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Show . GIRL ALONE Te&X"eby I I lonely room, Jim Guthrie knew the thing without being told, j He had let himself into that room some half hour before. It wa the very same room he had quitted 48 hour before to go on a date that had proved so eventful. He had thought himself a disillusioned disil-lusioned young man when he left that room, but he was even more disillusioned when he returned He called his mother from long distance and received the assuring new. that hi father was still pro-gressing. pro-gressing. y vre' fj1!" n,w 0I '." Mrs. Guthri esaid. "Jim, I'm glad you nd your father have settled your difficulties. but they existed, just the same Your father is depending on your plans for this fall. Son, he's already home'" UntU you com rJayb T.? ,better com hni. RKWay? Jim "ked hPefully. hm r'i mther "'"ft'" f you did. Dad would want to get right up and start in at th. grind again Better stay away, son, as you've , I . If she ever found out, for certain, then the rest would be plenty easy, she decided. Reno wa far from inaccessible. in-accessible. In just a few weeks' residence In Reno she could establish her divorce and then everything would be the same as before. j And yet not quite the same. Although Al-though she was reluctant to admit 'it, Jim had com. to mean aome-thing aome-thing to Charmion. Something more than just a man sh. had supposed was a rich man1 and later had been disillusioned i 1 about Instead, Jim had become a sort' I of puzzle.' Every other man Charmion Char-mion had ever met in all her almost 125 years of selfish, exacting living had fallen prey to her charms almost al-most instantly. . Eyen though ah aecretly wore Jim'a name, this queer enigma of a man actually appeared to car mor for Beth' odd beauty than he cared for her own. Jim eluded Charmion constantly. Sometimes he called her up and drove over. CHAPTER TWENTY Jim drov back into Centertown alone.' Charmion had decided at the last minute that that wa th thing h must do. . Sh was determined to keep their wedding a secret and. In a town as small as Centertown, It would be next to impossible to do so if they came back together. Fortunately, Charmion had the alibi of her friend Opal to fall back upon. Opal lived some 20 miles from Centertown snd when Jim let Charmion off at her horn Opal was all excitement "Com. on in and tell me about yourself,", sh. told Charmion after Jim had driven on. "Your mother called yesterday and asked for you." "What did you tell her?" "I ruessed you were up to ome-thing. ome-thing. You usually are up to something. some-thing. Charmion. I told her that you wer out driving." A R.al Pal "You're a real pal. Opal," Charmion Char-mion exulted. "I ll telephone mother now. And then you'll take me A Meager Love Then they took a long ride, danced a bit together, and drove hom. fairly early because Jini always al-ways said that he had a heavy day's work ahead of him. They indulged in very meager lovemak-ing. lovemak-ing. If Charmion had Imagined there might be a few aecret week-ends away together she was quit. mi-taken. mi-taken. Always during their short date together, Jim avoided that suggestion. Once, goaded to anger, Charmion mentioned going with him on a trip. Jim flushed. He spoke slowly, a though he weighed every word. "Let' go a bit alow on making plans Th. tim. is short now until w. can announce our marriage. Then just a week or so after that we'll be leaving Centertown." IPlanned. . ' and strong again befor. he gets into th. saddl. of reorganizing the I LT nef 1 think ln week Ve'U go to th mountain. Dad will be ,able forest better there. I "H. can t be reached on the tele-w.HeKaily- S. Jim, I believe1 plM- "iCk t0 h oriinJ Jim put th telephone wc.iver back on it. hook. It was good to! hear from his mother and good to; know that hi. father continued to1 improve. , j His i mother probably was right. All of them owed it to Dad to give1 him a chance to get well. Ther1 would be pl,y of hard wo'' th reorganization, plenty of heart-! ache, too. A well not take his own personal per-sonal troubles into the horn picture just now. j Jim tried to read to get his mind Off his VArr , k , . ' bom after a while, won't you, angel? Thre days Is plenty long enough for m to visit you, isn't it?" "Three hour is plenty long I enough sometime," Opal said. "Tell me what you've been up to." I Opal and Charmion drov bom later, through th cool of th evening. eve-ning. I They found Tom and Mary Warden War-den exulting over a picture of Beth. I It had been aent wirephoto to the neai-by city and th Centertown daily paper had sought and obtained' permission to reprint it Aunt Jan and Beth had been photographed a they tood at the rail of th ateamahip en rout to, Europe. Two handsome, distinguished distin-guished women. Beth wor a modish little uit and an adorable hat that framed her piquant yung face and added . to ita charm. Her corsage of orchid or-chid was scarcely mor glowing than her orettv face "Sometime," Charmion raid a bit spitefully, "I think you're sorry we got married." "W needn't discuss that now." Jim was trying to avoid another long and fruitless srgument "W sra married, Charmion, and there isn't very much w can do about It" "Oh, yea, ther 1," Charmion flared. "I can go to Reno." So to ' ' Reno? Jim' voice wa earnestly sincere. "Charmion, If you think you ought to go to Reno, I think you should go." off his worries, but there again he was haunted. Picturo of Beth The very first thing thst he saw when he opened th local paper wa the picture of Beth, (miling at him trom toe front page, her eye on radiant loveliness. Jim put th paper aside, went to bed and tried, unsuccessfully, to sleep. But thought intervened. I Thoughts of a blue-eyed, wistful girl mixed confusingly with Char-i mions flamboyant beauty until fi-l nally Jim got up, drov. his csr away j Beth on Way The caption under the picture aaid in quit dignified fashion that her were two women, on th well-known well-known dean of local exclusive seminary for young women, who, along with her nlee, Miss Elizabeth Warden, waa bound for Europe It didn't ssy that a young man came to see them off and that the gorgeous orchids the starry-eyed young niece of Miss Wsrden wore hi gift Th caption under the picture did not aay these things, but Beth's starry eyea said them. And, gazing at th picture ln his into th. country for a long, lonely ride in which he alternately reproached re-proached and despised himself. Lif at Centertown settled back to normal and apparently no one was the wiser that a new bride and groom had taken up their abodes in the little city, separated, one at each end of the village. Jim went back to work at th bank. His employer was glad to see him return and sorry that his new plans would take him away in a few short wk. Jim waa hard working and Industrious Indus-trious H. hsd been a genuine auc-cess auc-cess at his work. Th. bank would dislike losing him. Charmion helped at the drug store occasionally, but not very enthusiastically. enthu-siastically. As a matter of fact Charmion waa disgusted with the whole proceedings. She was more than a Mttle afraid that Jim had been (peaking truthfully truth-fully when he told her that .he had married a poor man Instead of a rich man. I "You want to get rid of me?" "I didn't aay so." "But you said I ought to go to Reno." 'I said that If you wanted to go to Reno, that's exactly what you ahould do." "You know perfectly well that I can't go to Reno, Jim Guthrie," Charmion flared. "Even if I did want to and I'm not so sur that 1 1 do. "I can't go to Reno because If I o, then everyone will know I've jbeen married to my guardian, who i carrying out the term o' my 'father silly will, will know about .it too." "You ought to have thought about that before," Jim's voice was harsh. H started the car to drive homeward. home-ward. "Sometime. I think yon lov. Beth," Charmion pouted. "Don't even .peak of Beth," Jim said, "pleas.. She's too fin to b. dragged into th. trouble of people like you and me. Charmion." (Continued Wednesday) (Copyright 1837. for The Telegram.) Sometime, at night In th quiet of her room, Charmion paced the; (floor with quick, angry, catlike! atepa. It would be rotten luck, ahe told herself, if what Jim ssid were1 really true. But Jim was a queer person and maybe he was trying to test her out. It would be necessary for her to remain just as patient as sh could until aha knew absolutely. I |