Page:Firecrackers a realistic novel.pdf/152



George, Laura Everest tearfully exclaimed to her husband one evening on his return from the City, I just don't know what to do about Consuelo!

What's the trouble now, Laura? George demanded indifferently, a trifle bored by his wife's chronic, if still bewildered, complaint.

She wants to become an acrobat, wants to study with those awful circus People she met through Campaspe.

George chuckled. I thought she met them first.

Well, at any rate she never would have seen that man again if Campaspe hadn't invited her to go to the Riverside. If I had known. . . !

Why not let her, Laura?

Are you out of your head, George?

George shielded a permanent smile behind the newspaper he held in his hands as he persisted, Why not let her, I say? All the babies in town are doing something of the sort now. Hiram Mason's son is studying pugilism, doubtless with the intention of challenging Young Stribling. Ira Barber's little girl is striving to acquire the rudiments of interpretative dancing. Already her picture, in Greek costume, has appeared in the illustrated section of the