OCR Text |
Show 1! I The Party by Candle-Light By DOROTHY DOUGLAS (Copyright.) LAHDNF.K came home to his boarding board-ing house that night with weary steps. He was wishing with all his soul that he were approaching his own little house, with its dainty mistress, mis-tress, who would, of course, be also the mistress of his heart. It was a cold, bleak night and a warm fireside, rosy lamps and the sunny-haired girl there, would have made even that weary trip from the oflice seem like heaven. Lardner sighed as he went up to the unhomlike boarding-house room. The shadeless gas flickered in pale greeting and cast its not too flattering brilliance on the barren surroundings. However, Lardner went down to dinner to sit as lie bad been sitting for two full years, at the long boarding-house table with its odd assortment assort-ment of humanity. They were a more or less congenial crowd wdio chatted impersonally about things in general, but Lardner had never reached a more intimate acquaintance with auy of them. There was a Miss Drake, wdio was employed by the government as an analytical chemist, a Miss Roydon, clerk in a big dairy oflice, one or two clerks, both male and female, and then there was Miss Bennet. She had attracted him by her quiet, gentle manner, but lie always wished she might show some spark of human warmth. So he entered the dining room and stood among the guests. They were all fluttering about and laughing good humoredly with candles in their hands. The gas, for the first time in two years, had gone on strike and simply wouldn't light up. . "Something's happened to the main," apologized the worried landlady, Mrs. Warren. "Can you manage with candle-light?" "Of course we can," they shouted in chorus and went about lighting and placing candles. They were chatting and breathless and highly enjoying a simple chance to -dine by candle-light rather than under the blatant glare of gas. His thoughts were interrupted by Miss Bennet who stood close beside him holding forward an unlit candle. "I wonder if you would give me a light?" she asked softly. Lardner pulled out his matches swiftly. He also caught a quick breath. Had Miss Bennet's eyelashes always curled upward in that shadowy way and had the eyes beneath them always held that mischievous' spark in their quiet depths? He managed to light her candle, but not without another satisfying look into her eyes. Yes, -the lure was there, plenty of it. She turned from him then, but not without a lovely thanks from lips that well, Lardner didn't dare think just at the moment anything further about those lips. They were all sitting down at the big dining table which wail suddenly transformed from an ordinary second-class boarding-house table to one flickering with, the fairylike fairy-like laughter and romance of bygone ages. More than one couple at the table were casting shy glances. Lardner found himself hating the .young clerk sitting beside Miss Bennet and leaning lean-ing much nearer to her shoulder than there was the slightest necessity for. "I propose," said Miss Bennet, "that we all go up to my room after dinner and have coffee and music. You can sit on the floor or any place you find room. Everyone who plays anything must contribute. I have a guitar and Mr. Johnstone has a mouth organ. We shall have quite a time by candle-light. Those who can't sing or play must tell a story." They must have all gone mad in that boarding house, Lardner included, includ-ed, for they all dashed upstairs, each clutching a flickering candle to attend the first party they, as a unit, had indulged in. Misa Bennet's room occupied the same position in the house as Lard-ner's, Lard-ner's, save that it was up one more flight of stairs. As he stood on the threshold he drew a sharp breath. Surely this was not a room in the boarding house. The bed had been turned into a sofa divan, draped with blue velvet and holding an armful of blue and gold and petunia cushions. There were yellow shades on the candles and a white fur rug in front of the gas fire. A bit of statuary adorned the chest of drawers, instead of an untidy tray of toilet articles. It was a home. There was nothing expensive, ex-pensive, but everything was artistic. The cool brown of Miss Bennet's business frock had taken on a coppery warmth and in her golden hair a hint of red glistened. Lardner wanted again to kick himself him-self this time more soundly. "Two whole years wasted," he told himself. "I might have known she was THE GIRL." The party was tremendously successful suc-cessful and 1 1 10 candles were dicker- j ing low in their sockets before there I was a move to disband. I.anliier contrived to be the last to ; leave. lie held Miss .Bennet's hand warmly, warm-ly, in one hand and his candle in tiie j other. The little Maine leaped up be- j tween them and looking into it and into the eys above. Lardner said soft- j I v, "That little light has been more II-j luminal ing than all the g.is of two wiroie years." He lifted her hand gently j ;. his lips and the candle sputtered Joyi'ii','. even triumphantly, ' |