Page:Earl Derr Biggers - Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913).djvu/154

136 "From the moment I saw you weeping in the sta tion I ve wanted to be of help to you. The sta tion agent advised me not to interfere. He said to become involved with a weeping woman meant trouble. The fool. As though any trouble"

"He was right," put in the girl, "it probably will mean trouble."

"As though any storm," finished Mr. Magee "would not be worth the rainbow of your smile at the end."

"A very fancy figure," laughed she. "But storms aren't nice."

"There are a few of us," replied Magee, "who can be merry through the worst of them because of the rainbow to come."

For answer, she flattened her finely-modeled nose into shapelessness against the cold pane. Back of them in the candle-lighted room, the mot ley crew of Baldpate s winter guests stood about in various attitudes of waiting. In front of the fire the holder of the Chair of Comparative Lit erature quoted poetry to Mrs. Norton, and proba bly it never occurred to the old man that the wom an to whom he talked was that nightmare of his