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Show ! ooooo-oooooooooooooooooo&oo I f THE I SOCIETY I QUEEN 1 00 JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO oo-ooo o-o-o- J.'tl tv D J Wnlsh such an impression on those J . stucU-up easterners!" l'ortla covered her face and wept. 'There's more at stake than your reputation with Kldrldge and his wire," rejotned Robert Anthony, with energy. "You obey the doctors orders or-ders and you'll come out of tills with your health unimpaired. If you don't do as he said and stay In bed another week well, you know what may happen. hap-pen. Got everything you want? I wish I could gel a nurse or a cook or something. But they're not to be persuaded per-suaded to come out here to this half-desert half-desert because of those enormous wnges they get In Rocky 1111. Well, 1 hale to leave you. But I've got to. I don't believe they'll get here before tomorrow at the curliest, his Nibs and Nlbbess. They'll Just have to put up with old Ben's cooking, I guess. Salt pork and hominy three limes a dny'll do 'em good ! Portia let out one small pink ear to receive his parting salute and then descended intf the unfathomable depths of her woe. She was n good housekeeper. A graduate In domestic Bdence with honors, hon-ors, she did not know what she was doing. Out here eighteen miles from any town her house had an "air." Awnings she had bought with her Ilttls pigs' money, cnnaies aooui in groups after dnrk not horrible, sinoky kerosene lamps cast their glamorous light over the low, wide house, open to the loveliness of the plains night after being closed all day to the heat nnd glare of the Texas sun. It took brains hrnlns and muscle to achieve them. And ow when Bob's "backer," the great Eldrldge, was com-. com-. g for his first visit from Philadelphia with his society wife to be compelled by a silly fall from a kitchen stool to stay In bed for two weeks was a good deal for an nmblllous husband adoring young woman to stand. She did not hear a car come gently to a stop beside the east porch. Miserable Mis-erable nnd disappointed, self -pitying nnd apathetic she lay and endured hours. Perhaps she slept. "Your lunch Is served." Startled and incredulous Portia lifted lift-ed her tear-stained face. Was she dreaming? She tossed brown curls from over htr eyes and stared. 'Lunch?" she questioned stupidly. "Yes, ma'am," answered a thick set woman with a wide kind face, a fresh rosy skin nnd twinkling blue eyes. Portia Taunton glanced at the tray In the strong hands of the aproned figure beside her bed. Croquettes, golden nnd crlukly; biscuit, marmalade marma-lade nnd ten Invited. She raised her eyes to the kind face above this perfect per-fect lunch. Tears of happiness blinded blind-ed her. "Oh, who are youT' she gasped. "I ara Elsie," the sturdy creature replied. "Oh, why" Tortlon gulped "Bob must have found you at last. I nm so glad. Could you stay a week, do you suppose? I have some terribly stylish and Important company due any minute," she said tremulous with hope, Incredulity and desire, "and they have simply got to be Impressed, you see, for Bob's sake. I thought I was going to show" sho was once more her Impulsive, frank self "show that swell eastern society queen we're the right kind, that I'm a help to Bob, you know, and he's worth backing nnd how" "Yes, na'am," the guttural voice sympathized. "Just don't worry. I stay von veek, maybe free veek. 1 cook to blease de so stylish frau I And now you will blease eaL" Afler lunch she had been subsisting subsist-ing on Old Ben's and Robert's culinary atrocities for a week now she essayed a few orders with regard to her beloved be-loved menage. "Please have the house entirely gone over by tomorrow, early, Elsie," sho said. Til mnko out the menus. Mr. Taunton will send a truck In to town for what we need. You do realize, real-ize, do you not, Elsie, how Important It Is that everything shouM be perfect?" per-fect?" "But. yes, ma'am." Portia had a little bell and she used j It not by any means Infrequently. She told herself she was going to get her money's worth out of this strapping strong creature. Slie'd Impress that society queen In one way or another. But his Nibs nnd Nlbbess did not appear the next day. Nor the next nor the next. "You'd think," Portia complained with frankness to her maid. "You'd thiol? even rich people could be con sidcmle, wouldn't you? But of course a frivolous delicate society queen wouldn't realize what a visit from her to a poor woman would mean. Did you close the doors, Elsie, and duU the awnlogs away down? Co nod pfek up that thread. It's annoyed me long enough. Elsie, wouldn't you hate to live the life of a social butterfly?" "Oh, but, yes ma'am, I say I bate It! Ma I like vorkl" "And she'll be supercilious and disagreeable dis-agreeable or else silly and rain and helpless. Well I wish she'd harry and coine and get It over with. Did you polish the silver, Elsie?" "Yes, moiin." "KIsle?" .1 "Yes, ma'am." "If these people are Impressed and we get this water control plan across and get awfully rich here In this nalf-nnd nalf-nnd added up two more t rajs the last to come through for the day. Then one day he came a little Inter than usual and Emma stopped short, her fingers poised over the register as she saw the contents of his tray. "Well." she grunled. "Dieting again, are you? Stuff nnd nonsense." "I'm not feeling so good, Emma, today. to-day. Haven't any appetite at all. She slipped the check under the edge of his bowl of corn flakes and shook her head. "Indigestion, nothing noth-ing I Starvation!" Sho called to blond KIsle Smith, whom she had trained to cashier in cases of emergency. emer-gency. "Elsie, you finish cashiering for me. .lust twenty minutes more. I'm terrible ter-rible hungry and I want to eat with a friend of mine." She loaded her tray liberally. She took custard pie nnd a chocolate eclair. She helped herself to whipped cream und put two cupfuls of coffee on bur I ray. Elsie giggled as she figured fig-ured up the check. "You must be going to feed farmhands farm-hands or else you certainly most be starved. Miss Emma. You'll sure get fat on such eats as them." Emma planted the tray squarely on the table across from William Watson. She shoved aside the bowl of break-fust break-fust food and placed a plate of crenmed chicken on toast before him. She placed a cupful of coffee on top of which floated whipped cream, beside be-side the plate. She shoved the custard cus-tard pie across the table and thick slices of bread. "There, now I Just because your housekeeper up and left you Is no sign you are going to starve yourself to death, and by the looks of you she wasn't any too good a cook at that. Ent tlKii chicken. Wllllnml Why. you you Just need" William Watson sank his fork Into the crenmed chicken and toast and I hen leaned forward. "A wife, Emma, Just as much as I did ten years ago when you said you wanted to marry a farmer. How about a nice trip to Niagara falls for a wedding trip, and theu back to the farm. I'm not as bad off as you thought. I thought may be the farm and a little sympathy stuff might win you over and I thought right I And wo can come In nnd have dinner here whenever we want to." "Humph I On the farm we'll stay until I cau get you fattened up." |