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Show Gallantry By KARL GRAYSON WNU Features. Associated Newspapers. WE WHO gather occasionally on the veranda of the Harrison Hotel to engage in idle conversation and exchanges of congenialities are apt, in the course of a year's time, to touch upon almost every topic of discussion one can imagine. Today we spoke of gallantry. And Old Les Wilton discounted the tale of Walter Raleigh and Queen Eliza-; beth, which has survived history as' the shining example. J "I once knew a man," Les began,! "who won laurels for gallantry with-: out show or fuss or desire for pub-' lie acclaim for his act. He lived right here in Harrison, this man' did, or leastwise he settled down here permanently after marrying; Delia Kilday. "The story I have to tell concerns Delia, I guess, more than Roger Ide, hence I'd better give it to you from her point of view. She was a pretty girl, Delia was; had a sweet sort of way about her manner of talking. It's more than likely that, 1 had it not been for Delia's afflic-' tion, she'd have married Douglas; Currier, the son of our town's leading lead-ing citizen and richest man in those,1 days, for the young fellers all made: a play for her hand, and Douglas was about the best catch of the lot.; "But Delia had an affliction, if you could call it that. She was left-: handed. Don't seem like much, does it? Well, oddly enough, it happened1 that the girl was the only person in town who could lay claim to such an: outstanding peculiarity. You get her in a big crowd and the thing was plumb noticeable. Combine this with' The courtship began with the first night Delia accepted Roger's invitation invita-tion to attend the semi-annual ladies' la-dies' aid supper. j the fact that Delia was naturally a sensitive little chit, and you had something that proved mighty troublesome. trou-blesome. "Delia had reached her twenty-' second year, which was about the limit of matrimonial eligibility in those days, when she met Roger Ide. Roger came from down country somewhere, a bright young man, with a sense of humor and a likeable personality. But probably no one, of the dozens of friends he acquired shortly after his advent into our midst, appreciated his qualities more than Delia Kilday. "There was a reason for it, and a good one; a reason that served to immediately establish a bond of friendship and understanding between be-tween the two, that has never since been shattered. Roger Ide was left-handed! left-handed! "Roger was not only left-handed, but Delia knew by the faintly embarrassed em-barrassed and awkward manner in which he held things that he was as sensitive about the attention his affliction might attract as she was about her own. Instantly he excited excit-ed her pity and sympathy and understanding. un-derstanding. She looked at him and smiled and realized at once that at last she had found a friend who would never grate on her nerves. "That, and the fact that Roger was as deserving of a good wife as ever a young man could be, resulted in the ultimate union of the pair three years later. The courtship began be-gan with the first night Delia accepted ac-cepted Roger's invitation to attend the semi-annual ladies' aid supper (a date which, incidentally, she dreadedfor fear that Roger would make some remark at sight of her ladling soup with her left hand) and continued without a quarrel or disagreement dis-agreement or misunderstanding." Deke Leighton looked a little bewildered be-wildered and shook his head. "Well," he remarked. "I suppose you might call it gallant But there's nothing oustanding 'about it; nothing that compares with Walter Raleigh. Why, your Roger was probably as grateful grate-ful to Delia as she was to him. They were both pretty lucky." "Nope," said Les soberly. "Nope, you're wrong, Deke. Roger Ide was truly a gallant young man, and unselfish un-selfish and modest. And he knew his manners, too; had breeding and a good bringing up. For you see, about a week after Roger and Delia were married, she came into the kitchen one day and found her husband hus-band eating his dinner and reading the newspaper at one and the same time. He musta been pretty much Interested in the newspaper article and sort of forgot himself for a minute, min-ute, because he was wielding a fork with his right hand! And the way he wielded it there was no mistaking the fact that Roger was naturally right-handed." |