The evening world. Newspaper, August 19, 1922, Page 13

ORAL PRTIEE PERM 221 TRI eR + THE EVENING WuaxLD, & oes CHARACTERS IN THE STORY. STORY CORNELIA LESCOTT, head of the Lescott Company, the embodi- ment of business efficiency. PATIENCE, called Pat, her cousin, who undertakes the manage- ment of Miss Lescott’s vacation. HUMPHREY JESSON, inventor and engineer, who bewails his own. lack of efficiency. DR. CHARLIE BRETT, who was responsible for the vacation which brought about so many surprises and so much happiness. od 6 OBODY loves you—and your hands are cold. That's all that's wrong ‘with you, Cornelia.” Dr. Charlie Brett grinned tmpudently, behind the protection of his seventy- eight years, Miss Lescott regarded him silently, “The cold hands don’t matter," he went on, more briskly. ‘'You've been overworking, of course, and your cir- culations below par, but that'll take care of itself when you go south, Cor- melia, But the other thing’—— “Can't be helped," she interrupted quietly.” He shook his head. ‘How old are you, Cornelia? I forget.’’ “"Thirty-seven."": She managed to rap it out smartly. “You'll never marry, now—not your type. But your independence doesn't prevent you from needing love—you not know that, yet, but you'll find {t out some day. We're all alike.” “1¢ 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 wuccess? Thought I'dehave to argue it with you.” “You needn't, I know. And I've tried—I can look ahead, Dr. Charlie.”* ‘The half-mischievous twinkle went out of his eyes. ‘Cornelia, that's the whole trouble, I suppose you went @bout it/as if it were a business prop- onition Undertook to make that Birl fond of you by”. “Well, how else could I do it? I thought that if 1 gave her things I knew she ached for she’d''—— He shook his head slowly, ‘Queer —when you're keen as a knife about Most things, toc. The more you did for her the better you liked her—and all it got you was thanks!" She nodded. ‘I didn't like her, at first. 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 ery because she hasn't taken the trouble to send you a post card since she left, eh? Happened before, hasn't it? Took that other cousin of yours abroad with you year before last, didn't you?" Cornelia Lescott nodded. Amy had forgotten her as quickly ds Eleanor. “I can't make people like me. mmst be a gift that I don’t posses: “Rats! You can’t make people like you by the methods you'd use to win & buyer's friendship! That's the whole trouble, Cornelia—you're so— 0 efficient! You made 'em both ever- lastingly conscious that you were do- ing things for them. And it takes @ pretty broad-gauge human being to love a fairy godmother!" He leaned his elbows on his desk. “Look here, girl: if you've got any more young female reiations, try the ether thing on the next one. Give her a chance to manage you. Lean on her. A business is a good thing to love, bet it can't love back. You try my method and see if it doesn’t work."" Cornelia Lescott smiled thinly as 6 drove to her office. Twice bitten, thrive shy, she told hergelf. 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 as anything else. HE office seemed to echo the assurance as she attacked her day's mail briskly. The big, cheerful room, with its effect @f solid accomplishment, welcomed her antiably into the life for which mature must have expressly fashioned It Her morning conference with Ca- rewe deepened the impression. It was clear that Carewe regarded her purely as a business personality. She found @ gentle satisfaction in his respect; he was competent to judge and he never flattered. “When do you expect to leave, Miss tt 2” Hig prisk question brought her back to the unwelcome topic. ‘‘I'm not sure that I'll go at all," she sald slowly. “Vacations tire me more than work"— He shook his head decidedly. “That's a mistake, if you'll let me say “go. It may tire you more than stay- ing on the job, but it doesn't tire the same muscles and nerves. That's the point, I hope you'll decide to go, a8 usual." She guessed that he liked to be left fm control. He didn't miss her, she thought. He'd be glad when sho went. Probably they all felt the same way. None of them had any feeling bout her except as she concerned their material conditions, As a per- gon she simply didn’t matter. “Oh, I suppose I'll go, as usual,” ghe said listlessly. “It seems like more of @ nuisance this year, that's I'll let you know when I de- He gathered his papers and went out, She plunged {nto her own work with a sense of escape. After all, there was alwa: the busine: It was hers, not merely in the sense of ownership, but by, right of creation; she'd built it up from the strug- gling little plant her father had left behind him. She loved it, she told herself, and it was worth loving, bet- ter worth loving than shallow, selfish girls who—— Dr. Charlie's yoice seemed to sound in her ears: ‘You can love a busi- ness, all right, but it can’t love back * * © and you need something that can." She sat up straight, her lips tight, a {awer stinging sensation in her eyes. ‘She could ask George's eldest girl and see whether there was anything in Dr, Charlle’s system. Patience, wasn't it? She must be nineteen now. George never could make money, and there were three or four younger children. She opened a drawer and drew forth a sheet of her personal letter paper. Letters came easily, as a rule, but she found herself phrasing this one men- tally, her pen poised and reluctant. “Dear Patience (no, they'd probably call her Patty at home)—Dear Patty: Don't you want to spend a month or two with me, this winter, somewhere in the South? I think you'd enjoy the change’’ Miss Lescott shook her head. The wrong key, altogether. : She wrote swiftly, her lps grim. “Dear Patty: I've been ordered South for the winter, and I don’t want to go alone, I know that you'll find it tire- some to travel with an old woman like me, but if you'll come along I'll be ever so grateful, I expect to go to Cedarcrest for February and March. I'm sure you'll like""—— ‘ She shook her head again. Then she inserted a word: ‘I'm not sure you'll like it ‘there, but it seems the most suitable place for me.’ She considered once more. She'd sent Eleanor and Amy checks, with their invitations, to make sure that 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 abruptl ss 6 ORNELIA" — Patience had dispensed with the dutiful prefix of ‘‘Cousin’’ some time during their first hour together—"'Cornelia Lescott, 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!" “Oh, dear! TI left it on the dressing table, where I'd be sure to see it, too. We'll have to go back—and that means we'll miss the train, I sup- pose!’ “Not this time, I saw it lying there and brought it along.’ Patience exhibited it. Cornelia laughed helplessly. ‘You'd better carry the tickets, anyway. I seem to be so absentminded that there's no telling what I'll do with them." “All right, It would be better, I guess. Patience put the green slips in her own hand bag and closed it with a snap. “I was going to, any- way—I can see that things like that worry you, and you're supposed to be getting a rest. I like it. I do, really."* The contact reconciled Cornelia to her duplicity and its penalty. Patience liked her, not as a matter of duty and decency, but spontaneously. Tt had not been easy, though, and she felt the effect of the week's mas- querade as she leaned back with gen- uine weariness. The moment she re- laxed her vigilant watch upon herself the old habit of authority asserted itself; again and again, as they ex- plored the stores, she had caught that decisive ring in her voice, had stopped in the act of assuming command of the expedition. And she had needed diplomacy, too, to prevent Patience from restocking her wardrobe with absurdly unsuitable things. HE compelled herself to stand passively out of the way as Patience commandeered por- ters and superintended the transfer of their hand luggage to the train. The Pullman conductor came to them as the train 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 a curt refusal; she had paid for a 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 embarrassment, She classified him instantly; the type gf 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 ladies"—— °Oh, that's all right.” Patience in- tervened sgain. “Wel manage per- BpALUKDAY, Avw@UnsT ly, 1922 THE pcs the WORLD’S COMPLETE NOVELETTE “Helpless Holi BY HUGH MtNAIR. KAHLERT - ILLUSTRATED BY WILL B. JOHNSTON iu , Of LOVE AND BUSINESS —- WITH PLENT Xx 0 SURPRISES fectly.” She changed her seat, leav- ing the forward one vacant, and & tured toward it so compellingly that the matter settled itself. The con- ductor vanished instantly “It'a very good of you."’ The in- truder stowed golf bag and suitcase clumsily, stumbled over both and apologized breathlessly—to Patience. Miss Lescott smiled faintly ‘at this; 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 efficiency, leaving foot-room for all three. “Thanks.” He bedined gratefully “[ suppose T ought to have checked my clubs, but they're so apt to break ‘em in the baggage car. And I made most of these myself, so that I'm rather tender of ‘em." Miss Lescott felt her brows lift. If he made golf clubs, he must be a professional, little as he resembled those she had encountered. She had the democracy of most business wo- men, but the prospect of sharing a section all the way to Cedarcrest with a man who made his living from a game affronted her, nevertheless. “You made them?" Patience instantly interested. ‘May I see? I have never found a wooden club | liked."” He unlocked the bag, grinning, Miss 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 a chemist or a writer, maybe—some profession in which he didn’t need to be a business man, anyway. moti nm, that’s all—pure Inef- 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. I'll show you what I mean when we get on the course'’— Y dinner time they had settled B down to something like acquaintance; Patience had a managed that rather deftly, Miss Leseott conceded. Jesson—the name had a’! faintly familiar sound, but she could not trace the assocla- tion, She submitted without protést to a tacit assumption that they share a table. She let the girl order for her, “EL hate to decide for myself,'" she explained, ‘‘Amd Pat's so clever about it.’ “Ord ned. cards."* for three, then."? He grin- I always lose my way in these “LOOK AT THAT CLUB! TOOK ME A YEAR TO GET IT BALANCED! IF "'D HAD THE RIGHT SORT OF WIFE SHE'D HAVE PUT HER FOOT DOWN HARD ON THAT SORT OF THING.” Lescott herself was aware of a prod- ding curiosity. Goif clubs clways ap- ealed to her mechanical bent. She leaned forward to inspect the driver he exhibited, her brows mounting again, It was a monstrosity, a freak, @ huge, misshapen head at the end of a whiplash shaft. “My own notion," “Not much for looks, but the prin- ciple's right, I think. Plenty of weight in the head and a whippy shaft—I can get good distance with it when I time the swing rig He elaborated a violen' heretical theory of the golf stroke, illustrating it with other distorted clubs—a brassy even more swollen than his driver, a set of irons over whieh Miss Lescott shook here head in silent compassion, be belonged amateur he explained, at the opposit’ tinker, chasing the -the-wisp of an eighty with « bagful of freaks, She studied him delit 3 He must be well 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 manner 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 sooner 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 hands, she saw— long, strong fingers, which moved easily as he gestured, She could see He nodded as Pat issued her com- mands. “That's whut I'd like to do," he de- clared. ‘It must be fine to know just what you want like that."* He must be pretty helpless if he really envied the girl a trivial deci- siveness like that, Cornella discovered presently that he lived at a club. A bachelor—when everything about him fairly shouted that he needed a wife! A clever woman might have made something of this man, she thought. He was intelligent—the forehead and eyes would have 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 golfer—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 bill, nor count his change, and a dollar wus twice too much, by her standards, as a tip. ae 6 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 course, stretching away from the hotel where flowering shrubs threw a bank of yel- Jow and white against the sombre evergreens, Cornelia was able to hold her tongue while Patience inspected three suites, bargained cleverly over rates and or- dered breakfast for both, She even submitted to a decree which relegated her to a negligee and a pile of pillows while Patience unpacked all th trunks, NEAT SATURDAY’ 's COMPLETE NOVELETTE TRAILS TO SANTA FE Egatrated by WILL B. JOUNSTONE THROUG “I say, Cornelia—" Patience Inter- rupted an incipient drowsiness. "Yes?" “I've just realized why I'm having such a good time with you, I—I 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, I guess. But you aren't— you've let me run things, I love it, you know, and at home they just can't get It through their heads that I'm grown up. Yor she kissed Cornelia's cheek—“‘you're just a& dear."’ Cornelia Lescott set her teeth on a renewed resolution. She could feign helplessness all winter, she thought, if it paid its dividends in such coin- age. eee T was a very little frown—no more ] than a flicker of shadow across Humphrey Jesson's burned face, but Cornelia Lescott saw and translated it, It was natural enough, she conceded tolerantly. Her careful dependence on Pat's blythe capability interfered with Jesson's plans rather often, It was clearly interfering now, while he waited for Pat to finish un- tangling the intricate confusion of Cornella’s check book before starting for the links, Miss Lescott was quite willing to interfere, a lttle, 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 & person of affairs. He made her think of @ boy, overtaken unawares by the ly years, a boy who had never found time to grow up. But he wouldn't do for Pat. They had left thelr rooms at the inn for the greater privacy and space of a cottage—three cheerful rooms cuddled among hollies and junipers a few steps from the hotel, where they continued to take their meals, The change enabled Cornelia to develop a number of disabilities which would have been wasted in the inn itself, and gave Patience the agreeable sen- sations of managing a house with none of its penalties, It Incidentally provided Humphrey Jesson with a comfortable place {n which to spend most of his evenings and occasional rainy afternoons, “T 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—I 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 uld have laughed at the visible con- flict of emotions, however. [t was pathetically clear that he wished to insist om Pat's coming and saw no way of managing {t without ing ungallant toward her hostess, “Oh—that'a too bad—a great day like this! Better come along and straighten out the checks to-night. Don't you think so, Miss Lescott?'’ Pat abolished them both with ao sweeping, backward gesture of her left hand. ‘Nine and eight are sev- enteen and six is twenty-four—no— oh, run along and play! I’m busy!" Jesson’s face diverted Cornelia, so that she longed to laugh outright. He was trying so hard to look pleased! ‘Your cousin's a wonderful girl, Miss Lescott.’* spoke wistfully as they struck throt the pines toward the clubhouse. "ve never met any other girl who had that faculty of de- cision as completely developed as she —she always knows exactly what she wants and exactly how to gete it. He sighed. “It's a great thing—I envy it In her because it’s #0 entirely th lacking in me." Cornelia was suddenly sorry for he was more boyish than ever, “You're in luck, Miss Leseott,"’ he went on. “You and I aff a lot alike, don’t you think? I—I mean"—— He flushed and stumbled, suddenly selt- conscious, ‘I mean that we both seem to—to lean on stronger char- acters. I've noticed ‘how @you"— “TI suppose there's a certain reeem- ni c@,"' she admitted, good natured~ ly, checking an impulse to enlighten him E 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 Hke that could do anything she pleased with @ fellow, I suppose."” “She'll probably prefer her inde- " gaid Cornelia dryly, “I possibility of her marrying “Oh, she'll never have a chance to He paused to play a gloomy brassy shot to the edge of the green. “A girl ike that'’—— “Don't be too sure. . Cornelia spoke tartly, ‘Men don’t like compe- tent women.” 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 soberty, ‘I suppose it’s natu- ral enough too, The sillier a girl ts the better a man looks to himself. But I 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- ly 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 suddenly. “Makes me feel as if I'd missed the whole target, somehow. Just puttered BY WILLIAM DUDLEY PELLEY GH ANGUISH AND. LONELIN at things all my Ife.” He glowered at his driver. ‘Look at that club! Took me a year to get it balanced! If I'd had the right sort of wife she'd put her foot down hard on that sort of thing.’ Cornelia Lescott laughed. “I suppose it does sound funny.’ He grinned ruefully, “But I can’t help thinking I'd have done some- thing, if I'd had the luck She laughed again. ‘That's a re- freshing variation on the Adam theme, at least. What would you have done if you'd been prevented from whittling out those—those shillalahs?"" She and Pat had wondered about his business —if he really had one. It was queer that he never talked about it himself. Pat thought that he must be ashamed of It. Cornelia asked the question now on impulse, anxious merely to change subject. hn, I don't know. Invented some- thing else, I suppose—something use- ful and sensible, with a pot of money in it, like the lathe,” He grinned, “TI got more fun out of making those clubs, though''—— ‘The lathe? Her mind sped along a suddenly opened avenue of associa- tions. ‘The Jesson Lath “Why—why, you’ She caught herself up sharply, remembering just in time. If Pat didn’t see the incon- sistency between the Cornelia 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 bp plain enough to others. . . “You're an inventor, then?” ‘she finished. “How interesting? Tell mo about it—T've always Somes it must be wonderful He shrugged and wageod his head. “Oh, there's nothing to tell. I just fiddie 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 tackle that—a scheme I was working on when I knocked off." HE played, her second shot bs thoughtfully into a yawning sand pit. That Jesson! And she'd taken it for granted that he was Insignificant. Random recol- lections came back to her; there was a die press which bore his name, too. She watched his play with a sud- den respect; it wasn’t a combination of eccentricity and luck now, but a rure selence, with reason 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 you 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 gnd 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 years,"’ he went on. “Somehow, since I've been down here, I've felt if they'd been lost motion and nothing else."* She could understand now. It wan Pat, of course—the sheer, abundant youth of her, that vivid, eager life she 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 had been, as Jesson said, lost mo- tion. No wonder he wanted her-—— She met his eyes and was puzzled by the sudden purpose im them, If Humphrey Jesson wanted Pat, she thought, he'd get her! “That was fin he sald. “Let's have another round some time.” She liked that. He didn't forget his manners, She made up her mind to help if she could. . . . “I thought he must be something lke that." Pat took the news calm- ly. “IL found out where you went wrong-yyou just added that Michael check instead of subtracting it.” She exhibited the balanced book. “But you don't realize, Pat—ho'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, anyway,” She struggled with a! other 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!"* ORNELIA heard her singing as she dressed. It ireitated her that Pat couldn't grasp the significance’of Humphrey Jesson's identity. Of course, ma- chinery was just machinery to Pat, but the impossibility of making her understand exasperated Cornelia. It would be a pity if, after all, Pat couldn't appreciate the man’s big- ness. She'd have to find a way of bringing {t home to her. She tried, very diplomatically, at dinner, but the girl seemed to regard her enthusiasm as an amiable eccen- trieity. “You and your precious machines! I know you What's a lathe, anyway? want to talk about it. Cornelia did her best. Pat presently, ‘Do look at that dress, Cornelia—no, the blue. Isn't it lucky we can't see ourselves?” Cornelia gave it up. After all, she reflected, a girl didn’t Judge a man by what he had done but by 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 reully enjoyed my game And I understand those long drives of his now. There's nothing accidental about them.” “He does hit a mean ball with that dinky ttle swin, conceded Pat. “Let's go home—I don’t feel like dancing to-night.’ She hesitated in the living room door. “Is Mr. Jessen coming over?” “[ suppose so. He didn't say, any- thing’’—— “Then I'm going to bed now! I'd never last out the evening, and it would be sort of pointed if I dropped asleep in my chair, You and he can have gorgeous wallow im ma- chines,"" Her door closed firmly on Corne- Ma's protests, and Jesson's brief tap seemed to come as a feeble echo. He ran an inquiring glance about the room. Cornelia was sorry fot him. “Pat's in bed—she tired herself out over that checkbook, I'm afraid." “T'm—I'm sorry, I 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 des- Perate snatches af the polite remark. “Not a bit. Take that chair and be extra cushion or two. “I—I can’t stay but a minute.” He was so pationtly eager to escape that she felt a faint stirring of resent~ ment. Of course he was disappointed about Pat, but he needn't show it quite so plainly. “Oh, you mustn't let me keep you. of course’’—— She couldn't wholly soften the tone, He opened startled ey I do ll go if I’m tn the way. hang around here a lot, I know. “We're always glad to have you come"’— He rejected the Idea with a short, hareh laugh. T'll go,"’ he said again. ‘Well,"* “Well, why don't you?’’ She caught her breath as she heard the speech. What on earth had made her say that? Even if Humphrey Jes- son was behaving like a sulky boy He glared at her. ‘‘Why? Because —because I can’t! Don't you see I can't “Why can't you?’ She thought hr must have gone suddenly insane. # He flung his arms wide and high, «> absolute helplessness, He choked om the word, “That's why!"’ OORNELIA LESCOTT sprang free, her hand pressed against @ cheek which had been—in- eredivly—kissed. For an tn- stant she was furiously angry. Then, as suddenly, she was not angry at all. “I couldn't help it—I just couldn’! He repeated the helpless gesture “Why didn’t you stop me—why didn’t you keep that child awake till I got away?"'—— I thought you—I thought it was 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- sense little—little— I'd be likely to lose my head about her, wouldm’t I? Not me! Live to be forty years old and go plumb, raving crasy about you! The most absolutely helpless ‘woman I ever met!" "On!" Bound and gagged, that in ner Cornelia writhed at the imane 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! Cornelia— who ever thought of calling you that, anyway? A knife name, for a cream and cushion woman like you! Cor- nella—you're perfect! You're the com - pressed quintessence of the absolute feminine and I've loved you and bunt~ ed for you all my life! I didn’t want to find you—I knew I'd never have a ghost of a chance'’—— tugeed “T'm go- “Walt—wait!" Cornelia vainly at hands which caught and held her wrists. “You—tt's all a mis- understanding—you think I'm—and I'm not, I'm Cornelia Lescott—c. 8 Lescott, President of Leseott & Co: ve been pretending—oh, please let go"'— The hands tightened. “Say that again!” It was quite a new voice now, The ring of command in It frightenea 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 ei ficient woman in the State! You'd hate me"’-——— “There's no sense in it!" His fore- head wrinkled pathetically, “What« the use of pretending a thing like that—letting that kid do your breath~ ing for yo Suddenly she was telling him the whole story, in a shameless, stumb- ling rush of words. “L wanted somebody to like me"’— She tried again to free her hands “Don't you see it yet? I'm not real— you don’t know"’ He laughed again, “And I've been breaking myself to bits to keep from loving you—because I just didn't dare risk marrying somebody as perfectly helpless as am! I've been using Pat as a life preserver for weeks and weeks! I've been making myself compare her with you. ‘You foolt’ T'd say to myself, ‘don’t you see that that's the kind of woman you need? And then I'd look at you and— and" He stopped. “Wanted somebody to ike you, eh? Well, I guess you've brought {t om yourself! Don't ever bl me" T won't,” solemnly. said Cornelia Lescott Copyright ~All rights reserved. Printed by New! rangement with Metropolitan per Bervice, New York, said Cornélia, sweetly. © ee