Show i i Confessions 1 L Of a Br Bride de deA A Likeness of Hamilton Looms Up to Surprise Me And so at last I managed to get the counterpane and the sheets sheets sheets' and the blankets spread out on the ground with spaces between them Inn Ina in ina n And I made the therow therow therow a love lovely long row blOWing blowing blowing blow blow- row run the way the wind was ing as I had seen the guide marks markson on an aviation field And the bright stuff glare so 50 soI sun sun made the white I that a flying man on the lookout I land landof wouldn't mistake it even in that of ot glaring adobe I I had achieved the impossible had sent my S. S O. O S. S call to the skies I had met successfully the supreme emergency of ot my adventure and I could neither dance nor sing ai about out it nor whisper it to a soulI soul I I could only try to achieve a little patience and to have faith that Jim Jr would do his share Preserving the linen from the feet of the animals which In infested tested the for fOI place gave me a grand excuse studying out of ot doors The interestIng interestIng interesting interest- interest Ing housekeeper wh seemed to have taken a fancy to me remained to converse Our talk was sided one and it required the services of ot an in interpreter In- In the the little maid who served me She had learned much English in her father fathers shop in town And she admired the old lady tremendously tremendously tre tre- tre- tre I so much that it was often I difficult to tell what was fact and andI I what was fiction in the little maids maid's translations The old woman had lived all 1111 her days in the hacienda hacienda hacienda-as as her father had before her her and and her fathers father's father The estate numbered thousands thousands thousands thou thou- sands of acres and it had belonged for hundreds of ot years to a grand Spanish family It paid the owners a vast revenue annually but not one of ot them had ever cared enough about the place to visit it The old lady grew wary and looked around for tor eavesdroppers At least not until lately had any grand personage personage personage per per- taken an interest in the hacienda ha ha- But nut since the armistice an agent had come to see why the revenues revenues revenues reve reve- had stopped as they had with the war And the new was a most wonderful man Among his many extraordinary accomplishments accomplish accomplish- ments was that of ot curing disease Almost by magic he had cured her herthe herthe herthe the the speaker speaker speaker-ot of this tha this that that and t-and and the theother theother theother other ailment And she had suffered for years VerI Verily it was a miracle But nut it wasn't the only miracle Listen She herself didn't believe the gentleman was a common agent I at alir aUr He was at least a duke dulcet I should see for myself She would show me In the chapel of the hacienda was wasa a grand painting had been done in Spain and set up ov over over r the altar hundreds of years ago Then in some old war it had been boarded into the wall and lately it had been found again and uncovered This was in her own time praise be bo to her patron saint The donor was painted In the picture pic plc- ture and ture-and and his wife and his child and the very towers of ot the hacienda too So she pattered on on while I listened for the whirr of a big beetle in the blue above me and felt rather glad that the dames dame's imagination provided her with such delightful stories to tell The new master was adorable she said And who could wonder for had he not stepped right out of ot that ancient painting I should see for myself he myself he would return In the evenIng evening evening eve eve- ning and I must go to the chapel at once to see that she was right I followed her to the chapel and the little maid pulled aside the fringed silk curtain from the altar piece It It was a triptych and in one panel looking down at me from a gorgeous gold frame was a magnificent magnificent magnificent cent portrait of ot Hamilton The figure was clad in the gorgeous court costume of ot an ancient day Mexico is a land of ot many super super- The old lady had more than her share of them I told myself myself myself my my- self but my very best brand of ot Yankee common sense couldn't keep me from shuddering I wanted to get that startling likeness out of my mind I wanted to be alone I sent the woman and the maid off to their siesta while I 1 went back to guard the bl bleaching linen and to deplore the fact that If It Jim came and swooped down and scooped me up in his hIs chariot charlot of ot fire I fire I would never prove the truth of the old wife's tale To be continued Copyright 1919 by the Newspaper Enterprise Association |