Love stories; Mystery fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Ranchers -- Fiction
His attitude had been plain as day; theirs, both separately and as a
whole, incomprehensible. And since that evening, the conduct of all had
been as misleading as his had been direct. This was the afternoon of the
third ineffectual after day. It was all right for handsome fellows like
the traffic cop to advise him to do something that would “make ’em take
notice.” He had done it—done it so well that they had noticed him enough
to decide not to notice him. To him the situation seemed to call for
some deed even more noticeable. Again, _what_? Leaving the pace to the
piebald, he brisked along in review.
At the enthusiastic hour of six _a.m._ that morning after sighting
Society, he had risen and rigged himself to do and dare on the high-seas
of adventure. Any idea of adhering to the original “slow and steady”
stipulation of his experiment not already quashed by first sight and
sound of Miss Lauderdale must have been ruled out by sub-consciousness
during his brief sleep. Slow and steady would have been proper enough in
almost any other conceivable case of discovering whether a woman was
_the_ woman. But as applied to Jane, any method other than gun-fire
quick seemed somehow a reflection on her. An excellent rule, no
doubt—slow and steady. She, however, was super-excellent—an exception to
any rule.
Realization that he was essaying rather an early start had struck him as
he steered a course through Mr. ——or Mrs. Astor’s fleet of scrub ladies,
tugging at their brush anchors over the seas of Jersey-made marble,
evidently about ready to call it a night’s voyage. He had left his berth
without any call, as six _a.m._ long had been and doubtless long would
remain his hour for setting sail into the whitecaps of each new day.
So transformed was The Way outside that he scarcely could recall its
nocturnal whiteness or gayety. Strict business ruled it. Luggage-laden
taxis sped toward or from the ports of early trains. Surface cars
demanded blatantly, if unnecessarily, the right o’ way. Motor trucks
groaned hither and yon with their miseries of dripping ice, jangling
milk cans, bread, vegetables—what not. Only the pavements were empty at
that hour. Blocks and blocks of them stretched out, practically
uncontested.
A moment he “lay-to” for an upward survey of the greeting he had bought
from himself to himself, which last evening had seemed the howdy-doo of
Destiny. It wasn’t so conspicuous in daytime with the lights off,
although the contractor had been clever about blocking in behind the
incandescents so that the letters within the bouquet border still were
legible. Even had they not been, he shouldn’t have felt disappointed. To
every electric sign its night, as to every dog his day! Wasn’t he now
the gayest dog that ever believed in signs? And wasn’t this to be his
day?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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