OCR Text |
Show Man From the North By TESS FULTON Q, by McClure Newspa.pr ffrndto&t WNU Sorvlos DOLLT read the letter and toesed It carelessly to her roommate. "Darling, here's a chance for one of your Infernal practical jokea," she uggested, her cold eyeg hiding In their darknee a faint twinkle. "That's from Allan Dyer. I met him last summer sum-mer up North. He was good looking enough but a bit rusty in appearance said he was camping on the lake and he looked it; and besides, he wu poor. The man who Interests me Is the boy who can pay the waiter's check without looking as If he wondered won-dered how much it left him." Carol smiled as she picked np the letter. "Tour bright Idea, Icy one. Is for me to carry on your correspondence correspond-ence with him; Is that It?" "He writes an Interesting letter, and you can string him along ; and when I go up there next year, I can have him to play around with." "Polly, you're heartless!" "Mebbe so, little one, but this Is a heartless age." Carol mused over the letter. It was chatty and Interesting, and suddenly she decided to answer it. Polly Informed In-formed her. Immediately, that Allen had never seen her handwriting, so the hoax would work. Carol wrote the reply, employing some of Polly's characteristic phrases, amused and pleased herself at the way her letter shaped itself. A week later, Allan's reply came, and Carol learned something of his life. It seemed he was working In a lumber camp, and the letter told of his life there. The letters began to Interest her keenly, although she took care to keep the discovery from Polly who found the letters only mildly Interesting and soon stopped reading them. Slowly a personal note crept into the letters. Before she realized it, the same mood was upon her. "Here's a nice situation !" Carol told herself one evening. "Writing Polly's letter to a chap who evidently Is thinking of her tenderly, while I'm beginning to think of him the same way ! I'll drop him !" But she found It much easier to say it than to do It Polly left for a two weeks' trip for her firm, and with her bright, somewhat some-what cynical presence absent from the room, Carol found It easier to dream and muse over the man to whom she was writing. Polly had been gone only a few days when Carol went to the door to learn from the maid that "A man from the North" would like to see her. Carol was stunned. "But she isn't here, Kate!" Kate grinned. "He said If Polly wasn't here, he liked to see any friend of hers." Carol thought a moment. "Send him up, Kate," she said with decision, but her mind was fluttering. Carol went to the window. A long, powerful-looking roadster was at the curb. "It can't be Allan," she told herself. The door opened Into their living room, and a man, brown of face, and almost filling the doorway, faced her. "I'm sorry to learn that Polly is away, but glad that you are here." His gray, fine eyes were friendly. "You see, I'm right from the woods, hungry for a good time, and I hope you will run around with me a little some plays, dances, etc." Carol laughed Inwardly as she thought of the joke on Polly. They did play around a gay, gorgeous gor-geous week. He seemed to have plenty of money that he spent freely but wisely, and he certainly was good company. com-pany. "Oh, this is awful I" Carol moaned one night, as she tossed her evening dress aside. "I'm In love with him and he's In love with Polly I And when Polly gets here Gosh ! what a mix-up !" She saw no solution, but one came the next evening. They were at a corner table In one of the delightful places he knew. He had been musing a bit. "Carol, I was lonely up North at the camp. You see, my father owns the business, and I was up there winning back after a bad dose of pneumonia. The letters that came, so cheery, amusing, pulled me out of dark hours; I made up my mind that the girl who wrote them should play with me and be with me all the rest of my life. Now are you willing?" Carol ceased to breathe. "But my dear I how did you know I wrote the letters? I really " A strong, steadying hand lay npon her trembling one. "Through a friend I learned that Polly had gone on a business trip, but the letters came from your address Just the same; and besides, the last of the letters sounded to me well as I know you now," he said gently. "But Polly " she began. "The point of It Is do you care a bit for me?" he said quietly. The somewhat dizzy world around her cleared. She was looking Into the strong but tender face of the man she loved. She let her hand turn and clasp his. "Of course I do, Allan. I have since your first letter arrived." |