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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 1914)
15 HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION SERIAL. A Fool and His Money By Cfoo. Ban McCuteheon Copyright, 1913, By Geo. Bare McCutcheon. HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION $sjsjss,$,s,e,$.$,i$. SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS. I the opening instalment of "A Fool and Hi Money, " (Jeo. Brr Me Cutcheon'g charming novel, aerial rights for which have been ipeeially obtained for the Home and Farm Magazine Section, we learn of John Bellamy 8mart, the young man who U telling this atory. He hai just written his first novel, and at the me time has fallen heir to an inv mcneo fortune left him by hit uncle. After a visit to London, Saisrt takes a trip on the Hiver Dannie. A'lcr finding an old-world town, he dvers an ancient castle, -which ao purchases from its owner, the Count. With his secretary, Poopendyke, he takes possession of the iramtnso structure, which is supposed to bo lenauted wily by the caretaker and hia family, the Sihmicks. Later Smart finds a woman win, : in possession of n wing of the castle that is barred to him. She grants a brief interview, but refuses t leave. The servants appear tu be in Unjne with her, and Smart it in a tjiiamlar-y. Later be is captivated by t, wit and bra ity of the mysterious lady and no longer urjes hr departure. He finds that the ts divorced from a worthless and scheming Austrian Count, who was awarded the rustidy of the : lady's chid, the Cnmt demands a million d .liars from his rich American father in law. when he would gire it up. The in 'thr abdue Is the child and tilccts III- ensile as.n biding place. Smart Kara tculilc with the authorities, but minsonts lo assist the fair divor.-ee. I LAID awake hclf the niHk morbidly beiit'.iitg t,Vi Aaitncan lalhrr who is so afraid 0; ,v r,. that he lets Iter bully him into f.-icrtfiiinjj their joint flesh ami blood upon the altar of social ambition. She had said that her father wits oppi;soi to tl.u tn.tch front llu be gimiing. 'I he:i why, m tl10 flmo 0f heaven, waan 't ho n.nn enough to put a Ktop ti it' Why lint wluit use i.-; there in applying rrh-m to a man who doesn't knuT whal Go.l meant whei; He lasniontfl two r-e.esj I put him down I have hopes that they won't be able to stand the workmen banging around al day," I confessed, somewhat guiltily. "Women in the party f "Two, I believe. Both married and qualified to express opinions." "They will be suro to nose me out," she said ruefully. "Women are dread ful nosers," "Don't worry," I said. "We'll get a lot of new padlocks for the doors downstairs and you'll be as safe as can be, if you'll only keep quiet." "But I don't see why I should be made to mope here all day and all night like a sick cat, holding my hand over Rosemary's mouth when she wants to crv, and muzzling poor Jinko so that he-" "My dear Countess," I interrupted sternly, "you should not forget that these other guests of mine are invited here." "But I was here first," she argued. "It is most annoying," "I believe you said yesterday that you are in the habit of having your own money." She nodded her head. "Well, I lm afraid you'll have to come down from your high borne at least temporarily." "Oh, I see. Yon -jTu mean to be very firm and domineering with me." " You must try to Sic things from my point of " "Please don't say that!" she flared. "I'm so tirel of hearing those words. For the last three years I've "'eeB eom canded to see things from some else's point of view, and I'm sick of the ex pression." "For heaven's flake, don't put me in tho same boat with your husband!" Nhe regarded me somewhat frigidly for a moment longer, and then a slow, witching smile crept into her eyes. "I shan't," she promised, and But I couldn't fr?t tlw daughter of this brr.w-bfai.cn American father. There was sometii'iKg singularly familiar about her exquisite focj, a conviction on my per; that in easily accounted for. Her portrait, of coumc, had been pub lished far and wide at the time of the wedding; she must have been pictured from every conceivable angle, with illimitable gowns, hats, veils and para sols, and 1 certainly could not have missed seeing her, even with half n eye. But for the life of me I eouldn 't connect her with any of the much-talked-of international marriages that came to mind as I lay there going over the meagre assortment I was able to re call. I went to sleep wondering whether l'oopendyke's memory was any better than mine. He is tremendously inter. ested in the financial doings of our country, oeing the possessor of a flour ishing savings' account, and as lie also possesses a lively sense of the ridicu lous it was not unreasonable to bus 1vi iuai ne mignt remember all the details of this particular transaction in stocks and bonds. The next morning I set my laborers 10 worn putting guest-rooms into shape jr me coming or the Hazzards and the four friends who were to be with them for the week as my guests. Thvy were to arrive on tho next day but one, which gave me ample time to consult a furniture dealer. I would have to buy at least six new beds and everything else with which to comfortably equip as, many bed chambers, it being a fore gone conclusion that not even the hus bands and wives would condescend to "double np" to obligo me. The ex pensiveness of this ill-timed visit had not occurred to me at the outset. Still there was ome prospect of getting the wholesale price. On one point 1 was determined; the workmen should not be laid off for a single hour, not even if my guests went off in a huff. At twelve I climbed the tortuous stairs leading to the Countess' apart ments. She opened the door herself in response to my rapping. 'I neglected to mention yesterday that I am expecting a houseful of guests in a day or two," I said, after she had given me a very cordial greet in M Guests i"" sbe cried in dismay. "Oh, dear I Can't you put them off t" . . . as neutral and tried my best to forget ,!UtCncd outright. "Do -"orgivc me, Mr. him. . I Smart, I am such a piggy thing. I'll try in be nice end sensible, and I will bo as still as a mouse all the time they're here. But you mutt promise to come up evjry day and ive mc the gos sip. You can steal up, ean't you! Sur reptitiously t" "Clandestinely," I said, jravely. "I really wight to warn you onee more about getting yurself involved," she said pointedly. "Oh, I'm quite a safe old party," I assured her. "They couldn't make capital of me. ' "The grouse was delicious," she said, delibOTttely changing the subject Nice divorcees are always aoing that. We fell into a discussion of present and future needs; of ways -And means for keeping my frien4s utterly in the dark concurring her -'resence in the abandoned east wing; and of what we were pleased to allude to as "separate maintenance," employing a phrase that might hav been considered distasteful and even banal under ordina-y condi tions. "I've bc.n trying to recall all of the notable marriages we bao in New York three years ago," said J, after she had most engagingly reduced me to a state of subjection in the matter of three or four moot questions that earae up for settlement. "You don't seem to fit in with any of the international affairs I can bring to mind." You promised you wauldn t bother about that, Mr. Smart," she said se verely. Of eourse you were married in New York." In a very nice church just off Fifth Avenue, if that will help you any," she said. "The usual crowd insido the church, and tho usual mob outside, all fighting for a glimpse of me in my wedding shroud, and for a chance to see a real Hungarian nobleman. It really was a very magnificent wedding, Mr. Smart." She seemed to be uuduly proud of te spectacular sacrifice. A knitted brow revealed the obfus cated condition of my brain. I was thinking very intently, not to say remotely. "The wholo world talked about it," she wont on dreamily. "We had a real prince for the best man, and two of tho ushers eouldn 't speak a word of Eng lish. Don't yon remember that the police closed the streets in the neigh borhood of the church, and woulrtn 't let people spoil everything by going about their business as tbey were iu the habit of doing f Some of the shops sold window space to sight-seers, jnst as they do at a coronation." I dare say all this should let in light, but it doesn't." "Don't you read the newspaperst" she cried impatiently. She actually re sented my ignorance. Religiously," I said, stung to re volt. "But I make it a point never to read the criminal news." "Criminal newst" she gasped, a spot of red leaping to her cheek. "What do you mean?" "It i merely my way of saying that I put marriages of that character in the category of crime." - "Oh!" she cried, stariag at me with unbelieving eyes. "Every time a sweet, lovely Amer ican girl is delivered into the bands of a foreign bounder whs happens to pos sess a title that needs fixing, I call the transaction a crime that puts white slavery in a class with the moat trifling misdemeanors. You did net love this pusillanimous Count, nor did he cure a hang for you. You were too young in the ways of tho world to have any feel ing for him, and he was too old tu have any for you. The whole hateful busi ness therefore Tesolved itself into a ease of give and take and he took ev erything. Ho took you and yonr fa ther's millions and now you are both back where you began. Rome ore de liberately committed a crime, and as it wasn 't you or the Count, who levied his legitimate toll, it must have been the person who planned the conspiracy. I take it, of course, that the whole af fair was arranged behind youi back, so to speak. To make it a perfectly fash tonablo and up-to-date delivery rt wonM have been entirely out of place to con suit the unsophisticated girl who was thrown in to make the title good. Yor were not sold to this bounder. It was the other way round. By the god, madam, he was actually paid to take vou! ' Her face was quite pale. Her eyes did not leave mine during the long and crazy diatribe, of which I was already beginning to feel heartily ashBmed, and there was a dark, ominous fire in them that should have warned me. She arose from her chair. It seemed to me she was taller than before. "If nothing else came to me out of this transaction," she said levelly, "at least a certair amount of dignity was acquired. Pray remember that I am no longer the unsophisticated girl you so graeionsly describe. I am a woman. "True," said I, senselessly dogged; "a woman with the power to think for yourself. That is my point. If the same situation arose at your present age I fancy you'd be able to select a husband without assistance, and I vent ure to say you wouldn't pick up the nrsc atssoiute sooietnar. that came your way. JNo, my dear countess, you were not to blame. You thought, as your parents did, that marriage with a count would make a real countess ef you. What rot! You are a simple, lovable American girl and that's all there ever can be to it. To the end of your days you will bo an American. It is not within the powers of a scape grace count to put you or any other American girl on a plane with the women who are born countesses, ot duchesses, or anything of the sort. I don't say that you suffer by compari son with these noble ladies. As a mat ter of fact you are surpassingly finer in every way than ninety-nine per cent, of then! poor things! Marrying an English duke doesn't make a genuine duchess out of an American girl, not by a long shot. She merely becomes a figure of speech. Your own experience should tell you that. Well, it's the same with all of them. They acquire a title, but not the homage that should go with it." We were both standing now. She was still measuring me with somewhat in credulous eyes, rather more tolerant that resentful. "Do you expect me to agree with you', Mr, Smart t " she asked. "l.do," said I, promptly. "Yon, of all people, should be ablo to testify that my views are absolutely right." "They are right." she said, simply. "Still yon are pretty much of a brute to insult me with them. "I moat sincerely crave your par don, if it isn't too late," I eried, ab ject onee more. (I don t know wnai gets into me once in a while.) "The safest way, I should say, is for neither of ns to express an opinion so long as we are thrown into contact with each other. If you choose to tell the world what you think of me, all well and good. But please don't tell me." "I can't convince the world what I think of you for the simple reason that I'd b speaking at random. I don't know who yon are." "Oh, you will know some day," she said, and her shoulders drooped little. iX've I've dona a most cowardly, despicable thing in hunting you " . "Pleasel Please don't say anything more about it. I dare say you've done me a lot of good. Perhaps I shall see things a little more clearly. To be per fectly honest with you, I went into this marriage with my eyes wide open, but I was only one fool among many. Doz ens of other girls in my set were crazy to many him. I I haven't told yon that he is -extremely good looking. And he was was adorable in those days." A far-away, dreamy look came into her eyes. She was staring at me, but I felt myself quite outside the range of her vision. I ventured a shrewd conjecture, con sidering the obvious character of her abstraction. "Stranger things have happened than that you should patch up your difficulties and go back to live with yeur hunband." She uttered a little cry of revulsion. The dreamy light died in her eyes and he transfixed me with a look of in dignation. "How dare you saggeet such a thing How dare you speak to me in that way! You I ought to order you out of this room and never sever " My luminous smile checked the oat burst. "Splendid!" I cried. "Yeu convince me that it can never happen." 6be smiled doubtfully, quite uncer tain how to take my humor. "Oh. dear me," she sighed, "I dont believe we shall ever get en at all well togtber, Mr. Smart. You are such a whimsical person." I'll try to do better," I cried, frankly pleased with the situation. Give ane a chance." . "Yon spoke of him as my husband," . she said, going back to my remartc. He is not my husband. Please be good enough to remember that. " "It will be easy, I assure you. May I therefore venture the hope that if you ever decide to marry again you'll give some deserving American a ehanco to make you his queen f YonH find it better than being a countess, believe "I shall never marry, Mr. Bmart," she said with decision. "Never, never again will I get into a mess that is so hard to eet out of. 1 can say tnis to you because I 've heard you are a bach elor. You can't take offence." "I foadly hope to die a bachelor," said I with humility. "God bless you!" she cried, bursting into a merry laugh, and I knew that a truce had been declared for the time be ing at least. "And now let us talk sense. Have you carefully considered the consequences if you are found out, Mr. Smartt" " "Found out I" "If you are found shielding a fugitive from justice. I eouldn 't go to sleep for 'ours last night thinking of what might bappen to you if " "Nonsense! " I eried, but for the life of me I couldn't help feeling elated. She had a soul above self, after all! "You see. I am a thief and a robber and a very terrible malefactor, accord- ng to the reports Max brings over from the city. The fight for poor little Rosemary is destined to fill columns and columns in the newspapers of the two continents for months to come. You, Mr. Smart, may find yourself ir the thick of it. If I were in your place, I should keep out of it." (To Be Continued.)
