Evening Star Newspaper, August 20, 1922, Page 52

= oBoDE n vés, you—and your « hands ~ are cold. ) That's all that's wrong ~with you,” Cornela.” Dr. Charlie- Brett grinned impudently be- hind the .protection of Nis seventy- years. Miss l‘lwu regarded him silently. “The cold hands don't mnuer. he went on, more briskly.. “You've been overworking. of course; and your cir- culation’s below par, but that'll take care of itself when you go south, Cor- nelia. But'the other thing—" “Oan’t be helped,” she interrupted €& quietly. ‘He shook his head. “How old.are you..Cornelia? 1 forget.” ‘hrty-seven.” She managed to Tap it out smartly. *You'll never marry, now—not your type. But your independence doesn’t prevent -you from needing love—you may not know that, yet, but you'll find it out some day. We're all alike.’ “If you mean that I—I'm lonely—' “Hah! Beginning to notice that there’s something missing, in spite of the business and the money and the suceess? Thought I'd have to argue it with you - . “You needn't. T know. And I've tried—1 can look ahead, Dr. Char- lie—" The half-mischievous twinkle went “Cornelia, that's the 1 suppose you went out of his ey whele trouble. osition, eh? Undertook to make that | girl fond of you by—" | “Well, how else could I do it? I thought that if I gave her things I knew she ached for she'd—" He shook his head slowly. ‘“Queer —when you're keen as a knife about mpst. things, too. The more you did for her the better you liked her—and all it got you was thanks!" She nodded. “T dldn't like her, at fizst. I don't know why I do now. She's absolutely selfish, and as cold as a wet shoe, and yet—" “And yet you've been wanting to cry because she hasn’t taken the trou- ble to send you a post card since she left. eh? Happened before, hasn't it? Took that other cousin of yours sbroad with you, vear before last, didn’t you?" | Cornelia Lescott nodded. Amy had fargotten her as quickly as Eleanor. “1 can't make people Itke me. It must be & gift that I don’t poss “Rats! You can't make people like vou by the methods vou'd use to win a buyer's friendship! That's the whole trouble, Cornella—you're 80— 80 efficient! You made 'em both ever- lastingly consclous that you were do- ing things for them. And it takes a pretty broad-gauge human being to love a fairy godmother!" * x % ¥ ‘TE leaned his elbows on his desk. “Look here, mirl: if you've got any more young female relations, try the other thing on the next one. Give her a chance to manage you. Lean on her. A business is a good thing to love, but it can’t love back. You try my method and see if it doesn’t work.” Coprnelia Lescott smiled thinly as he drove to her office. Twice bitten, thrice shy, she told herself. Amy and Eleanor had taught her that she wasn't the type to attract and hold a girl’s affections. The same qualities that had made her a success as a business woman made her a failure 23 anything else. The office seemed. to echo the as- surance as she attacked her day's mail briskly. The big. cheerful room, with its effect of solid accomplish- ment, welcomed her amiably into the life for which nature must have ex- pressly fashioned her. Her morning conference with Ca- rewe deepened the impression. It was clear that Carewe regarded her pure- ly as a business personality. She found a gentle satistaction in his re- spect. He was competent to )\ld‘O and he never flattered. “When do you expect to leave, Miss Lescott?" His brisk question brought her back to the unwelccme topic. “I'm not sure that I'l go at all” she said slowly. “Vacations tire me more than work.” He shéok his hedd decidedly. “That's a mistake, if you'll let me say.s0. It may tire you more than staying on the job, but it doesn’t tire the same muscles and nerves. That's the point. 1 hope you'll decide to go, as usual.” She guessed that he liked to be left in control. He didn’t miss her, she thought. He'd be glad when she went. PFobably they all felt the same way.. None of them had any feeling about her except as she concerned their material conditions. a per- son she simply didn’t matter. ‘Oh, T suppose I'll go, as usual” she said listlessly. “It seems llke mors of a nuisance this year, that's all. Tl let you know when I decide.” * ® k% HE gathered his papers and went work with a sense of escape. out. She plunged into her own After all there was always the business. 1t wak hers, not merely in the sense of ownership, but by right of crea- tion.-- She'd bufit it up from the atruggling little plant her father had Jeft -behind him. She loved it, she told herself, and It was worth loving, etter worth loving than shallow, ! ifish girls who—— . Charlie’s volce seemed to sound “her ears: “You can love a business, 1 right, but it can’t love back.® and you need something that ca She sat up ltrll‘ht. her lips l|l‘hl1l & queer stinging sensation in her eyes.. She could ask George's eldest girl and see whether there was any- thing in - Dr. Charli system. Pa- tience; wasn't it? She must be nine- teen now. George never could make money, and there were three or four younger children. .8he opened a drawer and drew forth = sheet of her personal letter paper. Letters came easil. a rule, ‘but she found herselt phrasing this one mentally, her pen polsed and re- Iuctant. “Dear Patience (no, they'd prob- ably ‘esll her Patty at home)—Dear Patty: Don’'t you want to spend a menth or two with me this winter somewhere in the south? T think Jou'd snjoy eks Crauge—" M'es Lescott shook her head. The ‘wrong - key, altegether. She wrots swiftly, her ‘ligs grim. “Dear Patty: Tte- been ordered nvth for'the winter, and I don’t want 10’ n alene. I know that you'll find it-‘tiresome ‘to travel with an .old woman like me, but if you'll come along I'll be ever so grateful. I ex- pect to gd to Cedarcreat for February and March. I'm sure you'll like—" She shook her head again. Then Yhoe inserted a wWord: 'm not sure youll ltke it there, but it seems:the meést suitable nlm far. me.’ *She: considered once..more. She'd sent Klegnor. and Amy checks, .with The Helpless HOlldaY—*A Surprising Tale of Love and Effzcten(‘y-——-By Hugh MacNair- Kahler had been—incredibly—kissed. For an thefr invitations, to make sure that|mnever have found a wooden clubll they'd have no worry about their clothes. Should she do it again? She decided in the negative, added a few words of conventional remembrance to George and his wife, and signed abruptly, “Cornelia.” * k¥ ok PATIENCE had soon dispensed with the dutiful prefix of “Cousin.” “Cornella Lescott,” she said, “do you know what you've done? You've come away without your purse—and the tickets are in it! That's a gorgeous way to begin a trip.” Cornella Lescott managed to look decently blank. “Oh, dear! I left it on the dressing table, where I'd be sure to see it. too. We' have to go back—and that means we'll miss the train, I sup- ‘Not this time. I saw it lying “OH, WE'LL MANAGE IN THE LOWER,” PATIENCE SAID BEFORE CORNELIA COULD REFLUSE. | liked.” Mo unlocked the bag. grinning, Miss Lescott herself was aware of a prodding curlosity. Golf clubs always appealed to her mechanical bent. She leaned forward to Inspect the driver he exhibited, her brows mounting again. It was a monstrosity, a freak, a huge, misshapen head at the end of & whip-lash shaft. “My own notion,” he explained. “Not much for looks. but the prin- ciple’s right, 1 think. Plenty of welght in the head and a Whippy shaft—I can get good distance with it when 1 time the swing right.” He elaborated a violently heretical theory of the golf stroke, illustrat- ing it with other distorted clubs—a brassy even more swollen than his driver, a set of irons over which Miss Lescott shook her head in silent com- THE SUNDAY 'STAR, ‘WASHINGTON; that he about him fairly shouted needed a wife. A clever woman might have made something of this man, she thought. He was intelligent—the forehead and eyes would haye .told her so much without the evidence of his speech. Given a strong incentive and wise, loyal management, he'd have amount- ed to something better than a winter golter—probably a duffer, even at that, She allowed him to pay for the din- ner, with only a feeble protest. It amused her to see that Mr. Jesson did not verify the items of the bulL nor count his change, and a dollar was twice too much, by her. stand- ards, as a tip. Overnight, winter fell behind. In the morning they drove through a grove of pines in a clear, amiable sun and caught a glimpse of a golf D6 TAUGUST 90, none of its penalties. It incidentally provided: Humphrey Jesson with : comfortable place in which to spend most of his evenings and occaslonal rainy afternoons. . “I can’t possibly finish this in time to play this afternoon.” Pat spoke crisply, with an energetic jerk of her bobbed head.."*You two run along without me. T can't add straight when you're here, even if you don't whisper.” Miss Lescott watched Jesson's face. It puzzled her to observe that he brightened before he frowned. ~She could have laughed at the visible conflict of emotions. however. It ‘was pathetically clear that he wished to insist on Pat's coming and saw no way of managing it without aeefing ungallant toward her hostess, “Oh—that's too bad—a great" day like this! Better come along awm ARE BOUND B RTINS Wl Iv“llug uwiu,"/ t AR &Ly, 7 &| "‘l‘:‘"“ Lok ‘\ Vg ’,’fllu TO HAPPEN.” “WHEN THERE'S A CROWD, MISTAKES there and brought it along.” Pa- tience exhibited it. Cornelia laughed helplessly. “You'd better carry the tickets, anyway. 1 seem to be so absent-minded that there's no telling what T'll do with them.” “All right. Tt would be better, I guess.” Patience put the green slips in her own handbag and closed it with a snap. “I was going to any- way. I can see that things llke that worry you, and you're supposed to be getting a rest. I like it. T do, really She touched Cornelia'gywrist lightly. The contact reconclled Cornelia to her duplicity and its penalty. Patience liked her, not as a matter of duty and decency, but spontaneously. It had not been easy, though, and she felt the effect of the week's mas- querade as she leaned back with genuine weariness. The moment she relaxed her vigilant watch upon her- self the old habit of authority as- serted itself; again and again as they explored the stores, she had caught that decisive ring in her voice; had stopped In the act of assuming com- mand of the expedition. And she had needed diplomacy, too, to prevent Pa- tience from restocking her wardrobe with absurdly unsuitable things. As it was, she had yielded a good many times. She could manage to give most of those unsuitable clothes to Patience, before their excursion was over, without seeming to be over- generous. She compelled herself to stand passively. out of the way as Patience commandeafed porters and superin- tended the.transfer of their hand lug- gage to tlie train. The Pullfah. conductor came to therll as the triln started. Somebody had blundered; the upper berth in their section had been resold, and every inch of space was occupied in the rest of the train. He hated to ask it, but— Cornelia Lescott drew in her breath for & curt refusal; she had paid for 2 section and held proofs of her right to it. But Patience Was too quick for her. “Oh, we'll manage in the lower. When there's such a crowd mistakes are bound to happen.” The rival claimant stood behind the conductor—a tall, tired man, queerly pathetic in his visible em- barrassment. She classified him in- stantly; the type of man which is foredoomed to be bullied and brow- beaten by cabman and waiter and clerk, without protest or resentment. “I—I could find room in the day coach, conductor—I'd rather not dis- turb these ladle / “Oh, that's all right” Patience in- tervened again. “We'll manage per- fectly.” She changed her seat, leav- ing the forward one vacant, and ge: tured toward it so compellingly that the matter settled itself. The con- ductor vanished instantly. “It's very good of you." The in- truder stowed golf bag and suit case clumsily, stumbled over both and spologized breathlessly—to Patience. Miss Lescott smiled faintly at thi it was evident that even to the eye| of the beholder the girl was in charge. Patience rearranged the man's pos- sessions with brisk efficlency, leav- ing foot room for all three. g “Thanks.”” He beamed gratefully. “I suppose I ought to have checked my clubs, but they're 80 apt to break ‘em in the baggage car. And I made most of these myself, s0 that I'm rather tender of ‘em.’ * x k% MIBB LESCOTT felt her brows lift. 7 If he made golf'clubs he must be a professional, little as he re- sembled those she had encountered. She had the democracy of mosat busi- ness women, but-the prospect of shar- ing a section all the way to Ceder- crest with a man who made his living from a game nl’ronted her ncurun- less. - “You made them?” Patience was in- stantly. interested. . “May -I.see? I passion. He wasn't a professional; he belonged at the opposite extreme —an amateur tinker, chasing the will-o'-the-wisp of an.eighty with a bagful of freaks. She studied him deliberately. He must be well past forty: old enough to do something better worth doing than fiddling with golf clubs. Her eye appraised his clothes. He wasn't poor, but neither had he the | look of-a money getter. Nice man- ner and a pleasant voice, and a trick of smiling suddenly in an appeasing fashion. as If to apologize for talking. A time waster, no doubt, but less of- fensive than most idlers. “Oh. yes—I generally spend a while down there every winter. It's a good way of resting, and I'd rather do my work when it's warm. She lifted her brows again as he answered Patience's blunt question He did something then? He had good “ILL GO,” JESSON SAID AGAIN. course, stretching aw. from the hotel where flowering shrubs threw ’- bank of yellow and white against | | the somber evergreens. Cornelia was able to hold her tongue while Patience inspected three suites, bargained cleverly over rates and ordered breakfast for both. even submitted to a decree wh |relegated her to a neglige and a pile of pillows while Patience un- packed all the trunks. “I say. Corneli ** Pafience in- terrupted an incipient drowsiness. Ves?" ve just realized why weh a good time with didn’t expect to. you know." She flushed under Miss Lescott's questioning gaze. “I—I was afraid you'd be bossy— Amy said something that gave me that idea, T guess. But you aren't— you've let me run things. I love it I'm having you. I1—I “IM GOING—~" “WELL,” SAID CORNELIA, SWEETLY, “WELL, WHY DON'T YOU?” hands, she saw—long, strong fingers, which moved easlly as he gestured. She could see that they were marked with manual labor. Except for that, he might be a pro- fessor of something—but professors couldn’t take long vacations in mid- winter. A librarian, or & chemist or a writer, maybe—some profession in which he didn’t need to be a business man, anywey. “Lost motion, that's all—pure in- efficiency.” They had come back to golf, and he was criticising the form of one of Patience’s minor divinities. “That tremendous swing is showy, but it doesn’t help a bit. T'll show you what I mean when we get on the course.” * kK K BY dinnertime they had settled down to something llike ac- quaintance. Patiencs had managed that rather deftly, Miss Lescott con- ceded. Jesson—the name had a faintly tamiliar sound, but she cquld not trace the association. She submitted without protest to a tacit assumption that they share a table. She let the girl order for-her. “I hate to decide for myself* she explained. “And Pat's 50 clever afout it.” “Order for three, ‘then.” He grinned. “I always lose my way in these cards.” He nodded as Pat issued her com- what I'd like to°do,” he de- clared. “It must he fine to know just what you want like tha He.'must be’ pretty helpless if he really erivied the girl a trivial de- cisiveness like that, Cornelia dis- covered presently that -he lived at'a club, ; A ‘bachelor—when ow.rytnm; you know, and at home they just can't get it through their heads that I'm grown up. You'—she kissed Cornelia’s cheek—"you're just a dear.” Cornelia Lescott set her teeth on a renewed resolution. She dould feign helplessness all winter, she thought, if it paid its dividends in such coinage. * %k Xk ¥ T was a very little frown—no more than a flicker of a shadow across Humphrey Jesson's burned face, but Cornelia Lescott saw and translated it. It was natural enough, she con- ceded tolerantly. Her careful depend- ence on Pat's blithe capability inter~ fered with Jesson's plans rather often. It was clearly Interfering now, while he waited for Pat to finish untang- ling the intricate confusion of Cor- nelias check book before starting for the links. Miss Lescott was quite willing to interfere, a little, with the progress of an Intimacy which sometimes wor- ried her. Jesson was perfectly harmless, to be-sure. She distinctly liked him, in spite of his manifest shortcomings as a person of affafrs. He made her think of a boy, overtaken unawares ‘| by the sly yeats, a boy who fiad never found time to grow up. But he wouldn’t do for Pat. e They had left their rooms at the inn for the greater privacy and spate of a cottage—three cheerful rooms cuddled among hollies and junipers a few steps from the hotel, whieré they continued to take their meals. The change ensbled Cornelia tg develop & number of disabilities Which™ would haveé been wasted in the “inn itaelf, and -n Patience the agreeable sen~ straighten out the checks tonight. Don't you think so. Miss Lescott?" Pat abolished them both with a sweeping, backward gesture of her left hand. “Nine and eight are seven- teen and six is twenty-four—no—oh, run aleng and play! I'm busy!" Jesson's face diverted Cornelia, so that she longed to laugh outright. He was (rving so hard to look pleased “Your cousin’s a wonderful girl, Miss Lescott.” He spoke wistfully they struck through the pines toward the clubhouse. “I've never met any other girl who had that faculty of decision as completely de- veloped as she—she always knows exactly what she wants and ex how to get it." He sighed. “It's a great thing—T envy it in her because ft's o entirely lacking in me." Cornelia was suddenly sorry for him; he was more boyish than ever. “You're in luck, Miss Lescott.” he went on. “You and I are a lot alike, don't you think. I—I mean—" He flushed and stumbled, suddenly self-- conscious. “I mean that we both seem to—to lgan on stronger charac- ters. T've noticed how you—" “1 suppose there's a certain re- semblance,” she admitted, good- naturedly, checking an impulse to en- lighten him. * ok ¥ X & came back to the topic as they left the tee. “I keep thinking what a splendid wife she’ll make some lucky chap” he told her. “A girl like that could do anything she pleased with a fellow, I suppose.” “She’ll probably prefer her inde- Pendence,” said Cornelia dryly. “I doubt the possibility of her marrying anybody.” “Oh, she'll never have a chance to escgpe.” He paused to play a gloomy brassy shot to the edge of the green. “A girl like that “Don’t be too sure Cornelia spoke “Men don't like competent B Her voice tightened. “They're all alike in that—it's the silly sort they lose their heads about.” “There's something in that.” He nodded soberly.- “I suppose it's natu- tal enough, too. The sillier a girl is the better a man looks to himself. But T think you're wrong about your cousin, all the same.” “It doesn’'t matter much. She'll never be willing to submerge her in- dividuality.” She spoke with finality and he dropped the subject as abrupt- Iy as he had introduced it. They talk- ed golf for a dozen holes. The quality of his game irritated her. A man with such outrageous form had. she felt, no right to score threes and fours. “If I'd married a girl like that twenty years ago. I'd be a different animal.,” he announced sudfenly. “Makes me feel as if I' missed the whole target, somehow. Just puttered at things all my life.” He glowered at- his -driver. “Look at thdt club! Took me a year to get it balanced! If I'd had the right sort of wife she'd have.put.her foot down hard on that sort of thing.” o Cornelia Lescott lnughed % : “I suppose it does sound- funny.” He grinned ruefully. “But I can't help thinking I'd have done something, if I'd had the luck to—"" She .Jaughed again. “That's a re- freshing variation on the Adam theme, at least. What would you have éone if you'd- been prevented from whit- tling out those—those shillalahs?" She and Pat had wondered about his business—if he really had one. It-was Queer that he never tallsed.about. it himselt, . Pat thought that he.must be ashamed of it. Cornelia asked the ] questign now. on impulse, anxious merely to change the subject. “Oh, I don't know. Invented some- thing elge, I suppose—something use- ful and sensible, with a pot of money in it, like the lathe.”” He grinned. _ out of making thbu y, you— She e-u;'m her- “Vhy—-w‘h with [ gelf up sharply, remembering jUst in hand pressed against & cheek Which a|uine. | by the sudden purpose in them. . 1922-PART: 4. J* Pat didn’t see the. inconm- sistency between the Cornella Lescott who owned and managed the biggest factory in Lake City and the Cousin Cornelia who couldn’t keep her check stubs straight, the discrepancy would be plain enough to others. “You're an inventor, then?’ she | finished. “How interesting? Tcll me about {t—I've always thought it must be wonderfui— He shrugged and wagged his head. “Oh. ‘there's nothing to tell. T just fiddle at things, and now and then there's a lucky idea. Let's forget it | —I don't want to begin thinking again. -If I do, I'll have to go home and tackle that—a schemg I was| working on when I knocked off." | * %k H | S‘us played her second &hot thought- fully into a yawning sand -pit: That Jesson! And she'd taken-it: for granted that he was insignificant. Random recollections came back to her. There was a dle press which bore his name, too, She watched his play with'a sudden respect. It wasn't a combination of eccentricity and luek now, but a pure science, with reagon behind every seeming absurdity. “No wonder you wanted to make your own clubs,” she said. as they met at the green. “And I'm not. sur- prised any more that §ou can use them!" He turned toward her with a glow in his look. “It's just my old mono- mania, you know. Lost motion. 1 hate it—wherever I see it I just have to drop what I'm doing and see whether there’s a way of cutting it out.” He sank a long putt and' re- peated his wistful head shake. “That's why I've been glooming over my wasted Vears,” he went on. “Somehow, since I've been down here, I've felt as if they'd been lost motion and nothing else.” She could understand now. It was Pat, of course—the sheer, abundant youth of her, that vivid, éager life the seemed to radiate. It came sud- denly home to Cornelia Lescott that Pat made her, too. feel old and futile, as if all those busy, fruitful years ad been, as Jesson said, lost motion. No wonder he wanted her— She met his eyes and was puzzled 1t Humphrey Jesson wanted Pat, she thought, he'd get her. “That was fine,” he said. have another round some time.” She liked that. He didn't forget his manners. She made up her mind to help if she could. * * x x “] THOUGHT he must be something like that” Pat took the news calmly. “I found out where you went wrong—you just added that Michael check instead of subtracting it." She exhibited the balanced book. “But you don't realize Pat—he's not | just an ordinary inventor.” “They're none of them that, are | they.” Pat pressed a frank yawn back into place. “He's good fun, any- way.” She struggled with another yawn. “Figures always make me sleepy. Better let me enter your checks after this. It'll save work In the end.” She chuckled. “You old dear.” Cornelia heard her singing as she dressed, It irritated her that Pat couldn’t grasp the significance of Humphrey Jesson's identity. Of Course machinery was just machinery to Pat, but the impossibility of mak- ing her understand exasperated Cor- nelia. It would be a pity, after all, | Pat couldn’t appreciate the man's big- ness. She'd have to find a way of bringing it home to her. She tried very diplomatically at dinner, but the girl seemed to regard her enthusiasm as an amiable eccen- tricity. “You and your preclous machines. What's a lathe, anyway, I know you want to talk about it. Go on.” Cornelia did her best. “T see,” said Pat presently. “Do look at that dress Cornelia—no, the blue. Isn't it lucky we can't see ourselve: Cornelia gave it up. After all, she reflected, a girl didn't judge a man by what he had done, but what he was. Jesson's lathe couldn't mean anything to Pat. even if she could be made to understand it. “He's awfully nice. too,” she ven- tured. “I really enjoyed my game. And I understand-those long drives of his now. There’s nothing acci- dental about them.” “He does hit a mean ball with that dinky little swing,” conceded Pat. “Let's go home. 1 don't feel like dancing tonight.” She hesitated “Let's in the living room door. s Mr. Jesson coming over?” “I suppose so. He didn’t say any- thing.” “Then I'm going to bed now. I'd never last out the evenming, and it would be sort of pointed if I dropped asleep in my chair. You and he can have a gorgeous wallow in ma- chines.” * K ¥ ¥ HER door closed firmly on Cor- nelia’s protests, and Jesson's instant she was furiously angry. Then, as suddenly, she was not angry at all. “I couldn’t help it—I just couldn't.” He repeated the helpless gesture. “Why,_didn’t you stop me—why didn't you keep that ohild awake till I got away?” “I thought Pat—" Somewhere, far back in her rocking brain, the Cornelia Lescott she knew raged at this contemptible woman who could only stare and prattle. “Pat! That hard-headed, common- senee little—little— 1'd be likely to luse my head about her, wouldn't you—I thought it was 17 Not me! Live to be forty years old and go plumb, raving crazy about you! The most absolutely helpless woman T -ever met!” “ou’ Bound and gagged. that inner ‘Cornelia writhed at the insane sound.” "Oh He exploded in a bubbling laugh. “Well, you can't ever say I wasn't original about it! Quaint thing in the proposal way. wasn't it? Cor- nella=-who ever thought . of calling you -that, anyway? A knife name, for a cream and cushion woman like you!“Carnelia—you're perfect! You're the compressed quintessence of the absolute feminine, and T've loved you and hunted for you all my life! T didn’t want to find you—I knew I'd never have a ghost of a chance.” “Wait—wait!" Cornelia tugged vainly at hands which caughtf and held her wrists. “You—it's all a mis- understanding—you think I'm—and I'm not. I'm Cornelia Lescott—C. S Liescott, president .of Lescott & Co. O THE EDITOR: A couple wks. ago I wrote you a letter com- plaining that the mail man wasn't bringing me as many interesting letters formally and the mail lately has been all clusttered up with these here chain letters that was suppose to of been started by a army officer and if you copied it off and sent it to 9 of your friends you would have good luck. Well since I wrote that letter the chain letters has kind of fell off thank heavens and the letters I been getting has been more like old times and got something in them worth reading and take for inst. the letters 1 recd. in yesterday’s mail, why they's some of them that it seems to | me like their contents would be of | gen. interest to the public and any way I am going to take a chance and tell you about them and will begin with a letter that come all the way from Algiers and is in regards to a proposition so stupendous that it could not of originated only in a master mind, but here is the proposi- tion and I will leave my readers to judge for themself. The letter is from a man by the name of Chris Gross that hails from Chicago but he is over there in Al- giers and with him is a man from N. Y. City and the 2 of them is alwayvs quarreling about the respective merits of N. Y. and Chi- and finely Mr. Gross has hit upon a scheme for settling the argument, namely brief tap seemed to come as a feeble |echo. He ran an inquiring glance about the room. Cornelia was sorry for him. “Pat's in bed—she tired herself out over that check book. I'm afraid.” “I'm—I'm sorry. 1 mean that I'm sorry she's tired.” He fumbled with his hat. “Perhaps I'd better not stop —I mean perhaps you're tired, too. She bit back the smile. He was so comically like a boy in these desper- ate snatches at the polite remark. “Not a bit. Take that chair and an extra cushion or two.” “I—I can't stay but a minute.” He was so patently eager to escape that she felt a faint stirring of resent- ment. Of course he was disappoing- ed about Pat, but he needn’t show it quite so plainly. g “Oh, you mustn’t let me keep you, of cours She couldn’t wholly soft- en the tone. He opened startled eyes. “rll go if I'm in the way. I do hang around here a lot, I know.” “We're always glad to have you come.” He rejected the idea With a short, harsk laugh. “r11 go,” he sald again. “I'm’ go- "We“ " sald Cornelia l"uelly. “Well, why don’t you?” ‘She cauglit her breatli as she heard the speech. What on egrth had-made her say that? Even if* Humphrey Jesson was bshaving like a sulky He glared at her. —because I can't! can’t?” “Why can’t you?’ She.thought he must have gone suddenly insane. He flung his arms wide and high, & “Why? Because “Why?" | “That's why!” Cornelis Leascott ws m.. her Don't you see ll hire a pair of rapid footed raceing camels from the Sahara Desert and transport them incog to the U. S. and have them run a race from N. Y. to Chi and return and the one that got there first, why that would show which was the biggest city. The race of course would be kept a secret as far as possible and the camels would wear masks and otherwise disguise themselfs and would run the race under.a assumed name. This would tend to do away Wwith scandal and confine the public's at- tention to the sporting nature of the event rather than the personal traits of the 2 camels. * % % x ‘OW friends it seems to me like this' is a idear that should be give the hearty support of . public spirit citizens as it would not only settle a old dispute beyond question but would also be a big boest for camel raceing in this country. I am not personally acquainted with Mr. Gross the author of this scheme but will cheerfully donate my services towards the furtherance of same In the interests of crooked sport. Another letter I got is from 2 gal that use to be a chorus ‘nl in some of l.he big N. Y. shows ‘but she couldn’t’ of been 30 good because when she quit at the age of 31 ys. old she only had about $16,000 worth of jewelry and $22,000 cash saved up and by the time she was 40 yrs. old this was all spent and for the last 7 yrs. she has been liveing from hands to mouth on wit she eould borrew oft of her old -friends. Well she says they'a a lot of other gals in her same position namely that they .had plenty of chances to. get msrrloa but never seen nobody that t to marry and now . they b-\ e)n. nobody to by thelr grocerys And etc. and. when & gal gets to be “IF HER FT. IS IN GOOD SHAPE AND SHE DON'T MIND WALKING, SH CAN CADD! to - ¢ I've been preterding—oh. Please lex | go— The hands. tightened. “$ay that again!” It Was quite a ncw voice now. The rimg or command in it |frightened her. It wasn't altogether {unpleasant to be frightened, she thought. “You don’t want me. I'm—I'm just a sham—I'm probably the most effi- clent woman in the state! You'd hate me—" “There's no sense in it!" His fore- head wrinkled pathetically. “Whats the use of pretending a thing like that—letting that kid do your breath- ing for you?" * % A ¥ UDDENLY she was telling him the * whole story, in a shamelese. stumbling rush of words. “I wanted somebody, Jo like me—" She tried agajn to’free her hands “Don’t you see 4t yet?--Lim not real— you don't know, He laughed again.” “And I've been breaking myself t6 bits to keep from loving you—because T-just didn't dare risk marrying somebody as. perfectly helpless as I am. T've been usipg Pat as & life preserver for weekd and weeks! I've ‘been mmaking myself x: ‘You fool!” * 10 myself, ‘don’t vou see that = kind of a woman vou need?" And ther I'd Yook at vou—and— | He stopped. “Wanied somebody 1o {like you. eh? ‘Wéll, T zuess brought it on yourself! Don't eve: blame me. “1 won't,” said Cornel a Lgscott sol emnly. biss - (Copyright. AT Tights served. ) Lardner Suggests Jobs For Ex-Chorus Girls over 45 yrs. old why they ain’t none of the regular female jobs open to her like manicure, shop lifter and ete. So this gal says I would be con- ferring a flavor on woman kind was & to suggest some way that a gal could go about it to earn a honest liveing when she is up around the % century mark in regards to yrs. Well right off hand I can't think of no vocation that would take care of all the female unemployed but wile thinking the matter over the idear come to me that they must be a limited number of jobs for middle age women to act as somebody's- Mother. - Like for inst. suppose they's a actor or a fighter that has win him- self quite a following and the ne: papers and magazines always interviewing him and he tells them that he wouldn't of never got no- wheres only for his dear old Mother. and he gives 95 per cent of his earnings to his dear old Mother and he hasn't time for no léve affairs with female admires on acct. of being so stuck on his dear old Mother and he don't care a dime for ail the fiat-~ Sevaanh terr and etc. that is showered on him because his only interest in life is his dear old Mother. * % * ¥ \VELL the reporters ‘is libel to ask him after a wile to let them gét a look at this wonderful Mothet &n of course that sticks him because it lis a even bet that he don't even‘re- I member what town his real ma lives in. But if he had one of these here 50 yr. old gals under contract ‘as his acting mother he. would- be all set- and when he knowed the reporters- was comeing, why him and “Mother"-. could be all ready posed on the frogt porch with their arm around eac other’s shoulders and he could intro duce her to the visitors with a few lines like “This Is my real swéat- heart” and etc. e b = T don't suppose a woan ‘cduld make enough "to live on just being one guy's thother, but she could séttle down‘in some place like Hollywood’ which seems to be the ‘hot b¥d of" mother Jovers and” act ‘as- generat - mother for a- whele meighborhood of" artists at $5.00 to $10.00 per-day. - That is about the most.: lucertive | profession I can think of for 2 middle ‘age dame unlest her ft. is in.good- shape and she. don't mind -walking in which case of course she can caddy. RING W. LARDNER. Great. Neck, Long, Island, Aug,.25. Aluminum Chips.. . FINE aluminim chips, such‘as ire produced in'the machining ofthe shiminum alloys Uséd fn motor &ar construction, are ‘hard ' to 'rémelt” without excessive ‘loss, &' reduction of 40 per cent being comnion. ~ Ac- " cording to a statement published by - the bureau cf mines, the total loss from this cause throughout the coun- try, with aluminum at its present price, amounts to $600,000. The bureau has published valuable suggestions for minimizing ‘this loss’ The main cause of the trouble seems to be the lack of ready coslescence of the metallic globules, 4ha tmis’ means ‘that the problem 18 one u colloid chemistry appli€d-to, fetals’