" Well, what's booked for to-night ?" I asked, turning to a more comfortable position in my chair. " I haven't quite decided yet," he returned. " Make it something summerish," I hastened to add. " This is a beastly cold night," and I affected a shiver as a realistic effect. Then a photo hanging high on the wall opposite caught my eye. I did not remember having seen it before. " Hello," I said, pointing to it, " where'd you get that ? It's a new one, isn't it ?" " Not so very," responded Wersand, carelessly. " I've had that since midsummer. Got it at Lake Ondagua. What do you think of it?" " I can't see it very plainly from here, and I'm too tired to get up," I said, yawning. "So I won't pass judgment. Who is she, though ?" " A little girl I met last summer, as I have told you," said Wersand. " She is not nearly so pretty as her photo makes her, yet I must confess 'that for a time I was mightily taken with her." I glanced up. Wersand had thrown himself on his divan and was staring ,hard at the bare ceiling. I scented a new story and curled up more cosily in my chair. He did not begin at once. " Let's hear about it," I suggested. " I've never told any one this," he began hesitatingly, " and I don't know whether I ought to—" ".Oh, go ahead," I interrupted, " I'm no newspaper reporter. Your words won't be published." • That brought him around in short order. " It was at one of the dances at the hotel that I first met her," he began. " I was standing alone near one of the pillars of the wide verandah when Garford came up to me. Garford is a Buck nell man, you know. " Come, Wersand,' he said to me, 'Tye a partner for you. See that little girl in blue across there? She's having a most miserable evening of it. Play the philanthropist for a while and make at least one bright spot in that child's life.' " To tell the truth, I was feeling decidedly bored by the vis itors to the lake, and, arguing that I could scarcely change for the worse, I consented to Garford's arrangement. A few Mill" The Free Lance [MARCH,
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