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Show THE GIFT WIFE . . . O RUPERT HUGHES WNU SERVICE RUPERT HUsHES CHAPTER XV Continued 15 One day the Pogodins came home with a child. They said they had adopted her. That evening while Mr. Pataky was at the Folies Caprice seeing a musical work, the Pogodins had made haste to pack up their belongings belong-ings and ship them to the station. Mr. Pataky being away from home did not learn which of the stations they went to, and from. In answer to Jebb's frantic demands de-mands for a guess as to the probable destination of the couple, Mr. Pataky Pa-taky pulled out a business card, the duplicate of the one Jebb already had. Mr. Pogodin was In business both in Paris and in Warsaw. He had not done well in Pest. "I am sure you find them in Paris or in Warsaw, if maybe they ain't gone to some other place." To come to this Y-shaped trail and realize that whichever way he took he would wish be had taken the other; and that every day of delay de-lay increased the difficulty and blurred the track, was maddening to Jebb. He gave Pataky the money mon-ey for Cynthia's little destructions and got rid of him with curt phrases. When Jebb reached Vienna the claimed with unusual fervor for him. "That's my religion, and the closest I can come to a prayer is an operation. And as for experimentingit's experi-mentingit's the crying need of the world, Miss Ludlam. If only a man could have a lot more money to spend and all his time to devote to exploring. Experimental surgery is the new world; it's unbounded, undreamed of why, my God, it's excuse me!" He collapsed in full flight, ashamed of his own excitement, but sister Jennie cried: "Don't mind me I'm used to Charlie. I love to hear you swear. It shows you have the frenzy that a man needs to be great You are the man I need to help me found this memorial. It must be just a little different from I those that are already established; it must but you know so much better bet-ter than I do what is needed. Won't you please please take charge of it for mel" Jebb almost fainted at this gift, so great he had never even dreamed of it They talked till the porter informed in-formed them that the whole car was complaining. When the train at last reached Paris, the Wentworth Ludlam Memorial Me-morial Hospital and Experimental royalty basis with a guarantee of a good income for life. When the Nord-Express pulled in at the station, Jebb ran through the cars searching. Cynthia, dawdling in the corridor as before, saw him first and set up a shriek. The child's first distinguishable speech was: "Oh, Nunkie Dave, you never told me what Thinpat the Thailor had in the thoot-cathe he bringed his little daughter Bridthet." And before anything else could be told Jebb had to ransask his excited brain for a catalogue of gifts that would have foundered the reindeers of Santa Claus himself. And after this, Cynthia must tell her own adventures with the Pogodins, Pogo-dins, and she must show off the I Russian she had learned and the Polish words, and what a nice woman wom-an Mme. Pogodin was though not half so nice as Aunt Miruma. In fact, there was no silencing the child till fatigue put her to sleep or at least they supposed she was asleep. "And now. hanim effendim Miruma Miru-ma tell me how you managed to find her you wonderful, angelic " he stopped short on the brink of a his mouth full of the ashes of confession, con-fession, he began to tell her of his other self. "Do not tell it me," she said, "It hoorts you, and I know it all many days. Seester Jennie tells it, and it makes me such joy to theenk that you have been shrinking from me not because you did hated me. but because you did loved me all thees long time." "Then you understand why I kept silent?" "Yes." "And why I can never ask you to be my my wife?" "No. Leesten, Jebb Effendim, you theenk you have another self that you cannot keel. I theenk you can, weet the help of Allah and weet my I love to make you a home. Even if you cannot keel that Meester Pier-pont, Pier-pont, still when you are that man I could keep you close, take care of you, save you from to run allover the world, and, perhaps some day be made dead in some tarrible place. If I should be your wife 1 should guard you and when the long seeckness was over you should wake back to yourself in your own home and in my arms always. Then soon, I know, I know Allah would answer such prayer from two such lovers, soon the other self comes less and ipsa often, stays less and less long. plunge. "Oh, eet ees such a long story. They were not hard to find, the Pogodins, Po-godins, but they refuse to geeve up the baby. They say she is their own, and they defy me to proof she is somebody's who is in America. So I go away much afraided. But I come back and wait in the street Not till next morning Cynthia comes out alone to play and I stealed her from the stealers oh, how I runs! From the depths of his soul Jebb sighed. It seemed impossible to keep his love secret any longer. He had no right to deny her that tribute. trib-ute. It was her privilege to know that he loved her enough to relinquish relin-quish her for her own sake. And then with much hesitation. That could be couldn't eet?" "Yes, it could be it would be, if but I love you too much to let you endure it." "Hush, Jebb Effendim. I theenk you want me for wife yes?" Jebb only cast his eyes up in despair de-spair of words to express this desire. de-sire. "Then if thees time instead of to be gived by somebody to somebody, I give myself for a gift then then oh, should the gift be refused? should you ruin my life forever? should you oh should you make me do all the proposing?" Those compartment-cars are very cosy for settling disputes of this sort And Cynthia was asleep or at least they thought she was asleep. THE END.l next morning and went Into the breakfast-room he found Miruma waiting for him. Her face was luminous lumi-nous with welcome, but it turned gloomy as she cried: "You deed not rinded the Cynthia child. AmanI amanl" He told the story briefly, hastily explained bis new dilemma. She solved it in one instant: "Leesten. Do you speak Polish or Mosgovian?" He shook his bead. Then she ran on, eyes flashing with delight over her scheme: "I am cherkes-Circassian born, and I learn some Russian as child, before I am taked to Turkey. "But leesten? You shall go to Paris Par-is and look, and I shall go to Warsaw. War-saw. The one who finds the child feerst telegraphs the other. I bet you I gone to find her the sheker-buli sheker-buli the sugar lump feerst. What you bet?" By this time the Ludlams met in the breakfast-room and came over to their table. The story and the scheme told all over again enraptured enrap-tured sister Jennie and even opened the fat eyes of brother Charles. As a much traveled woman, sister Jennie Jen-nie scoiled at the idea of any difficulty diffi-culty in Minima's way. Brother Charles volunteered to get the passport from the American consul con-sul in Vienna. An hour later be came back with it boastfully: "It isn't everybody that could have got this," he said; "I had presence of mind enough to realize that if I said Mme. Janghir was a Turkish lady there'd be all sorts of red tape. So I said she was an American." "Well, she Is. by intention," said sister Jennie. Miruma blushed and Jebb sighed. The Warsaw train left at noon and required seventeen hours for the Journey. Jebb's train to Paris took twenty-seven hours, and he was weary of globe-trotting. There was so little time to get Miruma aboard her train, and there were so many instructions to give her, that leisure was left to talk of nothing else. And Jebb was sadly sad-ly glad of this; it saved him from the torment of restraining his words of adoration. ToViK'd iYriA ir i o fimoroal urhan Leisure was left to talk of nothing else. Station was pretty well talked out, and a good deal of it was mapped on paper. The first place Jebb sought in Paris was the office of the Machines-a-ecrire Flaubert The president and his son received him and recognized recog-nized the name of Nikolai Pogodin with contrasting feelings. fThe younger member of the firm laughed; the elder swore. Mr. Pogodin, they said, had been their agent, but his interest In the race tracks of various capitals had mixed up his accounts so that they had regretfully erased him from their rolls. The Flauberts promised Jebb any information in their power, but they doubted if Pogodin were in Warsaw, War-saw, or that he would remain anywhere any-where long. Jebb's mood was funereal when he returned to his hotel. In his absence the Ludlams had decided to go to Paris by the same train a conspiracy hatched by sister Jennie to console him. When dinner was finished sister Jennie told Charles to go to the smoking-compartment, and stay there; and she asked Jebb to come back after the expiration of one cigar. ci-gar. As soon as he had accomplished accom-plished his cigar he wandered back to sister Jennie. Then she unfolded her plan: "When I first saw you in Vienna the other day, and thought you were very rich. I told you I wanted more of your help, you remember?" Jebb smiled. "Now that I find you are not an idle millionaire, but a keen and brilliant surgeon oh, don't lift your hand it gives you away as a surgeon, and Miruma has told me of your miracles in wherever it was "I spoke to you of my poor brother Wentworth. Before I die I want to see a memorial of that beautiful soul, cursed through no fault of his own, by an inheritance from poor ancestors that had heaven knows what sorrows or failure to drive them to despair. My poor, dear brother was started wrong, he could oever hope to be what he ought to have been. "So I thought that a hospital for correcting the malformations and the inherited handicaps of little children chil-dren would be about as good a memorial me-morial for poor Wentworth as I could find. "And I wanted a large part of its work to be experimental. I want it to keep investigating, finding new methods, pushing into the dark. You understand, don't you?" "That's about all I understand in this world. Miss Ludlam," Jebb ex- CHAPTER XVI Jebb went back to his hotel to tell sister Jennie that he resigned his stewardship in her great project He must set out on a dismal journey to Poland. But sister Jennie was not to be found. She was shopping in the Rue de la Paix. He went to his own room and was dismally flinging his things into his suitcase when a telegram was brought to his door. "VE ARR NORD EXPRESS JOOST OUTSITE RUSSIANS BORDERS VE ARRIVAL IN PARIS DAY AFTER TWO MOR-OW MOR-OW CYNTA IS GOOD AND SENS LOAF TO NUNKEDAY. "MIRUMA." Through this fog of misspelled words a blast of sunlight came that almost smote Jebb Saul-wise to the floor. It seemed intolerably long to Jebb before the Ludlams returned to the hotel, and when they came in they were fagged with shopping. The telegram tel-egram acted like an elixir of new life. But the true laggardliness of time was felt only when Jebb tried to live out the day and a half between him and Miruma's return. He spent a large portion of the time writing and rewriting a cablegram cable-gram to Mrs. Thatcher. This wa. not easy, for he must inform her that her child was alive and well and on the way home, that her husband's hus-band's good name was rescued and documented, and that the poor faithful faith-ful soul had left an invention which a prominent manufacturer, Charles Ludlam, had inspected and would place on the market for her on a |