Evening Star Newspaper, February 7, 1926, Page 74

T HE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. FTRRTITARY 1. Myrtle Must Be Happy 3 { BY SOPHIE KERR Every One Pampered Myrtle, But She Seemed to Deserve It. s was play jina” with chords and ive harmonies, very much the manner of a Bach had learned the air trom r songs that adorn- »od upright of Mr. and Rayner, and she rather Today it served very well 1to for the dignified argu- wiis going on between her lingering leheral A volume of the rosecw dam i 1 it ® un obbl {ment th mployers, “It isn't the exper Mr. Ravrer was sayin am only concerned for her safety. She 18 too young to drive alone in a_pony cart.” le could go with her,” Mrs. Rayner argued. “She is certainly not And Myrile's been fret A glance of warning ac ed the words. herselt appeal 1 he lizabeth,” d on the nd mother yes of doting ! And what a most fairylike | iden hair and | s and a skin so fair and Ruyner boasted Just to touch it was a_rose leaf, | ) doll, all in one. plain, dark, middle- | h and Adam Rayner and | their child was to speculate | ws of heradity. How they ¢ huppened to have a cherub like for thelr own! And the truth | 1% they were as much amazed *as any | ane else could be Myrtle leaned on her mother's lap with her peculiarly endearing little manner of affection. “When is Daddy EQing to get me my pony?” she asked sweetly. Mr. Rayner delicate t ta other t cleared his throat: When Myrtle g a little older and bigger, then Daddy will get her the pony, he said mugister.aliy This alr of declsion did not decelve v qw i now, she said ing voice und eyes glazing helpless tears Ravner fooked at Mr. Rayner. | could the poor man do His was attacked by the pathetic loveliness of his child, and he was I Daddy's little girl promise let Ma'mselle hold the " he asked, making a last pre- 1ense of r on. Myrtle climbed on his knee and laid ker cheek against his. "“Oh, yes, Deddy,” she said. The tears were gone. Her tiny, rosy mouth curved | up in ecstasy, and in an equal ecstasy | did her father and mother behold her. “Well, we'll see about it then,” said | Mr. Rayner. | Myrtle knew she had him | In due time the pony cart and ponv appeared Perhaps it was with this victory that Myrtle became aware of | her power in getting what she | wanted, After the pony cart came | the huge doll that could speak. The | doll was succeeded by an ermine coat | and cap The rarity and beauty of Myrtle'r | belongings did not make her unpopu- lar with other children. Her apparent | v, her sweetness and engaging ays, her willingness to share | and her blonde loveliness commanded | their attention and interest. Her best friend, Jessie Whitmore, a black- | haired, sturdy tomboy, who could run | &nd climb and pitch hall and yell as well as any boy in school, would have | torn to pieces any one mean enough o ruffle and annoy sweet, feminine | grand plano, ring, a pearl and diamond | string of gold and pink coral | s, an imported enameled locket, a watch, gold® bracelets and every other trinket she had ever seen and wanted. * X ok * WHEN her school days were over | and she had her trip abroad she dacided to have the whole house done | over. Tt w high-roomed, large | mansard of Civil War style, the Ray- | ner home, and it was furnished in the style of its architecture—carved black walnut, gilt-framed mirrors, tables with marble tops, twisted and convo- | luted whatnots, massive chairs and sldeboards Myrtle laughed at it | heartily. At first her father explained that he thought the expense too great “at this time,” and her mother exclaimed with dismay, “Not all my things the 1 went to housekeeping with, Myrtle!" Myrtle did not insist. But she drooped like a withered flower. She did not play the plano or sing, and she ate such a little that it worried Henrletta, who, with the freedom of an old family servant, urged Mrs. Rayner to “‘get a tonie for that child,’ | adding, “She's just dwin'lin’ away.” To all suggestions that she give a big party and have a new dress for it Myrtle remained indifferent. . "I don't believe I care about mother, dear,” she sald ge “though it’s sweet of you to think of | S _Even the little car which her father sent home to her for her very own—a ducky sedan, with brocade and silver inside und dark-gray paint outside und her monogram on the door—failed to lighten her depres- ~ion or increase her appetite. I think, Adam—TI really think—we ousht to have the house done over,” said Mrs. Ravner at last. “It's too #loomy and old-fashioned for her sen sitive spirft. T am sure that’s what's welghing on her. Environment meane o much to a girl like Myrtle.” “We-ell, perhaps you're right, Mr. Rayner. ~We can ey it a L can't bear to see the chi's sald o the Rayner house Wag reno- | vated in the newest way—a way highly unfamiliar to the inhabitantr & Spring City, who rather went in for homely comfort and. iet style alone. There were cool paneled walls and amethyst upholsteries, and ilver lighting fixtures with amethyst and crystal drops, and all the old, | Aark furniture disappeared and was veplaced by thin, spindly stuff i which Mr. Rayner's bulk felt very in secure. Myrtie's own room had fvory paint and ffeta and glazed chintz nn(lilm&ny ;vllver—framod miry 3 must be admitted that the house mado a perfect background for Myrtle when it was done, and never had she seemed so effective, 50 rightly placed. She was u s'ender creature now, uraceful and pliant, net very tall and with tiny hands and feet. Her color- Mg was as fair, as de'lghtful, as it had been in her childhood. Her golden | halr had not turned a streaky brown, | her blue cyes were eternally ultra: marine. And her skin had a babyish delicacy, a transparency, that made her, when she flushed, seem as fine s ' 2 piece of Venetian glass into which the wine of Joy is poured. Her bosom friend was still Jessie ‘Whitmore, und Jessie had grown into an upstandin,., ath’etic creature, a orack tenms player, her hair biue- hlack, her skin ruddy under a per- petuul coat of fine outdoor tan, She miyle an excellent foil for Myrtle, physically and pethaps mentally, for Jessie, after getting through high school with honors, was now taking a urse in the local business college, intent, as she said, on ‘“getting a job and he'ping out at home,"” | {young man white chiffon, | Jessle {n homemade | white muslin. “She’s o democratic. wua Jessios o nice girl; 1 wouldn't do anything to discourage their inti- cy, no matter how poor she Is. It was at that very tennis party that Myrtle met Richard Hammill. d heard of him beforehand, from He was Spring City's newest he'd come to live with . old MaJ. Hamumi 1, und work in the Frst Natfonal. He was assist shiet. He had divine brown And the nicest smile. And he tenni . player. And muct ed her to gentle railler “You're crazy about him, I that. And of course he's c you. Oh, Jess, if you co self blush. I must give your sui.o a good looking over.” Then, hes- tantly. “Jess are you really—in love with him?" Frankly, honestly, Jessie replied: *'T don't know, Myrtle. But I do know I like him very much, and he—tke me. We'l,” {n a lighter key, “you see what vou think of him nnd t=1l me. You've had a lot of expertence.” ‘Why. Jessie Whitmore, to say such a thing.” * RRIVAL at the tennis club put an end to the conversation A tall. good-looking chap in white flan nels came fo meet them. Jessle's rich color deepened, but she spoke ca'mly enough: “Miss Rayner's been 50 busy doing -over her home' that you've not met her befure, though 1've talked so much about her. Myrtla this i8 Mr. Hamm/ll—he's my partner for this afternovn.” ‘ Myrtle extended a cool little hand. “I hope we shall be friends,” she murmured. “Jessie tells me you're awfully nice.” Dick Hammill laughed “She's raved about vou, Miss Rayner, until 1 was perfectly certain there couldn't be such a paragon In existence. But now I see I'm mistaken Jessle, lissening, was pleased that they got on so well. Poor Jessie. It wus her last happy afterncon for a good many months. Dick Hammill fell deeply, almost insanely, in love with Myrtle—one of those strange, sudden, absorbing pas- sions that sometimes catch a man in a fatal noose. And Mrytle, who had had a string of dangling admirers an see abou 9 i1 love with Dick Hammill, fhe only thing about it that dis- tressed her was the thought that she might have robbed Jessie. She went | to her friend and told her so, simply and humbly. “You said you didn’t know whether or not you loved him, Jessie,” she maid, “so 1 didn't think there was any harm—but—yet, 1 wouldn't hurt you for the world; you know {t.” he was very white and fragile- looking, and she twisted her pathetic little hands as she ta'ked, and the | same ready tears, as in her childhood. glazed and misted her blue eyes. Her | ehin quivered, too, that little round babyish chin. Jessie Whitmore, see- ing these things, could no more have made any claim,on Dick Hammill than she could have struck this little butterfly creature. She put away from her as a sin the ugly thought that Mrytle had seen one more thing she wanted and snatched at {t; that she could not bear to et Jessie have the newes. in Spring City, even though it wasn’t the brilllant match every one had expected her to make. Jessie stifled this feeling and told herself that she’'d fallen low, indeed. to Imagine such awful things about @ dear little honest soul like Myrtle. Hadn't Myrtle come to her right away, &s soon as she knew? That { proved how open and ingenuous and sincere she was, proved it beyond doubt. How could Jessie think any- thing else? It must be admitted that Mr. and Mrs. Rayner struggled between A TALL, GOOD-LOOK! CHAP MEET disappointment that Myrtle wasn’t | marrying & man with more money and more distinction, and gratifica- tion that she was not going far from them. She would live in Spring City and thus be near her parents. They liked Dick Hammill, too; so did every one. e had one of those warm open natures that attracts good will. “And you hegan poor yourself, Adam,” rs. Rayner reminded her busband. “They say he's done very well §n the bank, Maybe if you were to speak to Crosby—you're one of the leading directors—he could get pro- moted . something. Mr. G. W. Crosby was the president of the bank and quite willing to lis ten to suggestions from one of his leading directors. “We were thinking of retiring. Emerson, anyway, he's getting pretty o:d. Of course, it's a big r'lponuibllltz for Hammill— 8o it was settlod, The appoint- ment and accompanying rise in sal- ary made it possible for Dick Ham- mill to rush off to New York and buy Myrtle an engagement ring of superb ‘The difterence (n their clrcum- ake the least dif- ference to Myrtle,” Mrs. Rayner told Mr, Rayner as they watched the two =irls drive off to a tennis g;.ny in Myrtle’s little car—Myrtle in {mported \ diamonds and sapphires without go- ing into debt. It was the sort of ring that looks as {f made from the crown jewels of Russia, and on Myrtle's lit- th"lhu'.d t was gorgeous, ¢ ¢ ever since she could walk alone, fe.l| | Dick,” she said. | to me.’ “Oh, Myrtle,” “How good you are cried young Dick | Hamm{’l, with his whole heart in his eves, “If T can only give you all you I feel =0 unworthy of you, They were not Raynors, though Mrs. Rayner sug sested ft. Myrtle vetoed that. I know you've this great big house, | mother darling, and plenty of room or us, but 1 believe that every young ouple ought to stand on thelr_own eet and make their own way. We'd way, dependents here. It e Dick in a false position.” ‘I suppose you're right,” ylelded frs. Rayner. Your father thinks fie same way, though he'd be gad nough to have you here with us. Us going to leave us very lonaly.” Mr. Rayner made his wedding gift © Mvrte a home of her own, and its urnishings. “Choose what you want,” he told her. “My little girl must have the rest.” The house that Myrtle finally elected was large, larger than the tayner place. It was periect in very way. Myrtle showed it to svery one happily. “It won't take more than three servants,” she suld, hecause I've put in every labor-sav. ing device known to the world. And won't it be lovely to entertain in? That's why 1 got such a big place— Dick and I want out friends about us.” “I don't know where you're going to get three good servants in Spring Myrtle,” sald Mrs. Crosby on_hearing this statement. So fur as I know, there's only one, and your mother's got her.” Myrtle smiled. “We're going to bring them on from said. “French ones, probably. “That'll be fine,” said Mrs. Crosby, and nearly added, “On.y you'll have to pay French-New York prices.” %% ¥ HEY had the most beautitul wedding that had ever been seen in_ Spring City. Jessie Whitmore, smiling and standing very scraight, and with her color very high—and her hands clenched in agony under her bouquet, if the truth were told— was the maid of honor, in pale rose and silver. There were ten brides- maids in pale blue and silver. But the focus of all eyes was Myrtle, who seemed a very bride of dreams, so jlovely was she in her satin gown veiled in chiffon, its court train lined | with cloth of silver, her veil a mist of | white through which gleamed the sunshine of her hafr. She wore a wreath of orange blossoms, and her great bouquet of white orchids and llies of the valley, tied with silver gauze, weighted her slender arm. | Most of the women in the church had | umps in their throats after gazing at her—she was so exquisite, so un. touched, so beautitul Dick and Mr. Rayner had a two- sentence talk while they were waiting for Myrtle to put on her traveling dress. “Dick,” sald Mr. Rayner, “it's been the alm of my life to make my little girl happy; now it's up to you.” Dick had gripped his father-in-law hand. “It I don’t you can shoot m he said fervently. “Myrtle's every- thing." That evening when the bridal | couple had gone, and the guests de- arted, and the string band and| aterer had gone, Mr. Rayner report. | ed this speech to his wife, and they both folt it highly satisfactory. His wife summed up the whole Ray- ner credo, raison d'etre, their life's striving: “If he only makes her happy I don't really care about anything else,” she said yearningly, and in Mr. Rayner's silence she knew his acqui escence. - Myrtle was happy, there was no| |denying it. She came back from her | honeymoon radiant. “I'll know I'll| bore people talking about you, Dick,” | she told him more than once. “But'I to live with the! . IN WHITE FLANNELS CAME TO THEM. lcan't help §t. You're so wonderful to me. You're so wonderful anyway." It's you who are wonderful, my darling,” he answered. ‘““Where you get this idea that I am i{s more than I can say. Sometimes I pect you of partiality to m Whereupon they laughed together in great content. |” It was remarkable how well Myrtle can her new household, considering ithat her mother had never let her |share the responsibility at home. The |servants she brought on from New York were splendidly capable—she had been fortunate enough to get a whole | family, father, mother and daughter, | not French, but Austrian, and weli | trained—but all the same Myrtle's hand was on the steering wheel. She igave endless parties—bridge teas, and luncheons, and dinner dances, and | musicals and supper parties. Jessle Whitmore used to read the accounts of all this, and wonder—and wish—and then go bgck to work hard. Jessie had dropped out of social life: !she had a job now and had to keep | words. rying, and there was always the re. assuring shadow of Mr. Rayner's financial solidity behind the young pair. As Christmas approached Myrtle confided to Dick that she wanted a string of pearls. “Not a large string, dear, for I know we couldn't afford it, but I do want them. Nobody In town'’s got a string of real pearls. 1've wiways longed for one, and I know they're becoming to me.” “Well,” said Dick Hammill, thought- fully, "I know they would be. I don’t know how much pearis cost, but I'll ook in I might manage a very lLtt e s " 3 sald Myrtle, joyfully, “unt it was really worth while.” When Dick Hammill discovered tha a very simple small string of goo pearls would cost a minimum of five or six thousand he was surprised anc disappointed. He explained it to Myrtle. “We'll have to walit a few years ['m afraid, much as I would lke to glve’ them to you, sweetheart. 1 wouldn't want to get pearls that weren't good co'or and well matched.” Mvrtle listened to him and then, slowly, the tcars began to brim her blue eyes. “I'd “set my heart on them,” she sobbed. “I'd told some of the girls you were going to get them for me. Oh, dear—oh., dear—Oh, Dick, I do— 1 do want them so—-*" Dick Hammill was distressed beyond He did what he could to con sole her, and presently Myrtle, drying her eyes, begged him pathetically to forgive her for being so sil.y, but she was 80 disappointed. She quite under stood. And for a fortnight thereafter she was sad and brave and obviously trying to forget. The result was foregone. Al Christmas she got the pearls, a smali string, but fine. “'D.ck, you dear naughty “You couldn't afford them “I came inio a little money unex pectedly,” sald Dick Hammill easily. “And ‘these pearls are the conse. quence.” “Dick bought ft from a legacy,’ Myrie told her father and mother, | when she showed the string to them. and Mr. Rayner, who had exhibited a shade of uneasiness, breathed easier He knew aslLttle about pearls and he was reasonably certain that Myrtle string didn't cost less than eight thou- sand. On the salary the bank was paying Dick, he couldn't afford it; but & legacy—that was different. [ N Myrtle's birthday, which came in April, she wanted—and got— a player-plano, because “it's so much more fun to dance to.” In the earl; Summer she felt the overpowering need of a new car, an English car of the most expensive sort. The Crosbys had recently bought a French car, and its slim elegance made Myrtle's little old boat look rather ltke a beetle. The car she wanted would muke the Crosby's acquisition pale. Dick Hammill protested: “I Just Myrtle, not this Summer. Next vear, maybe. All those bills for clothes the last time you went to the clty, and the regular house bills, have got me skinned to the bone. Walt a little, love, and I'll surely get it for you.” Myrtle did not know the meaning of the word wait. But she offered an alternative scheme. “Let me tell| daddy—he'll love to get it for u No,” roared Dick Hammill. “No. I won't have my father-inlaw buying things I can't afford. It's bad enough that he gave us this house, but I've steered clear of everything else. No, | don’t you do that, honey. Just be pa. tient, and everything'll come our way. | We're young yet.” He tried to finish | his outburst as a joke. Myrtle was weeping again. “Oh, Dick, I never heard you talk so. Oh, Dick——oh, Dick—" 1 It was an hour before he could quiet | her, and even then she was utterly un- nerved, and lay on her chaise longue Iike a bro'ten lily. Dick was unnerved, | too. He went down to the bank with | a much graver look than he had ever | [worn before In hiu energetic youns | e. The broken lily did not revive, and | every time those misty blue eyes looked pathetically at Dick he felt an awful brute. The conclusion was again foregone. Myrtle got her car, the| most magnificent on the market. It | was a perfect tonic for a drooping flower and it did, as she had antici- | pated, make the Crosby splendor seem | nothing at all. Myrtle, in the depth of the glant thing, so little, so frail, so | childlike, 80 lovely, was a sight worth coming_miles to see. Yet Mr. Rayner, when he saw ft.| secretly put a speclal accountant to work on the bank’s books. He was re- assured and a bit ashamed when no slightest irregularity was reported. Well, maybe Dick had some money of his own, thought Mr. Rayner, and wasn't inclined to blab it around. He rather admired him for being close- mouthed. It was not always such huge and costly articles that Myrtle desired. There were lesser ones, a constant | drain; diamond slipper buckles; a danzle of crystal and pearls; brushes of flowered blue enamel for her dres: Ing table; an old Spanish shawl, cream- white, heavy with embroidery, drip- ping long fringe; a sable scarf; a string of Egyptian beads; earrings o* platinum and jade; no one of them excessive in itself, but in the aggre- gate enormous. ok o % JUST before their second married Christmas Myrtle came back from a trip to the city with a tale of a pend- rnt of sapphire and diamonds that weuld exactly match her e ring. She had seen it, and tried it on. | It was the most precious thing! She chattered about it all through dinne: they were having her father and mother over on the evening after her return. Dick didn't say much, and Mr. Rayner glanced at him once or twice. “You've got jewelry enough for a while, baby,” he said at last. ‘“‘She's all ey he went on, to Dick. “She'd buy out the world if she could. Don’t take it too seriously.” ‘Why, dad, aren't you mean giving me away to Dick like that pouted Myrtle prettily, “I'll make vou buy the pendant for me If you lon't watch out.” 1 expected something like that would come next,” chuckled Mr. Rayner. “Come around to the store and tell me some more about it to- morrow. Something queer and terrible broke across Dick mill's face, turned him all in an instant, from a_happy normal young man, to age and some- thing very near to madness. “I wouldn’t get it for her if I were you, Mr. Rayner,” he called out in a high, strained voice. “She might have to glve it up when they come to arrest me.” Think of that, in Myrtle's candle- shaded Shearaton dining room, with the deft Austrian moving lround' behind them serving the dessert! Think of Myrtle and Mrs. Rayner screaming, of Dick Hammill's col- lapse into a babbling stupor, of Mr. he sald. t 'it, for her father's business had crashed and he had gone to pleces with it. and then some one would It takes a lot of money to run an establishment like that.” "But ‘what ‘I wanted,” dear!Dick Hammill diin't seem to be wor~ | Rayner's rushing for a doctor, of the confusion and hysteria and general unreality of the whole occurrence! Tragedy breaks many a crystal palace into irreparable fragments and cruel cutting aplinters! The doctor found | A great number of bonds and stocks | Hammill-—some he had sold outright, | 1926—PART 5. THEY HAD THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WEDDING THAT HAD EVER BEEN SEEN IN SPRING CITY. stead of one, but Myrtle merely re- quired smelling salts and a little atten- on then. Dick Hammill was very L. Brain fever. In his delirium he sald many strange things. “Sold— old into slavery. That's what it ls. U'll never get out, I'll never get out. >h, if anything should slip—thin ice ~thin fce money . . . ‘noney e a spider spin ning out her spinning £pinning till she's all ‘pun away . . . and dies. Myrtle must be happy—she must be happy. Tut I'm dying I'm dying, I tell you. I'm spun out. . . . . I haven't got any more margin." There was a great deal of this and simi'ar stuff. Myrtle cried as she heard It. She couldn’t understand what it was all about Adam Rayner understood. And Crosby. And soon everyhody in town. In A bank like the Epring City First National the cashier has constant ac- cess to the securities put up for loans. it's 1k web held in this way been taken from by the bank had the vault by Dick some he himself had borrowed money on, and with it had speculated. At first he had won— that was his legacy, his unsuepected funds. Then he had lost, terribly, and had been forced in deeper and deeper to cover his losses to try to retrieve himself, to cut the neiwork of d.saster and d:spair in which he had wound himself. The State bank ‘examiner had somehow got wind of trouble—such people seem fairly to smell it out, and it was he who prevented the matter being hushed up, or any evasion of the penalty. There'd been an epi- demic of dishonesty among bank of- ficlals lately. He was anxious to make an example of some one. Dick Hammill was under arrest as soon as he was consclous again, and by the time he could get on his feet his tria’ was called. He confessed everything and was sentenced to 20 years in the Federal prison at Atlanta. As he stood before the judge to hear the ver. dict people saw that his hair was gray, his back bent, like an old man. Meanwhile Myrtle had gone home to her parents and was literally pros- trated. She would see no one, but the report went out that she was broken and devastated by grief and shame. The Hammlll house was closed, the Austrians hastened back t0 New York. The big car was re- moved to the Rayner garage. Mr. Rayner grew gaunt and his wrink'es deepened and became curi- ously harsh. Mrs. Rayner, too, aged, but kept her balance. It was she who met callers and spoke with pursed, severe lips' “We were so deceived in Dick, Mr. Rayner and I. We thought that he had common honesty, at least. Oh, yes, of course, we feel sorry for him, but Myrtle i{s the real sufferer. If you could see her, my poor child, my poor baby! We are afraid.” her volce dropped, “that she'll lose her reason under the dis- grace of it. There more, oh, much, much more. Myrtle was too sick to go and see Dick while he was in jail, or before he was taken to Atlanta. Jessie Whitmore went, and started an ugly ittle ripple of gossip about herself. 0Old Maj. Hammill, his uncle, went too. They stood by him, but he did not seem to realize very much of their kindness. He was llke a man dazed, >enumbed, and he was still very weak She keeps begging us so ! | pitifully to say it fsn't true.” as more in the same strain, much | physically. It was the end of Dick Hammil:, Coaxed back to health and com- posure by every loving care, it wag almost three months before Myr- tle would see any one outside the family, and then only an occasional intimate. In six months she was go- ing out a little, dressed In orchid aid luvender that suggested a sort of sec- |ond mourning. She did not show how {11l she had been—indeed she was pretiier than ever. But she insisted sadly that her life was over, that she had nothing left to :ive for, nothing. It must have been just about as Dick was rounding out his first year in prison that John J. Comegys. a business acquaintance of Mr. Ray- ner's, stopped over to see him on his way back from California. “I'd like to ask him to stay at the house if you think Myrtle wouldn't mind,” Mr. Rayner told his wite. “It would seem more friendly; he's one of the biggest wholesalers in New York, and I buy a raft of stuff from him, and have for years. He's a nice chap, too.” Myrtle smiled pitifully when the matter was put before her, but was willing. “Of course, Daddy, darling, have him. sorrow for me if I stood in the way of |anything you'd like to do." | Mr. Comegys therefore came, for a two-day visit. He was a handsome, middle-aged man, “well preserve as we say in Spring City. It was ob- vious that he was soildly wealthy. Within four hours after his arrival it was also obvious that he was mightily taken with Myrtle. He |stayed a week instead of two days, |and at the end of that time his inten- :(luns were clear. Not that he proposed—nothing so It wou'd be just one more | crude just then. But he urged Mrs. Rayner and Myrtle to come to New York and let him entertain them, and | was eloquent of the various ways In which he could do it. And if they | didn’t come, very soon, too, he joviaily | threatened 'to come back to Spring City for Easter. It was not long after Mr. Comegys’ visit that Mr. and Mrs. Rayner had a serfous talk with Myrtle. e think, Baby, that you ought 1o take the first steps to break vour connection with Richard,” said Mr. Rayner, gently It can be done very quietly-—just let me send my lawyer up here to talk with you, and he'll arrange it. Y {can get ‘an absolute divorce easily. Now, don't get nervous. I wouldn't urge it if it wasn't for the best.” “You see, dear,” said Mrs. Rayner, “we don't think you ought to go on bearing that scoundrel's name. We feel you ought to be free of him for- {ever. Then you can forget al: about |this dreadful thing that has happened {to_you.” | Myrtle looked from one to the other of them, and her blue eyes were soft with tears: “You're 8o good to me, | darlings! Of course, if you think it's best . . .1 don't feel capable of guid- ing my own life . . . I'll do what- | ever you want, | word was sald about | | Not a Mr. ;Comegys or the proposed visit to New | York and what might come of it. Mrs | Rayner summed up, with loving ten- derness: “We just want you to be happy, Myrtle. That’s all we wai ever. It was all Dick Hammi'l, now in Federal prison, wanted, too. But, somehow, they never thought of that. Anyway, we can leave the story here.” It is quite certain that Myrtle will be happy. (CopyTight, 10 | | 5.) Lucky and Unlucky Birthdays for 1926, According to Astrology of Ancients BY MARION MEYER DREW. The more one studies the workings of 1] horoscope. whether it he of an individ gr.of & group f individy the more o th one % the wondsrful order and ol e, anifested " (hroughont apber the “universe. v %o an astrologer that things ere {8 no suc {hing as chance. Luck. either good or, in simply the resull of laws thai the lu gr untucky one may not himacl{ unders: i but which he can find out o taks trouble to consult his horoscope. SUPPOSE there are a lot of peo- pie who will call 1926 a lucky or unlucky year and let it go at that wi.h & sigh for the injustice and partiality of the cosmos most flattering to themselves, as it implies the singling out of their own' little egos for the attention of the entire solar system. But in reality the thing is not_quite so personal. Picture the biggest, busiest filing department that your mind can coujure up, with mil- lions of employes and billions o. filing cases, and ask yourself if there is chance for favoritism in a place like that. Let us suppose that Fate, or who- ever is head of the human filing de- partment—and don’t think that a file of our personalities is too far-fetched an idea, for we all do come into this world filed and cross-indexed by our horoscope, hands, faces, chirography, in no unecrtain fashion—says, "Ge. me out all the Scorpio people,” or all the Aquarius people, or the Pisces group, or whoever he happens to have Jotted down first on his list. For 1926 he has put down the na- tives of Scorpio, Aqudrius, Taurus Pisces and Leo, comprising those »on around the 10th or 20th of No- vember, the 1st to 16th of February, the 10th of May and the 2th of April, the 16th to 21st of March, and tne 16th to 21st of August, respec- tively. Some of these people may think that the events about to fall upon them are due to chance, but there will be some who will know that whatever is headed their way is due to the orders of the Head of the Filing Department, and therefore some necessary process in the prog- ress of humanity, not- a personal grievance from a peevish soar sys- tem. I you'are one of the Scorpio group you may already have had a taste of the difficult'es that are a part of this stretch of your road through life. The depressing planet Saturn is hovering over the most sensitive point in your horoscope, and the events that are on the way to you are restriction of per-* sonal action, loss of money, illness ‘or | sither yo' reelf or a rlose and dear relative, and much mental depression and - loss of.se f-confidence. “I{ your birthday is ‘ither the 12th or 19th | | i “EVEN A WATER PITCHER MAY PROVE DANGEROUS TO two patients In~ ONE BORN AROUND MAY 10.°- ‘ture secnle ' are of November particularly strongly, notably during the months of June, July and August for the earlier group and the months of February, March and April for the later group. ‘The way to meet this influence in your life is to postpone action. If you are thinking of investing in business, or getting married, or taking a long trip, don't go on with your plans. Make up vour mind to stay put for a while, and conserve your re- sources. The best thing about these adverse planetary influences is that they are all temporary—who cou'd stand a life of constant adversity or of constant prosperity?—but we make the mistake of thinking that if we don't get married or go to Europe or butld our new building right now, then s 2 “PEOPLE BORN IN FEBRUARY RISE AS NATURALLY AS AN _INFLATED BALLOON. we will never have another chance. That's where we are foolish, for we not only will have other chances, but far better ones than we are expecting in 1926 If we were born around the third week in November of any year. Suppose our birthday comes in the Aquarian group that Fate has called out of the files, however. The mes sengers of the benefic planets Jupiter and Venus have been assigned to this group, and for the present everything that s beautiful and prosperous is go- ing to be showered upon them. If you have friends born during the first three weeks of February of any ye::z, just watch them expand when 1 gets under full sway, Those born about the 15th of February have prob- ably already come under this happy ‘orce, for men born about this time are due to fall in love or experience most blissful domestic conditions early in the present year, while those born about the 1st of February are apt to come under this beneficial ray about the 1st of March. The increase in financial fortunes will come to them 4 bit later—anywhere from the 1st of fune on throughout the rest of the year. About everything these fortu- nate people do at that time will turn out beyond their rosiest expectations, unless they happen to have had their horoscopes cast and are acting upon a knowledge of the future. People born in February are now acting under a natural law exactly as definite and invariable as the law that objects lighter than the surrounding medium rise until they reach 2 posi- tion where their weight {s equal to that medium. These Aquarian people are rising and will continue to do so for the next 12 months. If they think of getting married, going to FEurope or Sla;ll ln(x busine nothing ubn stop them. A §00d many moving p! Anluyhn #0 for |the planets Jupiter and Venus affects |a person, watch the fortunes of Ramon Novarro, Ben Lyon, Greta Nissen, | Ronald Colman, Raymond Griffith and Adolph Menjou. And if Franklin Roosevelt, who is a_strong Aquarian. were to run for office this Fall he would certainly be elected to whatever | Bome new project, or enlarging your |post he desired. People born near the 10th of May or the 25th of April ~1ll not come under the eye of Fate or the filing system until comparatively late in the year 1926, but if they are wise they will have consulted the insurance men some time before this and taken out accldent or illness policies to cover all contingencies from the month of September to the end of December. |From the 27th of September to the 12th of October, men and women born around the 10th of May should be careful of fires, thefts or personal vio |lence, and should use extra caution in | handiing any !material apt to prove dangerous. the breakage of an ordinar) ater | pitcher can be dangerous, and indeed lone man who profited by the indica-| |tions of his horoscope collected over | 1§700 for exactly this occurrence at a time when he had been warned to |1ook out for accidents. | The people born near the 25th of {April will be more apt to feel thie | violent influence in their lives during | the first two weeks of December, and |like the others should not attribuic | this distrubance to good or bad luck {but to planet Mars, whose fiery in- (fluence will excite outside affairs all jabout them. Mars will also influence their tempers, and if they were wise they will also write down a resolu- tion not to quarrel under any pretext |or exasperation late in 1926. People will force conflicts upon them at this time, but it really does take more than one to make a serious disagree- ment, and much later trouble can be the emotions when the impulse arises to answer back. The Pisces people have been ha: years, not all of them at once, but the group as a whole has been under “FATE MAY HAVE HIS HAND ON YOUR CARD IN THE FILE FOR NEXT YEAR." a difficult influence, and before the beginning of 1927 the entire sign will have been seriously affected by the upsets and reversals of the influence of the Planet Uranus upon their horoscopes. The result of Uranus in a life s very distinct and unmistak- able. Any one who comes under this planet begins to feel dissatisfied. It makes no difference what the exter- nals of the life may be, the Inner urge is for something different. The man in the small town says there are kind of machinery or| avolded by a strict censorship over | ing a hard time of it for the past five | you will feel these things 'examples of how the combination ‘of'nul op~ortunities there for a wide awake fellow like himself, so he plicks up and goes to the big cit while t man {n the big town says that com- petition is too keen, so he picks up and goes back to the woods. The married woman says that her hus- band does not understand her and i- limiting her opportunities o she gets a divorce; while the single sister de cides that anything is better than this, so she gets married. If you are a Pisces person, any thing vou have is erent from what you think you want, so vour main idea in life for 1926 will be to chan; everything around, ‘There is no doubt but that the Ura- nian influence in the horoscope i t mast difien't “o nndnrerand and trol—the effects of Saturn may seem more tragic, but we develop a fort} tude and self-control under Saturn that is lacking under Uranlan rays e ta, iway our s.andards of judgment .and, unless we can see | what is going on within ourselves, we lact upon impulse without any idea of ! whether or not we are improving our | conditions_thereby. If your birthday comes In the latte part of March, try not to change position, your residence, your invest ments or your interests for the next ear or two. It may be impossible fo: you to avoid this, but at any ra not take the Initiative your: if you do, then «xpect to discover nn revealed elements in the new situation that will make it seem less desirable than you thought it before you en- tered it. It takes about four years to free yourself from the Uranian ele ment in your life when you have once given away to its uncertainties and changes, so vrepare for a livelier time than you hud bargained for if you i‘lv‘_‘ way to vour desire for new things at the present time. The iysterious planet Neptune is {Ir fluencing men and women born near the middle of August, and throughout 1926 these will come under mental and physical influences which are not readily understandable. For one thing tue, will incline strongly toward o cu't interests of all ki:ds: thev wi wiso develop the intuitlve quality al- Ways present in their natures to u point where it may seriously inter fere with the dictates of common sens Thus, & man who may always have liked a speculative investmenr | will during 1926 be foolishly optimis ic and probably Involve himself se. riously in a financlul wauy because of this attitude. These are Fate's general orders fur lllZG. It is more than likely that only a few of the people close to you will | fall In these general groups, and if so irejoice with them. Even If you miss {the highly fortunate Aquarius group don’t feel too badly, because Jupiter will get to you, too, some time within the next 12 years, and don't begrudge the Aquarians their day in the sun in 1926. After all, Fate is impartia-. so- {fore vou get through your luetima i you will experience the influences of all these p anets. Fate may have his hand on your card in the file for next year, Young Learn Easiest. CHILD can learn to pronounce his own or a foreign language best at the age of about 3 yvears, according to Dr. J. McKeen Cattell, peychologist. “There is then a drop,” Dr. Cattell continues, “and afte* about 12 years he cannot learn cor.ect enunciation Perhaps a boy can learn to ride a bicycle best at the av: age of 10, to drive & motor car at the age of 16.