6 NORTH.SU OREIB RE beztaed epueee 
shortly,. “Suppose we try something to that new Hawaiian 
music. That ought to be a novelty.” 
“All right let’s try right now. I guess the hall is 
deserted.” She ran lightly up the steps and crossing the 
broad varanda entered the club house. 
Rutland followed closely at her heels pausing long 
enough, however, to wink broadly at the expectant enter- 
tainment committee. 
“I declare, she’s going to do it,” Lisle gasped. “Tom 
sure was brave to tackle her. I shouldn’t have had the 
courage, though I would have liked to.’ 
“Nor J,” Grayson agreed, “he deserves the pumpe. 
Lucky devil.” : 
Any unattached, heart-free young man who can hold 
a delightful bit of femininity in his arms for an hour or 
more a day, even if they be dancing all the time, and at 
the end of a week not feel a noticeable something tug- 
ging at his heart strings, is not human. Thomas Rut- 
land, Jr., was decidedly human. At the end of a week 
he discovered that he was despairingly in love with the 
White Beach icicle, Miss Janet Garrettson. 
Miss Garrettson had thawed considerably under Mr. 
Rutland’s tuition and sunny irresistible smile. If she 
noticed that at times his grip was tighter than was en- 
tirely necessary she gave no sign. Perhaps like Tom she 
was enjoying the novelty of intimacy with the opposite 
Sex. 5a 
The evening of the charity drew near all too quickly 
for the infatuated Tom. Another week of rehearsing 
and he would have known he was confident, if Janet Gar- 
rettson cared anything for him. 
It was a very nervous coterie of young people that 
gathered in the improvised Green Room of the Country 
Club on the momentous night, all but Miss Garrettson, 
who moved calmly about, seemingly unconscious that she 
possessed nerves. 
The girl’s cheeks grew pink under their make-up as 
their turn to appear drew near, while the men’s collars 
grew considerably tighter than they usually were. The 
applause grew louder and more frequent. The nervous 
amateurs came from the stage flushed, exultant, tried old 
performers. 
“Ready?” Rutland asked, nervously fingering the red 
sash encircling his waist, “we’re next.” 
Janet Garrettson flashed a dazzling smile at the seem- 
ingly lazy figure in short velvet knickerbockers, and filmy 
silk shirt) “Ready.” 
The cloak dropped from her shoulders and Tom 
caught a glimpse of alabaster shoulders rising from a 
daringly low-cut gown of flame and copper colored chif- 
fon. Then the soft tinkling murmur of the haunting 
Flawatian music rose above the hubbub of well bred 
voices. 
They glided out on the stage, his right arm encircling 
her waist and his left held high above her dainty head. 
They both felt rather than heard the hush which greeted 
their entrance, and instinctively the man pressed the little 
figure closer as if to protect her. 
To and fro they swayed, darting away from each 
other, and swirling back together again, always to the 
weird lamenting voice of the Uheleles. Here, there 
everywhere the spirit in the flaming diaphaneous drap- 
eries swirled, always returning to the strong arms of the 
man. The music grew wilder and wilder.. The dancers’ 
pace never, for a second, faltered. The man pressed the girl 
closer and closer, bending over till ‘his lips met and held 
hers for a magnetic minute. The music died with a 
pathetic minor chord. 
The moment’s silence ensued, more eloquent than 
the applause which followed. 
July 23, 1915. 
“T didn’t mean to,” Thomas whispered penitently, as 
they took their curtain call breathlessly flushed and ex- 
cited, “I couldn’t help kissing you.” 
“Tm glad you did,” she whispered back so softly, 
“Perhaps I should never have known if you hadn’t.” — 
They retreated into the dusty darkness of the wings, 
“Let’s duck,” she pleaded wearily, ‘they will all be talk- 
ing about it, and I don’t want to hear.” 
“Come,” he commanded, taking her hand and guid- 
ing her through an open window hidden behind a hugh 
screen. 
The moist night wind blowing from the ocean cooled 
their hot faces and whipped the girl’s scanty draperies 
around her. Tom slipped her cloak around her shoulders, 
and them madly crushed her to him. 
“Little girl,” he panted, “Janet dear, I love you. I 
have to tell you, though, I know I haven't the right. I 
love you, love you so much.” 
He pressed his lips against her fluttering hair. Miss 
Garrettson’s arms stole upwards till they crept around his 
neck, as she cuddled down in his embrace. 
“Tom dear,” she rippled tenderly, “Why haven’t you 
the right ?” 
“A dancing teacher making twenty-five a week,” he — 
laughed sarcastically, “but Janet I'll do anything to win 
you if you will wait for me.” 
“Why wait?” she asked demurely. 
Her lips being engagingly near, Tom accepted the in- 
vitation. ‘‘Don’t let’s wait,” she pleaded. 
“Janet do you care enough for me to marry me to- 
night just as I am, dressed like a Hawaiian flower vender, 
if they have such things there,’” his eyes were gleaming 
like twin sapphires. ' 
Yes,” she whispered, “I love you so much I’d marry 
you right now.” 
“Do you mean that?” he demanded. ; 
The music drifted out from the hot ball room, and 
the soft swishing of the waves was borne gently on the 
evening breeze. The radiant moon shone down brightly, 
lighting the garden and throwing the girl’s slim figure 
into shadowy relief. Like a woodland fairy she stood, 
her gaze searching his, and then her eyelids fluttered shy- 
ly over her tremulously happy eyes, 
“Ves,” she breathed. 
“Come,” he commanded, and for the second time that 
night they stole away. 
Hand in hand like two children they sped over the 
velvet lawn and along the wide road lying white in the 
moonlight. Janet asked no questions, for she knew they 
were going to the little cottage overhanging the sea where 
lived the man who would make them husband and wife. 
Neither thought of their picturesque attire, or the 
enormity of the step they were taking. Love was the 
thing, the only thing at the moment. Tom Rutland had 
entirely forgotten that only a week before he had declared 
he didn’t want to marry, cared nothing for girls. Since 
then he had fallen in love! 
An hour later they sat together on the broad veranda 
of the deserted hotel, while the guests patronized the Ten- 
nis Club’s Annual Entertainment for Worthy Charities. 
“Tt seems incredibly wonderful that you are my wife, 
Janet,” he whispered lovingly, “I’m wondering what Dad 
will say when he gets my telegram telling him I’ve mar- 
ried you.” 
His wife smiled wisely into the darkness. Maybe 
that smile accounts for the fact that she wasn’t surprised 
when the much feared telegram arrived the following 
morning, that it read 
~ Bless you, my boy. That’s exactly what 
é.___4 4 intended you to do, My love to Janet. —Dan. 
