Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-21

hideous mistake and-but that's as lar
| as I got"
was crying as she passed me. didn't
see her, but my hearings right good
| for my years. Continue to play your
cards like that and she's yours without
a flicker. That girl requires whole lot
o. lickin, but she's only got to be licked
once!"
"I'm wondering if I overplayed my
hand?"
what if you didP She didn't have
even a dirty little deuce to trump your
| ace, did she?"
"You Jared her conceit, that's what
you did The dearest of women nave
lot o. that commodity, son, only they
call it Womanly pride. However, they ii
all humiliate themselves to win the
right man. You just keep on rollln
your hoop the way you've started ana
you'll win in a walk"
I'm little bit afraid to carry on,
Mr.. Lathem. She plays fast and loose
with a man. Doesn't appear to have
very we'll formulated idea that man
is anything except an object OF amuse-
ment--and I'm no jester to queen
She's a confirmed f1irt."
"They make awful good wives, once
you halter break them" Crooked Bill
suggested.
How do you know?'
"I married one-and she was that
girls aunt. Roberta comes by her mis-
fortunes honestly. All the BarroWs
women were romantic. In fact, Rob-
erta's mother ran away with an enc
man in a minstrel show. She adored
the Jokes that boy used to crack until
he cracked one on her by marrying her
She didn't get back at him for two
years, but when she did the laugh was
on him. She bore him Roberta, ana
from that day until he died Roberta
ran him ragged and made the poor
devil like it. He was good END man,
but a poor Judge of investments, and
when he and his wife were killed in a
train wreck. my wife and I fell heir to
Roberta. She was IL then. My wife
died 10 years ago and I've been riding
herd on Roberta ever since"
II fear you've made a bad job OF II,
Mr.. Latham"
well, you can't bar me for tryin',"
Crooked Bill responded calmly. THE
girls sound at heart, but cursed with a
face and figure that'd make Helen OF
Troy look like Navajo squaw in COM
parison. She has brains, she has
mot any more" Glenn Hackett in
terrupted gloomily. "I've just upset
that poisei"
Crooked Bill INDUCED himself in a
very mirthful little chuckle. We'll, at
any rate she's a very good, dear, sweet
girl" he defended finally.
"She can't f1irt with me. She wants
to be pursued. I'm busy man and
I've pursued her for year, and you
know, Mr.. Latham, as well as I do
that whenever she has another swain
on hand she. always devotes herself to
him and ignores me-"
Wants to see if you'll get Jealous.
You ought to have done that much for
her and 1t would have tickled her most
to death to think she had the power to
hurt you, and she'd have been so CRATE
full to you for obligin' her most likely
she'd have treated you human for a
month thereafter. But you made the
mistake of resistin' her, son. No woman
lodges any sort of contest and I never
knew one that didn't dig into fight
with a winning sperrit. Trouble Is, you
don't know any other way of fightin'
except to go in to win with any weapon
| handy. A Teller in love with Roberta
| had ought to take a leaf out of the
lifetime experience of a coyote with
foxhounds. Senior Coyote, meeting up
with little lone foxhound he maybe
can lick without extendin' himself
never fuses his fur in precipitate en-
gagement. He just lopes away, and
not too fast, either. He lures the hound
off into the desert, where he knows
some of his friends will be nosing
around and then they gang Jump that
pup and destroy him with ease. When
you Tilted Roberta a little while ago,
was that just your strategy or your
temper?"
MY temper, I think. know lost
it completely and yielded to a sudden
impulse to give her dose Of her own
medicine"
Crooked Bill stroked his chin. "Tell
you what to do, son." he announced
presently, and Glenn Hackett leaned
forward to listen to the words of wis
dom from the oracle. "You stay for
dinner, just as if nothing out of the
ordinary had occurred. Robertal dine
in her room, if she has any appetite at
all, which I doubt, because the maid1l
tell her you're still here and she'll
| think that's indecent of you. Let her
think it. Continue to come out unin-
vited and unexpected whenever the no.
| ton grips you, and when she gives you
the dead face, you grin at her like a
Chinese idol and tell her how winsome
she looks in that new dress. AS the
poet says:
The constant drip Of water
Wears away the hardest stone;
The constant gnaw of Towser
Masticates the toughest bone;
The constant gnaw of TowSer
Carries off the blushing maid,
And the constant advertiser
Is the one that gets the trade
Continue to advertise yourself
son.
Pausing not an instant in her pre-
cipitate flight from the most amazing
and impossible male biped she had ever
encountered, Roberta Antrim fed to her
room, locked the door, lay down on her