Page:Duer Miller--The charm school.djvu/54

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The Charm School


Austin's attention, and it was during this part of his speech that his eyes began to rove critically over his audience. They were a very nice-looking group of girls, he thought, some positively handsome; it would not be out of the question to teach them charm. His eye fell on a fat, red-faced girl chewing something rhythmically. Should he allow her to stay? Could she be made to do him credit? Yes, fat people had a peculiar charm all their own. He must not be narrow.

"—whose mind thought out, whose heart warmed, whose will achieved this institution," he was saying, when, glancing a little farther along the line, his eyes met another pair of eyes lifted to his with such an expression of adoration that he instantly lost his place. They were wonderful eyes, soft, dark, and large as pansies, set in a lovely little face turned up to him with the look of a worshiper to a saint. It was only for a second, of course. Austin wrenched away his eyes and managed to go on with what he was saying, just as if nothing momentous had happened.

But, he went on to say, there was one point in which it seemed to him all schools failed in their duty. It was the duty of a school not only to train the mind, but to

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