The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 21, 1915, Page 15

THE TINDER BOX (Continued from page 14) Ing for you, James,” he began as he | root up the lavender bushes to plant . hurried up the steps. “Big scheme | turnip greens in their places. I after- this—got him in a corner if theC. and | ward rented the patch from him to ‘G. comes along this side of Old Har- grow the lavender because he said he peth—make him squeal, hey?” couldn't lose the price that the greens “Who’s Dodson?’ I asked with the | would pring bim “for crotchets.” greatest excitement. I was for the | . Mrs, Hargrove has given me her will first time getting a whiff of the | td keep for her; and the sealed instrue- schemes of the masculiné mighty, but | tions for her-burial. I hope when the I was squelched promptly by .Uncle | time comes ‘the two behests will strike. Peter. a balance, but I doubt it. “We've no time for questions, Eve- Her ‘ideas of a proper funeral seem to lina, now—go back to your tatting, | coincide with those of Queen Victoria, hey?” He answered me as he began | whom she has admired through life to buttonhole th¥ Crag and lead him and mourns sincerely. down the steps. Henrietta has not been heard to in- “Dodson is the man who is lnying | quige in profane language since I had down and contracting for the line |5 jong talk with her last week out in across the river, Evelina,” answered | ¢po garden, that ended in stubby tears Cousin James without taking any no- and the gift of a very lovely locket tice whatever of Uncle Peter’s squelch- | whien 1 impressed upon her was as ing of me. “If this other line can just chaste in design as I wished her speeeh be secured he will have to come to our to become. terms—a.nd the situation will he The twins bave been provided thh saved.” As le spoke be took my hand several very lovely pieces of wearing in his and led me at his side down the | npparel from my rapidly skill acqniving | front walk to the gate, talking as he | needle. That’s on the credit side af went, for Ungle Peter was chuckling | my balance. But that is all, and it on ahead like & steam tug in a hurry. | doesn’t sound 1evolutlonm’y, .does " it. “And the shades of Henry will again Jane? assume the maintenance -of his fam- ily,” I hazarded with lack of respect of | the dead, impudence to Cousin James about his .owm affairs and unkindness by implication to Sallie, who loves me better than almost anybody in the tvorld does. And I.got my just pun- | it he eyes me with suspicion: when ishment by seeing a lovely 100k of | ho seeg me in secret conclave w'lth» Pe- tender concern rise in Cousin James' | tnntn. eyes as he stopped short in the middle | * .yre needs 2 man around this pluce n of the waik. ’ 1 heard him mutter the other day as I “I want to go back a minute to speak | 1ot the kitchen. to Ballie before I go on downtown,” | 1 wander? be said quickly, and before Uncle Pe- H aaded ant- ter’s remonstrances had exploded he flfi:fifilegflg;;e%efi: gamisb’:llt‘nfi‘ had taken the steps two at-a bound my arms are as husky and strong as and disappeared in the front door. a bey's and my nose badly.sunburned: “Sooner ‘he marries th:_lt lazy lolly- from my strenuosity with bee and pop the better,” fumed Uncle Peter as trimming scissors. he waited at the gate. “The way for |~ .y or whieh I have done-and dome a man to quench his thirst for woman well. But when I think of all those sweets is to marry a pot of honey like five girls that are waiting for me: to- that and then come ight on back to solvé the emotiopal formula-by ‘which ub‘;e?_";‘gngdgg‘:ge; fntglebflie‘:]: i ‘they -can work out and .establish: the: 1L tact -tlmt man equals womn, I ga, a my brain while I wait for James— Janes leuers ave: Sust; profia. workings of a great brain, hey?” There is no better sedative for a wo- man’s distarbed and wounded emotions than a little stiff brain work. Richard’s letter braced my viny .drooping of mind at once and from thinking into the Crag’s affairs of sentiment I turned with mascaline vigor to begin to mix into his affairs of finance. However, T- wish that the first big business letter 1 ever got in my life hadn’t bad to have astrain of loveinterest running through it. 8till, Dickie is a trump cnrd in the’ man pack. It seems that as his father is one of the most influential directors and lar- gest stockbolders in this new branch of | the Cincinnati and Gulf railread he has. got the commission for making the plans for all the stations along the road, and he wants to give me the com- mission for drawing all the gardens for all the station yards. It will be tre- mendous for both of us so yoeung in life, ind 1 never dared hope for such a thing. I had only hoped to get a few private gardens of some of my friends to laze and pose over, but this is star- | tling. My mind is beginning to work on in terms of hedges and fountains al-’ ready and Dickie may be coming south any minute. 1 have been in Glendale a whole month now, and I can't see that my influence has revolutionized the town as yet. I don’t seem to be of half the importance that I thought I was go- ing te be. I have tried, and I bhave ! offered that bucket of love that 1 and ber-progeny—men in general have thought up to everybody, but whether brought just such burdens as that upen they have drunk-of it to profit I am ~you in particular by their attitude to- sure 1 can't say. ‘In tact Joneli- ward us—but do let her begin to exert Vi » Iy ness has liquefled my gaseous affec- just a small area of ber brain on the tion into what almost looks like of- subject of the survival of the fit to filoniness - live. You don't swaddle ov feced me!”’ fought to: thedseath. ln the menntlmu i “Bre he said: softly. under his| -Still, 1 know Uncle Pcter is happler_ Nell= breath as his wonderful, géntle eyes than ‘he ever was before because: helj:: And while 1 was on_the; ;mrch sitt . sauk down way below the indignation | 12s got me to come to as a refuse | tno with Richard Hall's lettor in my and explosiveness to the quiet pool that | from Aunt Augusta, a-confidante for| p.q ctill inread, Nell. herself * came . lies at the very bottom of my heart. {is ¥iews of life that he is mot allow-|{ gqewn the frent walk and sat down be: /Nobody ever found it before, and 1 | ed to express at home and.also the cer- | cige me. ' @idu’t know it was there myself, but 1| tainty of one of Jasper’s juleps, * =Why, I thought you bad gene fish- -“felt as if,it were being drained up into | Sallle has. grown so dependent on ing with Polk.”" 1 said as-1-cuddled her: heaven, - me that my shoulders are assuming a | up to me a second. - She lai@ her:hend |: ,‘ 4Evel” he said again, and it is'a won- | masculine squareness to support bet| on my shoulder and heaves: meb-usi.,he & “der that 1 dldn't answer: weight. ~ 1 am understudying Cousin} that it ghook us both. : *Adam!”- James to such an extent-over at Wide-{ ' I didn’t quite Like to go w}m him: ‘don‘t know jnst w'hnt ‘woull have: gab)es that 1 feel like the heir to his ‘g]ane, and Henrietta wouli’t ~cause n bee bad stung the' red hénflsd 1 twin, and ‘she wanted to\stay to: scow | Sallie,” she answered M&M‘M “I'm a brute, Eveliim,” he answered, and a sudden discouragement lined every feature of his beautiful Biblical face. 1 couldn’t stand that, and I hugged him tight to my breast for an instant and then .ldmlnistexed nnothex earthquake shake. “Tell me exactly what bhas happen- - £d,” 1 demanded, looking straight into - - his tragic eyes and letting my hands G slip from his shoulders Gown his arms until they held both of his hands tight and warm in mine, Jane, 1 was glad that 1 bad offered the cup of my eyes to him full of this curipus intersex elixir of life tbat you bhave induced me to seek so blindly, for he responded to the dose immediately, aud the color came buck into ‘his face as he unswered me just as sensibly as be would another man. “The men who :ure surveying the new railroad from Cincinnati to the aulf‘have laid their experimental lines acress the corner of Greenwood ceme- tery, and they say it will have to run that way or go across the river and purallel the lines of the other road. If theéy come on this side of the river they . wiil Torce the other road to come aeross too, and in that case we will get the shops. It just happens that stch a line will make necessary the re- moval of—of poor Henry’s remains to avother lot. Sallie's is the only lot in i the «cemetery that is that high on the bLiuff. Henry didn't like.the situation when he bought it himself, and 1 thought that as there is another lot right next to her mother’s for sale she _ would not—but, of eourse, I was brutal to mention it to ber. I hepe you will fiud it in yeur heart to forgive me, Sal- lie” Amd as he spoke he extracted himself from e and ivalked over and laid his hand on Sallie's head. “It was such a shock to her—poor Henry!” sobbed littie Cousin Jasmine, and the other two little sisters saiffed in chorus. : ‘‘To have railrond trains running by Greenwoed at all will be disturbing to the peace .of the -dead,”” snorted Mrs. Hargrove. “We need no railread in Glendale. We have never had one. And that js my Iast word—no!” . “Four miles to the railroad station “across the river is just a pleasant drive in goed weather,” said Cousin Martha p'aintively as she cuddled Sallie’s sobs mwore comfortably down on her shoui- der. “I feel that Henry would doubt my " faithfulness to his memory if 1 con- sented to such a desecration,” came in smothered tones from the pillowing’ " shoulder. And not one of all those six women had stopped to think for one minute that the minor fact of the disturbing’ of the ashes of Henry Carruthers . would be followed by the major one of the restoration of the widow’s fortune and the Jifting of a huge financial bur- “den off the strong shoulders they were all separatay and collectively leaning ! UpOm. I exploded, but 1 am glad I drew the | Crag out on the porch and did it to " him_alene. . “Evelina, you are refreshing if stren- uous,” he laughed after I had spent five minutes in stating my opinions of women in general and a few in partic- ular. “But I ought not to have hurt Sallie by telling her-about the lines < until ‘they are a certainty. It is so i . far only a possibility. They may go - across the river anyway.” “And, as for seeing Sallie swaddled in your consideration and fed yourself % as a sacrifice from a spoon, I am tired of it” 1 flamed up again. “It's not good for her. Feed and clothe ber happened to me, I'etunla married Jasper according. to his word of promise, and I have taught her to cook about five French dishes that he couldn’t concoct to save his | life, and which help her to keep him in his place. His pomposity grows daily T CHAPTER VIL. “}. don’t understand him at all.” OUR cuitivated "artistic’ nature: ought to be a very: beauti ful revelation to the spirit- ual character of the' young: Methodist divine you wrote me of in your last letter. Encourage-him in - every way with affectionate interest in 1 his work, especially in the Epworth- league on his country circuit: I am inclosing $30 subscription to the work, and I hope you will give as much. You have not mentioned Mr. Hayes for sev- eral letters. I fear you are prejudiced against him. Seek to know and weigh his character before you judge him as unfit for your love.” Thus Jane wrote. The highly spiritual Mr; Haley glared at Poik for an bour out here on my | porch when he interrupted us in one of our Epworth league talks in‘such an{ unspiritual :manner that Polk ‘said: he felt as if he had been introduced-to the Apostle Paul while be was still Saul ot | Tarsus. 1 had to pet the dominiée decos |- rously for a week before he regained- his benign ‘manner. = Of course, ‘how- ever, it was trying to evem:a’ highiy ‘spiritual nature like his' te-have Polk: insist on pinning a rose m my hair right before his eyes. About Polk I feel that I am in:the midst of one of those great calm, oily stretches of ocean that a ship is rocked gently in for a few hours: before: the | storm tosses it first to heaven:and:then | to hell. He is so psychie,.and in a way attuned o me, that be partly un- derstands my purpese in deelaring my love for him to put him at a disad: vantage in his lovemaking to me, and he hasi'’t let me do it yet, while his tacit suit goes on. It is a drawn bat: | tle betwecnusmdismingbobe what happens.” and called to-me. . I bate him! - - ———a—-_—___———_—-—-_—_fi—_ THE NOHPAR‘I'lSAn LEADER S PAGE FIFTEEN M “Dodson-1s down at the hotel look- | on ¥rovidence road that he must ot day’s ‘companionship,” T answered éx- perimentally, for 1 saw the time bad - come to exercise some of the biceps in Nell's femininity in -preparation for Just what 1 knew she wasg to get from Polk. My heart ached for what I knew she was suffering. those growing paing for months follow- .Jng. that experience with him on the Tront porch after the dance four years ago, and I had had change of scene and occupation to help. “I don’t understand him at all,” fal- tered Nell, and she raised her eyes as she bared her wound to me. “Nell,” I said with trepidation as 1 began on this, my first disciple, “you aren’t a bit ashamed or. embarrassed or humiliated in showing me that you love me, are you?” “You know I've adored you ever slnc<~ 1 could toddle at your heels, Evelina,” she answered, and the love message her great brown eyes finshed into mine Wwas as sweet as anythlng that ever I had had exactly * "Then why shouid you wonder and ‘suffer and restrain and be humiliafed at your love for Polk?” I asked, fiting ‘point blank at all of NeW’s traditions. “Why not tell him about it and ask him-if: he loves you?”’ The shot landed with such force that ‘Nell gasped; but answered as stralght out from the shoulder as 1 had aimed. “F would rather die than have Pelk Hayes know ‘how he—he affects me,”’ she answered, with her head held Mfih “Then. what you feel for him ig not worthy -love, but something entirely unworthy,” I answered loftily, with a very poor imitation of Jane’s impres- siveness of speech. “I know it,” she faltered imto my -shoulder.. - “If it were Mr. James: Hay- din I loved I wouldn't mind anybody’s knowing: it, but something: must be wrong ‘with Polk- or.me or the way I feel.’ What 1s it?” ) For a moment I got so stiff' all over that. Nell ' raised -her: head from' my shoulderin surprise. ‘feel about the Crag.as.I.do? - = “I dom't kaow,” I answered weakly. And I don't know! simple experiment praposition is'about to become compound quadrsties. Then I got a still further surprise. “I wouldn't in the least mind telling Mr. James how I like him—if you think it is all right”’ Nell mused, looking -pensively:.at the. first pale star that was.rising over Old Harpeth. “I would -enjoy it because I have always .adored Dhim, and it. would be-so interesting to, see what he'd say.” “Nell,” I said suddenly swith deter- .Tell any man you like how much: yon like him—and sec Do all women Oh, Jane, your -mination, ‘“do it! “I feel ag if—as if"'— and I don’t blame her; I weonldn’t have said as much to her. .tell Mr. James I love him would ease the pain, the—pain—that I feel about Polk. It would be so interesting to tell 2. man a thing like that.” “Do. it!” I gasped amd went foot in the class in romantics. If any jungle explover thinks he h.m mapped and charted.a woman’s heart be had better -pack up his instruments of - warfare -and recorders and come down to Glendale, Tenn. Nell and I must have talked further along. the same lines, but I don’t re- member. what we said. . I have record- ed the high lights.on. the-conversation, but long: after I lost her I kept my whirlwind - feeling. of amazement. was like trying to balauce calmly on the: 1id of the tinder .box..when you didn’t ‘know ‘whether or not you had ‘touched off the fuse. Has horeysuckle garbed old Hax- peth been seeing- things like this go on for centuries and not interrupted? I think I would’ have been sitting theke questioning him until now if Lee aixi Carolinie. badn’t stopped at the gate Nell faitered, “I feel that te I think Lee was giving Caroline this stroll home. from the postaffice in the twilizht as an extra treatin her week’s iflo“ance of him, and she was so soft ‘}.and glowing and sweet and pdle thatl wonder .the' Cherokee: roses on' my bedge @idn't droop their heads with bumility before ber, “YWhat's.a. lovely lady doing sittlug -all by herself in the gloaming?” Lee asked in his rich, warm voice. “Come take & walk with us, Eve- 3 ‘Jina, -dedr,” Caroline begged softly, though I knew what it would mean to | Berif I shonld intrude on this preelom | honr with ber near lover. - : s (To bo continued) i Kmhwm-g\w muhwlt*tohmim RSt & i |3 [ § £