Page:Frank Owen - Woman Without Love (1949 reprint).djvu/41

 lips. The man who eloped with Mary Blaine may have been a rat, but what a sweet parcel had been his in the person of the lovely girl. Meigs admitted to himself that he would have enjoyed unwrapping that parcel.

For awhile they discussed desultory subjects. There was much that Mary wanted to know. She was quite talkative but she did not acquaint her brother with the fact that she had changed her name to Louella Leota. Templeton would know immediately why she had made the change. There was no necessity to advertise the fact that she was one of the profession that needs very little advertising.

Yekial Meigs sat staring at her. He gloated over her fresh young beauty. Her clear creamy skin. Her lovely eyes. Her wasp-like waist and curving hips. He'd have given much to win this girl for a few wonderful nights.

Mary Blaine finished her toast and coffee. Yekial Meigs begged her to order something more substantial, but she naively told him he could buy her a regular dinner later. That was the way she informed him that she intended to remain with him and her brother.

As they left the tea-room Templeton suggested that they visit the reproductions of the little ships Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria presented to the Fair by the Queen of Spain in commemoration of the voyages of Columbus. They were anchored near the Agricultural Building and open to visitors.

Mary liked them. She liked all the ancient vessels.

But best of all she liked the model of the Viking which was an exact copy of the legendary battle-vessel of the Norsemen, the Gokstad-find. In one of the most marvelous of sailing feats the egg-shell craft had been piloted across the Atlantic by the intrepid Captain Anderson who thereby won the plaudits of the entire world. It was a duplication of the voyage of Leif Ericson who made it in 1001. The vessel looked very tiny indeed beside the model of the battleship Illinois. Here in bulk was romance, an immortal page from history.

Templeton Blaine was forced to leave Chicago that night. Important business affairs called him back to New York where