Page:The leopard's spots - a romance of the white man's burden-1865-1900 (IA leopardsspotsrom00dixo).pdf/257

 "Don't you speak to her. It'll be all I can do to manage her."

The twilight was gathering when they reached the house, and an angry anxious mother was waiting high up on the stoop.

"Watch me smooth every wrinkle out of her brow now!" she whispered as she flew up the steps.

Before her mother could say a word, a white hand was on her mouth and pretty lips were whispering something in her ears she had never heard before. There was the sound of a kiss and he heard Sallie say, "Not a word!"

And the mother greeted him with a smile and a curiously searching look. She chatted pleasantly until her daughter returned from her room, and then left her. Again it was nearly twelve o'clock before he reached the hotel.

The next morning Bob St. Clare broke in on him before he was out of bed.

"Look here, you sly dog, what are you doing slipping and sliding around here yet?"

"Bob, you're the man I want to see. Tell me all you know about the Worths."

"The Worths? Which one?"

"There's only one so far as I can see."

"Well, you may find out there's two if you should happen to collide with the General."

"Does he cut up at times?"

"He's all right till he turns on you, and then you want to find shelter."

"Did you ever run up against him?"

"No, I never got that far. He's hail-fellow-well-met with every youngster in town. He will laugh and joke about his daughter until he thinks she is in earnest about a fellow, and then he swoops down on him like a hawk. I'll bet a hundred dollars he's playing you now for all