Life — October 14, 1897 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

306 The Usual Way. SCT THINK it is mean of him.” She drew her rosy lips Yo into a pout and Aig i tried to frown, but a dimple played on either cheek and there was lurking laughter in the dewy eyes. “Oh, yes, he's in love with me,” confidently, asthe patient friend raised her cye- brows in- credulously, “I've known it ages, and that's what makes me mad. Not that he's in love, of course,” she hastily cor- rected, with a conscious laugh, ‘but that he won't show it. What's the use of a man who is in love with you and won't show it, I'd like to know ?” The pout was genuine now, but the friend made no answer. “Yes, it is mean of him,” she re- peated, reflectively, ‘‘and he’s so high and mighty and superior to other people. He isn’t going to be beguiled into any display of sentiment—oh, no!” There was fire in the soft eyes and a mocking smile on the red lips. “*Itis the one horror of his life that he'll betray more than a passing interest in me—the goose! Just as if I were blind and couldn't see! Yet sometimes, just for an instant, he does forget to put on that armor of icy reserve—" ‘‘More probably has it melted by glances from certain eyes,” suggested the friend, drily. The girl flushed. “Oh, no!” she answered, emphatic- ally. ‘I couldn't do that if I tried." There was a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “And I wouldn't dare try, either,” she added, with charming frankness. “Once or twice I've thought it would be fun to see if I couldn't just crack that outer surface of reserve and make him act like other men. So I've said things, and—and almost looked things,” a side- *LIFE- wise glance at her sleepy companion, “that anyone who wasn’t a stick couldn't help saying something nice in return, But he has looked at me so solemnly and all unconscious of what he might have said—what he ought to have said,” with a stamp of a tiny, slippered foot, “that I’ve felt like—like a fool, and it isn't nice to feel that way, either.” Another pout. “Certainly not,” assented the friend, cheerfully, ‘‘but decidedly becoming,” noting the flushed cheeks. ‘*But he melted once, just a trifle,” continued the girl, with a happy rem- iniscence in her voice, ‘* We were in a crowd at the Symphony, and I was almost crushed to death, and | thought I should faint. I would have if I had dared, just for the fun of it. He put his arm around my waist and held me, just to keep the crowd from killing me, you know. And then when the jam had passed, he very gravely released me and apologized. Fancy! But"—a rip- pling laugh filled the room—“ he held me just half a second longer than he needed to, and he looked—well, he looked like other men.” **But you don’t want him to be like other men,” remonstrated the friend, “That is what makes him interesting and superior, you know,” quoting. ‘Mercy, no! The other men are all fools,” disdainfully. ‘* But there; well —anyway, he might be decent some- times.” At which enigmatical remark friend openly yawned. the * * * S¢CHE is certainly a very unusual girl,” he confided to his cigar, as he carefully flicked away the ashes. And the cigar, being an inanimate ob- ject, made no remonstrance to this hack- neyed remark. ‘* She isn't like other girls, not a bi he continued, as if he had made a dis- covery, ‘for she isn't always demand- ing that you sing her praises, or utter meaningless remarks, and somehow you don't feel like saying foolish things to her the same as you do to other girls. She is so unsuspecting that you don't even dare to say the things you feel, and—well, you feel like saying a good deal.” Hesmiled to himself, and the neglected cigar gave a despairing gasp. “Once or twice I've had it on my tongue to tell her, but somehow her blue eyes met mine so frankly, and she looked so childlike and innocent, I knew she never even thought of such a thing; and so—well, I didn’t say it.” Thoughtfully he puffed at his cigar, which had but a tiny spark now. “Butit is confoundedly hard, all the same,” he broke out. ‘‘That time at the Symphony I could have held her forever, but she had such a pretty air of dignity, and there was such a startled look in her eyes, I didn’t dare. She was soawfully bewitching it just seemed as if I must kiss her. I wonder what she would have done if I had? But she never even suspected !” He smiled exultantly. Whereupon, at the general stupidity of mankind, the forgotten cigar went out. Harriet Caryl Cox. OE-GvsTIaVS ‘ Non EST pisputifa ove Love's Lesson. ~ HE set fire to my heart and fled— Incendiary maid ! The flames throughout spread And left me all dismayed. the structure Yet now with fear no more I start— Cupid, contractor, came. He's built for me a fireproof heart, Impervious to flame. T. M. W learn to talk during the first few years of our existence, but it takes us all the rest of our lives to learn to keep still. Too Considerate. pare: Why did that young fellow stay so long after the fire had gone out last night? THE BrotHer: I guess he was afraid she would get cold if he left her alone.