Show m0 > GC aCO C OG l D DDCG C7xoDD2 i Ga17G XxxxX3 C1G oa OOGJOCCO A 0Y s J OO YAK AtiY G G pp l7JGGJ0C o CO r GfJ0ocCAAGY f 1 OG 1 I hDixon TtlE FORTUNE row OP PLORAJyictoniaijj I Ii h1 J 0m > CiXiEXXE0 0 i < ECiXiE 0 < E0 0 w e m > i ° o < E o v o o PART I r What was the fortune of Flora Nobody No-body seemed tO > know and what was more curious nobody seemed to like to ask yet Il was Impossible for a young cruplo to be iuoie light hearted on tic rvu of the adventure of malilmony at the golden Laurie It Is true wan ago of 23 I and had never allowed him 1 pclt to be annoyed by a care or an unpaid un-paid dcbl In his jocund young life while to mention that t the brideelect was an American of live and twenty I though she looked and called herself 1J Is to say that her outlook on the world and Its problems was as cheerful cheer-ful as Is consistent with living In the twentieth century The problem she had chiefly envlsagcd for the last live or six years was that of allying herself matrl JnonluHy with an Englishman of good < < family and this ambition had been I finally encompassed hi the person of the Hon I LUIa nee Eversley second son of Lord Worthing met only a few weeks before on the steamer coming across For Luurlfcs career uL Oxford had stooped short of Its final and most important im-portant stage and it had been for painting hs deans door what he described de-scribed as a quite wonderful shade of sealing wax red that he had been requested I re-quested by the authorities to absent himself permanently from the banks of the Irla But if Lady Worthing had been much Incensed with Laurie over this untoward affair Lord Worthing1 I had only laughed quoted the case of Shelley and taken the classic course of I tending his light hearted son on a tour to America Perhaps they will teach him to hustle over there he remarked or else he will pick up a girl with a pile of money Like most English people I peo-ple Lord Worthing invariably used I American locutions when speaking of I our kinsmen over the AUantic It would be the usual vulgar v ° ay out Of our dlfilcnlllcs her ladyship had said She had never been particularly fond 1 of her second son all her sympathies i sympa-thies being with the eldest Llttlehamp ton who was in the army What in deed 1 do you suppose wo shall ever do I with the boy As Liberals vc have no hope of anything from the Government I do not think he know how to work Yes I suppose Laurie had better marry an American heiress After all It has bpoomu quite a respectable profession for our sons Look at the Warmln slors Why Uic mortgage is actually off the place at last So when Laurie had skipped into the drawingroom again some sic months later and announced his engagement to the most exquisite ficature In the world of fabulous wealth and the most dellclously unconventional manners his parents accepted the situation and the prospective daughterinlaw Miss Flora Dodge with equanimity The wedding was hurried fro ward Mr Dodge it appeared could make but a brief stay on what he insisted on cullIng cull-Ing this side BO the ceremony was total to-tal e place almost Immediately Lord Worthing who had long ago had to get t rid of his place In Sussex and the agricultural agri-cultural land appeitalnlng thereto occupied oc-cupied L gaunt and somewhat neglected house In the Cromwell road u region which Mr Cyrus P Dodge Land his daughter evidently regarded as in the vortex of fashion And In thin Passably J forlorn mansion which Laurie had somewhat profusely decorated with flowers for the occasion the betrothal dinner was at this moment taking t I place There they cat the two young people i side by side radiant with their new I honors and delighted to be the center I of attraction the feynosuro of all eyes For Laurie was by no means the self conscious young Englishman who cannot can-not bear a fuss and who looks upon the preliminary ceremonies of his wedding day with boredom and horror on the contrary he delighted In the prospect and took a personal interest in all the details of the coming rites You cant he too careful about a wedding declared the bridegroom the slightest mistake will ruin it One should have a sense of decency and above all a sense of humor Do you remember re-member what Warmlnsler married l that peevish Sallie Vanderboken As they were coming up the aisle the choir actually snug Fight the good light I with all your might 1 nearly died of suppressed glgllng and I wits thc best man He went Into the question nf the I music minutely he would not have an ugly palS n No bridesmaid was to leo le-o e JC and they were to have longhair long-hair which was to bo worn floating round their young faces IOJl must be quite beautiful and quite gay declared Laurie We will have a sort of bower of apple blossoms at the chancel Tour white gown should be semiopaque and mounted on palest pink You will look like a blot sore or a shell You will be quite delicious Wo shall both look charming he added after a little pause Quit young and radiant the Ideal bride and bridegroom bride-groom Why Laurie youre just ioo queer for anything declared Miss Dodge Where do you get your idens I guess the girls in Milwaukee would stare 1C I they could hear you But Indeed they were a remarkable young pair Laurie was slim and pale his features and hands a trifle effeminate effemi-nate looking but there t was something ratlike In his tenacity and strength both l of which he was in the habit of carefully hiding under an elaborate air of dlleltanleism Once coming out of a theater a cad had purposely hustled him counting on his pensive expression and his pallor that he would not retaliate retali-ate But Laurie had not neglected the noble art at Oxford and the fellow lay sprawling In the mud when our young gentleman had stalked Imperturbably II away The girl was of a more solid build and had all the capability of her nation and sex Flora was the new type of American girl tall active and lithe Canadian on her mothers side she had eyes of Northern blue an abundance abun-dance of fair silky hair and a complexIon com-plexIon of pink and white She was dressed tonight in palest diaphanous blue showing the whole of her beautiful beauti-ful shoulders a blue snood vas twisted In her hair and she wore a priceless pearl J necklace fastened round her whitethroat white-throat It was Impossible to look more elegant more flowerlike l or to exhale I a more subtle air I I of wealth The little blue frock had cost fifty guinea she had given at lensU n Jiovcrcign for the hunch of real roses she wore tucked In her belt her hair was dressed by an artist ar-tist The outside was Indeed perfection perfec-tion This young girl looked like a Chouse but she had gone through Vassal Vas-sal with distinction Only by her accent together with her somewhat overemphasized overem-phasized manner her curiously transAtlantic trans-Atlantic air of deference to all things British and especially to all aristocratically aristo-cratically British things did the bride elect betray the fact that the fortunate place of her birth was Milwaukee Like most Americans she rarely spoke of money and she had been characteristically characteristi-cally shocked to hear one or two of Laurlcu young 1In < 16mell in the Foot Guards or fashionable aclors announce an-nounce to all and sundry that they were broke Every nation has Its standard of proprIety To the transAtlantic mind the British 1 absence of reticence I about money embarrassments Is little short of indecent It Laurie had seen to it that the dinner I of his betrothal should be as Imposing as possible Some Important people had been asked Lady Worthing had on all I the family diamonds Jewels which quite brightened up her somewhat rusty black lace frock all the plate had been collected and with a formidable array of wax candles and a profusion of lowers low-ers a stranger might have thought that Lord Worthing and his family enjoyed all the freedom from anxiety which a fat rent roll l confers There Is no doubt that Cyrus P Dodge was Impressed He sal of course by Lady Worthing and gazed with paternal pater-nal pride at the handsome young daughter daugh-ter who was so soon to inhabit the ancestral an-cestral halls of England The talk turned on the sort of house which the young people might take Nothing had been settled na yet and I it had been decided that Flora and i Laurie should pay a visit to the Cromwell Crom-well road after their marriage In order to look around and find what they wanted There was nothing ambiguous to be surer hi what they wanted the comedy of the situation lay In the fact that cash of these young people hoped that the I other one would provide the little house in Queen Annes Gate which they both so ardently desired The paternal mansion In the Cromwell road had buen painted and decorated some fifteen years ago when London was still In the throes of the aesthetic aesthe-tic movement but time fog and smoke had not made the yellow green pomcsrnnales on the walls any more delectable nor added to the meager attractions at-tractions of the sagecolored serge curtains cur-tains on which Lady Worthing in her bygone enthusiasm had embroidered a kind of hybrid apple in worsted Flora axing around inquired of her future slave whether this was the latest style In London She guessed she would like to have the last thing Laurie laughed Heavens No lie cried We mll the t-he cay and sane rcny and anna like they were in the Eighteenth t century I will not hang autotypes of Rosseltl on my walls a few BarlollozxiH you lIcnnd some of the wonderful women wo-men of Ronuicy and Reynolds We shall have little striped papers of course and very shiny crackling ell In t2es And Flora who was staying at the Carlton heaved a private sigh of relief re-lief You never knew with these English Eng-lish aristocrats just what was the I latest style On the whole the young lady preferred the appearance of the famous diningroom in Pall Mall She would just love to have an nilwhite diningroom At the other end of the table the voices in the little comedy had taken amore a-more anxious tone Confound the man said Lauries anxious mother to herself is he never going to say what nil will do for the young people Who I wonder does he think is going to pay the butcher the baker and the candlestick candle-stick maker And Laurie always wants such a lot of candlesticks Our dear children suggested Lady Worthing to Mr Dodge must start delightfully de-lightfully with everything pretty and In good taste Thats so assented Mr Dodge with = zu = Ian I a paternal smile Though her mother and 1 he continued gazing with pride at his lovely daughter why we just started on 10 a week In Milwaukee Wo boarded right In the city And 1 dont know ns it Isnt a good plan for young folks anyway Mokos them kind of spry And to Lady Worthing alarm she could get nothing definite from him about what he meant to do for his daughter and her son I There was one guest at the dinner on whom none of this little comedy was lost and that was Aunt Charlotte Lady Weithings oldest sister Miss Mitchumore who sat on Lauries other hand and was an amused spectator of the whole intrigue A spinster of original turn with a handsome Independence Inde-pendence of her own the two sisters had been coheiresses but Lady Worth hogs fortune had long ago been swallowed swal-lowed up In her husbands embarrassments embarrass-ments Charlotte MItchamore had been i a traveler all her life In the States she had often met the type of American I who was facing her She knew that hough he would let his daughter dress at Worths would cover her in Jewels and take suites of rooms at llitzs in ParIs stud at the Carlton in London he would In all probability make no settlement settle-ment on his child at her inarrlace Even If he were really wealthy and there was no evidence that he was lie would be reluctant to make any definite promises as to Income Sometimes Some-times these curious transAtlantic parents wore extraordinarily fantastically fantas-tically generous Sometimes they closed their pockets to prospective uonsln law and coolly advised them to earn their own living Tn short you could not count on them And Charlotte MItchamore who was fond of Laurie and had Indeed been the chief means of his taking a six months tour in the United States wondered what would be the outcome of this match into which both sides seemed to be walking blindfold She had hinted these things to her sister but the hints had not been well received Lady Worthing could not be brought to see the affair as It really was For what with Llttlehamp tons debts and the girls fast coming out it would be most desirable film urged that Laurie poor boy should lie settled somehow i And nom of these doubts it must be owned assailed the brldoirroomelcct I In all his Jocund days everything haul always turned out all right Why = should not his marriage be as triumphant triumph-ant as delightful a iy all his other experiences ex-periences And at school at college I he had always been n favorite Laurie with all his airy earelessnePH had almost I al-most forgot that he had been sent down or at the worst lie only remembered remem-bered it us an amusing episode in his career in which a Don with a very red face and very white hair who somehow resembled a jacklnihebox had got extraordinarily vexed and tried to say unpleasant things And after all it had turned out charmingly for he had spent that May and Tune In London and then ho had gone to the States The great thing is not to be afraid oC marrying announced Laurie as be surveyed the formidable array of presents pres-ents spread out the day before hIs nuptials nup-tials Why Indeed should one Directly Di-rectly you marry the whole of society at once takes a perfervid Interest in you They begin by loading you wIth presents and they will probably end by supporting you your wife and your family especially If you have a large one Whereas In the most exemplary bachelor or spinster society takes no interest whatever It Is better to becharming be-charming than to be good added Laurie pensively and certainly on the whole If It comes to solid help it Is 1 better to he married than to be single The first blow fell when they were still on their honeymoon in St Petersburg Peters-burg a city which they had chosen because be-cause Lord Worthings first cousin was ambassador there A handsome check of Mr Dodges enabled them to enjoy It They had danced at a ball In the vast Imposing saloons of the Winter palace they had been made the spoiled children of the British embassy where the brides elegance and her husbands attractive manners had made them welcome wel-come in the most amusing drawlng n r Continued on pago 27 1 L THE FORTUNE OF FLORA Continued from page 23 I rooms of the Russian capital Socially t the young ISvorsleys were a decided i tt 6uccess Flora It must be owned talked the French which is considered conpet In Milwaukee but Laurie on the other hand who had an uncanny Rift for strange tongues could boast a flow of quite Parisian Idioms They rIi had sleighed and shopped in the Nevski Proapekt Flora had laid in a L forml able 1 a-ble stock oC turquoises in the bazar r and Laurie had spent his mornings in y the Hermitage and his afternoons in getting up little dinner and supper parties I par-ties in the restaurants on the Inlands diD C In short they had had as they both avowed a beautiful time Nothings k amu Nothing-s Laurie more than TO watch the yl 6hagfY rodbloused eversmiling i moujlk custom could not stale Floras I n interest in the drovsky drivers Noahs J aJ ark costume in his padded shoulders tats and waist his long hair and his voluminous volum-inous pleated pelisse They < < had taken trio a trip to Moscow had been pumped and I banged over the cobblepaved hills of 0t the Holy City had got their first J glimpse of the immemorial East in the rC sinister haremlike rooms ot the old tn G palace In the Kremlin bad wandered It l astonished through those magnificent ttJ modern arcades which put anything of 1tr l tIll same kind in Europe to the blush PART II I 1111 But It vas vhrn they wore once more brick ill their pretty = rooms in the Hotel do Fnmce < in St Petersburg1 that Flora found among a little crowd 1 of bouquets from Russian admlror a letter 110111 atc Mr Cyrus P Docile with the postmark ta h 3111 jiukec Et My dear liltJe girl It ran I guess you will be sorry to hear that I have y had l real I bad luck The Now Trust has that doll for the old man for the t present elphh 1 ahnil have to pay up all around and 1Ef Ei I guess you will have to make hut ut Il check I jav o you last l just us long as Ott you car Luckily yciuve got some of your fathers grit I can trust my lcllt poor Flora not to alt down and cry t1 11 over fpllt f ± milk I fool 1 JJH mad as a It loll ct I Just mean 10 fl tart r new combine I 1 I com-bine against the trust You can bet t slcl E f the old man will hustle some Thcies Ix 11f lj IL cent now but wj may come up lCt Ital I huilllng yet Im just off lo Chicago on I I lr i urccnt business My roapccls 1 lo Lord r roolr it and Lady Vvortblng 1 think youre a I t3 real lucky IhI Theyre nice folks and 0 m al theyll look after yon Your devoljd I 11 tlrl t father CYRUS P DODGE li otrr Young Mrs Ever Iy folded this rtiotrf JI > pd chnractcristlc letter carefully put it I I tf r away and then communicated the con 0 1 lents to her youthful partner In the adventure ad-venture of matrimony Two years I oklrr than her husband she felt an ul mot maternal or at least an elder 1 0 Hlsteilj feeling toward the Joyous and 4 irresponsive youth vhom she hud undertaken e roO un-dertaken to love honor rind obey And trd i I Laurie UH she afterward toll Miss MUchuinoro hind behaved like a perfect J per-fect angel I He was knocking the top Optrj off nn vug at breakfast and his wife up > 4AM was eyeing this characteristically British r Brit-ish performance wIth awe and admiration a bJrA ad-miration when she summoned l up II le courage to tell him that from now onward scIlllc 1 on-ward she would have to look to him und to his family for her maintenance E3 it a JprUinately scj she told herself a peer I Irt I C of the realm In England must be rich dl J enough to support his children a tI t tJ theory which showed our young ladys Op nonloit meager acquaintance with European 1 IC family arrangements d fIid i There was Just enough of the check t jbf ti left to take them back to London and sI IAz one windy and rainy night In February 1 llmp1 1 found a fourwheeled cab loaded with u Ud trunks and containing the happy pair orii jj i drawing up at the Worthing mansion Jkti j in the Cromwell road JET J Jr But this again proved no abiding tdhGtr place for thts nwcli tried young couple 41 Two of the younger children had developed de-veloped scarlatina the house bristled with starched hospital nurses the doctors doc-tors brougham stood at the door and Laurie and his bride had lo lake refuge in a neighboring hotel Next morning Lady Worthing appeared She had only the worst of news lo bring Lord Lit tlehampton it appeared in the lightness light-ness of his heart had entangled himself in some promise lo a chorus girl and thLs yomig person an Ain tzon of gigantic proporlione and vivid coloring proposed I to resign her claim to his coronet only on payment of a substantial substan-tial sum At all costs Lady Worthing announced her intention of raising the money As for herself and the children they might go to some cheap spot In Normandy or the Ardennes and for Laurie she was convinced that Mr Cyrus P Dodge would provide To say that 0111 poor hero was astounded as-tounded at the astonishing turn which things had taken is to convey but a faint impression oC hIs feelings Here he was the gayosl the most Insouciant of created beings at 23 a mauled man with a penniless opulentlooking bride and at the odious necessity of finding the wherewithal lo live Could fate have played him a cruder trick There sat his Flora a lovely sumptuous vision In a negligee of Mechlin lace eating candy and reading a French novel while downstairs in the dingy bureau the manager was adding up a bill which Laurie saw no immediate prospect of paying But he was not easily depressed nor I did he ever forgot his charming manners man-ners Taking up his hat and cane he kissed 1 his wifes fingers and remarked carelessly 1 J think T shall go and see Aunt Charlotte She always hap Ideas l She is a quite wonderful omnnl lie slipped out and for Ihe first lime in his ICefor Liiurie had heretofore spent most of his time in hansoms walked from South Kensington to the little house at the back of Knight abridge where Miss Mllchamore occasionally planted her weary = feet He found his aunt In a jilncune smoking1 cigarettes In her morning room and reading anew a-new work all Uganda a country which the proposed to visit 1 as soon as the m ccssary arrangements could be made Already she had traveled a good dca1 In West Africa and was understood to be on the friendliest terms with one or two dusky kings Charlotte Mitcha I more had something of the outward appearance ap-pearance of an Oxford high church finitp and as on her travels she usually usu-ally wore a manly oat and skimpy klrt of drab tweed it Is possible that those black potentates had not yet realized real-ized that she belonged lo the inferior < sex I sexAunt Charlotte was unsympathetic She was fond though not foolishly I fond of Laurie and she detested Lil tlehnmpton Also she thought her sis ter a fool What Is to he done r n < 0ed Laurie Do like a dear have one of your Ideas You see he added Im only a halfeducated boy 1 Ive got taste of course but taste Is I only 1 a drawback unless youve capital to indulge IL That strange beast the British Public Is always distrustful of anyone who docisnt like what It likes Tunesaid I Aunt Charlotte Tin only thing for you to do she added ufler a pause in which she rather deliberately de-liberately lighted another cigarette ib to get pome work I Some work ejaculated Laurie with naive surprise how curious that sounds Tel I have heard that I work is quite delightful sort of tonicwhen once you get used to it I Shall T have to go In the Twopcnni II Tube every day at a quarter to 0 I and lunch at an A H C 610p1J Rubbish aid Annl I Charlotte Youre not going to be made a martyr of I have foreseen methlng of thlr kind she went on hI didnt like your marrying without any settlements so Iyo Just kept my y leather eye open Take that t armchair help yourself to a cigarette and listen The conference lasted an hour Laurie stayed lo luncheon and at P oclock he was whisked away in a closed coupe by his aunt toward Piccadilly Meanwhile ut home In the South Kensington hotel the Honorable Mrs Kverslcy was holding a conference wllh a person in whom she had cultivated culti-vated confidence and that was herself Seeing the whole situation at a glance she had no Illusions left about peers of the realm and their capability ot supporting sup-porting the various = members of their family The girl l had thrown I away her French novel on Lauries departure I de-parture and pushing buck the fair I hair from her capablelooking forehead with a gesture which recalled her father she marched up and down the shabbilycarpeted room thinking hard Half an hour later I she dressed herself quietly in black drove to the American ConsulCeneral and got the information which she desired I When the young husband and wife met that night they both looked as pleased fix If they had come Into a fortune for-tune though each was somewhat reticent reti-cent centMy child said Laurie helping HIs wife to hock figure to yourself lh tour t-our cures are temporarily at an end I have got something to doa kind of business which I think T can manage How charming you look You must always wear heliotrope and pink when we dine alone They went Into god gl11S next day lodgings where Laurie Insisted on pullIng pull-Ing down all the oleographs and hanging hang-Ing the v > alls with a striped flowery cretonne ITe also brought his Oxford Chippendale furniture his prints and books and a number of white fur rugs With a pink azalea bush In full bloom in ones corner the place looked pretty enough And here they began married life lifeThe little comedy which ensued was sulllclently diverting 1 Laurie who had remained quite vague on the < < subject of his work used to leave the house about Jill oclock every morning Directly Di-rectly he had turned the corner of the street Flora put on her hat and ran lo catch the omnibus When they met at dinner she was becomingly arrayed In one of her beautiful trousseau gowns and had assumed an air of elaborate repose Before Miss Charlotte Mitcbamore left for Uganda she had had many private pri-vate Interviews with her niece by marriage mar-riage of whom as she announced to all and sundry she now thoroughly approved Meanwhile Lauries devotion was complete for he was a kind of being who when he once takes up an Idea waxes more and more enthusiastic even If that Idea is marriage Yet one wet day as she was running along Dover street under an umbrella she caught to her amazement < < a glimpse of her husband In the vestibule of Froufrous the famous milliners A I handsome woman In summer finery was eagerly talking to him and she saw him come down with her to the I door of the little brougham which was Availing Yes J there he stood laughing and chatting at the carriage window i as If he were loth to tear himself away I while the fine rain beat down upon his handsome head What could It mean I Laurie professed to be hard at 1 work all dayand certainly the boy always looked thed enough when they both sat down dressed to their lodginghouse dinner Flora certainly never imagined that he had leisure to attend dames of high degree to their dressmakers In Dover street For the first time nlnce her marriage she felt uncertain of Laurie Young Mrs JEversley was too fine us well as too proud to discuss this curious affair with her husband She determined to be perfectly amiable as usual to bide her time and to see what would happen next Laurie was just as gratefully affectionate as oC old his charming manners hall never altered with their adverse fortunes and what especially made her profoundly grateful grate-ful to him was the fact that lie never by word look or tone reproached her with the failure of Cyrus P Dodge to provide her with a jointure Flora had hoard so much of the avariciousness of Englishmen In respect to dollars that she was agreeably surprised nnd wrote the most flattering accounts of the youthful Laurie home to Milwaukee Mr Cyrus P Dodge was too much occupied In fighting his particular trust to rfiinember to send any more checks to the lodgings occupied by J his daughter and soninlaw Six months had gone by and It was now high summer With the beginning of July London was feverish with dissipation dis-sipation The town seemed speckled with striped awnings and blatant with red baize all night there was a ceaseless cease-less whirl of cabs carriages and motor broughams and through the open windows win-dows of drawing rooms came tho monotonous sound of string bands playIng play-Ing the valse of the hour All this however affected the young Eversleys very little They accepted no Invitations Invita-tions for ditty bad determined not to so out while their prospects remained so uncertain It was much remarked that Flora even refused to be presented at court although Lady Worthing now sojourning with i her numerous family at Paramo had several times suggested a suitable personage to introduce her daughterinlaw It was a sultry evening and Laurie had not yet returned from his work Flora herself was tired out but the bedroom looked untidy Laurie had away a-way of throwing his clothes about which was most exasperating she set about collecting the scattered garments gar-ments folding them up and putting them away In the chest oC drawers The little note which falls out of the marital pocket on such occasions did not fall now It was small It had an earls coronet upon It and it contained a few agitated phrases many oC the wOIds being heavily underlined I do not claim for my heroine that she was more than human Flora picked it up and read It Dear Laurie it ran How could you disappoint me Why did you not come I counted on you absolutely It Is cruel of you and besides be-sides this is not the first time it has happened Unless you can give me a satisfactory explanation for I am not accustomed to be treated like this I shall go there no more GT2RTRUDE GORLFSTOX nit note supped front nor nugers and she stood absolutely bewildered as if frozen to the ground Gertrude Corks tonlhc famous Lady Gorleston a beauty whose reputation was worldwide world-wide and whose face was almost as familiar fa-miliar in Milwaukee as In London Was this her rival How could she hope to compete with such a personage per-sonage Tn a flash she remembered that It was Indeed the Countess whom she had seen that day l in Dover street with Lauries sleek head half In half out of her carnage door m this how he spent his superfluous time And then the difficulties of her situation situa-tion began to dawn upon her I She was quite alone in London owing to their I peculiar circumstances she had made I no friends there was no one whose advice she could ask If Charlotte Char-lotte Mltclmmore had been in England she would Indeed have gone to her for advice but Miss Mitehamore by now was In Uganda Meanwhile the latch key was heard in the door and the sound of Lau les footsteps was audible coming up the stair l She must decide and quickly If there was anything of which this astute young person disapproved dis-approved It was having a scene with a man or appearing to upbraid him For herself she was determined always al-ways to assume the beau role To ap peaV in the light of a nagging Jealous wife wnp odious to her She would have left him for good If It were necessary neces-sary but reproaches she held were feminine and absolutely futile She thrust the note back into the pocket of the morning jacket from which It had fallen slipped Into her prettiest lace tea gown and awaited her erring spouse Why you look real scared Laurie she cried F guess joure Just too tired for anything Why youre as white asa as-a sheet Ive had a shock dear he said slipping slip-ping Into the nearest chair his lips twitching as lie spoke Aunt Charlotte Char-lotte there there Is very bad news You dont mean to say she Is eadl She died of feVijr a week after she landed In Africa said Laurie sorrowfully sorrow-fully Flora burst into tears She was tho best and kindest woman 1 ever knew she cried my only friend on this side Its Just too dreadful for anything Oh my oh my And these two young people who were both sincerely attached at-tached to Miss Mitehamore were drawn more closely together In their grief Yet Flora could not altogether forget Lady Gorlestons loiter and as they sat by the open window in the summer dusk after dinner she bald as IE with a sudden < Impulse I Laurie what do you do all day Her husband looked surprised but he answered simply and with perfect courtesy I create gowns and superintend superin-tend the trying on at Froufrous in Dover street It was poor Aunt Charlottes Char-lottes quite wonderful inspiration Laurie to this day never can understand under-stand why his wife threw her arms round his neck and gave him what she was wont to call an American hug Oh you dear Youre just too perfect for anything My Fancy your settling down to that And say she added asa as-a new light seemed to Illuminate her brain doesno er Lady Gorleston dress entirely it Froufrous She does replied Laurie without any enthusiasm in his voice and a confounded nuisance she Is Always 1 fussing always having alterations She has got it Into her head now that I must be at every fitting Jf not theres a devil of a row I see said Flora profoundly with the memory of a certain note In her mind M counted on you absolutely J shall go there no more Well thank goodness she was not a jealous woman Meanwhile she felt in the mood for confidence Well Laurie Im going to tell you I something You thought that we werent going to have any holiday this summer because OfWI you know why Now I want to tell you that Ive not been Idle cither Ive just been keeping > the books and seeing customers at photographers in Baker street and heres my half years salary t5 I never shall forget pOOl Aunt Charlottes delight when I told her Id got a situation situa-tion Why she Just hugged me Isnt it just loo delightful for anything You are a wonderful woman declared de-clared Laurie with comlctlon a quite wonderful woman But there were more surprises in store for our young couple When Mhs Mllchamores will was opened It its found that with the exception of some legacies for scientific research she had left the whole of ht comfortable fortune for-tune lo her detr nephew Laurence and his wife Flora because they arc plucky young people who know how to face 111 luck who are not nlrnkl to work and who dont go about whining The house In Queen Amines Gate Is theirs now with all Its gay and sane appurtenances And Flora who firmly believes In Cyrus n P Dodge and his ability to circumvent the trust exhibits a pathetic I belief not shared by Laurie who has however hopes of succeeding to the titlet that she sill still come into in-to her own phantom fortune |