Show IL ydo A or W WV uk JJ I 1 t 1 LI bu robert sted stead J aarroa AUT HOtt or THE COW PUNCHER TUC homr sctt by a on this evening oven lin when nix 1 mind and been suddenly ud denly turned into old channels by the finding of the no clipping dealing with the wedding of YD a s grant walked far into the out outskirts of the city paying little attention to hie film course it mas a lat late october the leaves lay thick on the and through the parka parks there 0 as in all the air that strange sad ad elect dreariness of the dying summer orant grant had triad tried heroically to keep hie fits thoughts away from Tran wife the past had bad come back on him had rather engulfed him id in that little newspaper clipping lie ile let himself wonder where eho she woe was and whether nearly a year of married worried life had bad shown her tier the folly of her decision lib took it for granted that flint her decision bad been folly and ho he arrived at that position lon without any reflection upon Tr only lyZen On zen had been in love mith him with him film dennison Dennl con orant 1 sooner or later eho she must discover the tragedy of that fact and yet he told himself ha he wim was big enough to hope she might never die dis j cover it IL it would be beet beat that ehe she ZIP ah miss ml bruc bruce I 1 beg your pardon 4 1 I am glad to see sea you should forget him aa as he had almost forgotten her there was no doubt that would bg ba best and yet there was a delightful sadness in thinking of her still and hoping that ome some day ile was never able to complete the thought alte he rat had 4 been walking down a street 0 ofaf f lodest home homes tho the bare trees a sky clear and blue with we th fire presage of winter A quick top step lell fell unheeded by hie his aide side the cirl girl paced hesitated then turned and spoke you are preoccupied mr grant 11 oh miss bruce I 1 bes beg your pardon I 1 am glad to see you even at that moment he be had been thinking of zen and perhaps he put more cordiality words than he intended but be he had grown to have re card gard on her oun account foe for this un usual girl who was not afraid of him he had found thai that she was what he called a goodhead good head she could take a detached view she was wait absolutely fair ahe the was wag not dot easily flustered her step bad had fallen into swing with hh sou you do not often visit our pact patt of the city she essayed ton you live herer berar nearby nearly 0 o will you come to see ile turned with her at a corner comer and they went ent tip up a R narrow street lying deep in dead leaves friendly domestic could be caught through Ilu windows this la Is our home bomb she bald said top stop pine pin before a little gate grants grunts ee folit followed wed thie thle pathway to a cottage sot set back among 04 th trees 1 1 I live here with my sister and brother and mother fubber Is ls dead eho she went on hurriedly as though wishing to place before him a quick of the tho family affairs and we keep up the home by living thing on with mother as boarders that ix is grace and I 1 do hubert is still 1 in high school wont you come in he ile followed her up the path and into a little hall ball ughtred only by chance rays mx lolling falling through a half opened door she did not switch on the current and grant aa as aware of a comfortable sense of her ber nearness quite dle distinct from any office expert bece an she took his bla hat hal in the ltv ine ing roomier room her mother received him with visible surprise she was not old but widowhood and the cares care of a it young yount family had bid whitened her hair before if its time u we are am clad alad ta taa a you Ur JULur 4 4 1 pahe initha it IH an unexpected gieng lire tire illy 11 humIn oito men do not often mr air grunt to 1 lr tier daughter interrupted 1 I found him van wandering wand erinc derins tho and und I 1 jurt just re film 1 I think I 1 nin different lio be ed as hid file vo e a took in the surround ingo which ho lie quickly tin no modest comfort attained ned through gli nian man little cco nomica and phylus Illy lils Is u great grent help to me and irace tho the mother observed 1 I hope she Is a rood good girl in the office at this inocent grace race und and hubert carne in from the tho picture how show together peth tr and the conversation turned to lighter topics lira bruce insisted on serving tea ten nod and cake and when grant orant found that ho lie roust must go phyllis accompanied him to the gate 1 this nil seems so funny 1 she was saying you aro are a very remarkable man 1 I think I 1 once passed a similar opinion about you bho she extended her tier hand and he held field it for a moment 1 1 I have not changed chanced my lint first opinion lie bald said as he re leased her tier incur fingers and turned quickly don doun tho pavement CHAPTER XI grants first visit to the tho home of hie big private stenographer vas was not his last and the neve nex leaked out as it ie Is eure sure to do in such cases the social set confessed to being on an the point polut oabe of be ing shocked two schools of criticism developed over the five dye tea tables one held that grant woe wag 91 fay gay dog who bould settle down doan and marry in his tits class when he had bad had his nine fling and the other that bruce was an artful hussy who was quite ready to sell herself for the grant ons and there were so many eligible young women on the market although none of them were described as artful huss hussies lesl 1 grants behavior however placed him under aub nb cloud to in go 0 o far as a social opportunities were concerned on the contrary he found himself belne being showered with invitations most of which he managed to decline on the grounds of pressure of bus when such an excuse would have bea been too transparent he accepted and made the best beat of it and ana he found no lack of encouragement in the one or two incipient amorous flurries which resulted prom such positions poe lUona he always succeeded in extricating himself with a quiet smile at the vagaries of life he had bad to admit that some of the young women whom he had met had ahn charms 2 of more than passing moment he might easily enough find himself chasing the rainbow but his attention was at once to be turned to very different matters A stock market erratic for some days went ent suddenly into a paroxysm grant escaped with as little loss as possible for himself and his clients and after atter three sleepless nights called his staff together they crowded into the board room curious apprehensive almost frightened and be he looked over them with an emotion that was quite new now to his experience even in the aloofness which their standard standards had made it necessary for him to adopt there had bad grown grawn up in his heart quite unnoticed wi a tender sweet foliage of love for these men and women who were a u part jot of his bla machine now as he be looked in their faces he lie realized how like little children they leaned on him how like little ch children lidren they feared his power and his displeasure bow how perhaps like little children they had bad learned to loe him too he realized as an he had never done before that they were children that here and there in the mass of humanity liti manity la 13 one who was born to lead but the great creat mass man itself must be b children always doing as they nrc tire bid my friends he treating managed ed to say we suddenly find ourselves in tremendous trae adous times timm some of you know ray attitude toward this business in which we are engaged I 1 did not seek it I 1 tried to avoid it yet when the r re na forced upon me we I 1 accepted that responsibility I 1 cae gave up the life I 1 enjoyed the environment in which I 1 found dell delight Cht the friends I 1 loved well lvell our nation Is now in a so somewhat similar position it baa has tc to go into a busl nees which it did nol not seek of vh which it does 1 not approve but which fate has thrust upon it it has noi to break of off the current of its life and t turn it in into to undreamed of channels and we as individuals who ranke ui up the nation must do the same I 1 hav have already call enlisted sted and ex expect hect that with ith in a few hours I 1 shall swi bo be in uniform some of you are single men of inlall tory tary age yon you will I 1 nm am sure taki take similar steps por for the rest the bual busl ness willbe wound tap up ae as soon as pos bible so that you may be ri released leased for to will nil till receive three kontur alary la ia lieu of notice mr murdoch will look after the details when that has been done my wealth or och such port pan of it remains rem alne will be placed at the dam ii postil of the government if we win it ulal be well ell invested la in a bood cause if it we lose it would have ben lost anyway no one knew know just how the meeting broke up but grant had a confused remembrance of many handclasps and some tear tears he ile was not eure sure that he had find not perhaps added one or two to the th flow but they were all tear tears 0 of f friendship und and of an emotion born bom of talgia 11 resolve AM he lie stood in hie his own again trying to let the events of these last evv fp day into some sort of 1113 bruce entered ue he motioned dumbly to a chair but she camo came and by his dk iler face was very white and her lips trembled with the she he tried to utter 1 I 1 cant so go she managed to say ay at knath cant goa I 1 dont under understands I hubert lubert hoe has joined ehe she said aid Il hubert lubert the boy boyl I 1 why ho he Is only in school lie ile ie Is sixteen and large for hie his age he ile camo carrie home confessing confess lne and any ins it woe was hie him first lie and the firma important thing he ever did without consulting consul tin f mother lie ile eald said be he knew ho be able to land stand it if it be he told her tier ural foolish Po ollah but heroic grant commented be proud of him it take takes more than wisdom m to be heroic 11 and grace orace in 1 coins going to england she wai was taking nursing you know and so cote gets p preference we cant all tene 1 mother lie ile found it difficult to speak you wanted to go to the rr front ont be he managed of courso course where alsol her ifer liand was on the desk his own slipped over until it closed on it you are a little heroine ho he murmured no im not rm a little fool to tell you thie this but how can I 1 stay why should I 1 stay when you are gone onea one 1 she was looking down don but after her confession she raised her eye eyes to lie his and lie wondered that he had never how beautiful ehe she wae was ile could have taken her in hia his arme arms but something with the power of invisible chains held him back in that su u preme rayment sno ment a vision swam before him a vision of a mountain stream backed by tawny foothill foothills and a girl aa to beautiful as even this phyllls phyllis who had wrapped him in her ber firms and said we must go and forget and nd he had not forgotten when he lie did not respond she drew herself slowly away you will hate me she said that la Is impossible he corrected quickly 1 I am very corry if it I 1 have let you think more than I 1 intended I 1 core care for you very very much indeed I 1 care for yon you so much that I 1 will not let you think I 1 care for you more morel can you understand that tes you like me but you lore come some one else he ile was disconcerted by her intuition and the terse frankness with which she he stated the case 1 or I will win take you into my confidence phyllls phyllis if I 1 may way he eald said at length 1 I do like you I 1 did love some one else and that old attachment Is still so 10 strong that it would be hardly fair it would be hardly fair why you marry herr she demanded because some one else did ahl oh I 1 her hands found hie his this time rm sory so ry 1 she said sorry I 1 brought tills this UD uri sorry I 1 raised these mem oria juat now you ano have cnown will k know now ao 1 I know 1 I know lie murmured murr aured raising her to his lips tinie they eay uy Is in a healer heater of all wound wounds perhaps M I 1 no it Is I 1 better that you should forget only I 1 hall see you off I 1 shall wave my handkerchief to you I 1 shall mlle smile on you in the crowd then you will forget pour four yearn years of war add only four years to the life of a man according to the record in the family bible if he happen to spring from stock in which that acred sacred document Is preserved but four years of war udd twenty year years to the gray matter behind the eyes eye e eyes y es which learn to dream drem and lander strangely and sometimes es to shine with a hardness that hae has no part with youth when captain grant and sergeant binder linder topped stepped oft off we train at grant grants old city there wax was however little 0 to o suggest the ageing process that commonly went on among the soldiers old lere in the great war grant bad twice stopped an enemy bullet but tits hi fine figure and sunburned health now gave no evidence of those experiences binder linder counted himself lucky to carry only an empty sleeve alcove they had fallen in with each other in france and the friendship planted in the foothills of the he range country had grown through the strange arun that was whan they potted him I 1 n no mans land ings and graf tings or war into a tree of very solid timber under linder might have told you of 0 the time ills its captain found him with his arm crushed under a wrecked piece of artillery und glunt gaunt could havo have recounted recount ea a actor of biving dragged drugged unconscious out of no mans land but for either to dwell upon these matters only aroused resentment of the other and frequently lod led to exchanges between captain and end sergeant totally incompatible nith wili military tary discipline they were content to pay tribute to each other but each to leave his own honors aided first thing Is a place to eat irant remarked when allen they had been missed words to similar effect had find i indeed been his first remark upon every suitable opportunity for three months an appetite which has been four years in the making Is not to 0 be satisfied overnight and grant being b ft better fortified financially neatest the stress of a good meal sought to be ahas first to it under accepted the situation with the corn coin 41 I 1 pla cence or n roan man ano tins been tour biars on army pity lot got any notion aliat you will dol dor aid sald under when the meat wax was no tin not lie the alf stent I 1 dont even know whether im rich c or br broke I 1 suppose if jonea jones and murdoch are till they be looking after those lit dolne their bet best doubt less 1 to em burruss me with additional wealth alint are you going to dot do dont know mabbe MI bo go back and work fur for Tran Filey tho trien mention tion of Trun sley threw grants igind back into old ch chennels chann eln ho lie lid land tabi jont forgotten lie ile told hini m if lie laud quite forgotten for cutton zen Tri 1 but one once ho lie kno he lie lied alint no lien hen tiley they potted win hi in in no land As A lie lay there waiting walting ho lie inea lie land not forgotten and ho lie had land thought of phyllis bruce at first he had ritten to her tier but she he had not answered hie tits litters lett cre Eride otly she be meant mount him blin to farget nor had ehe she come to the station to welcome him hunie horne perhaps she he did not know perhaps ainuu things can happen in four bears suddenly Hud denly it curd oc mccurd to grant that it might bo be a rood good idea to call on phyllis lie would take under linder along that would make it lose less personal ue he know knew hie lils nuin man well ell enough to keep tits hl own counsel und eventually they reached the arnt of the tha cattaro cot taco taro 95 9 5 by account accia acco eni ent 4 lete lets toro turn in here I 1 used to knoy know |