Show ode f 1 oes c ut- ut i DARmiS 6 ER COSMO l c H f tHi Jl N Author o of SCANDAL J BLINDNESS of bi by f nr h hJ J iret t Rational Picture I PART I I. I BEFORE THE WAR My dear Lumley said Lady George Cornish addressing her husband husband husband hus hus- band as though Ire were a peer though her early training as a oar- oar maid had formed in her the habit habito o ot oL calling every man by his Christian Christian Christian Chris Chris- tian name I if you want ter tel go go Gather together fish three and sixpence pence out of ma bag finish the bottle of champagne and melt away like butter in the sun sun When I 1 come to a convent garden ball I 1 sleep all day and my vitality aint worked out until the band dies in its shoes She turned away her to golden head gave him a vast expanse 2 of powdered back and flashed upon the kaleidoscopic scene beneath the box her once quite quit beautiful eyes The band of black that the poor soul surrounded them with was as broad as the one used I by Frenchmen on their writing paper paper paper pa pa- per as a mark of oC respect and sometimes sometimes sometimes some some- times affection for a just deceased I relative It gave a touch of ot grotesque grotesque grotesque gro gro- tesque pathos to an unacknowledged I wreck I My dear Lumley said Lady Cornish Cornish- If f yer yep want ter go go Algernon Lumley did not find it easy to talk above e that tha t miraculously miraculous miraculous- ly Iy pers stent band and the everlasting everlasting ever eve lasting swish of dancing feet A quiet man who reveled in silences his voice was quiet as were his clothes his tread and a history whose rather queer echoes had al almost almost al- al most died aw away y And in any case what was the use itse of ot talking As Aswell Aswell well wen attempt to move the Rigi Rigl with witha a volley of ot bl blank cartridges as dissuade dissuade dissuade dis dis- suade Kitty Cornish from a fixed idea with mere gentlemanly words Then too she was more than his wife She was his banker The fit fit- teen hundred a year ear into which she had come when George died like a fish in a bottle had saved him from competing with the collar and stud bootlace merchants in the streets of London With a shrug of the shoulders ders he put away the watch that he had inherited from George rose and stood in one of his unconsciously unconscious unconscious- ly graceful attitudes in a corner of ot the box To this as to every place he lent an air all of great distinction with liquid height his Stuart profile profile pro pro- file his white snow-white hair and a dyed y mustache upon which he lavished as much care and attention as do most men to golf On the great space below there thele were at least 2000 temporarily demented demented demented de de- people wobbling about in one unholy mass like just caught flies fUes on a sheet of sticky paper Many of the younger men sinuous and simpering looked in their elaborate elaborate elaborate orate fancy dress like women but butaU all aU the women could not be mistaken mistaken mistaken mis mis- taken for anything else in cos cos- cos- cos which outdid Baedeker as a guide to sightseers The stammering stammering stammer stammer- ing ragtime with the thrumming undercurrent of oC banjos rose into an atmosphere he heavy vy with the reek of scent powder and smoke All the other boxes were filled tilled with fantastic people who came and went like bees in a Gargantuan honey honey- comb Then too as you know as well as I do added Lady George at the top of ot her voice Ive asked some of ot the boys to drop in ere about 3 o'clock for an am sandwich and a glass or two Nice thing i if they came cane and found that you ad marched off ome and left em cm flat lat I L dont don't think Although she wasn't looking Lumley bowed and waved his hand as who should say My Iy dear old thing I am not arguing Have It your own way You always alwa's do and you have the right She knew both gestures as well as she knew the remark but being one of those women who continue to fight long after the battle has been won won she carried her reproaches reproaches re reproaches re- re in the vain hope of getting something back which would give her a legitimate reason for further indignation and eloquence She ought to have been an opera singer sing sing- er so that she must have been obliged to save her voice between performances The only thing that she held up against Lumley was his lack of oC im im- im- im He lie simply could not un understand understand understand un- un that for the sake of ot hersel herself her herself self sel respect a wife ought to be bc provided provided provided pro pro- vided with s something to grumble at even if it Is fictitious By putting up with her ever varying varying vary vary- ing hig moods by escorting her into places and functions and that strange and lamentable company who came out of the shady corners of London Into Inlo the glare of its night as hard for a living JIving as all the conscientious conscientious conscientious con con- men who slaved at at City desks He was however a grateful person He performed his duties cheerfully showed no impatience or irritation and in his own peculiar undemonstrative and economical way was fond of oC the woman who had married him for fOI his air ah of high breeding but continued to go under the name without having the slightest right to do so so of ot the feeble feeble feeble fee fee- ble minded man to whom she had served so many brandies and sodas Uncommonly beautiful In her youth Kitty Libby as she was then hit hid flourished at the time when it was the fashion among the more idiotic of the sons sods of the thc ancient aristocracy to spend their days ingoing Ingoing In Jn going from one to another of oC the refreshment rooms j on the various railway stations where they drunk drank between trains and became socially familiar with all aU the most attractive barmaids George Lomax Alexander Gerald St. St John Cornish third son Man of ot the thirteenth Marquis of ot l r had Joined the railway brigade oncoming on oncoming oncoming coming down from Oxford A big lumbering blond curly curly headed good Matured creature of the St. St Bernard type he had dedicate dedicated enough of ot the best years of ot his life to the great western brandy crawl to achieve e the enviable position of oC its chief exponent A pity because with a different energy and the neCessary necessary necessary essary clean eye ee he would have made a magnificent county crick crick- eter Before he became a confirmed alcoholic as he did at 28 it was his proud boast that he knew every barmaid barmaid barmaid bar bar- maid on the entire system A moments moment's moments moment's moments moment's mo mo- mo- mo ments ment's notice although never at any time after Before he became a midday also he could give the pet name and a very vivid description O ot of every every everyone one of the girls who stood with regulation insolence and decoration decoration dec dec- decoration oration behind a counters But it was to the refreshment room I of the station at Reading that he le gravitated most frequently because it was there that Kitty Libby the daughter of oC a local ocal barber reigned as queen dressed always in the tho height of fashion and the cheapest jewelry He was of course Georgie to 10 her and she was naturally Kitten to 0 him Under the influence of her sympathetic e eye e and four star brandy he fell into the habit of con confiding con con- on- on his inmost thoughts and es especially especially es- es just before closing time the rending heart account of his be being ue- ue ing misunderstood by the family He Ide went so far eventually as to take talie i rooms in her town of ot all places so I that he might be within a few hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred yards of ot the one woman woman on Gods green earth who a appreciated ed d his good points and gut gutto guided dad him to the door of ot his lodgings And then suddenly the brandy crawl habit which had led to several several several sev sev- eral marriages that had shocked so society society society so- so was supplanted by the one that developed strongly in 1906 of oC haunting the musical comedy theatres theatres theatres the the- atres and making peeresses of oC chorus chor chor- us girls Whereupon George Cornish Cornish Cornish Cor Cor- nish found himself in sole possession possession possession posses posses- sion not only of oC the Reading but every other refreshment room on the Great Western Vestern railway and It got upon his nerves He lie was now nowa a man of ot two great grievances because be because because be- be beI I cause to the family misunderstanding misunderstand misunderstand- ing he added the wholesale desertion desertion desertion deser deser- tion of the gang And so emerging from a thoroughly enjoyable at attack attack attack at- at tack of ot delirium tremens he ob obtained obtained obtained ob- ob the strong arm ami of ot a friendly and tipped often porter was es escorted escorted escorted es- es from his rooms to the station entered the familiar and fly-blown fly room in which the lovely Kitten dispensed spiritual comfort to her customers leaned feebly on the bar and said how abo about t round somewhere with me meIn meIn In iii the mornin and nd gettin married married mar mar- ried In all aU truthfulness it must be said that this extremely worldly young woman who had clung with the most rigid and sometimes puzzling pride to her virtue received so gr t gre-t greta l la a shock from an unexpected proposal proposal proposal pro pro- which would lift her out of ot the vast mediocrity of oC her position as a barmaid into Inlo the dazzling heights of oC aristocracy that for lor the first time in her career she flooded the small glass of or Benedictine and burst into tears during business hours Like every member of her useful profession she had allowed nothing hitherto to disturb her flashy They were joined together as soon son as the the necessary necessary regulations of the registrar of births deaths and marriages marriages marriages mar mar- could be overcome and lived almost an an ideal life Ufe until another registrar was called In to fill in the form of ot Georges George's evit from all mortal mor tal worries It need hardly be said that In addition to tu ner wifely duties Lady George had performed perforated those of a nurse a watcher a agent a and a guide and all these thebe she had carried out with a a. garrulous devotion that Avis wis InspirIng inspiring inspiring ing to behold A broken woman in the early forties Corties forties for for- ties she then made the fatal mistake mistake mistake mis mis- take of retiring from the Plasticity of society semi-society and a flat in m Shaftesbury avenue In which she had entertained actors and horse trainers bankrupts and members of parliament a duke or or two sever tl a Scotch company promoter promoter pro pro- moter who played playe underhand games garnos I with newspapers and many of or those I great optimists who ho t followed the races and pla played ed cards for a living to bury herself in a remote corner of where the county continued the old-fashioned old practice of drawing the line There in a charming cottage with a lovely garden her existence was completely complete complete- ly ignored by every everyone one of Any so social social social so- so cial standing for miles around To Be Continued Copyright 1925 1926 by Cosmo Cl Hamilton Hamilton Hamil Hamil- ton |