Show 1 t ILL HALLE II ERMINE ERMINIE RIVES OJ- OJ ILLUSTRATIONS ILLUSTRATION LAUREN CO By STOUT J 4 SYNOPSIS I j Ij I John Valiant Vallant li ot a rich lt O suddenly discovers s that the Valiant II cor or corporation J which his s father rather founded rounded and anC which h a was 8 s the principal source of or hla hili wealth has hUll failed He lie voluntarily turns 0 o cr cr hla his private fortune to the rec receiver lver for the the- corporation His Hla entire remaining ions consist of or an old motor car a II white bull do dog and Damory court a neglected neg neg- ted estate In Virginia On the way WilY to toI I Damory court he meets Shirley Dandridge Dand- Dand ridge an haired auburn-haired beauty and dl dl- dl rides that he Is 18 going to like Virginia Im- Im Im ly An old negro tells tella Shirleys Shirley's fortune for tor- tune and predicts great trouble for heron her heron heron on account of or a man l CHAPTER VIII VIM What Happened Thirty Years Ago When Shirley came across the lawn at Rosewood Major Montague Bristow sat fiat under the thc arbor talking to her mother The major was massive framed with a strong Jaw and a a. rubicund complexion complexion the the sort that might be supposed to have hae attained the utmost benefit to be conferred by a consistent consist consist- ent nt Indulgence In mint His Ills blue lue eyes were piercing and arched with brows like sable rainbows at variance with his heavy hea Iron gray hair I and anil imperial His head was leonine and he looked like a king who has humbled his enemy It may be added that his linen was fine and immaculate immaculate late his black tie string-tie precisely tied and a pair of rimmed gold-rimmed glasses eye-glasses swung by a flat fiat black cord against his white bite waistcoat Shirley said her mother the majors major's majors major's ma ma- jors jor's brutal and he shant shan't have his mant mint julep julep What has bas he be been doing asked tie the other her bro s 's wrinkling In a delightful way she had He has reminded me that Im I'm growing grow grow- In ing old Shirley looked at the major skeptically skeptically for his chivalry was undoubted undoubted un un- doubted During a long career In law lawand lawand lawand and legislature It ha had been said of Mm him that he could neither speak on oil the tariff question nor defend a manfor manfor man manfor for murder without first paying a tribute to the women of the South cah soh 1 rumbled Nothing of or the sort he Mrs l Dandridge's lace softened to I she wistfulness Shirley am asked with a quizzical almost a droll uneasiness Why Ive I've got every emotion emotion emotion emo emo- tion Ive I've ever er had I read all the new Trench French novels and aud Im I'm even thinking of going in for the militant suffragette movement The he girl had tossed her hat and andI tt I jp ip on the table and seated herself I y her mothers mother's chair What was ItlIe It Ithe ithe he lIe said dearest He thinks I ought to wear a worsted worsted wor wor- sted ted shawl and Her mother thrust out one little thin thin foot with its slender ankle gleaming through its work open-work stocking like mother of mother of pearL Imagine In May And he knows Im I'm vain of my feet Major if you had ever had a wife you jou would have ha learned wisdom But nut you jou oU mean well and lad Ill I'll take back what I 1 said about the julep You mix it Shirley Yours Is even better than She makes me one every day Mon Monty Mont t ty I she continued as Shirley went Into the house And when she Isn't looking I 1 pour It Into the bush there Major Bristow laughed l as he bit ithe end nd off orr a cigar All the same bame the said In his bl bit big rumbling voice i you ou need em I reckon You need needmore needmore needmore more than juleps too You leave leaver i r EEr II l F FI I n nt t- t I t 0 1 t tt tI e t I It N L Shirley LShirley Said Her Mother Thed The Th d I Majors Major's Brutal n e hf Ile whiskey to me mo sill and the doctor and Tuu oi take Shirley and pull out for p 1 Italy laly Wh not A year there would o du do you ou a heap of good 11 I B She shook her head No Monty If C t Isn't t what whal you jou OU think Its It's Its It's here 11 fh be lifted her hand band and touched her ber w 1 peart cart eart Its ita been eo so for tor a long time 11 l Lut 1 ut it may may may-It it cant can't go on forever a au See lice E Nothing can can ill 17 The major had leaned forward in iu t 1115 ii chair i Judith he said and his 1 band lland er rI tw it Jt It Isn't t tru true And Andt then nl t how Bow do you know am amay at I She Smiled at th him You remember ay ly that big surgeon from Vienna ulc Lit tame rne tH to sec the e doctor last t year the doctor b ought brought him to me known ft 11 re es t had bad got gon before In a ivay ay but t it cl cI C no can an farther than I 1 th thought No No I a r It mayan how long It may be bc b bas a s may 1 years P l ot oj curse course but Im I'm not IDE at ng g any tea Sea Monty paP pan an ane tIt be e He cleared his throat and his voice was husky when he spoke Shirley doesn't know Certainly not She mustn't And Anc then In sudden sharpness You Yet shant shan't tell teIl her Monty You wouldn't dare No Indeed he assured her quick quick- ly Of course courso not Its Just among us three Doctor Southall and you and me Wo We three have had our secrets before eh ch Monty Monty Mon ty Yes Judith we have She bent toward him her hands tightening on the cane After all Its It's true Today Todar I am getting old Imay I Imay Imay may look only fifty but I 1 feel sixty y yand Its It's and Ill I'll admit to seventy Joy that keeps us young oung and I didn't get my 00 fair share of that Monty For Just one little week m my heart had hadit it all and all all and then well then well then It was finished It was long before before before be be- fore I married Tom Dandridge It isn't that Im I'm empty Its It's that Ive I've been an hearted empty woman Monty Monty Monty-as as empty empt and dusty and deso- deso lato as the old house over yonder on the tho ridge I know Judith I know Youve been empty In a wa way too she said But Dut Its It's been a different way You were never In love really love really in love I mean Certainly not with me Monty though you rou tried to make me think BO so once upon a time before Sassoon came along and and Beauty Beauty Va Ya- Ilant The major blinked suddenly startled It It was out the one name neither h had d spoken to the other for tor thirty years He looked at her a little little lit lit- tle tie guiltily but her eyes had turned awa sway away Everything changed then she continued dreamily everything The majors major's fingers strayed across his ifs waistcoat fumbling uncertainly for or his eye eyeglasses For or l an Instant he lie too was back In the long-ago long past fast when he and Valiant had been comrades It had been a curious three sided affair affair he he and Valiant and Sassoon Bassoon Sassoon with his dissipated flair lair and ungovernable temper and strange fits of recklessness clean tigh straight away Valiant ind he he-a he a Bristow neither better nor worse than the rest of his name He remembered that mad strained season when Then he had grimly recognized his own Iw n hopeless and with burn burning Ing ing ng eyes had watched Sassoon and Valiant racing abreast He lie remembered remembered that glittering prodigal dance danco I when n then hen he hc had come upon Valiant and Judith standing In the shrubbery the light andle-light from some open door en- en their faces hers smiling a little ittle flippant perhaps and conscious af of her spell his grave and earnest yet yet wistful You promise John I give my sacred word Whatever What ever ver th the provocation I will not lift my fly hand against him Never never Then lien the ame voice vibrant appeal appeal- lug Ing ng Judith It Isn't because because because-be- be because you cause cause you care for him lIe He had plunged away In the darkness darkess darkness dark dark- ness ess before her answer came What had tad It mattered then to him what shead she had ad replied And that very night had befallen the fatal quarrel The major started How flow that name had ad blown away the dust a a long time ago Judith Thirty years ago tomorrow they fought ought she said softly Valiant and Sassoon Bassoon Every woman has her one one anniversary I suppose and tomorrows tomorrow's tomorrows tomorrow's tomorrows tomorrow's tomor tomor- rows row's mine Do you ou know what I Ido Ido Ido do every fourteenth of May Monty I keep my room and spend the day always the same way Theres There's a little book 1 I read And theres there's an old haircloth haircloth haircloth hair hair- cloth trunk that Ive I've Iv had since I 1 was wasa a girl Down in the bottom of it are aro some things some things that I take out and set round the room and there is a handful of old letters I go over from first to last They're almost worn out now but I could repeat them all with my eyes shut Then theres there's a tiny old straw basket with a yellow wisp in It that once was a bunch of cape I 1 wore them to that last ball the ball the night before It happened happened hap hap- The fourteenth of r May used to tobe tobe tobe be sad but now do you know I 1 look forward to It I always alwa's have a lot of that particular day daY Ill Ill I'll have Shirley get me some tomorrow and and In the evening when I go downstairs downstairs down down- stairs the house Is full of the scent of them All summer long Its It's roses but on the fourteenth of May It hasto has hasto hasto to be jes Shirley must m think t l k me a whimsical old woman but I 1 insist insist insist in in- on being humored He smiled stoned a little bleakly and cleared his throat It strange for me to be talkIng talkIng talking talk- talk Ing this way now she bho said presently present present- ly Another proof that Im I'm getting old But Dut the date brings s It very close lose It seems somehow closer than ever this year Monty Monty weren't you OU tremendously tremendously tre tre- tre surprised when I married Tom Dandridge I certainly was wasIll was Ill tell you ou a secret I was too I suppose I did It because of a sneakIng sneaking sneak sneak- ing lag feeling that some people were feelIng feel feel- feeling Ing sorry for me which I 1 never could stand Well Veil he was a man any anyone one might honor Ive I've always thought a woman ought to have havo two husbands one to love and cherish and the other I to honor and obey I had the latter at any rate And youve you've lived Judith he said Yes she sho agreed with a little sigh Ive lived tired Ive I've had Shirley and she's ahe's twenty and adorable And Ive I've had people enough and books to read and plenty of pretty things to look at and old lace to wear and Ive I've kept my fi figure ure and my vanity Im I'm Im I'm not too old yet et to thank the Lord Lard for that So dont don't talk to me about worsted shawls and horrible ar For I wont won't wear em cm Not If I know myself myself my my- self Here Hero comes Shirley She's made two Juleps and It if youre you're a gentleman gentleman gen gen- tieman you'll distract her attention till Ive I've got rid of mine In my usual w way ay The Tho major at the foot of the cherry- cherry bordered lane looked back across the hedge box to where the two figures sat under the rose rose arbor arbor the mothers mother's face turned lovingly down to Shirleys Shirley's at her knee He stood a moment P He Inserted the Key In the Rusted Lock watching them from under his slouched hat You never looked at me that way Judith did you he sighed to himself him him- self Its been a long time too since I 1 began to want you most most to to most forty years When It came carne to the showdown showdown showdown show show- down I wasn't even as fit as Tom Dandridge CHAPTER IX Damory Court smack dab D Dars rs r's Damor Coot sm suh John Valiant looked up Facing them at an elbow of or the broad road was an old gateway of time-nicked time stone atone clasping an iron gate that was quaint and vy and red with rust He lie put out sus ros hand Wait Walt a moment he said In a low voice and a M as j the creaking conveyance stopped rie ie ie turned and looked about him ilm Facing the tho entrance the land fell away sharply to a miniature valley through which rambled a willow bor dered brook in whose shallows short short- horned cows stood lazily Beyond whither wound the Red fled Road he could see a drowsy village with a spire and a house court and farther yet a yellow ellow gorge with a wisp of white smoke curling above It marked the course of a crawling far faraway railway Ets er fine ol of place sub mid dat big revenue ob trees said Uncle Jefferson Jerrerson But Dut Ah et etam aln am got none ob de modern county county- ances As Valiant jumped down he was possessed by an odd sensation of old acquaintance as as If he had bad seen those tall white columns before before before-an an illusory illusory illusory sory half vision half Into some shadowy fourth fourth dimensional fourth Ional landscape that belonged belonged be be- belonged longed to his subconscious self or that glimpsed In some Immaterial dream dream ture had left a faint etched memory Then on on-a on a sudden the vista vibrated and widened the white col col- columns columns columns expanded and shot up Into the clouds and from every bush seemed to peer a friend friendly I black savage with woolly white hair House Wishing House he whispered The hidden country which his fathers father's thoughts sadly recurring had painted to the little child that once be he was in the tile guise of 01 an endless wonder wonder- tale Ills His eyes misted over and It seemed to him that moment that his father was very near Leaving the negro to unload his belongings belongings be be- belongings longings he traversed an overgrown path of massed gravel between box- box rows like the manes of lions gone mad and smothered In an ac acv accumulation of or matted roots and debris of rotting foliage tollage and anol presently the bulldog at his heels found Cound himself in the rear of the house bouse Mine lIne he said aloud with a rueful pride And for general run down ness Its It's up to the tho advertisement He lie looked musingly at the tho piteous wreck and ruin his gaze sweeping down across the bared fields and unkempt un kempt forest Mine he repeated All Alf that I suppose for It has the same earmarks of ot neglect ne lect Between Between Dete n those cultivated stretches It loo looks like of Sahara gone astray His a wedge w edge gaze returned to the house Yet what a place It must have been In Its time He went slowly back to where his conductor conductor con con- ductor sat on the horse horse- block Wes heah heah called caned Uncle Jefferson cheerfully we wo do nex suh sub Ah better go ovah ter Miss Dandridge's place fer er er he added ef et heale he aln ale got de key keyl yo think ob dat now J John Joho Valiant was looking closely atthe at atthe atthe the big key for tor there thero were words which he had not noted before engraved engraved engraved en en- graved In the massive flange Friends all hours He Ho smiled The sentiment sent a warm current of pleasure to his finger tips Here was the very text of hospitality A Lilliputian web spider web was stretched over the tho preempted keyhole and he fetched a stem grass-stem and poked out Its tiny striped gray-striped denizen before before before be be- fore he Inserted the key In the rusted lock Ho He turned It with a curious sense of timidity All the strength of his fingers was necessary before the tho massive door swung open and the leveling leveling leveling lev lev- eling sun sent Its Us late red rays into the gloomy Interior He stood in a spacious hall his nostrils nostrils nostrils nos nos- filled with a curious but not unpleasant unpleasant un un- pleasant aromatic odor with which the lace was strongly Impregnated The ull Lai ran the full length of the buildS build |