Evening Star Newspaper, January 6, 1930, Page 26

This Strange Adventure By Mary Ro berts Rinehart Copyright. 1920, by North American Newspaper Alllance and Metropolitan Newspaper Bervice. SYNOPSIS. Missie Colfax is married off at 20 to ‘Wesley Dexter, gay, florid, 35. He soon tires of her and just when she feels that life holds nothing for her, she meets Kirby Phelps. Suddenly they realize that they are in love. She wants to leave Wesley, but there is a sharp strug- le between her heart and her sense of duty. Then she learns that she is go- ing to have a child and she knows that she must put Phelps out of her life. She is very unhappy, but she became accustomed to unhappiness during her childhood. She was the daughter of Stella, a burlesque actress, and Lambert Colfar, a_member of an aristocratic Jamily. Colfax ceserted his wife and, ajter futile attempts at reconciliation, she killed herself. Then Missie went to live with her grandmother, old Mr: Colfax, and her Aunt Adelaide. Th dull, formal atmosphere of the Colfax home stified Missie. From her father’s Uncle Archibald she learned that her scapegrace father is old Mrs. Colfaz’s Javorite. Adelaide submits to parental tyranny, and Cecily, another daughter, has been disinheri During these ears Missie had been cut off jrom all er old acquaintances, and only now and then saw her step-sister, Ellen, wi:o, AE],}N marrying Tommy Wilkins, became een. TWENTY-FIRST INSTALLMENT. ISSIE did not see Kirby again for three years, Now and then she heard of him, of course. He was one of the first to make and drive a rac- ing car. He took an automobile across the continent in 52 day ot a charmed life, Kirby,” sald Tommy. 3 “Maybe he doesn't care,” Eileen commented shrewdly. But Tommy smiled at that. Women were incurable romantic, even Eileen. Men did not try to kill themselves in racing cars for the Missies of the world. “Looking for thrills, that’s all” he said. “If he kills+himself well be out & good engineer.” But he had no use for Wesley, had ‘Tommy. “Fooling around with women again,” he said. “I don't object to his drink- ing if he wants to make a hog of him- seif. But this other thing. Do you suppose Missie knows?” “Any woman knows.” “Then why doesn’t she get out?” “She's got Eddie. Where’s she to go? The Colfaxes have nothing. Unless you ‘want her here!” “I wouldn't object,” said Tommy placidly. But Eileen changed the subject. She had plans of her own. Already she and ‘Tommy belonged to the new aristocracy of wealth. It smiled at the pretensions of the old families, rejected their standards of austere, dignified liv- ing, demanded amusement and spent for it lavishly, showed a certain ostentation. But it was this wealth ‘which was raising the cultural stand- ards of the city, of the country. | It traveled, collected, brought back to America not only works of art but an appreciation of them. It financed symphony orchestras in unlikely places, opera, picture galleries. Uniike the earlier generation it did not hoard it spent. And of this new aristocracy were Tommy and Eileen to be shining lights. Already they were planning another house well outside of town. “We’ll keep the town house,” Eileen told Missie. “The country place is for the warm weather. And, of course, we can open it for Christmas and have house there. ‘Missie drove out there with her some- times in Eileen’s new electric, the chil- dren tucked in with them. Eileen talked, Missie listened. She had grown very silent, save when she was alone with Eddie. She had lost Wesley again. She knew that. Out of the wreckage of her life this child was all she had. Eileen would talk, Missie would listen, her eyes on the boy. One day Eileen said that she and Tommy were going abroad. “Come_to New York and see us off, Missie. You need a change.” afraid to leave Eddie. “Good heavens, what's your nurse or?” She decided to go. She could get some clothes, fix herself up. Maybe if she did Wesley would stay around more. It was bad for Eddie, the way things were. Soon he would begin to notice. She did not hate Wesley. She was often sorry for him. He was prosper- ing but she knew he was not happy. His infidelities were escapes from some profound inner loneliness which sent him into the back alleys of life after forgetfulness. That was her fault; she had not satisfied him. He loved life and the good things of life, gayety and laughter, good food, good wine. He liked place, to be pointed out in a crowd. He was intensely physical; his body ruled him. But whatever his sins of omission or commission he had given her this child. She even felt dumbly grateful to him, but she would not tell him so. He would have laughed. She tried to show it in other ways, ordering his house as he liked it, his food, his drink. “I hope the ducks are right, Wes. I told her how you want them.” He liked his ducks raw. He liked to cut into them and see the blue-red flesh, the juices flowing out. And she never locked her door again. This, at least, she could do. But the boy's crib stood next to her bed; when Wesley wandered in it was to look at the child and to wander out again. They had settled down to life together with- out love or passion and apparently it was to go on forever. In the end she agreed to go to New York with Tommy and Eileen. She went to her grandmother’s to say goodby. Sarah was very feeble, in bed a part of each day. And old Ish- mael was dead. The cow had gone, the horses. As she went in she noticed once again the dusty smell of old car- pets long unlifted. Waiting to be sum- moned upstairs she stood at the win- dow, looking out. The iron fence, the deer, were unchanged, but beyond them the street had altered. There were bi: cycles, tram cars, an occasional auto- bile. Life was moving fast, speeding People even walked more quickly. ‘Hurry up, get out of the way. I've no time to waste.” ‘When she went up Sarah was in her high-backed chair, a shawl around her old shoulders and Adelaide was roll- ing spills. So she went to New York. She knew she needed a change. When she saw Tommy and Eileen off, she found her- self queerly emotional on the dock, watching the ship slowly moving cut | into the river. Years later she was to wait for another ship to move down that same river, and to have again that sense of finality; the phantom caravan going on, and she being left. There were tears in her eyes when she turned away. She found Kirby Phelps beside her. “Missed them!"” he said. “Well, since I have found you- y He looked older. There was a streak of white in his dark hair. but his eyes were still kind. He saw that she could not speak and, taking her arm, led her out to a cab. “I'll take you (o your hotel,” he said. And only laf Missie! What has happend to you? “Nothing. Maybe that’s the trouble. She had no coquetry, no arts, even no desire to reclaim him. bling, but she felt quite calm. “Are you as lost as you look, Missie? “I have my boy. That’s enough.” She was trem- | better than the line's record set a year | comfort her. Time had softened his| hurt, but she still had the power to | move him; he had been faithful to that | memory of her. But he could not de- stroy for her what he saw was her only | salvation. He sat back and folded his arms. ‘““Then you are, indeed, blessed among women,” he said, rather quaintly. He left her in the lobby of her hotel and, standing there, with his hat in his hand, he told her that he had never forgotten her, that he still cared, that she could count on him always. She thanked him gravely, her eyes on his face as though she wanted to impress { it on her mind afresh, or as though she were storing up some memory for the years to come. As indeed she was. She went back to Wesley. She put on her pretty new dresses, her smart hats. Mr. Gibson might have drawn her; she had the delicacy, the wistful- ness that he gave his young women, the same proud little tilt to her head. But Mr. Gibson never saw her and Wesley did not notice . . . ‘Wesley’s interests were extending. He was much more than a middleman now; he was a director in Tommy's bank, in a new insurance company, a stockholder in the bicycle business, in | the automobile factory. Tommy was | carrying him up with him. And some of Kirby's dreams were already coming true. Men were flying; still experi- | mentally, but conquering’ the air. The | idea had become the fact. They did not go away that Summer; Wesley was too busy. And the heat was terrific. It shimmered in visible waves above the tracks of the street cars, and people dropped on the pave- ments as if they had been pole-axed. Even the nights brought no relief. The tall brick house was breathless, torrid, and Eddie was ill; he could not eat, and in his fitful sleep he whimpered. Missie, | hanging over him like a pale ghost, felt both her strength and her endurance failing, her nerves gradually getting the better of her. Eddie’s doctor, looking at | her, prescribed bromides she forgot to take. She felt always as though there was a tight band around her head. The beginning of Eddie's convales- cence found her collapsed. She drag- ged herself about the sizzling house. In the basement kitchen the stove had rendered the room unbearable, and the cook was sitting in the coal cellar fan- ning herself. Eddie was better, but pale and languid. “Take your milk, darling.” “I don't want any milk, muvver.” By the end of the week she had reached her limit. Her request that she be allowed to take Eddie out of town had met with no response from Wesley, packing & bag for a week end party somewhere. There began in her, with his departure, a slow smoldering anger and resentment that, unknown to her, was growing throughout all of that af ernoon into the next day. Sitting over the child's bed she counted her money. She must get away, take Eddle with her. The house was crushing her, the heat was driving her mad. She had not enough money. She was his chattel, his creature. It was his house, his child, his wife, his carriage, his horses. A furious hatred began to shake her, and all that Sunday while Eddie slept she sat and rocked, back- ward and forward, her eyes sunken and her mouth set. Something of Stella that was in her, something common ?nd yet terrible, was rising to the sur- ace. And Wesley chose that night to a tempt a reconciliation! - He had had a hint of two lately. Tommy, about to sail, had said something. “How old are you, Wes? Fifty?” Better “Forty-three. “Humph! You look older. try the domestic life for a while. No m wearing out a machine before its And behind those quiet words of Tommy’s there had been a threat. Tommy was carrying no dead wood. Push your share or let go, that was Tommy. Competition, speeding up, drive, those were the new slogans. He felt that he had coined them. It was midnight when Wesley came in, cheerful, cool, magnanimous, and braced to his resolution by three or four highballs at the club. He noticed nothing strange about Missie, sitting rocking in the dim room. “Come into my room.,” he said. “I have something to say to you.” | _The hall was faintly redolent of | Scotch whisky as she followed him. She was fully dressed, queerly apathetic. And even then things might have been different had Wesley not closed the door behind her and tried to take her in his arms. She backed off. He was suddenly horrible to her, his mouth loose, his legs apart to steady himself. She warned him off, but he came after her. And then, with a catlike gesture that might have been Stella’s, she seized a poker from the fireplace and struck him with it. He fell down and lay still. She stood on the pavement, hatless, and breathed the night air. She was through. He would never take her back. Maybe she had killed him; well, she |had warned him. Then she was di: |and she began to tremble again. sat down on the doorstep; she thought, “I must get back and get Eddie.” But she could not get up; she could not move at all. Some time later she heard movements within the house, slow, careful movements. She felt that the door behind her was going to open, and that she must run, run fast and far. But she could not run. And the door did not open; she heard the bolt put on, and the slow movements again; Wes going up the staircase. She had not killed him. | Suddenly she knew that she had to| get back into the house, back to Eddie. | She was frantic; she rang the door- bell, hammered on the door. Above she knew Wesley heard her, could even figure him, partially undressed, sitting on the side of his bed and listening. She even thought she heard Eddie. But there was no movement, only after | a time the bell ceased to ring. Wesley had disconnected it. There was an air | of finality about the bolted door, the bell that did not ring. Wesley was through, and he was telling her so. ! | She was beaten. | ‘With that knowledge she quieted, her | olfax blood came to the surface. She moved away down the street toward her grandmother’s house. 22y, She (Continued in tomorrow's Star.) CLAIM AIR RECORDS. Mail Pilots Set New Fast Time; to Chicago. CHICAGO, January 6 (@) —SHff tail winds brought claims of new speed : records from two air lines flying intb | Chicago_yesterday. ‘The first claim was made by the National Air Transport Co., which re- ported Pilot Paul Johnson had flown | here from Kansas City yesterday in 2 hours and 15 minutes, bettering by 5 minutes the time reported for Pilot| Harry Lewis of the same line, ‘The other speed mark of yesterday was claimed by Universal Air Lines, which announced Pilot had brought six passenge of mail from St. Louis to Chicago 1 hour and 26 minutes, 4 minutes ago, By & new government decree flour He had his old impulse to deny that made in France must contain 97 per for her, to take her into his arms and cent French wheat, \ D. C, MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1930, LANSBURGH & BR 7th, 8th and E -Sts.——FAMOUS FOR QUALITY SINCE 1860—National 9800 v 0000000006« JANUARY FEATURE OFFERING ’660600066066060060006004¢ 18x18 in. Regularly 6 for $1.79 sizes. A very low price indeed Towels! tractive colored borders! at this low price. tinctive floral patterns! 900000000000 00000000000000000000:0000000000000000000000000000000000 i»«m“on»mo»m»“w JANUARY FEATURE OFFERING )(0600000060000600600600000060¢ 2 Sizes Hemstitched Linen Napkins 14x14 in. Regularly 6 for $129 6for$1.29 6 for 88¢c Linen damask with a silvery sheen, in lovely floral patterns, in lunch and dinner Large 18x36-Inch Turkish Towels 1 8C Each Soft, absorbent quality—with at- Buy a quantity $1.95 70-In. Irish Linen Damask $1.58 yard The kind you use for beautiful, long" wearing cloths; several dis- napkins to match, dozen, $5.95. The Fourth of Our January Feature Values of Decided Interest to Those Who Entertain A Sale of Linens and Towels Bringing Values of Distinct Merit—Wonderful Assortments! $4.50 70x70 In. Irish Linen Pattern Cloths *3.38 Gleaming white linen cloths in either the lovely rose pattern or a smart conventional design—a quality that will stand the maximum wear! 70x90-in. Size Regularly $5.50 $4.38 Reg. $1.95 Madeira Tea Napkins 6 for $1.48 Lovely squares, 11 by 11 inches, with which to grace those im- portant teas. Of fine white linen with dainty hand-embroidery. Boxed. $1.49 to $2.25 Lace Trimmed Scarfs $1 18x45-inch scaris of sturdy linen, trimmed with long-wear- ing laces; assorted styles. for Turkish 22x22-in. . A January Value for the Littlest Ones! Large Drop-Side Cribs Complete Suites for Youth, $139 For the little one’ poster bed, dresser with five drawers, night table and desk with chair—maple and green own bedroom—a four finish with dainty floral decoration. May be purchased on Our Special Budget Plan! A handsome crib, large enough to serve baby until he is old enough to have a bed of his own! Enam- eled in green, ivory and pink, with attractively decorated panels. Com- plete and durable yet comfortable springs! Large Roomy Carriages, $25 Handsome wicker carriages with diamond design on hood and body. Built large and roomy with corduroy lining and nickel handle. Popular shades. Children’s Furniture—#ourth Floor Drastic Reductions on Our Own Stocks! Shoes for All Occasions $5.95 to $7.50 Values *4.85 Pumps, straps and ties—in the season’s smartest styles—drastically reduced because of broken style and size ranges. Of patent leather, mat and brown kid, black and brown suede— with unusual stitching, bows and contrasting leather trim. $10.00 and $12.50 Shoes ¥7.85 Our finest hand-turned shoes—including ties, straps and pumps of patent leather, mat kid, tan kid, black and brown suede—some with genuine reptile trim,, Broken sizes; but all sizes here. Shoe Shep—Second Floor 70x108-in. Size Regularly $6.50 $5.38 $2.98 63-In. Square Damask Cloths $2.39 Silver bleached linen, in a beautiful lustrous quality; as- sorted damask patterns; hem- stitched hems. $1.29 54-In. Square Crash Cloths 98¢ Closely woven linen crash cloths—practical for everyday use; colored borders. Linens—Third Floor $1.19 Five-Pc.Linen Breakfast Sets 88c 36-inch cloth and four napkins with wide col- cred borders—rose, blue or green; plain centers. $1.00 Irish Linen Pillow Cases 79c¢ Finely bleached linen pillow cases with hem- stitched hems—at a most inviting price. 39¢ Linen Crash 28c¢ yd. Splendid for tea towels for they do not lint easily; colored borders, woven to be color fast. $4.95 Handmade Filet Lace Covers $3.88 Antique filet lace so popular for spreads and table cloths—entirely: hand woven; 72x90 inches. $000000000000000000000600000000000090000000000090000¢00000000000 Exceptional January Sale of Sample Handkerchiefs Fine Swiss and Linen ’Kerchiefs Usually 25c¢ 50c and 75c¢ Three Special Groups 18c 35¢c 50c¢ Each handkerchief is fresh and clean, and on a card, for these are the samples from a high- grade importer. Finest quality, with embroid- ery of the most painstaking sort. All white and smart colored ones. Some have lovely lace edges; others with designs embroidered in the corner. Buy them for gifts, prizes and personal use—at a great saving! Handkerchiefs—Street Floor In the Inexpensive Shop—Second Floor! 200 Smart Ne Dresses In the Styles Approved | -} for Daytime and Evening Occasions %0.74 It's a treat to see frocks as sm:rt and as style-right as these for only Of flat crepe, satin, georgete, chiffon and moire—with the new 1930 lines that do so much for ons’s figure. High shades and black; some with puf- fed sleves, beaded trim, bows and lingerie touches. Misses’ and women's sizes. Black Coats With Black Fur $23.74 Fashion grants no compromise—your smart- est coat should be black and lavishly trimmed with black fur. Models for all type figures— straight or subtly flared with intricate seaming or tucking, Sizes 14 to 46. Inexpensive Shop—Second Floor