Show gha VALIANT all T 5 fl virdinia VID V dINIA i N ft nallie IE ERNINIE ep rations RATION 5 oj LAUREN LAUP EN FP y co cy ay 1 I fuei i SYNOPSIS john ft a lich society favorite suddenly discovers A that tile the valiant porn tion which film father founded und which chic ah with tile vrin principal cipal source of lila his weal stealth tte alth t has fril failed ca lie ilo voluntarily turns turna over his private fortu fortune to tho the rec receiver civer for the h 0 corvo corporation ration allne ills s entire to r e mat ning consist of nil an old of motor car a wit ito bull log dof arid damory court it a neg lecter estado in virginia on the way to damory court it ho meeta dand nn an auburn haired beauty anil and do aides that lie hn is ig going to like virginia irn In ensely mother mrs kirn dand ridge and major 13 exchange exclia rom during which it is ie revealed that hat the major Vali ants father and a plan inan habben were rivals for tile the hand of mrs mra dandridge in tier her youth hasson an aind valiant fought a duel on heir in which the former was killed I 1 valiant linds finds damory court overgrown with and creepers creep erB and tile the hullda engg as ln in a very much lucli neglected neglect eti condition tion I 1 ilo le dee des to the place and inaldo the lie land prod produce lice ft a living for bilm ailin V girnt save haves v shirley f from r orn the bite of it a rinke nolte which bitel him knowing tho Je of tile the bite shirley stick s the enlson n oil from tile wound anti and saves hla film life hirley tells tier her mottier mother of tile the incident anil and the latter Is in strangely moved nl at bearing that a valiant la is again living at damory court vallant valiant learns learna for tile first ehno that hat him fattier father left virginia of nn beco account lInt of a duel in which doctor V guthall ESou ou and major bristow acted na as its ills fat fathers tiers seconds CHAPTER continued you are cold he be sald said that gown too thin for this night air no I 1 often walk here till quite late into Li listen stent the bird song had broken forth ngali to bo be answered this time by a rivals in a distant thicket my nightingale Is ie in good voice 1 I never heard a nightingale before I 1 carno came to virginia I 1 wonder why it singa only at night what art an odd add ideal why it sings inthe daytime too really but I 1 suppose it escapes notice in the general chorus Is it a large bird no smaller than a thrush only a little bigger than a n robin its nest Is over thoro there in that hedge a tiny loose cup of tried dried oak ciak leaves lined with hair and the eggs are olive olavi color liow how pretty the hedge looks now all tangled with firefly spa Bpark rhal sl it uncle Jef jefferson forson calls them lightning bugs buge tile the name Is much more picturesque tur esque but all the darky sayings ire are do you find him and aunt daphne useful lie ilo has been a godsend godsen dj ho he said fervently and her cooking has taught me to treat her with passionate respect hes teaching me noy now about flowers its surprising how man many kinds he knows lies ilas a walking herbarium come and see mine she said roses aro are our specialty we have to live up to the rosewood name but beyond the arbors are beds and beds of 0 other flowers see by this big tree tire are speedwell speed well and delphinium the tree Is a black walnut I 1 ts its a dreadful thing to have bavo one as big as that when you want something that costs coats a lot of at money you go and look at it and wonder which you want roost most that particular luxury or the tree I 1 know a girl who had two in her yard only a little bigger than this and she went to europe on them but so BO tar far ive always voted for the tree ilow how does your garden come on famously uncle jefferson has shanghaied shanghai ed a hal hall dozen negro gardeners from where I 1 cant imagine and hes having the time of his bis life hectoring hectorina hec over them lie he refers cetera to tile the upper and lower terraces as up and downstairs down stairs ive got seeds but it will be a long time before they flower oh would you like some slips she bhe cried or better still I 1 can shirley shir ley who had again seated her self suddenly laughed and pointed to the book give you the roses already rooted mad charles and marechal Ala nell and cloth of gold and cabbage and ramblers wo we have geraniums and fuen too and tho the coral honeysuckle different from the wild one you know you are too goodz good it if you would advise me where to set them but I 1 dare say you think me ine in int g 1 she turned her full face to him presuming youre punishing roe me now for the dreadful way I 1 talked to you about hamory court before I 1 knew who you were oh ob it was waa un I 1 and after the splendid thing you nad done 1 lead about it that same evening with your money tre in no no lie protested there was nothing splendid about it it was only pride you see the corporation was waa my fat fathers tiers great idea the thing ho created anti and put his soul into and it was foundering I 1 know that would havo have hurt him one thing ivo ive wanted to say bay to you over ever since tho the day wo we talked together about the duel I 1 want to say aay that whatever lay behind it my fathers whole life was darkened by that event now that I 1 can put two all and two together I 1 know that it was tho the cause of hla his ali ah I 1 can believe that sho she replied 1 I think lie ho had only two interests myself and the corporation so you see why id rather save that and bo be a beggar tho the rest of my iny natural life but im not a beggar damory court alono alone Is worth I 1 know it now a hundred times what I 1 left you are po utterly different from what I 1 imagined you youl 1 I could never have imagined you lie he said bald never 1 I 1 must bo be terribly outre you aro are so BO many women in when I 1 listened to your harp playing I 1 could hardly bellevo believe it was th osam you I 1 saw galloping across the feehs that morning now cpu are a different woman from both of those As she looked at him her lips cornerwise corner wise her foot slipped ori the sheer edge of tile the turf sho she sayed toward him and lie ho caught tier her feeling for a sharp instant the adorable nearness of her body it ridged all his skin akin with a creeping delight she recovered her footing with an exclamation and turned back somewhat hp hb raptly to tho the porch where she herself on the step drawing her fl ulm irrl skirt aside to make a place for aln there was a moment of silence which he broke that exquisite serenade you were play playing you know the words of course bourse they aro are more lovely it if possible than tho the score do you caro care for poetry ivo iva always loved it ho he said ive been reading some lately a little old fashioned book I 1 found at damory court its luclle lucile do you know it ltv yes yea its my mothers favorite ila ho drew it from tits his pocket see ive got it hero here its marked too lie ile opened it to close it instantly not however before she had put out her hand and laid it palm down on the page that rosel rose oh oft let rue mo have it loverl Ne No verl ho he protested look here when I 1 put it between the leaves I 1 lid did so at random I 1 see till now that I 1 had bad opened it at a marked passage let ua lie read it she said ile he leaned and held the leaf to the light from the doorway and the two heads bent together over the text A sound tell fell behind them and both turned A slight figure in a soft gray gown with old lace at the throat stood in the doorway behind them john valiant sprang to his feet ali ah shirley I 1 thought I 1 heard voices Is that you chilly its not mr lusk mother said shirley its our now new neighbor mr air valiant As ho he bent over the frail hand murmuring the conventional words that presentations are believed to require mrs dandridge sank into a deep cushioned chair wont you sit down she said lie he noticed that sho she did not look directly at ai him and that her face was as pallid as her hair thank you said john valiant and resumed life cla place on the lower step shirley who had again seated herself suddenly laughed and pointed to the book which lay between them imagine what we are doing dearest wo we were reading luclle lucile together she saw the other wince and the deep dark eyes lifted as it if under compulsion from tho the book cover to vali ants face ile ho was startled by shir leys cry and the sudden limp unconscious settling back into the cushions ot at the fragile form CHAPTER night A quicker breeze was stirring as john valiant went back along the red road lie he had waited in the garden at rosewood till shirley aided by Emm emmalane allne and with Rans tons anxious face hovering in the background having performed those gentle offices which a womans comans fainting spell requires had come to reassure rea asure him and to say bay good night 11 As he threw off tits his coat in the bedroom he be had chosen for his own he be felt the hard corner of the luclle lucile in the pocket and drawing it out laid it on the table by the bedside lie ho seemed to feel again the tingle of his cheek where a curling strand of her coppery hair had sprung against it when tier her head hall had bent beside hla his own to read the marked lines when he had undressed he sat eat an hour in tho the candle blaze a dressing gown thrown over his shoulders striving v vainly to recreate tha tha evening call to remember tier her every word and look and movement for a br breath nth tier her face ifould vi lush flush suddenly before him like a live thing then it would mysteriously fade and ellide elude him though he clenched his hands on tho the M ras of hig hie chair in the nerce fierce mental effort to recall it only the intense blue of her eyes the tawny sweet sweep of tier her hair cheso and the touch of her the consciousness of her warm and vivid fragrance remained to wrap all his senses in a mist woven of gold and iro fire 0 0 0 0 0 shirley meanwhile bad sat some time beside tier her mothers bed leaning from a white chintz covered chair her anxiety only partially allayed by reassurances su how and then stooping to lay her young cheek against the delicate arm in its lacy sleeve or tp pass pasa tier lier hand band lovingly up and town down its outline noting with a recurrent passion of 0 tenderness tile the transparency of A tho the skin with its violet veining and the shadows 0 s beneath the closed eyes emmaline moving on soft worsted shod feet about the dim room at length had bad whispered you go tuh full bald honey bone I 1 stay with mis judith till she go tuh sleep yes go shirley said her mother tried the numbers carefully first right then left 17 28 29 94 0 the heavy door opened I 1 any privileges at all cant I 1 even faint when I 1 feel like it without calling out the fire brigade pamper me to death and heaven knows I 1 dont need it you wont let me telephone for doctor southall certainly not and you are sure it was nothing but the roses why what else should it be said her mother almost peevishly 1 I must really have the arbors thinned out on heavy nights its positively overpowering go along now auld aid well talk about it tomorrow I 1 can ring it I 1 want anything in her room shirley undressed thoughtfully there was between betwee ii her and her mother a fine tenuous bond of sympathy and feeling as rare perhaps as it was lovely she could not remember when the other had not been a semi invalid and her earliest childhood recollections were punctuated with the tap of the little cane To nights sudden indisposition had shocked and disturbed her to faint at a rush of perfume seemed to suggest a growing weakness that was alarming tomorrow she told herself sho would send bend ranston with a of the roses to the hospital at charlottesville she slipped on a pink shell shaded dressing gown of slinky silk with a riot of azaleas scattered in the weave veave and then dragging her chair before the open window drew aside the light curtain and began to brush her hair all at once her gaze fell upon the floor and she shrank backward from a twisting threadlike thread like thing whose bright saffron yellow glowed sharply against the tha dark carpet she bhe saw in an instant however that it was nothing more dangerous than a fragment of lovevine love vine from the garden which had clung to her skirt she picked up the tiny mass of tendrils and with a slow smile tossed it over her right shoulder through tho the window if it takes root she said aloud my sweetheart loves me she leaned from the sill bill to peer down into the misty garden but could not follow its fall long ago her visitor would have reached damory court she had a vision of him wandering candle in hand through the empty echoing rooms looking at the voiceless portraits on the walls thinking perhaps of his father of the fatal duel of which ho he had never known she bhe liked the way he had bad spoken of his eatherl As sho she leaned out of the stillness stiffness there came to her ear car a mellow sound it was the bell of the courthouse in the village are counted the strokes falling clearly or faintly ns ne the sluggish breeze ebbed or swelled it was eleven she drew balck dropped III curtain to shut out the wan glimmer and in the darkness crept into the soft bed as if into ft a hiding place 0 0 0 A warm sun and an air mildly mellow A faint gold shadowed mist over tho the valley and a soft lilac haze blending the rounded outlines of 0 f the hills through the shrubbery at damory court a cardinal darted like a crimson shuttle to rock roch impudently from a fleer lug limb anti and hero here anti and there on the bluish ivory sky us as a pasted water hung ri a hawk flom time to time one ot oc these wavered and slanted swiftly down to climb once more in a huge spiral to its high tower of sky perhaps it wondered as its tele eye looked down that had been its choicest covert that disheveled ate tangle where the birds held perpetual carnival the weasel lurked in the underbrush and the rabbit lined his windfall now tho the wildness was gone A pergola glistening white now upheld the runaway vines malting making a sickle like path from tho upper terrace to the lake in the barn loft the pigeons still quarrelled quarrel led over their now new cotes of fresh pine and under a clump of locust trees at a little distance from the house a halt dozen dolls cabins on stilts stood waiting the honey stor age of the black and gold bees there were new denizens a also ISO these had arrived in a dozen zinc tanks and willow hampers to the amaze of a sleepy express clerk at the railroad station two swans now sailed majestically over the lily ponds of tho the lake along its gravel rim and a pair of bronze colored ducks waddled and preened pre ened and its placid surface rippled and broke to the sluggish backs of goldfish and tho the flirting tins fins of red japanese Japa neso carp the house itself wore another air its took look of unkemptness had largely vanished the soft gray tone of age remained but tile the bleakness and forlornness were gone there was about all now a warmth and genial bearing that hinted at mellowed beauty firelight and cheerful voices within valiant heaved a long sigh of satisfaction as he stood in the sunlight gazing at the results of his labors ile he was not now the flippant boulevard ler ier to whom money was the sine qua non of existence lie he hall had learned a sovereign lesson one gained not through the push and fight of crowds but in the simple peace of a countryside by the clamor of gold and the complex problems of a competitive existence that he had inherited a need of activity of achievement that he had been born to 0 do chum lito ho said to the dog rolling on his back in the grass what do yoa think of it all anyway lie he reached down seized a hind leg and N whirling him around like a sent him flying |