Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 78

15 MISS SLIPPER By Homer Croy It is not a for nd look I that love is IB all that is pipes and the young be a jury is only one exceptions are excep I the my is blind bachelor you that has been since the courtship who thought her feet delicate thinks now if mine were just I would be satisfied My owncomparison to hers looked like alongside a I know very good comparison but it brings out the idea I had discovered Clemcntia a year before and I am as proud of the discovery as Tesla must be of his or Edison of his storage battery It is not given to a man to make but one discovery like mine in a lifetime But the worst trouble was that I could not get a natent right on my discovery After the first month I knew that I must stake my all on her gave up all the rest of my minor patents in 1 shape of innocent flirtations and concentrated 1 that slip per around until I was able to let the program slip from my lap and then pick up the slipper 1 held it between my knees for a few minutes that she to wait until summer resort time again before I could try for authoritative possession of my dis covery A year Is a long time to a man who has only his pipe and bls dreams We settled down to the pabulum of relaxation roller skatings charity socials and our favorite was the opera I should Lochinvar to tell me what measures scale of pleasure than sitting beside at an opera I know that the in have to scratch his puzzled head for in courses of the like But like for some higher in the the one girl formant will some time Joseph Sheehan is favorite tenor We had gone to hear him one riday night and were enjoying the opera immensely I would turn my head at the close of some particularly brilliant passage and catch the light of eye and then turn away again It is in such fleeting glances that Cupid gets in his most telling work When the lights were turned low I felt de mentia stoop over and slip her hand down to the floor for a moment I felt it rather than saw It for my eyes were turned on the tenor She raised up and leaned back but I felt the significance of the action It was all so quietly and gracefully done thaJ I had to admire it I knew that Clementia had taken off her satin slipper and was letting her foot rest Her fault for wearing shoes too small was the cause of it all I remembered that site had told me that site was going to get a pair of opera slippers ami now it was all plain to me She looked bewildering In the half light In evening dress pearls at her throat aigrette In her hair hi worsted fascinator trailing to the floor her blue eyes glistening when they caught the light She smiled innocently not suspecting that I was aware of the horrible secret that one dainty foot was unshod A man is the meanest animal In creation sometimes I shall not defend him in general nor myself in particular The old adage about all being permissible jn love and in war is very con soling sometimes I make a clean breast of my deceitfulness and trickery believing that men who have pipes and dreams will to free me With malice aforethought I worked most Important word in the I may take cold may become dangerously may "All night right I repeated firmly "But nlgnt Turning she leaned forward and whispered message The victory was sweet glorious I her prided myself on It ami rather blamed myself for not having taken up a military career The victory was so complete I thought that the con queror could afford to be liberal to the conquered and I suddenly thrust tiie slipper into her hand "I thought you never were going to And my smiled Clementia as she closed the door behind me there wasn't any use of your holding it between your malning seated She dropped her fascinator and before I could imiko face in tite least I arose and waited for her to lead the way to the aisle She hesitated a moment lighting between maidenly and better sense and I all tiie time enjoying It like a man beast Then she stepped boldly out and wo walked up the aisle Clementia showing Just the slightest limp I helped hT Into the carriage and sank into the scut beside her with a com fortable feeling go to for I suggested "No not "But Clemcntia I have reserved a table I was counting much on the supper with just US two "No I fed like it tonight" trying to just the least bit sick "Oh are you feigning alarm the best I knew how "No no not so bad as that but I just wish to go" "How long have you been feeling this began like a young doctor "Not very she hesitated "Does your head "No but if we hurry home I know that the drive will do me good" I wanted to remark that she was a queer doctor but did not dare to At her home I helped her out up the steps and Into the hall I had never stayed after coming back from opera morO than to say good night but this time 1 took oil my hat hung it the hall tree and put my gloves In my pocket The hall was damp and chilly I said taking both of her hands in mine "I love you and want you always" It was a very simple statement but very earnest She turned her head away and tried to place her stockinged foot on her slipper as the floor waa cold "Not she said uneasily I began boldly am going to stay right here holding your hands until you say tne Ing It she stooped and slowly gathered It up feeling cautiously under the seat There was a worried look on de but my heart did not soften OVE Any a will tell This fact known initial without any flec tion on either party Love is as sightless as the accounts for its idiosyncrasies Now since I have made the sweeping statement that love is blind I must sidestep and say that there are ex ceptions It be a rule you know unless it had exceptions There rule in the world that has no and that is the rule that there tions to all rules Now to take up Clementia Very long step from Clementia to love not if you have once seen her She had finished at a polite polishing off school could row play tennis talk golf by the hour went In basketball and what is more surprising she could go into the parlor and make it a little paradise She could get more feeling out of an oak nch and seven octaves than half of the professionals and she could turn around and give you pointers on Browning Lanier and talk intelligently about Tolstoi and Bernard Shaw I know this sound possible but Clementia was quite out of the ordinary I suppose that I could consume half the space used by a Dickens novel elaborating on Clementia All I would have to do would be to light my meerschaum and put my feet on the table and dictate I would not have to wrinkle up my brow in hard thought at all thoughts and smoke dreams would pour out of their own accord It hard to describe Clementia from the point of view Did you ever notice how much easier it is to tell about the qualities of some person that you are very much Interested in than to tell just how she looks? To say that she had blue eyes and was tall is about necessary All you men who have dreams will understand Here is the exception to the rule forever and eternally blind While I thought that Clementia was in an exhibit by herself I knew all the time that she had one wee little fault It a very serious shortcoming but still it was a fault all the same Clementia would always get her shoes too small! Just why she did I am not able to say Not that her feet needed crowding! I explain it by saying that it was the eternal feminine that we are always reading about I imagine that the first woman is yet to be enough Each one a half size smaller pedal extremities in a Dutch that this is not a sphinx this many vagaries and ardor on Clementia might not suspect why I dropped the program and I had taken her to the operas and as an alumnus to the football games of my college on Sunday excursions up the river had gone slum ming with her and had spent ten days in her party at a Wisconsin summer resort If there is any place in the world that a young than ought to be able to get a patent right on some discovery in femininity it is at a Wisconsin inland summer resort Our set had chafing dish parties hayrick rides boatings and dances at the club I had watched the sun sink in a wondrous dull glow be hind tangled woods and the moon come up and peek over friendly treetops across the lake while we two were lapping lazily in a birchbark and had failed on the patent right It seems that when all circumstances are ripe for Cupid to put on the cap sheaf that he is just too contrary to do it Give him every possible advantage and then he will let opportunity knock unheeded spiteful but Cupid We came back to the routine of the city Clementia apparently as innocent as a swan and I feeling much perturbed I shivered with fear every time I thought of the possibility of having then watch my chance to slip the satin shoe into my pocket There was joy in my guilt there was satisfaction in rubbing my elbow against the dainty thing as it nestled in its hiding place I am beginning to believe that all of a acts do not cry out against him and that he really does get some pleasure out of his misdeeds As the last strains of the closing melody were dying away Clementia leaned forward gracefully as the flower turns to the morning sun' as the poets say and felt on the floor In a moment she raised up and began exploring with her feet I joined in a cheer manfully unconscious of the disaster that had overtaken my partner he grand?" I leaned over and said to Clementia as best I could in the midst of the cheering she faltered rather doubtfully was at his best I enthused without much enthusiasm The women around us were putting on their hats and the men were rising I put the opera glasses in their case and dropped them into her bag She was still making some excuse for rc Chimes of Santa Rosa (Continued from Page 11) deep draught he drew from the fountain blending of the myriad colors ami the mingling of the fragrances in the air wove tiie charm and Tom forgot that he was an oflicer of the radical army forgot the battlefields of the past and those to come and peacefully dreamed of long ago days In the States of a garden simpler than this but In the mellowing light of his memory dearer and more glorious And then his errant fancy betrayed his con fidence and the dream scene shifted back to tho south land Before his eyes there floated tiie vision of a fair young girl black robed and tiny quaintly named Anita But the picture was quickly obscured by another which rose before it the execution yard and the Death Wall" at the carce) in Lotacunga himself back to the fatal adobe with the firing squad before him (Concluded Next Sunday).