Evening Star Newspaper, December 25, 1921, Page 36

D2 -~ FE T was & frankly disconsolade Plame who stole that night to her father's study and perched hersel? high on the arm of his ehair with her cheek snuggled close to his. “Pather,” sald Flame, “did you ever in your life know any ome who had ever spent Christmas just the way he ‘wanted to?” “Why—no, I don't know that I ever aid.” considered her father. “When you're little, of course, you have to spend the day the way your elders want you to! And when you're old enough to go courting,” he sighed, “your lady love's sentiments are out- raged if you don’t spend the day with her, and your own family are furious if you don’t spend the day with them! And after you're married?” he sank back tnto his cushions. “N—o, no one, 1 suppose, has ever spent Christ- man just exactly the way he wanted tol Qell, 1" triumphed Flame, “have the one chance perhaps in a lifetime, it would seem! And now mother has gone and wished me on Aunt Minna instead! Oh, father, dearie!” implored Flame, “couldn’t you please persuade mother that—" With a crisp flutter of skirts Flame's mother, herself, appeared abruptly in the door. “Why, wherever in the world have you people been?” she cried. “Didn’t you hear the telephone? Couldn’t you even hear me calling? Your Uncle Wally is worse! That is, he's better, but he thinks he's worse! And they want us to come at once! It's some- thing about a new will! They've sent an automobile for us! It will be here any minute! But whatever in the world shall we do about Flame?” she cried distractedly. “You know how Uncle Wally feels about having young people in the house! And she can’t Possibly go to Aunt Minna's till to- morrow! And—" * k ¥ X UBUT, you see, I'm not going to Aunt Minna’s,” announced Flame quite sedately. “Father says I don’t have to! Of course, you didn't say it with your mouth,” admitted Flame. “But you felt it.” ot go to your Aunt Minna's?” gasped her mother. “What do you want to do?” “I want to make a Christmas for myself! Oh, of course, I know per- fectly well,” Flame agreed, “that I could go to a dozen places In the parish, and be cry-babled over. But if I made a Christmas of my own everything about it would be brand- new and unassoclated!" “Honk-honk!” screamed the motor at the door. “Oh, dear me, whatever in the world shall I do?” cried Flame's mo- ther. “I'm almost distracted! I'm—" “When in doubt,” suggested Flame's father genially, “choose the most doubtful doubt on the docket and— Flame's got a pretty level head,” he interrupted himself. “No young girl has a level heart,” asserted Flame's mother. “I'm so wor- ried about the Lay Reader.” “Lay Reader?” murmured her father. “Why, yes. Just what kind of a Christmas is it, Flame, that you want to make?” He turned at the moment to force his wife's arms into the sleeves of her fur coat. “I—I want to make a Surprise for Miss Flora,” Flame confided. “Honk-honk!” urged the automo- bile. “At the Rattle-Pane House, you know!" rallied Flame. “Don’t you re- member that I called there this after- noon? It—it looked rather lonely there.” “Honk-honk-honk!” implored the automobile. “But who is this Miss Flora?’ cried her mother. “How do we know she’s respectable?” “Oh, my dear,” deprecated Flame's father. “Juse as though the owners of the Rattle-Pane House would rent it to any one who wasn't respectabl “Oh, she's very respectable,” insist- ed Flame. With a furious yank of the door- bell Uncle Wally’s chauffeur an- nounced that the limit of his endur- ance had been reached. “Oh, p-l-e-a-s-e!” implored Flame. “Will you promise not to see the Lay Reader?” bargained her mother. “Yes'm.” said Flame. * Kk Kk K AKING at dawn, two single thoughts consumed Flame—the Lay Reader and the humplest of the express packages downstairs, “As long as I've promised most faithfully not to see ‘Bertrand the Lay Reader,’” she laughed, “how can I possibly go to church? For the first Christmas in my life,” she “I won't have to go to She tore back the wrappings of the humpiest package with eager hands, only to find—a gay, gauzy layer of animal masks nosing interrogatively up at her. No identifying card! Perhaps a donation for the Sunday school Christmas tree? But there wasn’t going to be any tree! “U—m- m-m,” mused Flame, “whatever in the world shall I do with them?” Then quite abruptly she sank back on her heels and laughed. But even to her- self she did not say just what she ‘was laughing at. Taken all in all, it was a Christmas morning of works! Kitchen works mostly! TUseful, flavorous adventures with a turkey! A somewhat nervous sally with a ple! A few experiments with flour paste! A flare or two with 2 paint brush! An errand to the attic! It as 4 o'clock before she was even ready to start for the Rattle-Pane House with a sledful of miscellaneous Christmas goods. She had to make three tugging trips. And each start was delayed by her big gray pussy cat stealing out to try to follow her.| Reader. And each arrival complicated by the yelpings and leapings and general cavortings of four dogs who wanted to escape from the shed yard. With the third arrival finally accomplished the crafty cat stood waiting for her ©n the steps of the Rattle-Pane House +—back arched, fur bristled, spitting at the storm in the shed yard, and Bad to be thrust Into a covered basket and lashed down with yards and gards of tinsel The door key was exactly where the old butler had said it would be— under the doormat—and the key it- @elf turned astonishingly cordially in the rusty old lock. The four dog dishes, heaping to the brim, loomed in prim line upon the kitchen table. *“U—m-m,” sniffed Flame. ‘Noth- ing but mush! Mush!” 8he doffed Zar red tam and sweater, donned a huge white all-enveloping pinafore, and started to work. By b o'clock the faded yellow kitchen must have looked very strange even to a dog. Straight down fits dingy, wabbly floored center stretched a table spread with the Rev. Mrs. Flamande Nourice's second-best table- cloth. Quaint, high-backed chairs, dragged in from the shadowy parlor, circled the table. At one end of the table Joomed a big, brown turkey; at the other the appropriate vegetables. Ples, cakes and dQoughnuts inter- spersed themselves between. Greén wreaths steaming with scarlet rib- bons hung nonchalantly about. Tin- sel garlands shone on the walls. Con- spicuously placed above the rusty stovepipe stretched the parish’s gift motto, duly readjusted: ' “PEACE on EARTH, Good Will to DOGSs.” In the doorway opposite reared a hastily constructed pasteboard mim- icry of a rallroad crossing sign to the effect: Christmas Crossing Look Out for Surprises Stepping aside for & moment to study the full effect of her handiwork, the first psychological puzzle of her lite smote sharply across her senses, namely, that the instant you find yourself absolutely alone with a really good time you begin to hunt about for somebody very special to share it with you! “Maybe that's always the way things happen when you get your own way about she mused. Like a blast from the arctic, the Christmas twilight swept in on her as she opened the shed door. “Come, Beautiful-Lovely!" she im- plored. “Come, Lopsy! Miss Flora! Come, Blunder-Blot!" Leaping, loping, four abreast, they came plunging like so many north something els: winds to thelr party. Yelping- mouthed, slapping-tailed! Backs bristling! Hurtling, crowding! “Oh, dear me, dear me!” struggled Flame. “Maybe a carol would calm them.” * x x x TO a ocertain extent a carol surely aid. Cocking thelr ears to the old plano’s quavering treble notes, snort- Ing their nostrils through its gritty, guttural basses, they watched Flame's facila fingers sweep from sound to sound. “Oh, what a glorious lark!” quiv- ered Flame. “What a—a lonely, glor- fous lark!" Timidly at first, but with increas- ing abandon, the clear young soprano voice took up its playful paraphrase: “God rest you, merrie—animals! Let nothing you dismay! For—-" At this moment Beautiful-Lovely, muzzle lifted, eyes rolling, jabbed his shrill nose into space and harmony with a carol of his own: i “Wow—wow—wow! W-w—ow—W- W—OoW—W-W—O0—W-w-w-w!" As Flame's hands dropped from the piano, startled fists beat furiously on the door. “What is it? What is it!” shouted a familiar voice. “Whatever in the world is happening? Let me in!"" “Sil-ly!” hissed Flame through a crack in the door, “it's nothing but a party! Don’t you know, a—a party when you hear it?” “Bertrand the Lay Reader” relaxed in a gasp of astonishment. “Why—why, is that you, Miss Flame?” he gasped. “Why, I thought it was a murder! Why—why, what- ever in the world are you doing here?” “I—I'm having a party Flame through the keyhole. “A—a—party!” stammered the Lay Reader. “Open the door!” “No, I—can’t!” said Flame. “Why mnot” demanded the Lay Reader. “I just can’t!” she admitted, a bit weakly. "It wouldn’'t be convenient. I—T've got trouble with my eyes.” “Trouble with your eyes? Please open the door ! I've been looking for you everywhere,” urged the Lay Reader. “At the senior warden's! At all the vestrymen’s houses! I thought surely I'd find you at'your own house. But I found only sled tracks.” “That was me—I,' mumbled Flame. “And then I heard these awful screams!” shuddered the Lay Reader. “That was a carol,” sald Flame. “A. carol?” scoffed the Lay Reader. “Open the doo: “Well—just a crack,” Flame. It was astonishing how a man as broad-shouldered as the Lay Reader could pass so easily through a crack. Consclence-stricken, Flame fled be- fore him with her elbow crooked across her forehead. “Oh, my eyes— my eyes!” she cried. “Well, really,” puzzled the Lay Reader. “I had never suspected my- self of being actually dazzling!” “Oh,” explained Flame, “it's just my promise. I promised mother not to see you!” “We might tie my big handkerchief across your eyes,” suggested the Lay “Just till we got this mys- tery straightened out.” ‘With the big white hankerchief tied firmly across her eyes, Flame’s last scruple vanished. “Well, you see,” she began pre- cipitately, “I did think it. would be such fun to have a party all my own. No parish in it at all! Or good works. Just fun—and as long as mother and father had to go away, anyway—— ‘You see,” she confided, “Uncle Wally's making & new will. There’s a Sorn barn and a private chapel and a col- lection of Chinese lanterns and a ple- bald pony principally under dispute. Mother, of course, thinks we ought to have the corn barn. But father can’t decide between the Chinese lan- terns and the private chapel. Person- ally,” she sighed, “I'm hoping for the plebald pony.” - “Yes—but this—aertv?® prodded the ‘hissea conceded 4 Lay Reader. serted house?’ “Why have it in a de- deserted house,” she explained. “Who lives here?” Lay Reader. mine, and—" THE RUNDAY ETAR, WASHINGTON, “Oh, but, you see, it fsn’t exactly & demanded the “I don’t know—exactly,” admitted Flame, “but the butler is a friend of “The—butler is a friend of yours? There,” gasped the Lay Reader, “I could almost have sworn that I heard Poems on Cook Books till the desired heights were reached. For a single moment more Flame took another peek at the table. “Set & chair for yourself directly opposite mel” she ordered. “And whenever I really feel obliged to look you'll just have to leave the table, that's all! And now—" Appraising- ly her muffled eye swept the shining vista. “Perfect!” she “Perfect!” /triumphed. ‘Then, abruptly, the eager D. O, DECEMBER 25 1921-PART 4. — GOOD WILL TO DOGS—4 crristMAS STORY—By Eleanor Hallowell Abbott FLAME TOOK ONE BLANK GLANCE AT HIM AND BURST FORTH INTO A BLOOD-CURDLING SCREAM. & faint scuffle, the horrid sound of a person—strangling!” “Strangling?” giggled Flame. “Oh, that is just the sound of Miss Flora's ‘girlish glee!” Miss Flora is a—a dog. I neglected to state that this is a dog party that I'm having." “Dogs!” . winced the Lay Reader. “Will they bite?” “Only if you don’t trust them,” con- fided Flame. “But it's so hard to trust a dog that will bite you if you don't trust him,” frowned the Lay Reader. It was Flame's turn now to wince back a little. “I—I hate people who hate dogs!” she cried out abruptly. * ¥ ¥ X "OH. 1 don’t hate them,” lied the Lay Reader like ‘a gentleman. “I tell you I like dogs—good dogs! I assure you I'm very—oh, very much interested in this dog party of yours! If I could be of any possible assist- ance?” he implored. “Maybe you could be. There is a problem,” admitted Flame. “Five problems, to be perfectly accurate. Four dogs, and a cat.” “And a cat?” echoed the Lay Reader quite idiotically. “The table is set,” affirmed Flame. “But I don't know how to get the dogs into their chairs! They run around so! They yelp! They jump! They haven't had a mouthful to eat, you see, since last night this time! And when they once see the turkey I'm—I'm afraid they’ll stampede it!" “Turkey?” quizzed the Lay Reader, who had dined that day on corned beef. “Oh, of course, mush was were intended to have,” admitted Flame. “Piles and piles of mush! Extra piles and piles of mush, be- cause it was Christmas day! But don’t you think mush does seem a bit dull?” she questioned appealingly, “for Christmas day? Oh, I did think a turkey would taste so good!" “It certainly would,” conceded the Lay Reader. “So, if you'd help me,” wheedled Flame, “it would be well worth stay- ing blindfolded for. Otherwise,” mur- mured Flame with a faint gesture to- ward the door. “I will help you,” said the Lay Reader. “Where is your hand?” Flame. “Here!” attested the Lay Reader. “Lead us to the dogs!” commanded Flame. Bertrand Laurello, who, for the cause he served, wouldn't have hesi- tated an Instant probably to be torn by Hindu lions, saw no conceivable reason at the moment for being eaten by dogs at a purely social function. “This—this mush that you speak of?” he questioned. “With the dogs as—as nervous as you say—— Don't you think that perhaps a little mush served first, a good deal of mush, I would say, served firsf, might act as a—as a sort of anesthesia?” “Lead us to the—mush,” Flame. The door knob turned in his hand, and the cheerful kitchen lamplight, glitter of tinsel, flare of red ribbons, savor of foods, smote sharply on him. “Oh, I say, how jolly!” cried the Lay Reader. “Get the mush,” said Flame. “It's there on the table by the window. Please set all four dishes on the floor —each dish in a separate corner. And then open the parlor door, or maybe I'd better,” " conceded Flame. ‘Lead me to { “Sniff—sniff—snort!” the red setter sucked at the crack in the door. what they fumbled sald “Woof! Woof! Woof!” roared the big wolfhound. “Slam! Bang! Slash!” slapped the Dalmatian’s crisp weight. “Yi! Yi! YIi!” sang the bulldog. “Hush! Hush, dogs!” implored Flame. 'his 18 father’s Lay Reader! “Your—Lay Reader!” contradicted the young man gallantly. In another instant four shapes with teeth in them came hurtling through! ‘With a single sniff at the Lay Read- er’s heels, a prod of paws in his stom- ach, the onslaught swerved—and passed. Guzzlingly from four separate corners of the room issued sounds of Joy and fulfillment. Flame turned her back to the La: Reader, and lifted the bandage. Bulg- ing mush, the four dogs lay at rest. “O—h,” crooned Flame. “How sweet! Now, Mr. Laurello,” she sug- gested blithely, “if you'll get the Bibles—' “Bibles?” stiffened the Lay Reader. “Bibles? Why, really, Miss Flame, I couldn’t countenance - any sort of mock service. Even just for—for quaintness — even for Christmas quaintness!” *x % * ¥ «QIBLES? All I want them for is to plump up the chairs. The seats, you see, are too low for the dogs. Oh, I suppose dictionaries would do,” reluctantly, “Only diction- aries are always scarcer.” Obediently the Lay Reader buflt Chemistyles on Sermons and Anclent mouth wilted. “Why—why, I've for- gotten the carving knife and fork!” she cried out in real distress. “Oh, how stupid of me!” Without avail she searched through all the drawers and cupboards of the Rattle-Pane kitchen. “You'll have to go over to my -house and get them—>Ir. Lau- rello! You'll have to climb in through the window—some way,” worried Flame. “I've mislald my key here among all these dishes and boxes. Only please—please—hurry!” “If T hurry enough,” said the Lay Reader quite impulsively, “may I have a kiss when I get back?" “A kiss?” hooted Flame. In the curve of her cheek a dimple opened suddenly. “Well—maybe,” said Flame. The Lay Reader snatched his hat and sped out into the night. Flame dragged down the bandage from her eyes, dashed to the door and hello'd to the fast retreating fig- ure. “Oh, Bertrand! Bertrand!” she called. “If you don't find ‘em in the pantry you'd better go up in mother's room and turn out the silver chest! Hurry'! Rallying back to the bright Christ- mas kitchen, an accusing blush rose to the spot where the dimple had been. “Oh, shucks!” parried Flame. *“I kissed a bishop before I was five! ‘What's a lay reader?’ She rolled up her white sleeves without further in- trospection, and dragged out from the shadow of the sink the “humpiest” box. The clumsy cover slid off, ex- posing once more the gay-colored muslin layer of animal masks leering fatuously up at her. “Poor Miss Flora must be so tired of being so plain,” she thought. “I'll give her the first choice of every- thing! Something really—lovely! It can’t help resting her.” She selected for Miss Flora a Can- ary's face. Softly yellow! Its swell- ing, tender muslin throat fairly reek- ing with the suggestion of innocent song! Nudging Miss Flora cautjously from her sonorous nap, Flame be- gulled her with half a doughnut to her appointed chair, boosted her still cautiously to her pinnacle of books, and slipped the Canary's beautiful blond countenance over her grizzled mug. Miss Flora sat blinking beadily out through the canary’s yellow-rimmed eye sockets with frank curiosity to- ward such proceedings as were about to follow. It was easy to see she was accustomed to sitting in chairs. For the wolfhound Flame chose a giraffe's head. Beautiful-Lovely resigned him- self to the Inevitable, and lolled his fine height against the mahogany chalr back. ‘To Blunder-Blot, the trim Dalma- tian, Flame assigned the parrot's head, arrogantly beaked, gorgeously variegated, altogether querulous. For Lopsy, the crafty setter, she selected a white rabbit's artless, pink-eared visage. » " Yet out of the whole box of masks 1t had been the bengal tiger's flercely bewhiskered visage that had fascl- nated Flame the most. Cocking her head toward the woodshed, Flame could not be perfectly sure whether she heard a twinge of cat or a twinge of conscience. “After all,” she reasoned, “it would be easy enough to set another plate. And plle a few extra books. I'm al- most sure I saw & black plush bag in the parlor.” * Xk % ¥ five minutes the deed was accom- plished. The astonished cat found herself slumping soggily on & great pile of book staring down as best she might through the bengal tiger's ear at the welrdest assemblage of animals which any domestic cat had ever been forced to'contemplate. Very diplomatically Flame broke another doughnut in two and drew all the dogs’ attention to herself. Thus it was that the master of the house, returning unexpectedly, stum- bled upon a scene that might have shaken the reason of a less sober young man. Startled by the unwonted illumina- tion from his kitchen windows and by the unprecedented aroma of fir balsam that greeted him at his new front door, he groped through the dingy hall and beheld the gallows- like structure reared in the kitchen doorway. “My God!” he ejaculated. “Barret is getting ready to hang himself! Gone mad, probably—or something!"” He forced himself*to the object to note, with increasing bewilderment, the cheerful phrasing: *‘Christmas Crossing’?” he repeated blankly. “Look, Out for Surprises? ‘Shop! Cook! Glisten!'” Throwing all cau- tion aside, he passed the buffet and plunged into the kitchen. “Oh, do hurry!” cried an eager young voice. “I thought my hair would be white before you came!” He stopped short in his tracks to stare et the sceno before him. The bright tablel The absolutely formal food! A perfectly strange, blindfolded girl—with her dark hair forty years this side of white—begging him to hurry! A black velvet bag sur- mounted by a tiger's head stirring strangely in a chair piled high with books! A canary as blg as a turkey gobbler! A giraffe stepping suddenly forward with—with dog paws thrust into his soup plate! A white rabbit rousing cautiously from his cushions! A parrot with a twitching black-and- white short-haired tail! An empty chalr facing the girl! An empty chair facing the girl! In another instant he had slipped into the vacant seat. “So sorry to have kept you wait- ing,” he murmured. Flame yanked the handkerchief from her eye, took one blank glance at the stranger, and burst forth into a blood-curdling scream! As though waiting only for that one signal to break the spell of their en- chantment, the Canary leaped upward and grabbed the Bengal Tiger by his muslin nose; the White Rabbit sprang to “point” on the cooling turkey, and the Red-and-Green Parrot fell to the floor in a desperate effort to settle once and for all with the black spot that itched so impulsively on his left shoulder! Lost to all sense of honor or table manners, the benign-faced Giraffe burst through his own neck with a most curious anatomical effect, locked his teeth in the Parrot's gray throat, and rolled with him under the table in mortal combat. From her terrorized perch on the back of her chair, Flame watched the fracas with dflated eyes. Hunched in the hug of his own arms the stranger sat rocking himself to and fro in uncontrollable, choking mirth—*"ribald mirth” was what Flame called it. It was not until the Black Plush Bag at bay had ripped a red streak down Miss Flora's avid nose that he rose to interfere. Very definitely then, with quick deeds, in- cisive words, he separated the imme- diate combatants and ordered the other dogs into submission. “Here you, Demon Direful,” he ad- dressed the white Wolfhound. “Drop that, Orion!” he shouted to the Irish setter. “Cut it out, John!" he thun- dered at the coach dog. “Their names are Beautiful-Love- ly!” cried Flame, “and Lopsy and Blunder-Blot!” ‘The stranger stared with frank as- tonishment. “Their names are what?" he said. In an instant Flame had jumped from her retreat to the floor. “Who are you, anyway?” she de- manded. “How dare you come here like this? Butting into my party! And—spoiling my discipline with the dogs! Who are you, I say?” “Who am I?” he said. “Why, no one special at all except just—the Master of the House!” “What?” gasped Flame. “Earle Delcote,” bowed the stranger. “Why—why, but Mr. Delcote is an old man,” she gasped. “I'm almost sure he’s an old mai . The smile on the stranger's mouth spread suddenly to his eyes. “Not yet—thank God!” he bowed. Flame sank limply down in her seat again and gestured toward the empty place opposite her. * X X X "AVE a—have a chair,” she stam- mered. “Oh, I—I know I oughn’t to be here,” she struggled. “It's the— the cheekiest thing that any girl in the world ever did! But your butler said—— And he did so want to go away and—— And I did so love your dogs! And I did so want to make one Christmas in the world just ex- actly the way I wanted it!” The Master of the House slipped back into his chair. “Have a heart!” he said. Flame did not accept this sugges- tion. With downcast eyes she sat staring at the table. It seemed a very cheerless table suddenly, with all the dogs grouped blatantly around their master’'s chair. “I can at least have my Cat,” she thought, “my—faithful Cat!” In an- other instant she had extracted poor Puss from a clutter of pans in the back of the cupboard, and brought her back, growling and bristling, to perch on one arm of the high-backed chair. “Th—ere!” said Flame. The eyes of the stranger fixed speculatively on the big turkey. “I'm afrald everything is very cold,” she confided with formal re- gret. “Not for anything,” laughed the stranger quite suddenly, “would I have kept you waiting—Iif I had only known.” Two spots of color glowed in the girl's cheeks. “It was not for you I was waliting,” she said coldly. “N—o?" teased the stranger. “For whom, then? Some incredible wight who, worse than late—isn’t going to show up at all? Heaven-sent, I con- sider myself. 'How else could so little a girl have mansged 80 big a tur- kav?® @ “There—isn't any—carving knife.” ‘What? No carving knife?" he roared imperiously. “And the house guaranteed ‘furnished'?” Very furl- ously he began to hunt all around the kitchen. “Oh, it's furnished, all right,” quiv- ered Flame. “It's just chockful of dead things. Pressed flowers! And old plush bags! And pressed flowers! And—and pressed flowers!” “Great heavens!” groaned the stranger. “And I came here to forget ‘dead things'!" “Your—your butler said you'd had misfortunes,” murmured Flame. “Misfortunes!” rallied the stranger. “I should think I had! In a single year I've lost health, money—most everything I own in the world except “They’re good dogs,” testified Flame. “And the doctor sent me here for six months,” persisted the stranger, “before he'll even hear of my plung- ing into things again!” “Six months is a—a good long time,” said Flame. “If you'd turn the hems, we could make yellow curtains for the parlor in no time at all!” “W—we?” stammered the stranger. “M—mother,” sald Flame. *It's a long time since any dogs lived in the Rattle-Pane House.” “Rattle-Brain House?" stranger. “Rattle-Pane Flame. The stranger returned to his seat. “I shall have to rend the turkey 1ustead of carving it,” he sald. “Rend it,” acquliesed Flame. In the midst of the rending a frown appeared between the stranger's eyes. “These—these guests that you were expecting ” he questioned. “Oh, stop!” cried Flame. “Dreadful as I am, I never—never would have dreamed of inviting guests!” “This ‘guest, then,” frowned the stranger, “was he—" “Oh, you mean—Bertrand?” flushed bridled the House,” corrected Flame. “Oh, truly, I didn’t invite him! He just butted in—same as you!” “Same as—I?" stammered the stranger. “Well,” floundered Flame, “well— you know what I mean—" The master of the house fixed his eyes on the knotted white handker- chief which Flame had thrown across the corner of her chair. “And is this ‘Bertrand’ person so— so dazzling,” he questioned, “that hu- man eye may not look safely upon his countenance?” “Bertrand — dazzling?” protested Flame. “Oh, no! He's really quite dull. It was only,” she explained with sudden friendliness, “it was only that I had promised mother not to ‘see’ him. So, of course, when he butted in — “O—h!" relaxed the master of the house. “And some people talk about a country village being dull in the wintertime!” he chuckled. “With a dogs’ masquerade and a robbery at the rectory all happening the same evening!” Grabbing her cat in her arms, Flame jerked her chair back from the table. “A—a robbery at the rectory!” she gasped. “Why—why, I'm the rec- tory! I must go home at oncel” * k kK “ , shucks!” shrugged the master of the house: “It’s all over now. The constable and his prisoner are already on their way to the county seat, wherever that may be. The reg- ular constable was off Christmasing somewhere, it seems, so he put a sub- stitute on his job—a stranger from somewhere. Some substitute, that! No mulling over hot toddies on Christ- mas night for him! He saw the marauder crawling In through the rectory window. He saw him fum- bling now to the left, now to the right, all through the front hall. He followed him up the stairs to a closet where the silver was evidently kept. He caught the man red-handed, as it were. It seems there was a solid sil- ver, very elaborate carving set which the parish had just recently presented. The wretch was just unrolling it, then, when he was caught.” “That was Bertrand!” said Flame, “my father’s lay reader. It was the man’s turn now to jump to his feet. “What " he cried. «I gent him for the carving knife,” said Flame. From the outside door the sound of furious knocking occurred suddenly. “That sounds to me like—like par- ents’ knocking,” shivered Flame. ~ “It sounds to me like an escaped Lay ‘Reader,” sald her host. “Don’t worry, little girl,” whispered the young stranger in the dark hall. “I'l try not to,” quivered Flame. . They were both right. It was par- ents and the Lay Reader. All three were breathless, all three excited, all three reproachful, they swept into the warm, balsam-scented Rattle-Pane House with a gust of frost, a threat of disaster. “F—lame!” sighed her father. “Flame!” scolded her mother. “Flame!” fmplored the Reader. “What a pretty name med the master of the house. “Pray everybody,” he gestured gr: left and right. “This is very great pleasure, I assurc you. affirmed distinctly to Miss Flamandal unex-| Nourlce. “Returning quite pectedly to my new house this lonel Christmas evening,” he explained very definitely to the Rev. Flamande Nourice, “I can’t express to you what it means to me to find this pleasant gathering of nelghbors walting here to welcome me! And when I think of the effort you must have made to get here, Mr. Bertrand, ‘“he beamed, *a young man of all your obligations and—and complications——" “Pleagant—gathering of nelghbors?” questioned Mrs. Nourice with some emotion. “Oh, I forgot,” deprecated the mas- ter of the house with real concern. “I was told at the railroad station how you end Mr. Nourice had been called away by the illness of a rela- tive.” “We were called away,” confided Mrs. Nourice with asperity, “by a very sick relative, to receive the present of a plebald pony.” “Oh, goody!” jumped Flame and collapsed again under her mother's glance. “And then came telephone message,” shuddered her mother. “The implied dishonor of one of your father's most trusted—most trusted associates!” “I was right in the midst of such an Interesting book,” father. lend 1t.” “So we borrowed Uncle Wally's new automobile and started right for home,” hurried her mother. “It was at the junction that we made con- nections with the constable and his prisoner.” is—victim, Reader coldly. His mouth was twisted very slightly to ome side. It gave him a rather this terrible “And TUncle Wally wouldn't intercepted the Lay unpleasant, snarling expression. If this expression had been vocal in- stead of muscular, it would have shocked his hearers. Your father had to go on board the train and identify him,” persisted Flame's mother. “The constable was most unwilling to release him. Your father had to use every kind of argu- ment.” Zvery—kind,” mused her father. “He doesn’t even deny being in the house,” continued her mother, “being in my closet—being caught with a solid silver carving knife and fork sists,” frowned Flame's mother, “that there is some one in the world who can give a perfectly good explanation if only—he won't even say ‘he’ or ‘she’ but ‘it'—if only ‘i’ would.” A sudden flicker of suspicion dark- ened the mother's eyes. you don’t know anything about this, do you, Flame?" she demanded. “ls it remotely possible that after your promise to me—your sacred promise to me——" To the Lay Reader's face, and right through the Lay Reader's face to the face of the master of the Flame's glance went homing with an unaccountable impulse. * k x VW/ITH one elbow leaning casually on the mantelpiece, his ey T 1S a significant fact that at least half of the Chinese dele- gates and officials connected with the delegation attending the con- ference were educated in the United States. Whether or not the Chinese government chose men who, because of their training in America, would be closer in touch with the United States, “their friend at court” and better able to understand western methods and were better posted in world affairs because of their vears spent in the occident, is only a guess. It is well known that the highest positions in the administrative, ju- dicial and executive branches of the Chinese government are practically monopolized by men with English or American univer«:® schooling, prin- cipally the latter, and it might have been difficult to pick men qualified for the work at the conference here without including a majority of for- mer American students. At any rate, it is believed that China will come out of the conference much better off than she came in, even though all of her demands are not acceded to, and a great part of whatever suc- cess will be their share will be due to the group of young leaders and advisers who were educated here. One thing was shown very clearly in the early days of the parley, that a great number of the officials were able to speak such good Eng- lish. and knew 8o well how to make themselves agreeable that they were able to get for their cause a vast amount of publicity that has proved invaluable. In 1900, following the Boxer re- bellion, China pald an indemnity of $12,000,000 to the United States, as she did to varioi.a other nations. America, in an unvsually sane and human moment, ®ave back this money to China to be used in sending bright and industrious Chinese boys to America to be educated. The con- tinually growing friendly relations between the two nations has already proved the advisability of the gra- cious act. It is more evident than ever in the present conference, and it is expected to bear even greater fruit as China continues to grow into a real power. There are here, representing China, three plenipotentiary - delegates, two superior advisers, five advisers, nineteen technical advisers, seven counselors, a secretary general, an assistant secre- tary general, a secretariat composed of seventy-one members and eighteen translators, clerks, etc. Of this number between fifty-five and sixty, or nearly half, were graduated from American universities and several others studied at high schools or took special courses Zere. Of the three plenivotentiary dele. seated, | | dreaming person. deplored her in his hand. Yet all the time, he per-| | house Graduates of U. S. Colleges In Delegation From China faintly inscrutable, faintly smiling, it seemed suddenly to the young Master of the House that he had been walit- ing all his discouraged years for just that glance. His heart gave the queerest jump. Flame's face turned suddenly very pink. Like a person in a dream she turned back to her mother. There was a smile on her face, the emile of a “No—mother,” she said, “I haven't en Bertrand—toda$.” 'Why, you're looking right at him now!” protested her exasperated mother. With a gentle murmur of dlssent Flame's father stepped forward and laid his arm across the young girl's shoulder. “She—she may be looking at him,” he sald, “but I'm almost per- fectly sure that she doesn’t see him.” “Why, whatever in the world do you mean demanded his wife. “If there was only another woman here! A ma- ture—sane woman! A——" With a “are of accusation she turned from Flame to the Master of the House. “This Miss Flora that my daughter spoke of—where is she? I insist on seeing her! Please summon her in- stantly!” Crossing genially to the table, the Master of the House reached down and dragged out the bulldog by the brindled scruff of her neck. “This 1s—Miss Flora!™ he said. Indignantly Flame's mother glanced at the dog, and then from her daugh- ter's face to the face of the young man again Agd you call that—a lady 2" anded. —not technically young man. For an instant a perfectly tense lence reigned. Then from under a shadowy basket the Cat crept out, shining, sinuous, with extended paw, and began to pat a sprig of holly cau- | tiously along the floor. Ve all,” broke in the Master of the House quite irrelevantly, “scem to have experienced a slight twinge of irritability—the past few minute: | Hunger, I've no doubt! So suppose we all sit down together to this sumptu- | ous—if somewhat chilled repast? :.\fler the soup certainly, even after | very cold soup, all explanations, I'm sure, will be—cheerfully and satisfac- | torily exchanged. Miss—Flame I know has 4 most amusing story to tell and—-" { “Oh, yes!” rallied Flame. “And it's {almost all about being blindfolded and sending poor Mr. Laurello—" “So, if by any chance, Mr.—Mr. she de * admitted the Bertrand,” interrupted the Master of the House a bit abruptly, “you hap- pen to have the solid silver knife and still | fork 1 on your person. 1 said the Lay Reader with first real grin. With great formality the Master of the House drew back a chair and | bowed Flame's mother to it. ~ Then suddenly the red setter lifted his sensitive nose in the air, and the spotted Dalmatian bristled faintly across the ridge of his back. Through the whole room, it seemed, swept a curious cottony sense of Something- About-to-Happen! With a little sharp catch of her breath Flame dashed to the window and swung the sash upward! “Mr. * * * Delcote!” she called. In an instant his slender form sil- houetted darkly with hers in the open “wlndu\h' against the eternal mystery and majesty of a Christmas night. the snow came! All rights reserved.) gates, Dr. Wellington Koo is a Colum- bia University man, Dr. Chung-Hui Wang matriculated at Yale and Minister Sze, after studving at Central High School in Washihgton, graduated from Cornell. Each of the three did some- thing that was quite extraordinary for an oriental during his college career. Dr. Koo was editor-in-chief of the Co- lumbian Spectator, the college dally; Minister Sze was an editor of his uni- versity daily, the Cornellian, and Dr. wang graduated first in his class at the Yale Law School. Dr. W. W. Yen, one of the advisers. has many of his former schoolmates living in this vicinity now, for he studied for two vears at the Episcopal High School and later graduated from the University of Virginia, and in both places won many gold medals for English com- position and debating. Chow Tse-Chi. another of the advisers, was one of the first of the Chinese students to come 1o America. He was a graduate of the old Columbian University here, since superceded by George Washington Uni- versity. As a general thing these Chinese students took part in outdoor sports and contests only to a very limited de- gree. Almost all of them devoted their time nearly’ exclusively to their studies and to literary work of one kind or another. Despite any possible handi- cap of language, practically all of them stood very high in their classes, and to be the possessor of a Phi Beta Kappa key is quite the general thing among them. One of the officlals connected with the delegation, however, did dis- tinguish himself as an athlete. Chung Mun-yew, an associate adviser, is a graduate of Yale and while at the uni- versity he was coxswain of the varsity crew and was instrumental in defeat- ing the Harvard eight by a good margin. Columbia University leads in having the greatest number of her Chinese sons connected with the conference. There are about twenty of them here. Yale is second with about fifteen and Harvard ranks third, although some of the Harvard graduates took only law there after graduating from Yale or other universities first. The other uni- versities that are well represented In the delegation are Princeton, Cornell, Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn- sylvania. Couldn’t Oblige. “That's a plucky pedestrian, any- how.” “What did he do?” “Dared the man who ran over nim to try it again.’~ “Did the motorist accept the chal- Tenge?” < ;mhe said it nearly .‘meu;m art a L ?\;:i:'a 'D::'u“’ his way 10 meet