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Show Z I r I ! r ly r C i ir.i t.. c .j't t' i tj i la t T. '-i tx i :i, "Xeo. I cr-." Ar.l I r -I f o . i.. e" 'l s.-.e I'll, "Ye',?- r.l I aaiJ, ,r l.l you f .v rr.e a U sT" I,"ct pat cT, ll'xe that, you know, fciill I aaii It. I wUh Lut-lers Lut-lers could have heard me. And she eal,i, "Ohl Wfll, cf all I wonier you dare aa met Of course, I knew she wouldn't say yes. Ft!U, it was prime to have asked her. I'd never done such a thing before. be-fore. I don't ' believe Butler had. Kissing a nurse Is nothing; any fellow can do that. Why, I've kissed mine many a time, and aba's kissed me. Che does yet. hang her! "I don't see why yon should be ur-prlsed." ur-prlsed." I eaid. "Dash it, I wish X hadn't taken that cigarette. It was deuced strong." "I am surprised at you, she answered. an-swered. "Why? I was rather surprised at myself." my-self." " "Oh, well. I don't know I am." "Maud." I ald (It is nice to call her Maud), "you're not angry, are you?" "Yes, I am, very angry." "You are?" , ''Yes; it would make any girl angry 1 If a fellow ffsked for what you did." i I don't suppose she'd ever met any. fellow like me. Really, I'm a bit too bad sometime. I think. I wished that cigarette was finished. "But you wouldn't like me to have taken it without asking, would your I said, coolly. Then she burst out lauhglng. "What' the matter t" X asked. ' It's awfully disconcerting to a. fellow when a girl laughs like that. "I I don't know." "I see nothing to laugh at," X said. That's tha worst of girls, laughing at nothing. "Oh, you're too funny." Funny? I wanted to throw that confounded con-founded cigarette away. , "Ye. ..but X must leave you now. There's Capt. Farrlngton looking for me." - "You're you're going?" Ugh! I felt Just as X did when. I smoked tbat bad cigar. "Yes; but before I go I really must teach you better or you'll never do." "Teach me?" j "Yes; you want teaching. Remember, never ask a girl If you may Idas her." "Never? Why?" "Why? Can't yoa understand, stupid stu-pid r (sh called m stupid) "that X was angry with you for asking? Tata Ta-ta I You'U know better another time," She went Just in time, by Jove! for that cigarette finished me. N. B I never told Butlers. London Free Lance. 1 SHORT STORY OF THE DAY j A LESSON, lng young Carver in a blanket and how old Ross caught us, and I asked her if she'd been to "Robinson Crusoe," and she said she had. I suppose her mother took her. Girls always go with their mothers. And then what do you think she said? Why. that she knew I Was dying for a smoke, and that X might if I liked. I said I didn't car about it then. Of course, it would never do to let her know I didn't smoke. I'd only tried It once, and, by Jove I X was 111. I think It was a bad blgar. It only cost a penny. pen-ny. However, she thought I was only saying this out of politeness, and said she Insisted on It. X was In a way. Then I put my hand In my pocket aa if to pull out my case, and said: "Deuce I take It!" "What's the matter?" she asked. Tve left my cigars at home," X said. I thought I'd get out of it nicely, but X hadn't Believe me if ahe didn't pull out a little silver cigarette case and offer me one. I was floored. Of course, I was obliged to take one, and I swallowed swal-lowed a mouthful of amok straight off, and she patted me on the back. Next she called me George, and then said. "Oh, I mean Mr. Can-away," Ilk girls do. "No," I said: "you mean v George, don't you?" "Well, after all, it does seem absurd to call you Mr. Carraway, doesn't it?" sh said. "You're only a boy." That's th worst of girl, they will call a fellow a boy. "I shall be 18 neSt birthday," X said It seemed she was IS, too, though my sister Alice says she was 22 last August. Au-gust. Then X thought what a fine thing It would be to ask her for a kiss. OX course. Butlers wouldn't believe me when I told him. Still, It would be prime. Her lips made a fellow mouth water. I wondered what she'd say. I felt X could do It easily enough if I'd only another glass of champagne. But that was impossible. Well. X did it First X said maud." 4 BY JOHN MAY ALT ' I was very young at the time. Of! course, I didn't know it; indeed, I am aware that ,1 considered myself a Don ; Juan of the most rasdnatipg type. I had once been - to a music Wall with Butlers, my "chum," and I felt then that I was "going it" Butlers is older than me; he's 18. He keeps a bull pup at Bill Simmonds. and he once sent a valentine to a girL We always go to ths pantomime together. Butlers' knows an awful lot about actors and actresses. He said "Robinson Crusoe" - was rot I thought it was splendid. The fact is Butlers is getting' blase. I told him so. and he said he thought I was about right He said he was about tired of pantomimes. Fancy, tired of pantomimes. He's always talking about reforming, but he never does. He's an awful chap, is Butlers. He once kissed the nurse under the mistletoe. Last Christmas I got an invitation to , Lady Bigfeather's dance. A swelt card, ' printed in gold letters and addressed to "O. Carraway, Esq."- I wished Butlers - had been there to see it However, I determined I'd stick it up on my mantelpiece man-telpiece when I got back; and then he souldn't help noticing it I could Just fancy him lounging in, with his bands ; In his pockets and saying, "Hullo! Carraway, Car-raway, my boy, what's this?" "Oh, nothing," I would reply off-hand, "only a dance X went to. Lady Blgfeather's. . Not half bad. Done your prep' ?" That's the proper way to pass these things off, just as if you went to them every day I mean every night you know. Well, I practiced up my dancing with the girls a bit and we aU went in the brougham I felt jolly funky, XU tell BBBBBSSSja ... you. There were such a lot of girls, and hardly a fellow I knew. Lady Big-feather Big-feather found me a partner. I took her in to supper, and what do you think there was to drink? Not your washy lemonade. No, champagne. Of courie, the children didn't have it Only us grown-ups. I had two glasses. By Jove! it's grand stuff for making a fellow fel-low talk. I didn't know what to say before supper, but after well, X wish Butlers could have heard me. She wa a jolly girt. What Butlers calls a "cUpper." We pulled crackers. Afterward - we had another waits, and then she said it was too hot to dance. I said it was. too. I don't know how I got through that waits. Everything seemed to swim so, and the lights made me quite giddy. X was Jolly glad when it was over. "Couldn't we find a seat somewhere out of the crush?" she said, and I thought she smiled. What at I don't know. I said we could, and we found a couple of chairs in the conservatory behind be-hind a big palm. It waa real nuts, I'll tell you. Just us two. "Isn't it dellclously cool here?" she said. I said it was, prime. Then she asked about Blltherstone's. I told her about making forty-five against Wellby, and how Butlers thrashed Tom Stokes, the butcher's boy. - Tm afraid you're a sad pair," she said. I smiled. It doesn't do to tell girls everything. Butlers says; and . he's right. "Always getting out of bounds and going to the lollypop shop." . X winked. Then X told her about toss |