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Show : : 1 1 The Married Life of Helen and Warren 1 1 I n ! H Rtt 1VTAPT7T Originator of 'Their Married 8 y LLrtJ5R,Li Life Author of "The Jour- f 1 HERBERT URNER naJ of a Nes'ected Wife." "The I n Woman Alone," Etc 1 A DELAYED BREAKFAST GIVES WARREN A CHANCE TO J 1 RAIL AT HELEN'S INCOMPETENCY j igttuu:iiiiiiiintnsuwuuiii;iiiiiii (Copyright, 1917, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) 4 - is IptP Hill? "Dora," rapping on the door of the maid's room, "Mr. Curtis want? breakfast in the morning at seven." A faint sizzling of the radiator was the only answer. an-swer. Helen rapped rap-ped again, then turned the knob and glanced in. Through the dark- Mabel Herbert Urner with your pottering 'round than to go out and get a real meal." But Helen had already darted into her room to dress. Not waiting to brush her hair, she covered it with a boudoir cap, threw on a loose negligee and fluttered out to the kitchen. Warren's slighting comments on her culinary inefficiency were not wholly undeserved, for about cooking Helen was painfully slow. This lack of speed was due partly to inexperience and partly to her fastidious fas-tidious overcleanliness. Every pot or pan that she took from the shelves had to be thoroughly rinsed before it was used and every fork and spoon held under the running water. When she finally got the coffee started, she rushed in to set the table. Freshly groomed and with a brisk alertness that made Helen conscious of her own dishevelmeut, Warren now strode out. ' "Where's the paper?" "It hasn't been brought In. Walt, I'll get it." Outside the kitchen door were the paper, bread and a bottle of milk. "Dear, it'll be quicker if I don't make toast. Do you mind?" "Hand out anything you've got only hurry. Quarter of eight now." Helen flew back to the kitchen to the distasteful task of cutting the bacon. ba-con. With a childish, squeamish dread of touching anything greasy, gingerly she unwrapped the fat, oily strip. Warren always wanted his bacon thin and crisp, but in her hurry, and with a not oversharp knife, she cut it in thick uneven slices. "Got a move on out there," impa- ' tiently from the dining room. "Here, dear, start on this," running in with a hastily cut, seed-bristling grapefruit. "Where the deuce do you keep the napkins?" Warren was rummaging in the sideboard drawer. "Oh, wait, that's not a napkin!" rescuing res-cuing one of her best doilies from his crumpling grasp. "They're down here." "Powdered sugar and another spoon ! Did you think you'd set this table?" The dumb waiter buzzer was clamoring clam-oring for the garbage. Helen scurried scur-ried back to lift on the heavy, unsavory un-savory can and a bulging bundle of papers. Her flowing negligee, impractical imprac-tical In the kitchen, caught on everything, every-thing, until, distracted, she stopped to pin it up. In maddening sucees?ion came the ice, the mull, the returned garbage can and a man to look at the gas meter. me-ter. Helen was always at a disadvantage when she was hurried. If she had known she was to get breakfast she . would have got up in time. Hut now her haste left her nervously flustered. She was doing everything with the most cumbersome and time-consuming indirectness. Awkwardly she scraped from the skillet the egg she had just dropped in. Warren would not eat a broken yolk. She broke two more, but in both a thin run of yellow streaked the white. "Get down!" crossly, elbowing the importuning Pussy Purr-Mew off thu kitchen table'. "See here, I've got to get to the office of-fice sometime today." Warren was glowering from the doorway. "Just a moment, dear. Here, yon can take in the coffee. Don't set It on the cloth. Wait, take this mat." When she finally brought in the bacon and eggs, he was stirring a muddy cup of coffee with unfeigned disgust. : "Oh, I'm afraid I forgot to settle it!" "Talk about Incompetent maids," with a snort. "If you're so blamed incompetent yourself no wonder they put it all over you." "But, dear, I so rarely have a chance in the kitchen. Dora resents It they all do." "Well, If you'd spend half the time on straight, plain cooking that you do on mayonnaise, fancy salads and all. the other fool kickshaws, you'd know how to fry bacon and eggs. Huh, this layout's a fine looking mess," scowling at the broken eggs and thick, greasy bacon. "Those yolks are so thin-skinned," apologetically, "you can't help breaking break-ing them. Oil, wait, I forgot the butter." but-ter." Keturning with a freshly cut square of butter, Helen was confronted by Warren's pushed-back, empty chair. "Why, dear!" ruslilng out In tho dim hall where he was jerking on his overcoat. "I'm off for a decent breakfast downtown," stamping 011 his overshoes. over-shoes. "Hereafter when the girl's out of commission we'll beat it to the nearest restaurant. Understand? We'll not spoil any perfectly good food in the messes you spill out! Where the. deuce Is that umbrella?" ness gleamed the smooth whiteness of the empty bed. "Dear, she's not in yet," hurrying back to the bedroom. "It's after eleven." "Here's a button to sew on." Warren War-ren flung her the vest he had just taken off. "Must I do it now? Will you wear this suit tomorrow?" "Yes, and fix this while you're at it," taking off his suspenders, one leather loop of which was torn. Drawing a chair to her sewing table, ta-ble, Helen searched for a gray vest button and listened expectantly' for Dora. To stay out after eleven the maid was supposed to ask permission, but of late Dora had seemed inclined to ignore this rule. "She hasn't come yet," worriedly, when she laid the vest and suspenders suspend-ers on the chair with Warren's clothes. "What of it?" ne came out of the bathroom rubbing his wet hair with a towel. "You can't make 'em toe the mark all the time." "But how'll I tell her about breakfast?" break-fast?" "Leave a note on her door. Hustle now it'll take you an hour to get to bed." Pinning a hastily scrawled note on Dora's door, Helen hurried through her bath. By the time she was ready for bed, Warren was asleep and she crept in without arousing him. The library clock struck twelve, but still there was no sound of Dora coming com-ing in. So the girl was deliberately ignoring her orders ! She would speak to her very plainly tomorrow. Dozing off, Helen was awakened by a sound from the kitchen. Sitting up in bed, she listened tensely. Then, feeling for her slippers, she groped her way out through the dining din-ing room. But Dora's room was still dark and ( empty. Pussy ,Purr-Mew must have been the intruder, for now she was rubbing against Helen's nightgown, night-gown, her soft fur tickling her bare ankles. "What the devil are you prowling about for?" growled Witrren, when she came back to bed. "I thought I heard Dora." "Jumping up every ten minutes to see if she's in, eh? Well, you cut that and go to sleep." Turning -over, with enforced quiet, Helen tried to induce drowsiness. But the clock struck one before her brooding brood-ing indignation merged into a dream-worried dream-worried stupor. "Eh? What time is that?" Warren was on his elbow peering blindiugly at the bedside clock. Instantly awake, Helen sprang up with a dismayed : "Oil oh, it's after seven ! And you wanted an early breakfast !" "Never get anything you want in this house," as he lurched out of bed. "I'll hurry her up ! Breakfast'll be ready by the time yon are." It was not until Helen ran out to the dining room and was confronted by the drawn shades and unset table that the memory of Dora's late hours came with a rush. So she had overslept! This was the result of her staying out until after midnight. But at the sight of the note still pinned to her door, Helen's flaming flam-ing indignation changed to anxiety. Bursting into the room, the empty bed and Dora's idle apron held an alarming note. Something must have happened. A sudden shrilling of the 'phone confirmed con-firmed her fears. Stumbling over the trailing cord of her bathrobe, she reached the instrument. "Hello! I'm Dora's sister." The voice was blurringly foreign. "She's lost her pocketbook with all her money more'n $20. I had her stay with me and she cried most all night. She's real sick this morning with one of her had headaches hut she'll be there to get dinner. She's real scared that you'll be mad." Relieved that it was nothing worse, Helen expressed her sympathy for the lost purse, and Intimated that she would not be severe with Dora if she came in time to get dinner. Warren, who was shaving, received the hurried account of Dora's misfortune mis-fortune with a noncommittal grunt. "What about breakfast?" pursing up his mouth as he scraped the rich lather from under his chin. "Better go out, hadn't we?" "No no. I'll get breakfast. It won't take me long." 1 "Hull, take a darned sight longer j |