The Free Lance.
Published. Monthly during the College Year by the Students of
The Pennsylvania State College.
Vol. XI
Just how long Percival Weston had known May Douglas he
had forgotten. It was several years, though, he knew. Kven
when a boy he had been her champion, always ready to take up
her cause and fight for it. And now that both had grown to
youth, the kindly interest which he had formerly felt for her had
deepened to a more tender affection. Up to this time he had only
vaguely dared to hint at what had become, to him, an all
absorbing thought. But she had always rebuked him, gently,
yet firmly. Of late, however, he had grown quite serious over
the matter, He had noticed that Charlie Spofford had become a
rather frequent caller at the Douglas home, and a fear had seized
him that, perhaps, after all, he might lose a prize for which he
had waited so long and so patiently.
Now, I would not for a moment have you believe that May
Douglas was heartless. She was far from it. But she was a
woman. And who has ever yet seen the woman who was willing
to surrender herself for life without first trying the patience of
her admirer by some of those numberless means of torture known
to every member of the gentler sex ? There was no doubt in her
mind that she liked Percival Weston more than any other young
man of her acquaintance; but she loved to see him held in sus
pense as to the final result, not dreaming of the pain she was un
wittingly inflicting upon him.
But that Friday evening, as Percy drove up the street toward
the residence of the Douglas family, he vowed that this same even
ing should decide the question which had for so long a time dis
turbed his dreams. With a flourish of the lines, he brought the
spirited horse to a sudden stop, and sprang from the sleigh. In a
JANUARY, 1897.
A JANUARY BUIZZARD.
No. 11.