Show TH WIFE 0 0 0 6 RUPERT HUGHES 0 RUPERT HUGHES SERVICE by CHAPTER XIV 14 the ridiculous perplexity ot of jebb solved itself he heard a rustle and minima came to him as swiftly as she had vanished he greeted her with effusion thank heaven you came for I 1 was just 1 I came to beg that you for geeve rne me for to be so rude to you jebb effendi has been so kind to me it is to heem I 1 owe that I 1 am free I 1 am very bad I 1 have not the right to be angry that he of deceived you say it said jebb humbly but she would not accept the word that he did not tolled me the things I 1 have no right to know let us be friends once more yes tell me you for geeve me for to be jealous oh dont he was going to say dont stop being jealous of me but he caught himself there was no time to explain or to let escape miss ludlam was at jebbs elbow with the check folded and palmed as it if it were a slight tip she pretended to shake hands with him and left the money as she released the clasp there you are mr pier dr jebb and I 1 can never thank you enough dont thank me at all er er miss ludlam may I 1 present to you may I 1 present to you miss madame lame for heavens sake hanim ef fendia what is your name ashes my dearest friend on earth but I 1 dont know her name 1 I am madame manghir Jang hir I 1 did take my fathers name miss ludlam war wac staring with both ears at this mysterious conversation she was as much interested in minima as in her each was exotic to the other miss ludlam sat down and motioned the other two to sit to explain this ring legend himself was intolerable so jebb rose and said wont you two talk to each other a few moments moment 5 while I 1 go find out about the trains to budapest I 1 must take the first one seeing that was afraid and deeply troubled either at this news or at being left with her supposed rival jebb added and perhaps miss ludlam w will tell you the story of the ring then he de camped leaving biru ma very erect and disdainful toward miss ludlam when he came back the story had evidently been told for the two women had their heads close together and were on cordial terms he said 1 I find there is a train at my old friend the orient express it gets me to budapest an hour before midnight I 1 think id better take it theres just time enough for a good drive about vienna before train time would you care to go was willing enough to go 90 anywhere with jebb and she asked aske d only time enough to get a hat and a wrap when she was gontje gone jennie annl e ludlam who could see through a millstone with a hole in it and had guessed at once that jebb and were infatuated lingered to say ashes a perfect dear and such a beautys ill take care of her for you while you are in budapest your generosity to me was princely I 1 wish I 1 could repay it in some way but you are so rich when you come back I 1 have a scheme which might interest you as a physician though I 1 dare say you dont practice any more but perhaps you would lend me your advice this is for charity too on a sudden impulse he made her sit down and told her briefly the story of his curse his other personality the loss of the child and his arrival in turkey and her sympathy came in a rush of warm thoughts implied in a pressure of his hand a look of compassion and a few words 1 I understand I 1 had a brother a younger brother wentworth was his name he would have been about your age now an and d he would have been a great man if if its about a memorial to him that I 1 want to talk to you some day oh be glad that you have at least half a life left to you dr jebb and dont despair YZ you have helped so many in distress you have helped me you can you shall help numberless others and perhaps some day he looked a god bless youl but he said she is coming now and he rose to meet sister jennie rose too and said ii youre a vision my dear and since dr jebb is called to audap budapest est for a day or so I 1 want you to go witt with my brother and me to the opera tonight accepted with a bashful grat gratitude etude and jebb and she se set t out for their drive along the broad glory 0 of f the ring strasse over the danube by the aspern bridge an and d down the rara prati adf er strasse the hors horses es galloped in the prater the turmoil was gay bewilder bewildering ing the long colonnades of c chestnut trees in the haupt allee were click choked ed with people and the air air was tremulous with music from the viennese and the magyar bands in the cafes at the entrance was a circle where stood a naval monument on a stone column with bronze prows protruding it reminded jebb of the entrance to central park via columbus circle and its monument he longed to be there a gain again and above all he longed to have there with him jebb effendi goes to budapest thees evening to find the little child could I 1 not help by to go too you could of course you could but but I 1 could hardly take you coulik wit with me why dont you see dont you realize it would it would be unfair to you it would be compromising if you do not want me oh the sight of her distress unnerved him his love was at his very lips but he could not say anything without saying everything when they reached the hotel it was so late that he had no more than time to make his train and she less than time to dress for the opera which begins at seven in vienna so their goodby good by was a mere exchange of hearty promises to meet again and a short handgrip hand grip in the crowded hotel corridor of course that evening sister jennie let slip an allusion to the pathetic its oil I 1 ass a pieced together the mans fragmentary story affliction of poor dr jebb thinking knew of it and of course extorted the whole story from her before they parted As she crept into her bed her heart was full of pity for her beloved wrestling like adoth another er jacob with a ghostly enemy but her heart rejoiced too with a radiant happi i ness since now her intuition told her that this and no other cause or person was the reason for his asperity with her also in pest there is a hotel bristol and jebb woke there the next morning he had not been long in in budapest before he learned that the margit seigel was as had imagined an island in english margarets island but though it split the danube it lay so far to the north that he could not see I 1 it t from his window he took his breakfast at one of the coffee houses on the promenade one of the coffee houses that have never closed since they first opened it gave jebb untold relief to find english the favorite language of the town the affectation of the magyar he had not finished his breakfasts breakfast when a man at the next table adi addressed him in a rather thick dialect and introduced himself a as s a fel low american though his name was unpronounceable even when he handed jebb his card with a legend like a line of pied type gyorgy Czek lesz he asked jebb to call him george for short and for easy he explained without being asked that he had been swept into america on one of those tidal waves that nearly de populated many an hungarian village he had become naturalized had prospered I 1 and returned to his country with yankee ideas after some desultory cc conversation in mr rose with a Ex coose please I 1 got to go and hear de newspaper hear the newspaper sure ve got a telephone newspaper aint you heard him come listen once ile he led jebb to a telephone like aff affair air on the wall and putting the receiver to jebbs ear wat watched ched while jebb listened to a clear voice s spilling consonants lavishly you dont understand it no let me listen he took jebbs place and a startled expression came over ove r him dere goes bunch of dough for me brooklyn Pro oklyn rapid tren sit closed two points off last night in new yorick repeated more news now the newspapers say the kink of england comes to carlsbad next mont now he names de odds on de horse races dis afternoon but jebb was not interested in hungarian horse races jebb had a curiosity to see this margarets island where he and cynthia had been together here george che ackless took pleasure in acting as vergil to his dante they crossed a heavy Y shaped bridge to the huge emerald set in the tarnished g gold old of the danube he found himself in a rose garden and here as his nostrils widened over the fragrance his arm was suddenly clutched by a peasant evidently a gardener who bombarded him with a shower of gutturals guttu rals which he supposed to be peasant hungarian the matter with the old boy jebb asked does he think im going to carry off his garden at length the interpreter interpreted he says how dare you came here it a public garden yes but he says that you came here a mont or so ago and a little girl vit you and then valk off and leave her to strangers to protect to amazement this heinous accusation seemed to fill jebb with delight he embraced the earth smudged gardener and treated him as a long lost prodigal CHAPTER XV after much parley pieced together the mans fragmentary story into this narrative he says one day in the efter noon you are came here vit a nice little giermek child and he makes notice of her she is so pretty andi and she loves his flowers so he cannot understand it vat she say but he loves her because she is so lofink for his roses but you did look tired and sick and you sit on a bensh and go like you take a little sleep the little girl she plays all the time and talks vit the gardener he does not know what leng witch she speaks it but they make signs and become come grand friends she helps him trim the rose hedge and gets vit the thorns slick ed but is very brave and does not make a crying instead she makes such a laughing laug hink hinkl soon a lady and gentleman is sit on a nother another bensh and watches the little girl and they call her and she talks by them but they are not understanding der her either the man is take her on his lap and lets her listen his watch and they tell the gardener they god had to them a little child gave like that long time the child plays here and then she makes a looking for you but you are not there you had gone out of sight the little girl is afraid but she tries not to cry the lady and gentleman stay a long while to keep her brave for they say all the time you surely come back then the lady and gen clemans say ve take her to our house and if you see the man you tell him we got the child the gardener says you bettor better tell the police too and they say yes they tell the police but all the same they like to keep the baby long times go by and the gardener is almost forgetter forget ted it all when today comes you again and he has got such a big mad at you he wants to fight it it is curious cu rious you are looking for a child and you look like a mans vat looses a child 1 I am the man said jebb 1 I was ill and I 1 wandered away in a a sort of delirium when I 1 came to my senses I 1 was in anc another ther c country and I 1 remember almost swooned at so much history in such essence sol so den all yet got to do it is to find tiie the gent lemans and lady vat keeps the child in cold st and say here ve are again we must find them at once what was their name on hearing the question translated the gardener made them wait while he went to the tool house and brought from his coat a soiled and wrinkled card bearing this and this only NIKOLAI mac machines hines a ecaire flaubert ET PARIS gleaned from this he is a bossian name and he sells french typewriters in poland 1 I see that said jebb but this does not tell where he lives in budapest ask him the gardener turned the card over and put an earthy finger on a penciled address on the back of the card but it had been blurred till nothing wis was legible but pension ky Ullo iut lut who is allol ut said jebb he is is a street one of the longest streets in pest the gardener could remember nothing more the number of the house had been there but it was rubbed off his memory as well as the card abruptly wa was smitten with an idea 1 I got it he said ive ve go to the telephone newspaper newspaper and tell them they gotto got to tell everybody in budapest all about it and maybe sure somebody telephones to the office something about it the vocal advertisement was accepted for its news value without charge and put upon the wires while they waited the rest of the day jebb spent in wandering up and down allol street studying every house and seeing in each ach one a den where cynthia was in incarcerated car he dined with at the hotel bristol when they had ordered dinner went to telephone to the telephone paper he came back beaming A man has called up the paper and says he knows some tink they give him this address andee and he comes here any minute at last a hotel servant brought a man who had asked for jebb at the desk jebb asked to ask the man to sit down and feast the stranger answered rather petulantly for himself aint I 1 got any english aint I 1 gone to new york many times you are not mr then me ae him it if I 1 was I 1 should into the donan he is one dam deskel that faller my name is laszlo eting the pension rates reasonable food sublime 1 mr was a man of great excitability he was chiefly impressed with the fact that mr and mrs had gone away owing him mony money and that they had refused to pay for a vase and a pitcher the child had broken when jebb offered to pay for the breakages break ages of cynthia mr became almost amiable the gist of bf a long three cornered duel with him was that mr and mrs tried to sell french typewriters in vain competition with the american makes TO BE CONTINUED |