He had a fine, manly figure of his own.
He had just passed the nearest radius to her circle and was proceeding
along the tangent that he had laid out for himself, when the unwitting
maid looked carefully down and saw a tangle of roots at her very feet.
She was so unfortunate, a second later, as to slip her foot in this
very tangle and give her ankle ever so slight a twist.
"Oh!" cried Miss Van Kamp, and Ralph Ellsworth flew to the rescue. He
had not been noticing her at all, and yet he had started to her side
before she had even cried out, which was strange. She had a very
attractive voice.
"May I be of assistance?" he anxiously inquired.
"I think not, thank you," she replied, compressing her lips to keep
back the intolerable pain, and half-closing her eyes to show the fine
lashes. Declining the proffered help, she extricated her foot, picked
up her autumn branches, and turned away. She was intensely averse to
anything that could be construed as a flirtation, even of the mildest,
he could certainly see that. She took a step, swayed slightly, dropped
the leaves, and clutched out her hand to him.
Pages:
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429