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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1921)
TITE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTtiAND, JULY 17, 1921 THE RED FISHER knows the bait for every one. He took me with Robert Carr. You'll think that's only a figure nt speech, but it isn't. There is a full bottle of strong1 sleeping-draught in my bedroom, marked off into 16 tiny portions by lines of glass. I would take the whole bottleful if I could es cape a picture of the Red Fisher waiting to pull me out of the river of leep. The devil may be only a super. , Btition that ages haven't quite wiped off the slate of heredity; but the pic ture is a fact. You can see it on the walls of Nugent's gallery: S74. The Red Fisher. Arthur Dane. It shows up best if you stand Just beside the left hand seat of the settee. Tou get the full malignity of the grin then. I stood Just there when my duel with conscience began. I suppose I am not ultra-modern. I have a? con science. It was on a rainy Friday afternoon, three years ago, and I had a dull hour to kill. I passed the gallery. "I may as well be bored by myself as bored by pictures." I reflected. "I can't be more bored by pictures than I am by myself," I thought 50 yards down the road. I turned back and went in. I saw my own thoughts rather than the pictures, until I found myself taring at the devil; a very proper Mephistopheles. long, lean, sardonic, and habited in hard red. He sat upon an overhanging branch, dan'gllng his pointed shoes above a glassy stream that came from nowhere into a green wood and ran out to nowhere again. A network bag lay upon the grass be hind him, with his varied bait peeping through the meshes; a miniature of a pretty, enticing woman, and a cardi nal's hat; a diploma, a seal of office, and a fat packet of bonds; a necklace of diamonds and a president's chair. A pale young monk lay dead upon th bank, caught by a saint's aureole; and a red-faced woman captured by a wicker flask. The wine was dribbling out and staining a little white daisy purple. The Red Fisher was angling now with a pretty mannlkin. A wist ful, elfish girl was swimming away from temptation; but she looked back over her round shoulder, and her pouting mouth opened a little as if she wanted to come back and snap. I wondered foolishly whether she was going to be caught; moralized tritely upon the vanities that catch women and men; and then suddenly "I wonder." I thought, "what bait he'd use for me?" 1 turned over temptations hope fully In my mind, but could find none strong enough to haul me to the devil's bank. I was a dull bachelor woman, I told myself impatiently, half-past temptation, and growing Into an old maid with a hundred weaknesses and no grand vice; not warm enough to nourish avsln. "Isn't there anything 'you'd risk the hook for, Nina?" I asked myself. "Surely you aren't quite dried up yet." I looked into my secret mind, as if it were a picture book, and the burly form of Robert Carr grew slowly out of the mist within; dear old Robert, manly, and clever, and courteous, and kind! I felt my eyes widen and my mouth open and close with a snap. I am telling the truth. I did not know before how much I liked him, though I would have said any day and anywhere that he was the nicest fellow In the world. . . . Well. I did like him. In a perfectly proper way; liked- him very much. What of It? "My dear Devil!" I said contemptu ously. "You've chosen the wrong fly! I don't nibble at the husband of my friend. . . . And besides he doesn't want me." I gasped again at the self -betrayal of the last words; reddened and then turned very pale. I could see my face in a little mirror. I have a con science, as I have said. There were many virtues that I had no great care for, but I cherished an idea of myself as loyal to my friends. Mar garet was a cat of a woman, and I was another, but we were pals; had been all our lives. "Not her husband," I said, even In the dark depths of my mind; but the heart is deeper. Thai said I was lost if the fisherman won over Robert Carr, to help him angle for me. I must fly from temptation or risk the consequences. "Well," I decided deliberately, "I take the risk i, there is one. There isn't. Robert loves his wife, if sh doesn't care much for him. She is ten times better looking than I. He likes pink, smiling young prettiness. He'd never want this pale, old snap pish thing, except perhaps as a friend. . . . Poor boy! He needs some one to comfort him. Fish away, my dear Devil! I'll risk all 1 have and am to be a little help to dear old Bob." I went to their house on the Satur day afternoon, as I generally did. Margaret was animated. -Robert was gloomy. She was going to drag him away to the seaside on Monday; and his roots are in his business and his study. "It's all very well for you," he grumbled. "You'll have drives and excursions and dances and whist drives, and two or three admirers hanging around I shall have nothing to do but potter along the beach. 1 hate pottering. I'd rather stay and work in town." "Don't potter," I advised. "Take to golf or something. Get an ad mirer yourself, if Maggie doesn't be have." "That introduces a subject for mer Margaret cried gayly.. "Come with us. .Seen, and take him off my hands for a fortnight. You can teach him golf, if you like; or sailing.. He'd love that! Nag him and wake him up! Wanted, an experienced lady, with a stimulating tongue, to take entire charge of a dull infant! You Just fit!" "Poor Robert!" I said. "My sailing's all right; and my tongue! But 1 don't know golf Don't be afraid, my dear chap. I won't add to your troubles." "I'm sure you won't," he declared heartily. "Come and teach me sail log, Nina, Td like it." I went. There aren't too many red-letter days in my calendar; but there wasn't a black one in that fortnight. Mar garet spent the days on the pier, showing off her new hats and resses, and smiling at competing cavaliers. She always had a train of adorers. O! She was -a pretty woman.! She danced all the evenings. Robert and I sailed away the days in a 20-foot half-decked boat. My father taught me sailing when I was a child, and now I taught Robert. In the evenings we went to concerts and entertainments, or walked gen erally walked. Oh! those walks. I never knew before that the sky was so full of stars! It did not occur to Robert to make love to me, and I did not try I swear it to put the notion in his mind. I Just wanted him to be hap pier, and I made him. I was a fine pal, he told me, as we scudded back before the wind on the last after noon. I remember the salt epray on my lips, and my hair blowing loose, and the adoration in my heart when I looked at him. "I'm glad." I said. I like to be your pal. Bob." ' "Thank you," he acknowledged, "dear old girl! Lord knows, I need one. Margaret " He set his lips. "Our tastes differ a good deal," he concluded. I nodded. "It's Just that," I consoled him. "Margaret is all right in her way. I am fond of her, you know." That was fairly true. "There's nothing In her little flirtations. Bob." That had a large element of truth. She skated on thin ice, but she did not go in. "She's fond of you, really." That was quite true. "I think. Bob, if you spoke to her frankly, if you said Td like us to get on better, Maggie. I much prefer you to anyone else, and ' " That was my supreme effort. God knows what it cost me. I would have gone through with it and tried tc reconcile them if he had not In terrupted me, but he held up his hand. "I don't, N'na," he said, very, very quietly. "I haven't for several years. . . . Don't ask me questions." "No," I promised faintly. "I won't." I opened my mouth a little to catch the salt wind. It seemed to me that there was not air enough in the whole world and that my heart was too small to hold my hot blood. I loved him as a mother loves her little child Just then; this big, strong tftan. Our lcve should be silent and pure, I vcwed, and everything else in my life should be set aside to do little things to brighten him. "We won't talk about troubles," I sa'd cheerfully. "Let's make the best of the comfort we have. . . . A good pal to sail a good boat! I'll put her nose into the waves and make her splash; and we'll get drenched and laugh like kids. Kids who are out with their pal!" "Their pal!" he echoed. "Let's shake hands on that!" O! That was a red letter after noon. We went back to town that evening. "Come in often, Nina," he begged when we parted at the station. "Good luck, old girl!" He smiled at me then. ' He had such a n'ce smile; and such a nice voice; so rch and round. I used to seem to hear it when I woke up at nights. I cried for him then. Things went badly between him and Margaret during the next year. He was too civil to her, and she was not civil enough to him. They had a bad quarrel, cold on his s'de and hot on hers, and decided to occupy separate rooms. Margaret told me herself. Her pink face was very red, and she gritted her splendid teeth. "As he does not want me," she said, "the inference is obvious.' "That he thinks you want enother man," I answered sharply. "No one in particular," she rejoined pettishly. "I like dozens. That's my safety! He likes very few women. That's his danger. If you only like one you like too much.'' "If," I cried scornfully. "It's like ycu to try and put the blame on him. He's worth a dozen of either of us. You're a silly, suspicious woman. Are you working round to object to me being friends with the poor, neglected boy?" I never had a greater Insult than her look of amazement then. . "You!" she cried with her big blue eyes wide open. She had lovely soft eyes and mine are hard, beady things. "You!" She laughed. I'd have jllked to take her full throat in my hands and strangle the sneer. "No, I'm not so absurd as that. You Just take the place of a sister to him. ... You and I have been rather like sisters, Neen. . . . Don't look hurt, dear old thing. I didn't mean that a man couldn't like you very much, only you are far too good a pal to me to let him flirt w'th you." "I am his pal also, Margaret," I sa'd steadily, "and, since you men tion the matter to me, I don't blame him nearly so much as I blame you." "I don't either," she agreed, "but still I'm a cat, of course, but I only wanted Just to have a little amuse ment. If he'd pulled me up as he ought to have done I'd have been pulled up after' a kick or two, and I suppose you know that I like him?" "I suppose so," I answered, "but you've had a funny way of showing it." "Well, you see, it may be only my fancy, but three or four years ago I thought that he cooled to me. If he'd been just angry or nasty and we'd quarreled I'd have 'made it up very nicely, but he d'dn't seem to want to make it up, and I thought you'll laugh, but I did think that there must be someone else. I thought so the other day when we met someone. I watched him talking to her, I am sure she likes him, anyhow." "Who?" I demanded. My voice was more anxious than I liked. "Joyce Reed," Margaret told. me. "Joyce!" My laugh was very genu ine. "You donkey! Why, she's about 24. and he's getting on to 40. He always likes kids, but he's quite fraternal to them. He doesn't even see her . more than once in six months." "Doesn't he? You know more of his doings that I do." "More shame to you," I said vlg orously. "Well, I don't think his doings concern Baby Joyce. Robert's tastes are mature. I don't ' suppose his doings concern any" woman, but he has,not broached the Subject to me." "He might if you led him on a little," she suggested, with one of the pretty sideway looks that trap a man and warn a woman. I rose to go. "Margaret." X said sternly. "Too A very proper Mephlstopheles, long, disgust me. Robert is my friend. His friendship is a precious thing to me. I don't mind saying that to you, or on the housetops! He is abso lutely the best man I know. If you dream that I would win his confi dence and betray, him to you, you are greatly mistaken. Look here! If I found him out I shouldn't tell you. That's flat!" "No," she agreed. . T don't believe you would. You're a stiff creature! But you'd Influence him. You're a better sort than you know. Influence him a little in this direction. Neen." She held out her grand arms. "He's my husband, and " The red rushed over her handsome face and superb neck; even over her rounded arms "I want him!" "Umph!" I said. My voice was in different enough: but my heart was knocking to and fro, and screaming that she should not win him back from me. "I know what you're thinking," she PROR GOES UP IN BALLOON TO BE ALONE JUST TO THINK Hanging by One Toe, and With His Right Palm Pressed to His Eyes, He Says: "Now I Am Alone, Let Me Think"; and He Does. V . ; . V- -. . 1 s : ; : '. r . WW W : Ir- '- - . s " " , '' T """" HE SWUNG BY HIS KNEES AXD WAVED ADIEU. BY GEORGE ADE. j . yn n nappens mat in America I l a man who goes up hanging on j a Trapeze below a Balloon Is a Professor. One day. a Professor, fere- lean, sardonic ... pointed shoes above He sat upon Classy itrrom. charged me; "but you're wrong. I don't want him to plague. I'd be good to him now. Try, Neen. If you could put the idea of making it up into his head? It's natural to him to do the kind thing if he thinks of it. You could say it's a pity we squabble, because I can be nice, and you could say you know I like him. ... Will you. Neen? We never had sisters, you and 1; only each other." "I'll try," I answered.- That was a lie. I did not try to lead him back to her. I tried to alienate him; warned him against being fooled by her. Margaret's affectionate mood soon passed. I knew it would! Their dis sension became sharper and more in evidence. They never went out to gether; and whenever one dined at home the other dined "with friends, or "in town." It was generally she who was out; but Robert was "at the club" more than he used to be. He was ab stracted and silent very often when I paring to make a Grand Ascension was sorely pestered by Spectators of the Yellow-Hammer Variety, who fell over the Stay-Ropes or crowded up close to the Balloon to ask Fool Ques an overhanging; branch, dangling: his I talked to him. I had always been able to rally him into interest before. I spoke to him frankly one evening when Margaret had gone out and I had dropped in. "Bob," I said, "you look upon me as a pretty trusty friend, I think." . "Indeed," he assured me, "I do! I'd trust you blind, Nina." "There's something on your mind, I know. Would it help you to tell a pal?" He leaned back in his chair and opened his cigaret case. "No," I commanded, "a cigar! One of those you keep for special oc casions. It will unruffle you. I'll get one.. Give me . the key of the cabinet." I took the key from him and fetched him one of his "extrava gances," as he called them. "There, old pal; the precious red band. See! Now you can talk." "Good old Nina! How you know my ways and study me. . . . You see, there are things that one can't talk tions. They wanted to know how fur up he Calkilated to go and was he Afeerd and how often had he did it. The Professor answered them in a Surly Manner peculiar to Showmen accustomed to meet a Web-Foot Pop ulation. On the Q.T. the Prof, had Worries of his own. He was expected to drop in at a Bank on the following Day and take up a Note for 100 Plunks. The Ascension meant 50 to him but how to Corral the other 50? Ah! That was the Hard One! This question was in his Mind as he took hold of the Trapeze Bar and signaled the Farm Hands to let go. As he trailed Skyward beneath the Buoyant silken Bag he hung by his Knees and waved a glad Adieu to the Mob of Inquisitive Yeomen. A Sense of Relief came to htm as he saw the Crowd sink away In the Dis tance. Hanging by one Toe, and with his right Palm pressed, to his Eyes, he said: "Now that I am Alone, let me Think, let me Think.-" There in the Vast Silence' He Thought. Presently he gave a Sigh of Relief. "I will go to my Wife's Brother and make a Quick Touch," he said. "If he refuses to Unbelt I will threaten to tell his Wife of the bracelet he bought in Louisville. Having reached this Happy Con clusion, he loosened the ''Parachute and quickly descended to the Earth. MORAL Avoid Crowds. Xationality Somewhat Jlixed. Boston Post. "But you are an American citizen?" angrily demanded the official at the passport office. "My mother was an American " began the applicant. "Yes, yes." "But she married a Frenchman " "Yes." "In Italy." "Yes; but where were you born?" "I was born on a ship flying the Spanish colors while she was lying at anchor In Honolulu harbor, but my parents died in Brazil when I was only 4 years old, and I was adopted by a Chinaman who brought me up in Russia " "He's a bloomln' league of na tions!" exploded the official who had first spoken. about; things that concern other peo ple." I nodded. , "Talk about a man you know," I suggested, "and leave out people's names; and I'll advise you in the ab stract." He shook his head. "I'm no good at acting, Neen. I'm talking about myself. ... Eight years ago I married Margaret. No body blamed us. We appeared to be just suited. We didn't really suit, Neen; not even on the honeymoon. I remember bah! I'm gossiping like an old lady. Well, wherever the fault lay, we drifted away from each other. Possibly she didn't mean much harm by her flirtations; but they were suf ficiently in evidence to humiliate her husband. I was too proud to own my hurt. I Just gritted it out till I didn't care a hang. Well, no much. . . . Anyhow, I was very lonely for a long time, and then I found ... a very wonderful woman. ." . . Oh! a very wonderful woman!" "You thought her so," I said. I sighed. - "She was, and Is. There has never been a word of love between me and her, Neen; but we know." "Both of you?" I asked, unsteadily. I caught sight of my face in the beveled mirror of a wall bracket Just then; and it wavered. Pale, and with the young bloom gone, and never beautiful; but it looked loving, I thought. Ah! loving! "Both of us," he said, unhesitat ingly. "Yes. Sometimes we have been near to the woU; but we have paused in time. It is not my strength that keeps us as we are, but the strength that I get from her; my rev erence for her goodness and dainti ness. She Is above all women. She ' "Hush!" I- said. "We are not talk ing of her. but of you. This is your story, which you are telling to your friend. ... So truly your friend, Bob, you know." "I - know.- ... I don't want to sink in your estimation, friend. I will tell you how I looked at it. There is no wrong to Margaret, I said- For years she has not scrupled to flirt with others. I do not say that she has been untrue to her mar riage vow, as the world estimates it. I do not know." "I do not know," I said in a faint whisper. If I did a shameful, damnable thing, from first to last it was when I said that. Margaret was an honest woman then. I had not the slightest doubt of St. "There can be no wrong to myself. For lover of her her whom I love I am a better man; and our love is In nocent and pure. . . . The ques tion was about the- girl. I kept out of her way for some years, for fear that her love for me I knew it would spoil her life. Then I saw that she meant to die "a maid for love of me. Why should not she as well as I have the comfort of friendship? I argued. Well, we have it. I think life is Just the hours that we spend together. ... Is it very wrong, Neen?" "Only unwise," I Bald, still very faintly. "Is that all?" "No." He put his cigar to his lips, but I saw that it had gone out. . "I'll light it," I offered. " Tt wa rrowlne dusk, and when the I match flared up I seemed to see the Red Fisher in it, laughing triumpn antly in the flare. "Hook me. then!" my mind told him fiercely. I expected Robert's arm to go round me as I stood beside his chair, offering him the light. I held his wrist with one hand to steady the cigar. . . .. The toucH that I hungered for did not come. "Thank you, Neen. You spoil me. . . The devil of it is that Mar garet has taken one of her turns turned toward me as she might to a new flame. She wants to make it up. . . Neen, I don't want her. I should not want her if the other woman weren't in the world. Don't tell me it's my duty to make it up! . . That's what I have on my mind; what. I wanted to -ask you. my good friend." There was a long, long alienee. I Baking; Enhances Natural Flavor of Foods. Oven-Cooking Also Insures Reten tion of Valuable Substances. NOT everyone realizes what tem perature means in cooking, yet the Intelligent use of graded heat largely determines the palatability of a dish. The higher the . tempera ture used the more pronounced is the flavor of the food, especially when dry heat is employed. Take, for example, the character istic taste .of roast beef and the savor of broiled oysters. If the beef were boiled and the oysters stewed, each would lose much of its flavor. The rule applies to vegetables as well, for, although turnips, toma toes and a few others have their flavor increased to an unpleasant de gree by high temperature by far the greater number are better baked than boiled. Carrots, parsnips and beets can be baked on the rack of the oven as potatoes are. But baking does more than to en hance the' natural flavor of foods; it creates new flavors by making new substances through high tempera ture. The fresh crust of bread, muf fins and toast, the well-browned top of a rice pudding and the crisp sur faces of boiled or baked beans, poul try and fish all have a new and de licious flavor, due to actual change in the food material. Moreover, baking insures the re tention of minerals and other valu able substances that are . dissolved in boiling and lost when the water is poured into the sink. The constant use of foods impoverished in that way causes malnutrition as surely as does a diet that lacks some one of the Important foodstuffs. Some foods, however, should not be subjected to intense heat during the whole of the cooking process. For example, if an egg is boiled steadily for three or four minutes the white will be hard and the yolk soft, whereas if it is put Into a pan of boiling water and the pan is with drawn to a warm place where the water does not boil, both the w-hite and the yolk will be cooked evenly. In the Canary island there is a tree called tabaya dolce, of which the milk, thickened Into a jelly. Is con sidered a. delicacy. sat with my chin on my hand staring into the fire; made a picture there with the black and gold and amber and the gray smoke. ... The Red ' Fisher dangled his feet merrily in the flames; set his teeth and forgot to smile aa he played me at the end of the line; wondered so did I! if I was firmly hooked. I swam round and round, I thought, till the water ran In fast ripples that I could hear. -Hiss-s-e-s. ... That was only the sound of the flames. . . . Flap flap flap. ... Only the puffs of the jets of coal ga catching fire. . . I put my hands on the arms of the chair. One more tightening of my nerves and I should go to Robert. I paused only for the right words. . . . Just his name. I would say "Bob, dear!" I drew a breath; half rose. . . . And heard Margaret's voice in the hall. She had come home. ... What a magnificent woman she looked when she switched on the light at th3 doorl "I had a fancy to be domestic to night," shesald, laughingly; "but I suppose you're going out. Bob?" "I am going out," he told her, and rose. They looked hard at each other. Several times I thought they were going to speak, but they did not. She gasped when he had gone; clinched her hands. Presently she clutched my arm. "He's going to her!" she hissed. "Don't be a fool," I said. "He wants to get rid of me," ehe said In my ear. "He thinks Neen, he's having me watched!" "He would, if I were he," I told her that was not true. I had no suspicion of her "but he Isn't. I should think it's your conscience; if you have one." "Until tonight I had," she told me furiously, "now it's gone. I came home to try and put things right. I was ready to humble myself to him." She laughed wildly. "You side with him, of course. I daresay you'd try to marry him, if I were gone!" "Margaret!" "I didn't mean it, Neen. Don't you turn on me. You're 'the only pal I have. Women don't like me. . . . Well, men do! . . . Can't you help me, Neen? I tell you I'm desperate. Do you understand?" "What do you mean?' I clutched her arm: . "Why should I stay with a man who despises me when another adores me? I've been a good woman till now, but . . . You don't know what temptation Is " "Who is it?" "I didn't say it was any one. . . . Don't start at me like that! You look a a devil! ... If I did, he'd have driven me to it; he's a cold brute. He" "I won't listen to abuse of him," I said. "Don't go," she pleaded. "I want help I I I closed the door upon her. I called at Robert's office the next morning and saw him alone. "Bob," I said, "I've got to be dis loyal to one friend or another. You have to come first. . . . Tou are of all friends dearest to me. . . . I can't see your life spoiled by a tie that you honor and she If I were you I should have Margaret watched. . . ,Not a word. It doesn't bear discussion." He rose slowly; staggered; rested his hand on the table. "Nina?" he. said, hoarsely. "You know that she " ."Have her watched!" I said, sharp ly. Then I turned and walked out. I went away for a month. When I came back he had taken proceedings for his divorce. I don't know what kink in my character took me to the court. He had ' kept me out of it, of course, and I needn't have gone. Margaret was foolish enough to fight the case. I don't think she expected to save herself, only wanted to say what she said in the box. "I have done things that lay me open to suspicion," she said, looking like a beautiful, pale statue, "things that I should not have done. I de served to lose my husband's affec tion! But I tried to win it back. He did not want me back. That made me desperate, and I " "You have not answered my plain question, madame," Robert's counsel Interrupted. He repeated the ques tion I need not name it and she fainted in the box. The Judge sug gested to her counsel that it was a matter for his discretion whether "this painful cross-examination" should proceed when his client recov ered. She did not reappear - and her counsel accepted Judgment against her. I . sometimes wonder whether she merely let Judgment go by de fault to give Robert his freedom. The man protested her innocence, but he married her afterwards. I do not trouble very much about Margaret even now. I did not trouble about ber at all then. My brain was In a mad whirl think ing of the time when Robert would come as a free man to me. I went away to the sea, which we loved, to wait for him. He did not come. It was his idea of my "goodness" and "delicacy" that delayed him, I suppose. He thought that I should not wish him to speak yet. I meant him to keep that idea all our lives. I decided to go back to town and wait patiently till we met in the usual course of friendship. He was away in the country, I found. His mother told me. "You were a friend of Margaret's," she said, "but I think you wish for Robert's happiness." "Indeed." I said, "I do, Mrs. Carr. Believe me, I was, and am, a friend of Robert's, too. . He deserves happiness, and if it depended on my wish " I drew a deep breath; wondered whether the foolish fellow feared that I would refuse him for some scruple, because is had een Mar garet's friend. ... "Then," she said, "you will like to know that he has It. . . . He is staying with the Reeds. There is no engagement yet, but he and Joyce " I do not remember the rest. I found myself wiping my face with my handkerchief and feeling as if I had Just "come to" at the dentist's from laughing gas. "It is very hot," I said; "very hot. . . . I feel as if something is stick ing in my throat." The Red Fisher knew what It was. (Copyright, 1921, by the Chicago Tribune.)