nice education-ain't you
have? And" she added, drawing 9
deep breath, you become your clo'es
sol Ach!" She was given to Jumping
unrelated facts in this way.
| (To BE CoNTINUED.)