Tom Armstrong. He was certainly vastly different Nom the per
son she had expected to meet. He was handsomer by far than
his photographs and his talk and bearing were those of a perfectly
refined gentleman. It was hard to believe that this pleasant
young fellow with intelligence and kindly good nature written
all over his finely cut features was the same savage, uncouth, wild
animal she had seen at the game. It seemed impossible that this
tall figure that danced with such grace and ease had torn great
gaps in the opposing line and struggled and battled like a fiend
Thanksgiving afternoon. No, she could not hate, and she was
bound to admire him, in spite of her reasoning to the contrary,
Wherever he went her eyes followed him, and it was with pleas
ure instead of aversion, as she had at first expected, that she
finally saw him coming to claim her for their first dance.
" I believe it is my pleasure this time, Miss Graham."
He could hardly repress the shade of surprise that flitted across
his face, when she sweetly replied: " Oh, Mr. Armstrong, I have
been waiting so anxiously to have a chance to talk to you. I.
want to apologize for my seeming rudeness, but I was too agree
ably surprised, and—oh well I was taken off my guard. Jack in
troduced you without any warning."
" What did you expect," he asked laughingly; " did you think
I would be here in my football clothes and with six inches of
hair ?"
" Oh, Mr. Armstrong—but really I had formed an altogether
different opinion of you."
" Based on my behavior Thanksgiving afternoon ? Well, I
don't blame you. Your brother has told me all about your
opinions of football and football men. Oh, don't be frightened,
that is why lam so sincerely glad to meet you, Miss Graham. It
is such a relief to find a girl who will take a fellow at his true
worth, and not bow down before him and worship him simply be
cause he is a little better than the ordinary run of football players.
Why, it is an honest fact that nearly every girl I have met this
evening has regarded me almost with awe and veneration as one .
of the greater ones of the earth, merely because the papers said
I won the Thanksgiving Day game for the 'Varsity. But there
goes the 'Directorate' and you surely don't want to miss that."
How exhilarating that two-step was. How lightly, yet firmly,
he held her, and how magnificently he danced. It was in reality
the first dance she had ever completely enjoyed, and when he de-
ne Free Lance
[JANUARY,