The evening world. Newspaper, November 12, 1921, Page 14

pegular habits, his devotion to duty, were bound to preserve him from all perile; the club courses would do the rest. TCA'S mothér. took in boarders; E the house offered but little of the seclusion dear to lovers, After many alarms suffered in the front par- lor from boarderg supposed to be in bed and who were not, Etta had fitted a@ small back hall room as the private family ‘sitting room." This the family was taught to evacuate as though it had been mined, promptly upon the striking of 9; after, which Perey and Etta occupied it aléne. They sat alone in the dimly lightod, silent, little place, on a@ plush sofa, side by side. Now and then one of them made some remark, scldom picked up by the other—for s'nce they had come to a decision as to their marriage and its date, they had really little to say, At 9.30, Percy passed his arm around her waist and drew her closer. She remained a little sti for five minutes longer, then yielded and dropped her head upon his shoulder with a sigh, Thereafter they epoke not at all, but remained immo- bile and mute, her fragrant little head against his cheek, while the clock slow- ly ticked. At 10.80 she rose and firmly rent him home.- He made but little re- e'stanco, Just as well as she, he knew that his future and their happiness de- pended altogether upon Regular Habits. On Sundays he took her to church. fier church was the Lutheran, but he was broad in matters of religion, and was quite willing to make hers bis own. They sang out of a common hymnal, holding the book in their four hands, which now and then touched a lictle. On the way back after church he drew from his pocket a 25-cent box of cara- mels, such as he bought religiously every Sunday before starting for her house, and they miunched gently a3 they walked. He dined with the family at the boarding house. After dinner several young men called, attracted by Etta’s younger sister, who was still unat- tached, and every one adjourned to the cracked piano in the front parlor to - ging college songs. By 4, though, Perey and Etta slipped out and went to the Zoo to see the bears. This was Percy Skinner's life, his hopes and his plans, till he met Miss Rose Salvador O'Flare. Miss Rosie O'Flare was a pretty brunette, with aparkling eyes and red lips that pro- truded a little under the most delicate umbrage and were most disturt She worked in the sume emporium & Percy, across the aisle from him, a further down, in an atmosphere of snowy lingerie. Mis eyes sometimes strayed over there, but immediatgly withdrew chastely, How tho thing began never quite recall afterward, As near Percy could as he could remember—and sémelow this did not scem sufficient to explain everything-—he had been just on the point of entering “Vegetariana” for bis dinner when she had come salling along before the delicious little breeze of the late March day. her olive cheeks dark- ly flushed, her parted lips uncarmined and her eyes luminous. A red ribbon somewhere about her—he could never remember where—had completed the eet of signals; he stopped, she stopped, and they said a few words of littie con- sequence, ending with: “Well, so long!" Everything, so far, was well, He was eafe; they were just beginning to turn from each other. Then Fate, or an Imp, goaded him to add: to supper.” Her oyes passed swiftly over the palo front of Vegetariana, the palo show- window with the pale cereals; shaded a Mttlo by the long lashes, her eyes rose to him as she said: “You eat tn that place?” There was that In her tone which “I gotta go somehow made the admission dificult “Well—yes—sometimes,” he stam- miered, She Jevelled at him a clear look that tead all of the truth, and then with an impulsiveness which he had thought allogether charming, She eried gayly: “Oh, come eat with me—I'll show you the place for the eats!" And he had gone--that he remem dered clearly afterward—he had gone! Q “THE EVENING Without further question, without hesitation, he took his place at her side, and striding swiftly, elbow to elbow like old comrades, they went cown the strect, turned, climbed down s0m6 steps—-and were in the place. It was of stone, low and arched, Tables were along the walls; they took cne in a corner. In the centre of the table a singular object stood—a sort of seaffolding holding two long transpar- ent vessels, each with a little spiggot ut the Jower end, One was red and the other yellow, “Look not upon the wine when it ts red," she said, and turned the spiggot cf the yellow decanter. She passed the giass to Percy, and, fixing him com- mandingly, said: “Taste that!" it was disappointing. It did not taste nearly as good as it looked pretiy. It was sour. But In a minute he felt a pleasant warmth rise in him, It was a warmth such as he had never felt It wasn't in any one piace.and wasn't too Lot or not cnough, but it was all over and just right. It stole deliciously up from one's lieels to one’s head--and some stayed in the head. He tried another sip. The cffect was repeated; a new wave of the pleasing warmth enveloped him, grate- ful as an extra suit of underwear ona very cold day, AS >. Sa DO De: ~ ~AN™ SS ~ “GOOD NIGHT, DEAR,” HE SAID, “I ‘There,"’ she sald, examining him ap- rrovingly across the table. “You lool better already! “That's just what you needed,” she Wont on, her eyes still on him, her ap- probation still surer of itself and tak- ipg on a tinge of maternal tenderness. “In fact, that's what you've needed for a dong, long time!” The food she ordered added scinehow te his well-being. Somehow everything was ple warm this even Scientific mastication went under the table; it ts to be recorded regretfully that he gulped. He ute red meat and iong pastes that were hard to handle but which slipped down very obligingly when once conveyed to the mouth, an other litth square pastes with ms terious stuffing between layers. For ; wehil: he was worrying alittle, wonder me how mucl wy he had in pocket. But she, who seemed to possess a singular ability to read his thought and yet while reading them, to make of them something natural and amusing rather than something to be ashamed cf, said immediately; “It's Dutch treat to-night, you know. Yes, it is. You cun treat me sotmno other night—to- tight’s Dutch treat!” An orchestra struck up. Couples left the tables and glided up and down. This had an extraordinary effect on Miss Rosie. Her eyes danced, her body would not keep still. “Don’t you rag?” she asked, He said, “No, I don’t.” I truth, he should have said, “I can’t.” But “I don’t” could be _ spoken in a tone suggestive of deli- cate and ethical choice which it Is diffi- cult to give to “I can't.” After a while a young man sitting alone at a table across the aisle came cover and asked her to dance. With a glance at Percy which half begged permission, she rose smoothly to the waiting coxcomb, and Instantly in rhythm to the music slid away in his arms, Percy immediately felt lonely, lie did not seem seated before a small table, but before a desert stretching cmptily for miles. He watched the two, Slie danced wondrousiy—and ardently, HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO.” It hurt him to see her, yet he could not keep his eyes off, When she returned, breathing a little fast between her parted lips, a sudden savage desire to hurt her took possession of him. But the best he could do was to say, in om ill-humored tone: ‘Well, iet’s be going,” She went readily enough, with a quick submission that made him sorry for his brutality, and they got into a ara little sadly. “T get off at Vifty-clghth,” he said, “Where are you going?” “Oh JF go clear up to One ffundred and Seventh.” He got of at fFifty-eighth He reached the sidowuaik, then turned and watched the car as it gclanged cum- The street looked long and empty asa the table had white she had danced # brously on its way WORLD'S FICTION SECTION, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1921. In BPtta’s small parlor he soon lost that desolation, sitting there with her in the half light, her head against his cheek, And the following morning, thinking it over, he decided that if he met Rosio O’Flare in the evening he would not go with her. Yet at noon he slipped to the bank and drew $20 from his savings account—just so as not to be caught without ammunition if anything did happen, though he was still determined nothing should hap- pen. At 7 when she came sailing along 26 if part of the lively breeze and said with a slight, disapproving look at Vegetariana, “You're not going to eat in that place, are you?” he answered, “N-n-n-n-no—let’s go to the place where wo went last night, eh? I like that place!” And they went. This time he danced. When first she said: “Really, don't you dance?” he answored with derision, “No, I don't dance.” When a little later she said, “Don't you, really? Gee, you took like you’d make a swell dancer!” he an- swered once more with a decision he did not feel at adi within himself, where as a matter of fact he was all wishful: “Naw--I don't care for dan- cing.Y He noticed that the lone young man of the night before was again here, that he was sending-jonging looks at Rosie. Panic seized him, and when sho whispered urgently, “Oh, come ‘and try; it’s easy; I'll show you,” he mumbled & refusal which was not quite t refusal, “It's a one-step,” she went on eageniy. “One two, one two—hear it? Just like walking—all you have to do is walk—one two—one two--oh, .ome on!” ItHY had half visen; the light of T her eyes cascaded upon him: it scomed a shame not to meet half way Such gaiety and such joy—espe- cially with that impertinent pirate stationed over there across the aisle. Percy could see the man had just made up his mind to come over. “All right,” he murmured hastily, “I'll try; you steer me!" So this was dancing! Gee! No wonder people liked to dance! And what a fool he had been! The realiza- tiott came to him before he had taken one step—the realization of the beauty cf the proceeding; the beauty of hold- ing her thus in his arms, so soft, so delicate, so warm, so fragrant: they two the heart of the music, whelmed in its iridescence, His soul expanded exquisitely; to his hot head there rushed a whiriing coniposite vision of ail the beautiful things he had known the rose, the lark, : phonograph record of ‘ he had been a poct he would have sung. Ty came to him that this was enough; that from nothing further could be expected a heightening of this supreme biiss; that he needn't take one step; this was enough—merely to stand still nnd hold her to music But she murmured, “Come on,” and lrew him gently. Ho stepped out and the attention he now placed on doing well dulied what there was of alto- eether too exquisite in his sensations, At first, not daring to do else, he merely walked forward in measure, pressing her back before him rather as 4 man pushes a wheelbarrow, Pres- ently his step, became less stiff, and adopted, beside the hard one-two beat, the intermediary vibrations of the mu- sic; his body relaxed, Suddenly, with great daring, he began to walk back- ward, letting her now come toward him, and for this gallant deed was heavenly rewarded by no simall pres- sure upon hig biceps, This altogether maddened tj*n; he essayed a pirou- ette-—-and succeeded. The secret pros- sure, this time, was accompanied by a low chuckle of delight. When they sat down, his pale blue eyes were shining almost as brightly as her black ones, und happy dewdrops were on his brow. As for her, she was a-thrill, “You did just grand!" she de- clared, “Just grand—oh, I knew you'd make a swell dancer!" They danced again, and then again aod again, taking small hurried pecka at their food between times, and he, aware of improving from minute to minute, certain now that he was just mado for this, that for years he had ' A Complete Story Every Saturday