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Show aiiiMiiiiiiaiiiiiMiiiiiitiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiin iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiMtiiiniiiniiiinniiiniimiiiiiiiiiiitiitiiimti3j I Ramsey Milholland 1 By BOOTH TARKINGTON E Copyright by Doubleday, Page ti Company 11 isiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin iiiiiiJiiiiiiii-i!:n;Mii!i:!:iMEii;iiisiiiiii:iiiiniti:i:iiiii!i'iti:iir that we shouldn't be quite so much distressed by your being seen with i girl who dressed in better taste and seemed to hnve some notion of refinement, refine-ment, though of course it's only natural nat-ural she wouldn't, with a father who Is just a sort of ward politician, I understand, un-derstand, and a mother we don't know, and of course shouldn't care to. But, oh, Ramsey ! If you had to make yourself your-self so conspicuous why ccaldn't you be a lktle bit more fastidious? Your father wouldn't have minded nearly so much If It had been a self-respecting, intellectual girl. We both sny that if you must be so ridiculous at your age us to persist in seeing more of one girl than another, why, oh, why, don't you go and see some really lilce girl like Dora Yocum ?" Ramsey was already dangerously distended, as an effect of the earlier part of her discsirse, and the word "fastidious" almost exploded him; but upon this climax, "Dora Yocum," he blew up with a shattering report and, leaving fragments of incoherence rico-chettlng rico-chettlng behind hira, fled shuddering from the house. For the rest of the school term he walked home with Mllla every afternoon after-noon and on Sundays appeared to have O- a o OUT WALKING. Synopsis. With his grandfather, small Ramsey Milholland Is watching watch-ing the "Decoration Day Parade" in the home town. The old gentleman, gentle-man, a vteran of the Civil war, endeavors to impress the youngster young-ster with the significance of the great conflict, and many years afterward aft-erward the boy was to remember his words with startling vividness. In the schoolroom, a few years afterward, Ramsey is not distinguished distin-guished for remarkable ability, though his pronounced dislikes are arithmetic, "Recitations" and German. Ger-man. In sharp contrast to Ramsey's Ram-sey's backwardness is the precocity of little Dora yocum, a young lady whom In his bitterness he denominates denomi-nates "Teacher's Pet." In high school, where he and Dora are classmates, Ramsey continues to feel that the girl delights to manifest mani-fest her superiority, and the vln-dictiveness vln-dictiveness he generates becomes alarming, culminating in the resolution reso-lution that some day he will "show" her. At a class picnic Ramsey Ram-sey Is captured bag and baggage by Mllla Rust, the class beauty, and endures the agonies of his first love. ) 3 CHAPTER V. 5 The next morning Ramsey came into his father's room while Mr. Milholland was shaving, an hour before church tirje, and it became apparent that the Bon had something on his mind, though for a while he said nothing. 'Did you want anything, Ramsey?" "Well" "Didn't want to borrow my razors?" "No, sir." Mr. Milholland chuckled. "I hardly supposed so seriously ! Shaving is a great nuiwonee and the longer you keep iway from it the better. And when you do, you let my razors alone, young feller I" "Yes, sir." (Mr. Milholland'g razors were safe. Ramsey bad already achieved one of his own, but he practice prac-tice the art in secret.) "What is It you really want, Ramsey? Ram-sey? ' "1 guess I don't want anything." "Money?" "No, sir. You gay' me some Friday." Fri-day." Mr. Mllrtolland turned from his mirror mir-ror and looked over the edge of a towel at his son. In the boy's eyes there was such a dumb agony of interrogation inter-rogation that the father was a little startled. "Why, what is It, Ramsey? Have you " Hi; paused, frowning and wondering. won-dering. "You haven't been getting Into In-to some mess you want "to tell me about, have you?" "No, sir." His tone was meek, but a mute distress dis-tress lurked within it, bringing to the father's mind disturbing suspicions, nd foreshadowings of Indignation and of pity. "See here, Ramsey," he said, "If there' anything you want to ask me, or to tell me, you'd better out with It and get It over. Now, what Is it?" "WeU tt Isn't anything." "Are you sure?" Ramsey's nyeK fell before the severe and pieVclng gaze of his father. "Yes, sir." Mr. Milholland shook his head doubtfully; doubt-fully; then, as his son walked slowly out of the room, he turned to complete chief showing out of the coat breastpocket breast-pocket or not, and, If It was right ought the handkerchief to have a colored col-ored border or to be plain white? But he had never before brought any such perplexities to his father, and found himself too diffident to set them forth. However, when he left the house a few minutes later, he boldly showed an inch of purple border above the pocket; then, as he saw himself about to encounter several old lady pedes- trians, he blushed and thrust the handkerchief hand-kerchief down into deep concealment. Having gone a block farther, he pulled it up again ; and so continued to operate oper-ate this badge of fashion, or unfashion, throughout the morning; and suffered a great deal thereby. Meantime, his father, rather relieved that Ramsey had not told his secret, whatever it was, dismissed the episode from his mind and joined Mrs. Milholland Mil-holland at the front door, ready for church. "Where's Ramsey?" he asked. "He's gone ahead," she answered, buttoning her gloves as they went along. "I heard the door quite a little while ago. Perhaps he went over to walk down with Charlotte and Vance. Did you notice how neat he looks this morning?" "Why, no, I didn't ; not particularly. Does he?" "I never saw anything like it before," be-fore," said Mrs. Milholland. "He only has three neckties, but I saw him several sev-eral times in each of them. He must have kept changing and changing. I wonder " She paused. "I'm glad he's begun to take a little care of his appearance at last. I'll have to take a look at him and give him a word of praise. I suppose he'll be in the pew when we get there." But Ramsey wasn't in the pew; and Charlotte, his sister, and her husband, who were there, said they hadn't seen anything of him. It was not until the members of his family were on their way home after the services that they caught a glimpse of him. They were passing a church a little distance from their own ; here the congregation con-gregation was just emerging to the open, and among the sedate throng descending the broad stone steps appeared ap-peared an accompanied Ramsey and a red, red Ramsey he was when he beheld his father and mother and sister sis-ter and brother-in-law staring up at him from the pavement below. They were kind enough not to come to an absolute halt, but passed slowly on, so that he was just able to avoid parading pa-rading up the street in front of them. In hoarse whispers, Mrs. Milholland chided her husband for an exclamation exclama-tion he had uttered. "John ! On Sunday Sun-day 1 You ought to be ashamed." "I couldn't help It," he exclaimed. "Who on earth is his clinging vine? Why, she's got lavender tops on her shoes and " "Don't look round !" she warned him sharply. "Don't " "Well, what's he doing at a Baptist church? What's he fidgeting at his handkerchief about? WThy can't he walk like people? Does he think It's .obligatory to walk home from church anchored arm-in-arm like Swedes on a Sunday Out? Who is this cow-eyed fat girl that's got him, anyhow?" "Hush! Don't look round again, John." "Never fear 1" said her husband, having hav-ing disobeyed. "They've turned off ; they're crossing over to Bullard street. Who Is It?" "I think her name's Rust," Mrs. Milholland Mil-holland Informed him. "I don't know what her father does. She's one of the girls in his class at school. It would be pleasanter if he'd taken a fancy to someone whose family belongs be-longs to our own circle." "Taken n fancy !" be echoed, hooting. "Why, he's terrible! He looked like a red-gilled goldfish that's, flopped itself it-self out of the bowl. Why, he " "I say I Wish If he felt that he had to take girls anywhere," said Mrs. Milholland. Mil-holland. with the primmest air of speaking to the point "if this sort of thing must begin. I wish he might have selected some nice girl among the daughters of our own friends, like Dora Yocum, for instance." Upon the spot she began to undergo the mortifications of a mother who has expected her son, just out of Infancy, In-fancy, to look about him with the eye of a critical matron of forty-five. Moreover, she was Indiscreet enough to express her views to Ramsey, a week litter, producing thus a scene of useless great fury and no little sound. "I do think It's In very poor taste to see so much of any one girl. Ramsey," Ram-sey," she said, and, not heeding his protest that he only walked home from school with Milla. "about every other day," and that It didn't seem any crime to him just to go to church w ith her a couple o' times, Mrs. Milholland went on: "But if you think you really in st be dangling around somebody quite this much though what in the world you find to talk about with this funny little Milla Rust your poor father fa-ther says he really cannot see and of course It seems very queer to us now when your mind ought to be entirely en-tirely on your studies, and especially with such an absurd looking little thing "No, you must listen, Ramsey, and i let me sneak now. What I meant was Evening After Evening They Walked and Walked and Walked. become a resolute Baptist. It was supposed (by the Interested members of the high-school class) that Ramsey and Milla were "engaged." Ramsey sometimes rather supposed they were himself, and the dim idea gave him a sensation partly pleas-ant, but mostly apprehensive ; he was afraid. He was afraid that the day was coming com-ing when he ought to kiss her. CHAPTER VI Vacation, in spite of Increased leisure, leis-ure, may bring inconvenience to people in Ramsey's strange bat not uncommon uncom-mon condition. At home his constant air was that of a badgered captive plaintively silent under injustice; and he found It difficult to reply calmly when asked where he was going an inquiry addressed to him, he- asserted, every time he touched his cap, eveD to hang It up! The amount of evening walkiug he did must also have beer. a trial to bis nerves, on account of fatigue, though the ground covered was not vast. Mil-la's Mil-la's mother and father were friendly people, but saw no reason to "move out of house and home, ' as Mr. Rust said, when Milla had 'callers"; and on account of the Intimate plan of their small dwelling a visitor's only alternative to spending- the evening with Mr. and Mrs. Rust as well as with Milla, was to invite htr to "go out walking." Evening after evening they walked and walked and walked, usually in company at perhaps the distance of half a block with Albert Paxton and Sadie Clews, though Ramsey now and then felt disgraced by having fallen into this class; for sometimes it was apparent that Albert casually had his arm about Sadie's waist. This allured Ramsey somewhat, but terrified him more. He didn't know how such matters mat-ters were managed. Usually the quartet had no destina tlon ; they Just went "out walking' until ten o'clock, when both girls hud to be home and the boys did, too, but never admitted it. On Friday evenings eve-nings there was a "public open-air concert" con-cert" by a brass band In a small park and the four were always there. I j Ramsey kisses M'ila and fate steps in to sepsrate them and "everything's all over." l II I (TO EE CONTINUED.) 'And WrTen You Do, You Let My Razors Alone, Young Feller!" his toilet in a somewhat uneasy frame of mind. Ramsey had undoubtedly wanted to say something to him and the boy's expression had shown that the matter in question was serious, distressing, and, it might be, critical. In fact It was to Ramsey. Having begun within only the last few hours to regard haberdashery as of vital Importance, Im-portance, and believing his father to be possessed of the experience and authority au-thority lacking In himself, Ramsey had come to get him to settle a question which had been upsetting him badly. In his own room, since. breakfast. What he wanted to knew wns: Whether It was rljfht to wer an extri bnidUr |