OCR Text |
Show MISS LULUBETT $ "MY WEDDED WIFE" SYNOPSIS. General factotum In the house of her sister Ina, wife of Herbert Deacon, in the small town of YVarbleton, Lulu Bett leads a dull, cramped existence, with which she la constantly at enmity, though apparently satislled with her lot. Bobby L&rkln, recently graduated hih-school youth, is secretly enamored en-amored of Deacon's elder daughter, Diana. The family Is excited over the news of an approaching visit from Deacon's brother Ninian, whom he had not seen for many years. Unexpectedly, Ninian ar- ! rives. Thus ho becomes acquainted with Lulu first and understands her position In the house. To Lulu. Ninian is a much-traveled man of i th world, and even the slight Interest In-terest which he takea In her la appreciated, because it Is something ! new tn her life. At an outing which the family takes, Ninian and Lulu become confidential. He ex-preBBes ex-preBBes his disapproval of her treatment as a sort of dependent , tn the Deacon home. Diana and Bobby. In the course of "soft nothings," noth-ings," discuss the possibility of ; eloping and "surprising the whole school." Lulu has awakened to pleasant possibilities concerning Nlnian's intentions toward herself. IV July. ! When, on a warm evening a fortnight fort-night later, Lulu descended the stairs 'dressed for her Incredible trip to the city, she wore the white waist which ishe had often thought they would "use" for her if she died. And really, the waist looked as if it had been Iplanned for the purpose, and its wide, upstanding plaited lace at throat and wrist made her neck look thinner, her forearm sharp and veined. Her hair ishe had "crimped" end parted in the middle, puffed high it was so that 'hair had been worn in Lulu's girlhood. "Well !" said Ina, when she saw this coiffure, and frankly examined It, head well back, tongue meditatively teasing at her lower lip. For travel Lulu was again wearing Ina's linen duster the old one. Ninian appeared, In a sack coat and hla diamond. His distinctly convex con-vex face, Its thick, rosy flesh, thick mouth and cleft chin gave Lulu once more that bold sense of looking not l( 'at him, for then she was shy and t (averted her eyes but at his photo-: photo-: graph nt which she could gaze as j mueh as she would. She looked up , ,' at Mm openly, fell In step beside him. i . , Was he not taking her to the city? 1: 'Ina and Dwlght themselves were go-&' go-&' ling because she, Lulu, had brought mbout this party. "Act as good as you look, Lulie," jMrs. Bett called after them. She gave ,no instructions to Ina, who was married mar-ried and able to shine tn her conduct, !It seemed. Dwlght was cross. On the way to the station he might have been heard to take it np again, whatever It was, and his Ina unmistakably said: "Well, inow, don't keep it going all the way there" ; and turned back to the others with some elaborate comment about :the dust, thus cutting off her so-called lord from his legitimate retort. A 'mean advantage. J The city was two hours distant, and ,they were to spend the night. On the train, In the double seat, Ninian beside be-side her among the bags, Lulu sat In the simple consciousness that the 'people all knew that she too had been chosen, A man and a woman were , opposite, with thlr little boy between ,thcra. Luln felt this woman's supe-(viorltj supe-(viorltj of experience over her own, and smiled at her from a world of fellowship. fel-lowship. But th -woman lifted her eyebrows and stared and turned away, with slow and Insolent winking. Nlnlnn had a boyish pride In his - 'knowledge of places to eat in many icltles as If he were leading certain 'of the tribe to a deer-run In a strange wood. Ninian took his party to a downtown cafe, then popular among 'business and newspaper men. Tin iplaee was below the sidewalk, was .reached by a dozen marble steps, and the odor of its griddle-cakes took the air of the street Ninian made a , great show of selecting a table, changed once, called the waiter "my ( - - -. man" and nibbed soft hands on "What do you soy? Shall It be lobster?" He ordered the dinner, Instructing the iwalter with painstaking gruffness. i "Not that they can touch your cooking cook-ing fcere, Miss Lulu," he said, settling himself to wait, and crumbling a icrust. Dwlght, expanding a bit In the aura iof the food, observed that Luln was a regular chef, that was what Lulu wns. lie still would not look at his 'wife, wb bow remarked: "SShoff, Dwightie. Not cheff." This was a ncean alvantage, which 'he pretended not to hear another mean advantage. i "Inn," said Luln, "your hat's just a (little mite no, over the other way." I "Was there anything to prevent (your speaking of that before?" Ina (inrfalred acidly. "I started to and then somebody .always flnld something," said Lulu humbly. I Nothing could so much as cloud (Lulu's tour. She was proof against jnny shadow. ! "Say, but you look tremendous to-plght," to-plght," Dwlght observed to her. Understanding perfectly that this iwas said to tense his wife. Lulu yet 'flushed with pleasure. She saw two women watching, and she thought: '"They're feeling sorry for Ina no-ibody no-ibody talking to her." She laughed jat everything that the men said. She (passionately wanted to talk herself. ."How many folks keep going past," phe said, many times. By ZONA GALE 4 Copyright by D. Appleton fc Company At length, having noted the details of nil the clothes In range, Ina's isolation iso-lation palled upon her and she set herself to take Ninian's attention. She therefore talked with him about himself. "Curious you've never married, Nln," she said. "Don't say It like that," he begged. "I might yet." Ina laughed enjoyably. "Yes, you might F she met this. "She wants everybody to get married, mar-ried, but she wishes I hadn't," Dwlght threw in with exceeding rancor. ran-cor. They developed this theme exhaustively, exhaus-tively, Dwlght usually speaking in the third person and always with his shoulder turned a bit from his wife. It was inconceivable, the gusto with which they proceeded. Ina had assumed as-sumed for the purpose an air distrait, casual, attentive to the scene about them. But gradually her cheeks began be-gan to burn. "She'll cry," Lulu thought in alarm, and said at random : "Ina, that hat Is so pretty ever so much prettier than the old one." But Ina said frostily that she never saw anything the matter mat-ter with the old one. "Let us talk," said Ninian low, to Lulu. "Then they'll simmer down. He went on, In an undertone, about nothing In particular. Lulu hardly heard what he said, it was so pleasant to have him talking to her In this confidential fashion ; and she was pleasantly aware that his manner was open to misinterpretation. In the nick of time the lobster was served. Dinner and the play the show, as Ninian called it. This show was "Peter Pan," chosen by Ninian because be-cause the seats cost the most of those at any theater. It was almost indecent inde-cent to see how Dwight Herbert, the immortal soul, had warmed and melted melt-ed at these contacts. By the time that all was over, and they were at the hotel for supper, such was his pleasurable excitation that he was once more playful, teasing, once more the irrepressible. But now his Ina was to be won back, made It evident that she was not one lightly to overlook, over-look, and a fine firmness sat upon the little doubling chin. They discussed the play. Not one of them had understood the story. "Why Not Say the Wedding Service?" Asked Ninian. The dog-kennel part wasn't that the queerest thing? Nothing to do with the rest of the play. "I was for the pirates. The one with the hook he was my style," said Dwight. "Well, there It is again," Ina cried. "They didn't belong to the real play, either." "Oh, well," Ninian said, "they have to put In parts, I suppose, to catch everybody. Instead of a song and dance, they do that." "And I didn't understand," said Ina, "why they all clapped when the principal prin-cipal character ran dowa front and said something to the audience that time. But they all did." Mnian thought this might have been out of compliment. Ina wished that Monona might hare seen, confessed con-fessed that the Inst part was so pretty that she herself wonld.not look; and Into Ina's eyes came their loveliest light Lulu sat there, bearing the talk about the play. "Why couldn't I have said that?" she thought as the others spoke. All that they said seemed to her apropos, bnt she could think of nothing to add. The evening had been to her a light from heaven how could she find anything to say? She sat In a daze of happiness, her mind hardly operative, her look moving from one to another. At last Ninian looked at her. "Sure yon liked It. Miss Lulu?" "Oh, yes! I think they all took their parts rent well." It was not enough. She looked at them appealingly, knowing that she had not said enough. "Ton could hear everything they snid," she added. "It was " she dwindled to silence. , . Dwlght Herbert savored his rarebit with a great show of long wrinkled ! dimples. i "Excellent sauces they make here excellent," he said, with the frown of an epicure. "A tiny wee bit mora Athabasca," he added, and they alb laughed and told him that Athabasca was a lake, of course. Of course he meant tabasco, Ina said. Their entertainment en-tertainment and their talk was of 'his sort, for an hour. "Well, now," raid Dwight Herbert when It was finished, "somebody dance on the table." "Dwightie 1" . "Got to amuse ourselves somehow. Come, liven up. They'll begin to read the funeral service over us." "Why not say the wedding service?" asked Ninian. In the mention of wedlock there was always something stimulating to Dwight, something of overwhelming humor. He shouted a derisive endorsement en-dorsement of this proposal. "I shouldn't object," said Ninian. "Should you, Miss Lulu?" Lulu now burned tlie slow red of her torture. They were all looking at her. She made an anguished effort to defend herself. "I don't know it," she said, "so I can't say It." Ninian leaned townrd her. "I, Ninian, take thee Lulu, to be my wedded wife," he pronounced. "That's the way It goes 1" "Lulu daren't say It !" cried Dwight. He laughed so loudly that those at the near tables turned. And, from the fastness of her wifehood and motherhood moth-erhood Ina laughed. Really, it was ridiculous to think of Lulu that way . . . Ninian laughed, too. "Course she don't dare say It," he challenged. From within Lulu, that strange Lulu, that other Lulu who sometimes fought her battles, suddenly spoke out: "I, Lulu, take thee, Ninian, to be my wedded husband." "Tou will?" Ninian cried. "I will,1' she said, laughing tremulously, tremu-lously, to prove that she, too, could join in, could be as merry as the rest. "And I will. There, by Jove, now have we entertained you, or haven't weT' NlnhM laughed and pounded his soft fist on the table. "Oh, say honestly!" Ina was shocked. "I don't think you ought to holy things what's the matter, Dwightie?" Dwlght Herbert Deacon's eyes were staring -and his face was scarlet. "Say, by George," he said, "a civil wedding Is binding In this state." "A civil wedding? Oh, well" Ninian Nin-ian dismissed It. "But I," said Dwlght "happen to be a magistrate." They looked at one another foolishly. fool-ishly. Dwight sprang up with the indeterminate in-determinate idea of Inquiring something some-thing of some one, circled about and returned. Ina had taken his chair and sat clasping Lulu's hand. Ninian continued to laugh. "I never saw one done so offhand," said Dvrlght "But what you've said is all you have to say according to law. And there don't have to be witnesses wit-nesses . . . say!" he said, and sat down again. , Above that shroud-like plaited lacs, the veins of Lulu's throat showed dark as she swallowed, cleared her throat swallowed again. "Don't you let Dwight scaro you," she besought Ninian. "Scare me!" cried Ninian. "Why, I think it's a good Job done, If you ask me." Lulu's eyes flew to his face. As he laughed, he was looking at her, and, now he nodded and shut and opened his eyes several times very fast. Their points of light flickered. With a pang of wonder which pierced her and left her shaken, Lulu looked. His eyes continued to meet her own. It wu exactly like looking at his photograph, Dwlght had recovered his authentic air. "Oh, well," he said, "we can Inquire, at our leisure. If It Is necessary, I should say we can have It sit aside quietly up here in the city uo one'H be the wiser." "Set aside nothing!" said Nlnlau. "I'd like to see it stand." "Are you serious, Nln?" "Sure I'm serious." Ina Jerked gently at her sisterTi arm. "Lulu 1 Tou hear him? What yo going to say to that?" Lulu shook her head. "He Isn't la earnest," she said. "I am In earnest hope te die," Nln-Inn Nln-Inn declared. He was on two legs of his chair and was slightly tilting, s that the effect of his earnestness was Impaired. But he was obviously In earnest. They were looking at Lulu again. And now she looked at Ninian, and there was something terrible In that look which tried to ask him, alone, about this thing. Dwlght exploded. "There was a fellow fel-low I know there In the theater," be cried. "Til get him on the line. He could tell me If there's any way " and was off. 1 "I don't know what to make j of Lulu's letters. They are ro so " (TO BE CONTINUED.) I |