White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1928-04-06

mind with the idea of marriage, 1t
did not in the least dampen the zest
with which he went to New York to
meet-as he confidentially hoped and
believed-his prospective bride. This
would be marriage SO exactly to his
taste !-allied to an old English fam
lily of rank, administering a distin-
guished old estate that for generations
had been in the family.
His experience with girls gave him
no reason to doubt that he would find
favor with his noble kinswoman. SO,
it was with complacent self-conti-
dence that, well-groomed and clad in
his smartest clothes, he stood on the
wharf on the afternoon of the arrival
Of the Berengaria and with tense ex-
pectation watched the passengers file
past him down the gang plank-his
eyes searching for young girl with 4
handkerchief on her left wrist.
He did hope she would be cookbook
ing. 1t would be an awful wet blan-
ket if she turned out to be ill-favored;
though nothing short of an actual
hump would stop him. A man could
of course seek his consultations out
side his home
It did not occur to him, naturally,
that his wife might have need of con-
solutions and compensations.
Looking for a wrist bound with a
handkerchief proved to be rather
maddening business. Wrists could be
examined only as the passengers
passed close before him, while faces
could be scanned halfway up the
gangplank.
A procession of men and elderly
women sent his gaze far up the plank
in search of more young people-when
suddenly his eye was caught by
lovely face at the top of the long slope
which struck him as vaguely familiar
yet unfamiliar, too in it's vivacious
expression, it's Intelligence, it's deli
cacy. Surely he had seen that face
somewhere before-though the poise
of an exquisite small head, the general
look and air of thoroughbred, the
modish style Of the young woman,
were not familiar.
Why She. looked like Nicely
Schwenckton How strange-and how
absurd At least her features did
extraordinarily like yet so widely
different, too, with that vivid, intelli-
gent countenance, proudly arched
little head, graceful bearing-and of
course her neatly arranged hair, styl-
ish clothing. But good Cd, how like
Nicely she looked!
Gam I seeing things?" he wondered,
his heart beating thickly.
SO close she passed him by that her
arm brushed his and her eyes looked
for an instant straight into his-but
not the trembling of lash nor the
least culver of her lips suggested that
she had ever seen him before, as she
walked on to mingle with the crowd
leaving him bewildered, COMPOUNDED,
with weird doubt and uncertainty
when suddenly, as his gaze followed
her, she lifted her hand to sUaighten
her hat, which in the crowd had been
pushed askew-and he saw, with a
wild bounding of his heart, that her
wrist was tied up with handker-
| chief!
In an instant he was at her side
| and had seized her hand-the con-
fusion of his mind so great that all his
usual sef-confdence was lost in a
houndering middle. He had been so
sure of himself, of his ability to i'm.
press favorably even sophisticated
English aristocrat with his ease and
sang -froid-and he was painfully
aware that no country pumpkin could
have been more awkward.
| (TO BE CONTINUED.)