Alabaster
Lamps
Br
Margaret Turnbull
Coprrlfht, lJS. br Wanaret TurabulL
WNU Service
STORY FROM THE START
Claud Melnotte rsbbs, re
turning from New Tork to hi
grocery ator In Peace Valley,
Pa., brlng-a with him a trn;er,
Ned Carter, whom he Introduce
to hi housekeeper, Aunt Llddy,
a a chance acquaintance. Ned
telle that he ha broken with hi
folk becaue of their paclflMIe
leaning-. Vlaltlna; In Clover Hol
low, tno two men almoit run
over a doc belonln to a girl
whim Ned recoantae. piter
Ned deliver a grocery order, and
In hi absence the girl, Dorothy
Selden, tell Dabba that Ned
nam I Hana-eley and that he
I th eon of th fanioua banker.
Next morning- Ned, darting to
work aa a delivery boy, take
an order marked "Johnaton" to
th "Whit Houae," where he
meet Mary Johnaton. Bh tell
him the servants have left, leav
ing her alone with her mother.
Ned iromlea to get new ferv
ent. Meeting Dorothy, who I
hi former fiance. Ned evade
explaining his presence In Peace
Valley. He arrange with Ettl
Pulelfer to begin work with th
Johnaton, but she I unable to
tart at one. Ned return to
tell Mary about hiring Ettle, and
In explaining thla matter to th
mother I astonished at her emo
tion when Dabba' nam I men
tioned. Th cook arrive, and
Mary and Ned atart to town for
grocerlea. They are aeen by Dor
othy Selden. Worried over finan
cial difficulties, Mrs. Johnston I
bothered by Dorothy, who warna
her there Is something auspicious
about Ned. After seeing Mrs.
Johnston at th Inn, Dabb tells
Ned that he hat aomethlng that
he want to get off hi mind. He
confesses that twenty year ago
h married "Mr. Johnston" so
that ah could Inherit her fa
ther" estate.
CHAPTER VI Continued
10
"Ye," Claude Dabb told him
itoutly, at though In answer to the
unspoken question, "that'e what I did.
Married for money. Sold myself for
five hundred dollar!"
"Great Scott, C M.I Get on! What
happened?"
"After I married Polly, and got half
the money down, I came home here.
Hying nothing to anyone. The under
Handing waa that I waa to go back
at the end of the week, algn the neces
aary paper, and get the rest of the
money. That waa to rod the whole
basinet. When I got home, Pop waa
dying. He died the night I got home,
and waa burled three dayi after,
i "After the funeral I made an ex
cuse to Mom that I had to go back to
ettle thing, and so I got away. I
went to the lawyer' office and signed
the paper. He told me that Tolly'
uncle waa dead, bad died two day
after I married I'olly, and I wa to
take the paper and deliver them to
her. She wa ttaytng at little second-rate
hotel. She'd given up her
job but she didn't want to (preud her
self until she got away from the town
where she'd been servant girl. Polly
herself wa to give me the rest of the
money. I'd only been paid balf be
fore I went home. The lawyer laughed,
when he told me that, and added:
'Women are women. She would have
It so.' Then he looked sly, and suld :
JIu) tie this Ixu't such a mercenary
affair as I wa led to believe. If I
were you, I'd make her see reason and
stay In America before she speud all
of her fortune In traveling, or gets
tuken in by foreigners. It' a lot of
money. If I were in your shoes, I'd
never let her go.'
"I walked uwuy from him, thinking
If he was In my shoes he'd be in a bad
way. I didn't know whether It was be
cause I was all worn out with grief
over Pop, and aleeples nights and
worry about Mom and the future, or
whether It was because I was miles
away from home and lonely. Some
how I didn't seem like myself. I
seemed like some other person. I
tried to shake the feeling off. I said
to myself: 'All the time I'm with
Polly. I'm going to be Just myself
the Claude Dulihs I feel like. She
don't know me a Cluude Dabb of
Peuee Y"?1
"I saw my future. A hard struggle
vlth a country store and no time to
do anything but work. God I how I re
belled In that short walk down. I
didn't see why I should be shut up in
a groceiy for a lifetime, and that was
all I could see before me. Why should
niy father have hud to die, when there
were men wulklng round hale and
heurty, lots older tlmn he.
"And I wanted Pop bock I Nothing
to do with the flnnnclul part of It,
that ache. I cared a lot Why, I
could have stood the grocery part of
It forever for Pop. I hated every
man of his uge that came near me
alive and huppy, while Pop lay still.
There was a sore pluce In my heart
that I couldn't bear, marked with bis
aunie. Every time I went near It, I
Jjaspod awuy, like yon Jump when you
have had a bad spot and the dentist'
fooling round.
"All the thing I hadn't done that
Pop wanted me to do; till the times
I'd disappointed him and ucted mean
were there. It needed only a touch to
seud me running down that city street,
crying like a baby.
"So I shut It off, In n corner of my
mind, and said to myself: That' got
nothing to do with this Polly I'm go
ing to see. I'll get all through with
this young woman, and then I'll go
home to what I've got to go home to.
Put she's nothing to do with It.' "
Ned stopped him. "C. M.," he said,
"I don't think you exactly hated this
Polly."
"Maybe not, but I wasn't looking
forward with much pleasure to see
ing her. I'd hardly looked at her In
the boarding house, unless I had to
yell at her for not tidying up my
room, or for tidying It so I couldn't
find anything; or not bringing my
laundry up fast enough. No, that Isn't
quite honest. I'd noticed her, all right.
She waa too pretty not to notice. Put
my mind had been on other thing
then, and she was Just Polly. Uu-deratandT"
'I think I get the state of mind you
were In," Ned admitted thoughtfully,
but I still think you liked the girl a
lot more than you iidmlt."
Cluude sighed. "It's possible. It's
so hard to make people see, thougl).
that sometimes you're one part of
yourself and sometime you're an
other." He begnn aguln, aa though anxious
to get on.
'It wa getting pretty late and I
thought If I got there Just In time for
upper I would have to ask her to eat
Looked Up and There Wa Polly.'
with me. I didn't think I could stand
talking to her, so I stopped at a
restaurant.
"Son, I don't know that I can make
you understand It, but I might Just as
well have had something strong to
drink. The food made me feet so
queer; like plowing ahead at someone
or something. I took little walk,
and then I said to myself that now
I'd only got to get It over and then
I could take the nine o'clock train
home and that would be all of that
"The hotel wasn't fur from the sta
tion, and It wasn't very handsome, I
guess, but It wa finer than any I'd
ever been In. I asked for Polly by
her own name, only utylng Mrs. In
stead of Mis. It wa ber own Idea.
She didn't wish to have anything like
talk about us. I suld I waa ber bus
band. The woman called up and told
me Polly would be down In a minute.
"The parlor wa full of people, but
nobody I knew. I at down and
waited, and while I waited that hurry
and rush of excitement Inside me kept
up. It wn hard to sit still. I wanted
to walk about and talk, but I held my
self In. I looked at the people who
came In, end they all seemed the same
kind of red-fuced, common people. No
body I knew.
"Then I heard a voice near me say :
'Well, so It's you.' I looked up and
there wn Polly."
Claude glanced at Ned, who, his
eyes shaded with his hand, seemed to
be listening Intently.
"Wish I could make you see Just
what she looked like to m. I'd never
seen her In right clothes; Just house
dresses and apron things. There, be
side me, was one of the prettiest
girls I'd ever seen In my life. She
was dressed all In block mourning
for her uncle and It set off her fair
skin. It made her red hair look like
autumn leaves, klnda flaming and yet
soft. I'd mostly seen thut hair bun
dled up In a dusting cup. Well, I
guess I gawked at her before I rose
to my feet, and Polly was confused,
too, and kept looking awny from me.
'"We can't any anything private
here,' she said. 'Maybe you'd belter
come to my room.'
"I told her 1 guessed that would be
Sting Removed From
I have a little eon called Jim Just
Jim Nye, that' all and one day when
he wa only five year old I requested
him to do some slight thing or other,
but he kept on playing and humming
a little song about the "sand man." 1
spoke to him again more firmly, for as
a generul thing my children regarded
me more a a ource of amusement
than anything else, and a he did not
stir I gave him a gentle spank with
the dictionary. It did not hurt him,
und he rather enjoyed It until he
looked at my face and saw thut I
was In earnest, nnd then hla heart
broko with a lurge report
At dinner he said nothing and ate
very little, and when it wa over and
jpb . fog:
i
all right, for I'd said 1 was her bus
band when I came In.
"'Oh,' she snys, 'did you? Thei
It's nil right. Come ulong.'
"Wo went up and she opened tin
door and 1 went Into her room."
Claude' pipe wont out. There ww
silence In the room as lie tilled It, hm
Claude did not feel it. He had for
gotten that he was tilling the story to
Ned. lie hud forgotten everything
that belonged to himself In the pre
cut, llu was back In the past, seeing
the shy, awkward Cluude lhtulia on
the threshold of that girl's room. He
remembered that ulivudy It looked
different from the rest of the house.
She had flowers lu a vase on the
rough, cheap, pine dressing table.
She had spread clean towels on that,
on the bureau and on her trunk, dis
carding the Ulrty-looklug scurfs that
hud adorned them. They hud been
too shy to look at each other. He had
stared out of the window.
Kvery time Dabb brought hi eyes
around to her, he cutight her looking
at him, and Dually she laughed.
It wn wonderful, thut luui:h. It
made him feel young again. He had
been feeling like an old lean, with a
weight of sorrow aud care on hie
shoulders, but that glrl'a laugh had
made him feel hi own age. Her
laugh was young and spiced with
deviltry. Puck of It all wus the new
struuge feeling the girl gave him.
He saw hlmselt solemnly giving her
(lie papers. He watched her while
she put them carefully away in a bag,
and counted out the rest of the
money. There hud been a moment's
awkwardness over that, he remem
bered. He had made an Involuntary
movement of his hand, to give It lck
to her, but she as Involuntarily,
thrust It hack at him. Then he
tutiKhed, folded It up and put It assy.
Put he did not go. He had known
that he should, but he could not. He
sat down beside her, and they began
talking, awkwardly enough at first.
Then suddenly they were no longer
the Cluude and Polly of the hoarding
house days, but two young things who
bad lots to say to each other, aud en
Joyed suylng It
She told Cluude of her pluns. Mie
meant to travel and study and see
everything. She was fond of reading.
Indeed, she had read and planned In
a way that seemed remarkable to him
for a girl, servant girt, too, but he
noted that she did not ask about his
plans. Kvery time their conversation
touched his life, present or future,
she changed the subject Then he
knew that she meant hi in to under
stand she would have nothing to do
with him after tonight. After tonight,
Claude would not see her; after to
night she would be awsy enjoying
thinirs, out In the freedom of th
world, with money, and ahe would
have no use for him, no use at all.
It had eaten Into the young Cluude's
consciousness that ahe was going to
use him aa a shield until she met sum
one she really cared for. Then she
would drop him, and his name. "After
tonight" echoed and re-echoed In his
mind, and he forgot thut he had no
right to expect anything else, for he
had taken her money. Jealousy grad
ually took possession of hllil. He
watched her talk and smile. It struct
nine. Ill train had gone.
He did not go; merely sat watching
her. He had known, even then, that
she saw what she hsd done to him,
and It had gone to her head. He had
been one of the "boarders" In the old
days, one for whom she must fetch
and carry. Now he waa at her merry.
He began to think of lots of things
that proved she had not been as In
different to hltn In those old boarding
house days as she had pretended.
Even before the money came, poll
Johnston, the man-hater, had a son
spot for one man Claude Iabbs. Alt
unconsciously she had let him set
that. Claude had wondered afterward
If It waa not a conscious use of her
new-found power. He began to be
lieve that It was not entirely by acci
dent that she had mode hltn come to
her for the money, Instead of having
the lawyer pay hlin. He had never,
until then, guessed thut the girl liked
him that way. Hut now she told Mm
more than she meant, or knew, and
when she realized this, she pulled
herself up and began telling him that
the lawyer had arranged for her to
go to France. She would go as a
young widow, to people who would
help her; let her see everything mid
do everything she wanted to do.
He remembered how the other,
younger Claude, after listening to her
silently for awhile, had blurted out!
"When ure you coming buck?"
"Never!"
Follow the astounding adven
ture of Polly and Claud In th
next Installment
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
Rebuke of Small Son
we were Just about to leave the turn's
he got up In his mother's lap nnd laid :
"Mamma, I wish you had muwled
Jesus. He loved little children."
This episode did not make me feel
so frightfully proud of myself, but I
was glad that the child at least re
garded his mother aa a very worthy
woman. From "1S1I1 Nye, III Own
Life Story," by Krunk Nye.
SimpU Divorc
Among some of the tilbe In the
Arctic region a man who Want
divorce leave home In anger and does
not return for several day, l.lui Wife
take the bint aud departs,
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