Alice Adams

ime to wonder why she was building up this fiction for Mr. Arthur Russell. His discovery of Walter's device for whiling away the dull evening had shamed and

and there was yet to develop in her life such a thing as an intere

: the glance, slightly discontented, passes on at once. Or so the eye of a prospector wanders querulously over staked and established claims on the mountainside,

she created fictitious cigars for her father, she was also regretting that she had not b

igars for yourself," Russell suggested. "He

gers as castanets, and swaying her body a little, to suggest the accepted stencil of a "Spanish Dan

"I'D take you for anyt

re glimmered some real surprise. He was looking at her quizzically, but with the liv

as "altogether quite stunning-looking"; and she liked his tall, dark thinness, his gray cloth

asked. "Would you rather not be

," she explain

whatever you wanted me

ll depend,

ould depend on

d. "It might depend

ch

erious, remembering Russell's service to her at Mildred's house. "Speaking of what I want to be taken for," she said;-"I've been wonde

his friendly chuckle. "Then your young brother told you where I found him, did he? I kept my face straight at the time,

I was afraid you'd misunderstand. He tells wonderful 'darky stories,' and he'll do anything to draw coloured people out and make them talk; and that's what he was doing at Mild

Russell ask

th hands in a charming gesture o

urful face, with its hazel eyes, its small and pretty nose, and the lip-caught smile which seeme

tful, and controlled any impulses toward plasticity, if sh

gallantry as she could never resist. She turned her head,

hom?" s

he said. "Are yo

hy

king you were different from

you think I

u knew what I was thinki

umour. "How intimate that s

ieties of hers. "By George!" he exclaimed again. "I thoug

tell you what sort of girl I am w

n looking at you. You were talking to some o

Alice checked herself. "Wh

you were a Miss

ams?" Alice

said I'd like

t you'd save me fr

e of the girls Mildred was getting me t

w chances, and that as a matter of self-defense her carefulness might have been well fo

anything about me except what y

was right whe

told me what

were like wha

a minute or so ago, when you said how different from Mil

mind. That's the sort of girl I thought you were-one that could read

everybody looks up to her-oh, yes, we all fairly adore her! She's like some big, noble, cold statue-'way above the rest of us-and she

lexed. "You say she's perfectly per

Of course girls ALL do mean things sometimes. My own career's just one long brazen s

t or two of thoughtfulness. Then he inquired

t people bore me particularly th

call that treac

of things they hate. For instance, at a dance I'd a lot rather find some clever old woman

liked it. You danced bette

r. Russell," Alice interrupted. "Particularly since M

There were others-and of

. Well--" She paused, then added,

t so much

All sorts of fancy instructors-I suppose that's what daughters

and his look was one of ala

e afraid I break out sometimes in a piece of cheesecloth and run around a fountain thi

xclaimed. "That's exactly what I was

's nicer of you. No

at

just now. Of course I've had the usual o

t's

she's divinely talented for the stage! It's the only universal rule about women that hasn't got an exception. I don't mean we all want to go on the stage, but we all thi

always telling us we can't

fascinated by her quickness, which indeed seemed to him almost te

ep secret-things that go o

e of you tell

n't te

uch ho

ricks against one another because we know it wouldn't make any impression on you. The t

your tricks

laughed. "We think

mmered the ferrule of his

the appl

as like running up the bl

little sign in a pretty flow

st," he sai

isappeared: "You needn't think you'll ever find out whether I'm right about Mildred's not being an exc

the former topic. "'Mildred's not being an

red to. If you asked her I'm pretty sure she'd say, 'What nonsense!' Mildred's the dear

t did whenever his cousin was made their topic

ng a girl on the grand style to herself, I mean, of course." And without pausing Alice rippled on, "You ought to have seen ME when

y the moon, the

changes in he

y love

each outstretched hand, then laughed and said, "Papa used to make such fun o

ell observed. "You do it beautifull

was saying it to a MAN, you know. She seems to have been rea

aid, seeming to be rather irksomely impressed w

lded to an audacious temptation. "You must

u: it's only about

t your mind-reading again, are you? The

ought her shoulder in light contact with his for a moment. "Do you dislike my mind-reading?" she asked, and,

aid, gravely. "It's quite pleasant. Bu

over. We're coming to the foolish little house where I live. It's a queer little place, but my father's so attached to it the family have about given up hope of getting him to build a real house fa

d, then asked: "I couldn't come

, quickly. "You can

he

e path, but he waited. "You can come in the evening i

oo

ure, swinging his stick in a way that suggested exhilaration. Alice, staring after him through the irregular apertures of a lace curtain, showed no sim

?" her mother asked, approa

y, as she turned away. "That Mr. Russel

the one that's e

like an engaged man to me." And she added, in the ton

er his tobacco, filled his pipe for