Page:Duer Miller--The charm school.djvu/32

 Bevans in the mean time was walking gloomily home. Even one of his company's new cars painted a geranium pink picked out in black failed to raise more than a passing interest in his mind. He was depressed not only at Susie's coolness, but by a sudden conviction that had come over him that he was not a man who would ever inspire a lasting love. And when two girls actually stopped and walked backward to stare at him as he passed, his only thought was a bitter reflection that they wouldn't stick to him a week. It was a lovely afternoon in the end of February, when something in the faint color of the sky and the gentle movements of the air promised an early spring. The sun was low and struck down the side-street, throwing long shadows, as Bevans turned toward the little east-side park where he and David Stewart had rooms.

David was reading for his bar examinations. He always began to read in a normal, upright position, but as the intellectual strain became greater he sank lower and lower, until finally the elevation of his feet began. When Bevans entered, the intricacies of the subject were such that David was lying on the sofa with his feet festooned over