Adventure stories; California -- Fiction; Love stories; Mate selection -- Fiction; Widows -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
“That’s about all there is to be told about me. Except that I never
intend to marry again. Oh, yes!--and I always call Mary Temple Mary
Temple. If I were to call her Mary it would sound disrespectful from
one so much younger than she is. If I called her Miss Temple it would
sound stiff and throw a wet blanket over our comradeship. And I’m too
human, and I hope too genuine, to ape high society and call her Temple.
So she’s Mary Temple to me, and everything seems to move smoothly. Now
I’m through--positively through. Now tell me about the glands, Doctor
Shonto.”
Shonto was smiling in quiet amusement. He could not quite make out this
girl. Shonto was very much a radical himself, and he believed that she
knew it. But he considered her too young to hold such a pessimistic
outlook on life as she had hinted at. That she was ready to worship him
because of his reputation as a specialist in gland secretions seemed
apparent. The doctor had been fawned upon by many women intellectually
inclined, and they had nauseated him immeasurably. He admired Charmian
Reemy for her physical charm, her vivacity, and her good-fellowship;
but he was experienced and therefore wary.
But he was saved for the present from committing himself by Mary
Temple, who had completed her ministrations over the Dutch oven, and
had carried the result to the table.
“Dinner’s ready,” she announced unceremoniously.
Whereupon Charmian rose and seated her guests.
Dr. Shonto was not a little puzzled at the behaviour of his friend.
Andy Jerome had spoken to Mrs. Reemy but once since their entrance
into her home, aside from muttering her name when the doctor had
introduced him. It was true that their hostess had done most of the
talking herself, but Shonto had managed to get in a word edgewise now
and then. While Andy had showed little or no inclination to talk at all.
For the most part he had sat and almost stared at her, as if never
before had he seen a beautiful girl in an evening gown. The doctor knew
that this was far from the case, and that Andy ordinarily was quick to
respond to pretty women. He usually could hold his own with them, too.
But it seemed that Charmian Reemy had fairly swept him off his feet.
Shonto felt a slight twinge of regret. He found that he himself was
rather impressed by this frank, free-spoken girl of the woods and the
cities.
Mary Temple occupied the foot of the table, where she sat stiffly
and with an austere mien, and attended to the greater part of the
serving. They were no more than seated when Charmian Reemy again began
begging the gland specialist to initiate her into the mysteries of
his witchcraft. But Shonto, seeking an avenue of escape, hit upon a
topic that at once changed her thoughts into another, though no less
interesting, channel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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