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Show 4bShaA Helen R Martin CHAPTER VII Continued 18 "(Hi: Wh.it makes you think siu'li a Hiin.'V" "A young toucher at William Penn K.Im.il who is suspiciously ignorant of il.i se l.'niled States and occasion-nii.v. occasion-nii.v. whi n she isn't on her guard, falls into ralher an English accent! She's s-i!po.-o(l to he Sam Schwencktou's iiicie or cousin; slie lives at his farm mill her name is Sclnvenckton. 1 1 lit she's (;iiite unlike the other county tcaciieis. Rather distingue; a tlior-oiigl. tlior-oiigl. broil ; the only teacher in the county that ventures, to cheek me!" he "i inn-ions. Don't let it make a prig of you, this job of superintending a lot of women teachers! It's enough to! V won't have you spoiled like that! But yo!;r suspicions they seem rather fantastic, dear !" ' Yes." Marvin gave It up, "I suppose tl.ry do. May I see the photograph, please?" Mrs. Creighton pointed to a book on the table behind the couch. Holding a "cabinet-sized" photograph photo-graph near the table lamp, he examined exam-ined it eagerly. It was the face of a girl of fifteen; short, curly hair, fine features, a sensitive mouth, a serious, ralher melancholy expression. I'ndouhtedly there was a resemblance the same wide-open innocent eyes and sensitive mouth. And yet it was not definite or strong enough to be unmistakable, by any means. He could not feel sure. Far from it. What resemblance there was. might easily he a coincidence. This photograph gave no suggestion of that vivid sparkle of his young teacher's face, her gay riot of color, her charm. It looked rather insipid. And yet "Well?" asked his mother. "Of course it isn't your young teacher?" "I can hardly tell I'm not sure " "But is there any resemblance?" she a.-ked incredulously. "Yes," he answered hesitatingly. "Yes, there is. May I keep this?" "Of course. But, Marvin, the thing is too impossible :" "I suppose so. Look here, Mother, will you call on Miss Schwenckton and see what you think about her? Notice her accent. Sometimes she seems to me to be deliberately disguising it!" "But, dear, what possible excuse could I give for calling on her? Wouldn't she and the Schwencktons think it very queer? I'd feel embarrassed embar-rassed !" "But aside from my little suspicion, I'd like you to call on her just because she's so worth knowing. You'd find her a lot more your kind than that" Quo Xon Ascendus crowd !" His mother's ears detected something some-thing in his voice, her swift glance saw something in his face, that caught her breath. "AH right, dear." Suddenly she turned to him and clasped his hand Almost convulsively. "Oh. Marvin. dear, do you realize that If you took up witli a' county school teacher, a relative of Sam Schwenckton, that would be the last straw to your father! He'd never, never look at you again! Of course, I know that could not stop ycuj if you loved " Marvin laughed. "Don't worry, dear: You're the only girl I've ever been in love with! What makes you imagine Vm going to 'take up' with Miss Schwenckton?" "Now perhaps," she said rueful'y as she noticed that his face had grown red, "I've just put It into your head!" "Perhaps you have," he slowly answered. an-swered. "Perhaps if she isn't our English Eng-lish cousin " "Which she surety Isn't, dear! Living Liv-ing at the Schwenckton farm and teaching that school Lady Sylvia St. Croix! Unthinkable!" "Well, if she Isn't If she's Just her-K(.lfshe her-K(.lfshe certainly Is fetching! But If she's the somethlng-more-than-nieets-t he-eye, that I half suspect. I wouldn't touch her with tongs !" "But why? Isn't that unreasonable prejudice?" "Not at all If she's a tricky schemer, out after our money, she's not the sort of girl she seems to be and it's only the sort of girl she seems to be Hint I might fall for though I tciston to assure you I've no idea she'd fall for me!" His mother laughed. She had never vol met the girl who, if given a chance, would not "fall for" either one of her Chip sons. And. of course, with the (Hl.iilional lure of their millions, who could resist them? Surely not a county fachor of the Schwenckton breed ! ,V,u"li of course, she must be, as Marvin' Insisted, far above her n-lu-lives or he could Lardly find her so tutn-esting and so presentable that ho would ask his moHior to call on her. Well this certainly "'".del looking 'nlo' She would lose no time In calling call-ing on the J'""? woman. "l', curious to know, Mother, how you II size up Miss S-'hwoio kton. ill you to to M.-e her soon? On Monday; "What time will she be home from school?" "School closes at four. By the way, to avoid the curiosity of the farmer's family, it might be better, perhaps, to call on her at her school just at closing clos-ing time." "I'll be glad to avoid the curiosity of the farmer's family," his mother assented. as-sented. So it seemed that our young school mistress was booked for something of a reception at her schoolhouse at four o'clock on Monday afternoon : Mr. Creighton plotting to visit her with t lie determination to bundle her out of the neighborhood, because he saw in her the final and strongest hindrance to Ids son's desirable marriage with Lady Sylvia St. Croix; Mrs. Creighton planning to discover, in the course of a friendly call, whether the girl were no other than she whom her husband desired as his elder son's bride, desiring de-siring It so urgently that he would stop at nothing to gain its fulfillment. The stage was all set, it seemed, for a scene dramatic enough to satisfy even Meely's insatiable love of histrionics. his-trionics. CHAPTER VIII Meely's idea in addressing the county teachers on Saturday morning at their monthly institute was not so much to be instructive and pedagogical, as to be entertaining. So she chose for her subject "Shakespeare's Women." That title, while looking educational on the mm "Well?" Asked the Mother. "Of Course It Isn't Your Young Teach, e r " program would give her a chance to riot in a dramatic orgy .speeches of Lady Macbeth, Portia. Desdemona, Juliet she would have the time of her life ! And as he would never see these women again she need not bother with her accent, which would he a groat relief. Meely had assured herself, before launching forth, that the .superintendent .superintend-ent was not present. And once she "got going," she was too transported from the world about her to notice, towards the end of the session while she was giving "the balcony scene." that Mr. Creighton had slipped unobtrusively unob-trusively and quite noiselessly into a back seat. When, therefore, the meeting being uver and she putting on her wraps, she suddenly saw him coining toward her across the length of the room, she was startled and rather perturbed. "I've got my roadster out here I'll drive you home," he stated. She'did not quite fancy this form of address; why didn't he ask her whether wheth-er he might drive her home? "Oh. I won't trouble you ; the trolley will take me nearly all the way," she lightly dismissed him. "But my roadsler will take you the whole way." "Thank you, no." "But why?" he asked, surprised. "I'm not going home. I think I'll go In to Sunbury and treat myself to a hotel meal and a cinema movfe," she hastily corrected herself. "Good ! I'm going to Sunbury myself. my-self. Have lunch with me, will yon? I'll even go to see a cinema with you!" In her pleased surprise at such a Jolly invitation (for to be in Marvin Creigi'.ton's company was rather perilously peril-ously exciting and Meely was lonely) she dropped her cool manner with rather startling suddenness and as- ; .sented with childish delight. x j The day was clear, the air delicious, the roads in good condition. Marvin's car delightfully easy and comfortable; and Meely, freed from school-room drudgery and, for the first time in weeks, from' the atmosphere of the Schwenckton household, felt a sudden hilarious gayety, a tingling in her blood, such as she had uot experienced since she hud undertaken the serious profession of the teacher. "Oh !" she laughed gleefully, fairly bouncing in her seat, "what a lark! it makes me feel young again !" "Me, too!" responded Marvin, his eyes snapping. "Pedagogy could dry one up at the roots, couldn't it? if," he conscientiously added, "one didn't fight to keep it a living thing." "I try not to take it too seriously," said Meely. "A shockingly imprudent thing to admit to your superintendent! I suppose," sup-pose," he remarked ironically, "you look upon your work merely as a stepping-stone to something else?" "Oh, dear, yes! I don't expect to be a school teacher all my days! Gracious Gra-cious !" "A stepping-stone to marriage, I suppose?" sup-pose?" "What a good guesser you are 1 But why be high-hat about that? Woman's place is in the home, isn't It?" "It's not been for the past ten years. You are a back number!" "You surprise me. I thought I was ahead of my times, because," she said with sad conviction, "I'm sure I couldn't make any man happy if I. had to do his housewor-r-k." "Will you tell me," he inquired in a tone of dulcet geutleness, "why you adopt a Pennsylvania accent when you talk to me and an English accent when you recite Shakespeare?" "Oil," she lightly responded, "that's just my platform manner I've acted quite a bit " "Professionally?" he demanded, startled. "Both in private theatricals and professionally." pro-fessionally." "What, then, made you ever turn to teaching?" "Working my way to Hollywood." Marvin looked rather staggered, for this knocked out his suspicion as to who she was and put a very wet blanket indeed upon a hope he was half consciously cherishing. "Do you think," he asked somewhat stiffly, "it's right to use our schools as a stepping-stone for your ambitions?" ambi-tions?" "I'd use every school In this county for my ambition if I'd the chance to! and all the trustees and even the superintendent himself. Now throw me out of your car! Take my job from me if you think me base and unprincipled! unprin-cipled! I don't care! I've nearly enough money saved anyway to get to Hollywood. Anyway, I believe I could get there sooner by cooking my way ol,t cooks earn so much more than college col-lege presidents in America !" "Do your parents uphold you in lids ambition of yours?" "Now you are a back number! parents' influence having passed out eleven years ago." "Your parents are living?" "Yes." "Where?" A percept ilde pause. "Beading, Pennsylvania." "Any brothers and sisters?" "No my only brother wan killed in the World war and" She stopped short; she had spoken Impulsively; Marvin wondered whether emotion for her slaughtered brother or something els0 had checked so abruptly her statement of a coincidence. He would tost her a bit. "That's odd." he remarked. "I have an English cousin whose only son was killed In the World war and his only other child is a daughter about your age!" "What's odd about it?" "Bather a coincidence, don't you think'.'" "Why. no. There must have been thousands of such coincidences, surely." (TO FIE CONTINUED.) |