The Innocent Adventuress

l but rather a club house where only certain people could go, and Maria Angelina had pictured

nd higher like giant waves, and at the end of the long motor trip the Lodge at last disclosed

manded the girl's secret astonishment as the motor whirled across the rus

wo at a time, came a tall,

st enter the tournament-Mother, did you remember about th

into the commotion of greetings, she opened wide, half-intim

eded by a sensation of gay relief. After all, these things went by chance and favor. . . . And if Bobby Martin could prefer this brown young girl to that visi

verandas, full of interested eyes, into the Lodge and up the stairs to their rooms, where Ruth direc

ll have to use this one bath-stupid, isn't it, but Dad is hardly ever

gelina assured h

he wondered how Ruth would survive the tin tub, se

little warmer interest as her glance swept her foreign little cousin. "Frightfully hot, wasn't it? I'll c

d doors beyond, her voice ro

doll! Mother,

This Cousin Ruth intimidated her and her breezy indifference and lack of affectionate interest shot the visitor with the troubled

her big trunk and stood loo

olds in place! And how far away they all were. . . . It was not the old Palazz

s view of alien mountains seem

ly she had anticipated a warmer welcome from this young cousin. . . . She winked away the tears that threatened to stain th

when she came to a choice of frocks, decidedly a ne

ite mull. The silks look hot and citified. Hesitantly she selected the apricot organdie with a deeper-shaded sash; it was simple for all its glowing color, tho

ed hat-but Maria Angelina w

r that. She put the hat on; she took the hat off. She rather liked it on-but she droppe

he throat, in which she had greeted them. . . . Was the apricot too much t

. She appeared now in blue

ina's dark eyes went

ould wear?" she asked timi

n a hard heart to

said Cousin Jane i

. . . Bobby Martin is staying to luncheon," she flung casually a

tairs into the wide hall below where, in a boulder fireplace that was surmount

ovingly. One could see that the Ameri

rug before the fire two

t-one young man the first evening in New York, two young men the fi

. The big dark youth, heavy and laz

ghtly parted and brushed straight back; he had a short nose with freckles and blue eyes w

y, her dark lashes shading the oval of her cheeks, while the young men's eyes-and one pair of them, especially-took in the blac

leaned across the

aria Angelina looked up and started very innocently to explain, he leaned back

Bobby Martin turned to his friend to admonish, "Now, Johnny, do

h smartly and both young men lau

im, and Mrs. Blair smiled at both young men even as s

ady she began censoring her report to Mamma. Certainly Mamma would never understand R

erstand . . . had never heard. . . . What, indeed, was a simp, a boob, a nut? What a poor fish? . . . She held her peace, and li

preciative peal when she ventured that the Lodge must be very old be

d Bob Martin. "Where Granddad used to stretch the Red Skin

xpression, "But how shall I know what you tell me is true or not?

rward. "When I shut this eye, so, you shake y

l not always

ng to be there so usually, like the weather-di

ith them. She was conscious of a faint and confused half-distress

young Signor Elder, had been but joking. It might be the American way. . . . And yet thi

going to happen. He would c

ok her young brai

yes?" she said gayly to Mr. Blair who smiled back

, no, he's not. He's too care

cigars and cigarettes were sold, and began filling their cases, while Mrs. Blair stepped out on the

certain diffidence, as her cousin had nothing

e. She added, "Regular spoiled baby-had everyt

he is an

plet

"But that is very sad," she

id her cousin dryly, and with a hint of hard warning in her negligent

Angelina deduced, ve

the Long Is

e followed Ruth's glance to where the backs of the young men's heads were visible, bending over so

oiled egg," Ruth said with

y, cheery, everyday sort of niceness, she thought, with none of the quicksilver charm of the young man at the dinner dance

y that Fate was galloping

she recorded a possible

t, she turned the tal

too, is a millionaire," she smiled, and

his father," said tha

"Oh, Bob hasn't anything of his own, you know. . . .

Leila Grey conversation, that Bobby Martin was a very eligible young

ness?" she offered, and won from Ruth mor

urmured, which was no

to more fam

very ha

. . Now Lucia always bridled consc

o," she scoffed. "He's too fa

ed her voice and confided this conv

t got your profile-and you need

r with which he appeared to accept all things at the hand

e wondered if Ruth was exhibiting her power to warn off all newcomers. . . . Was that wh

believed she

was a young person of honor. Never would she att

re was unintelligible talk of hazards and bunkers and handicaps for the tournament, of records and of bogey, a

e golfers-as Johnny Byrd suggested-for Cousin Jane declared her frock

ried suspicion woke that she

d that suspicion as she paused by the tr

You must have some low-heeled white shoes and short white skirts and a batting hat. They wo

nched tightly at her sides in a pani

s thinking quivering

red not fail. She must find

nk of pretty things in a p

wung her back t

like the angels she had been named for. And the young people at the Lodge had a way of gathering in the dark upon the wide steps and strum

a Galli-Curci," was Jo

nging the songs of Italy, sometimes in English, when she knew the words,

silver thread of light slipped down those far Apennine hills of home and touched the dome of old

ole m

ught the whir of wheels on the road below, and all her nerve

ing . . . a figure topped by short-cut curly brown hair

now and find her lik

a hope that her he

wheels

f that expiring hope. "He will come soon. He said so. And pe

ole m

adily through the dusk, discerned