Show I i Confessions r i Of Bride 1 a I Fate Brings to My Hand the Secret of Baby Babs Bab's Moth Mother II In spite of the slander which Miss Miller had Invented and which was perhaps pouring Into other ears than than I Bobs Bob's I 1 continued to mother Baby Barbara The child filled an empty I corner In my heart Inthe two weeks of her nurses nurse's vacation I 1 am sur sure d I I that the baby dl did far more for me than I 1 managed to do for her I Dabs Babs clung to me even after Mrs I Chapin had returned Each Bach of us seemed to feel need of the other Bob had stopped playing with her when she was with me I 1 think it wa was just this little strain of perverseness in him which made me resolve finally tb adopt Baby Babs and take take her home home if if ever I 1 had a home again I suppose It was a a. good thing for forme forme forme me that Daddy needed me in his office of office office of- of fice regularly The routine took my mind from Kate Millers Miller's plotting and kept me from getting wholly obsessed 1 by y Barbaras Barbara's clutching fingers But ButI I found again what I 1 had found before before be be- fore that working as Daddy Lorimer's Lorimers Lorimers Lorimer's Lori Lori- mers mer's private ate secretary was not note all sport Not for one minute would Daddy have taxed my strength Nevertheless Nevertheless Never Never- he permitted me to write an endless number of letters for him every day without realizing that the I labor was exhausting to me Ive I've seen enough of the working world to know that many a fine business man manI I has the same fault lacking any idea lof of the huge amount of service exacted from willing women And the women work without complaint Its It's been part of their psychology to obey the masculine voice tamely tamely- ever since men ruled them in caves instead of offices It so chanced however howe that a kind I fate served me well as I worked at that that- office desk From the incoming mail man I culled one day an envelope I with a Canadian stamp addressed to Mrs Robert A. A Lorimer The note bore the familiar letterhead of the I aviation camp where Bobs Bob's unhappy brother Benjie had been in training with the R. R F. F C. C and where he had come to his end in a fatal crash Dear Lady ran the note Ive been employed as a carpenter at this barracks ever since it was built Now I Im I'm helping to tear it down I found j I the in an old table drawer in the officers' officers quarters I remembered remembered Lieutenant Lorimer well I I think he must have written this the day he was killed and put it in the I drawer just before he went up that last t time I hope I am doing right in sending it to you now j I A letter from the dead I started I up with a cry then I remembered I that Benjie hadn't been accustomed Ito j i to write to me Letter writing always bored him anyhow Since he had I taken pains to address a letter to his sister law it tt must have been InI intended in- in j I p tended for her eyes alone I I opened the letter The carpenter carpenterI I who had mailed it was right It was wasI I dated the morning of the day of BenI Benjie's Benjie's Ben- Ben I jie's jle's death And within was another inclosure a small envelope such as asI asis asis is used for mailing calling cards I 1 I pored over the letter but in the blur of my excitement only a avord word vord or two here and there stood out with meanIng meaning mean mean- in ing to me Baby Daby Barbara her Barbara her mother mother but but never the name of a girl who was the mother It w was s certainly not a letter to be read while in danger of interruption I slipped it Into the pocket of my blouse and rushed up to my room At last I I. I was vas about to know whether I 1 had judged Katherine Miller lIller harshly If It not then not then in my own hand I 1 was holding the last bit of evidence I requited required for her undoing To be continued |