Margaret Cameron

“ Kate will have this straightened out in a minute. I'm sorry to detain you so long."
"I'm in no haste. Unusual, isn't it?—having a woman mechanician?"
"Possibly. But isn't everything unusual until it's commonplace? Perhaps I'm not fair to the things of tradition and precedent." It was her turn to shrug and smile. "I believe in playing the game—any game—according to its rules, but I confess that the games I like best are those not yet rigidly defined. Engineering, for example." Her glance seemed entirely candid. "That's an almost limitless field. If I were a man, I'd be an engineer." ”

“ Now, Jack's future—⁠ Wait!" He combated the denial of her lifted hand. "Let me tell you that story. Jack's twenty-seven. Good-looking, good mind, good family, good habits—until recently, at least—and magnificent prospects. Like all the Ordways, he's a lawyer.
"Oh, is he? I'm not much interested in lawyers." Smiling, she shook her head. "They don't appeal to my imagination. You see, Bob's an engineer, and that's constructive! To harness great natural forces—to make them work instead of waste themselves—"
"But don't you see that's what I'm asking you to do?" ”

“ Whereupon the angel-at-large compressed her soft lips and wagged her brown head, the more determined that the wanderer should be restored to his legitimate place among them.
The sun was rising on the second morning after his disappearance when she heard the hum of his car on the driveway under her window, shortly followed by his step in the hall; but all day he kept to his room, and the shadows were long again before he lounged across the lawn, heavy-eyed, to find her curled up in his Gloucester hammock under the trees, reading. ”

“ His tone was dry. "A woman's interest in any game seems to consist in finding to what extent she can evade the rules without incurring the penalty."
"Oh? Still—if that were an exclusively feminine characteristic, what would become of the lawyers?" she inquired.
He shot a quick glance at her, but her attention seemed to be chiefly concentrated upon the activities of her busy mechanician, and he decided that sin must have spoken at random, though he suggested, tentatively, "I infer that you don't admire the practice of law." ”

“ Only the finest—highest—things are worth it. Yet—if you were not willing to bear anything to give her the happiness she wants, you wouldn't really love her, would you? It must be wonderful to love anybody like that! ”

“ In the beginning their talk was entirely technical, and she patiently answered questions until his ingenuity in framing them was exhausted, when they fell into a silence so protracted that at length he turned to look at her, curiously.
"Well?" she asked, with a little smile.
"You're the only woman I ever saw who'd let a fellow be quiet."
"That's one of the things I have my plane for—to get away. An automobile's too social. ”

“ Whereupon, to his amazement, one of the "fellows," half concealed behind the flying-machine, lifted a piquant, smiling girl's face, and nodded affably.
"Sorry," she apologized. "But the world is a small place, you know, and a lot of it's marked 'No trespassing.'"
"What's that to you?" he retorted, laughing shortly, his acrimony somewhat tempered by an astonishment which was not lessened when Patricia's mechanician moved at that moment into full view, disclosing the supple figure of a young woman in khaki dress. ”

“ Because I've heard it said that no man ever willingly gave a woman a fair chance. I've never believed it—but I'm always open to conviction," she added, mischievously.
"A woman doesn't need any chance!" was his bitter retort. "She always has the advantage—and no scruples about using it!"
"That's what a lot of women say about men," she observed, dispassionately. "Personally, I think we're much of a muchness. Some women are rotters—but so are some men. ”

“ Howard introduced the men to each other, and followed with her brother as Patricia and Blaisdell led the way to the house. At the first opportunity, the girl inquired in an undertone which she tried to make biting:
"Just what do you expect to accomplish by this?"
"Uplift!" he said. "Reform! I have a passion for reform. It's my vice."
"Charity's not the only vice that might better begin at home," she mentioned. "In any case, there's no food for your fever here." ”

“ You're not suffering. You imagine it. Besides, I'm not personally interested in Jack. He's just a case—a project, as it were."
"H'mph! I'd like to know why you don't show a little interest in my case!" he grumbled. "How old's this chap?"
"Jack? Twenty-seven."
"How long have you known him?"
"Billy Blaisdell, can't you look at anything impersonally? I've never seen the man in my life. Good-night!" Laughing, she hung up the receiver and went out to spend the evening in consultation with Howard and one of Jack Ordway's sisters as to the best way to approach her new "project." ”

“ While they skimmed over miles of uneven green checkerboard, she saw his tense muscles gradually relax, and noticed, when their destination was reached, that the hand with which he helped her out of the machine was steadier than it had been earlier. After some delay he found a man to guard the plane, and they strolled on half a mile or so to the inn where they were to dine.
"The black cat liked you to-day," she observed, with a smiling upward glance. "Did you notice how nicely it purred?"
"That's no sign it won't spit and scratch next time." ”

“ During dinner Jack would talk of nothing but aeroplanes, and at the earliest possible moment he claimed Patricia's promise to take him for a flight in the moonlight, though she insisted upon postponing until the next day his first lesson in handling the machine. ”

“ Where one woman has used her natural equipment of wit and charm primally, to entrap a man to his undoing and the waste of his best energies, you've used your forces like an engineer. And you've made good! Where I handle currents of earth and air, you've handled human emotions, and turned them into channels of greater efficiency. Now, if you'll only build a few dams around Jack, and swing him back into his course again—"
"With a simple turn of the wrist?" ”

“ Howard that their wisest course would be to proceed as if she were in reality the casual guest she was believed to be. Therefore, the engineer's wife gathered together a group of young people for the weekly informal dinner dance at the country club, when Patricia met, among others, the trio of the touring-car—Dorothy Alexander, exquisite, radiant, a vivid, restless flame of a girl, never in repose; Ada, her elder sister, whose brilliant dark eyes failed, somehow, to illumine a face as delicate and as inflexible as a cameo ”

“ Patricia's pleasant gray eyes scrutinized him amusedly. "Isn't that one of the rules of the game?"
"A woman can always claim that she didn't see the sign—and generally she succeeds in putting it over," was his cynical reminder.
Illustration: MRS. HOWARD PLAYING WELL HER PART OF SURPRISED DELIGHT
"I suppose some of us do try to take advantage occasionally," she admitted. "But that sort of thing's not quite cricket, is it? Besides, it's unintelligent. The game loses interest if one ignores the rules." ”

“ Why don't you fly back with me and let Kate drive your car? It will be perfectly safe. She can drive anything that goes by on gasolene."
So, after giving the mechanician directions, he clambered into the place beside Patricia, and in another minute they were off.
"Gee!" he gasped, as they left the earth, and again as they skimmed over a forest-clad hill, "Gee!" Later he pointed out his mother's house, and when finally they alighted, after a breath-taking dip, and ran smoothly along the wide lawn, he exclaimed: "Well, that settles it! I'm going to have one of these things! ”

“ He's not dissipated. He's just confused and hurt and desperate. The girl he expected to marry this summer threw him over for a millionaire, and he thinks his heart's broken and that nothing matters any more. ”

“ I know what's what, even if I don't fully practise it."
"Then sincerity lifts its head here and there, after all," she lightly pointed out, but to herself she was saying: "He makes no defense. I wonder why?" Aloud, to her mechanician, she added, "Try that other valve, Kate."
"Perhaps I can be of service?" Ordway now offered, leaving his car.
But Patricia pleasantly declined. "Thank you. ”