Show VALIANT 5 lNlA r nallie ERMINIE illustrations LAUREN TOUT y ay acab john valiant SYNOPSIS rich society favorite suddenly ilis coers that the valiant corporation po ration which his father founded and emch was the principal source 0 his wealth has failed lie voluntarily turns eer his to the receiver tor the corporation his entire remaining consist of an old motor car a white bull do and danbory court a neglected estate in virginia on the way to damory court he meeta sharley dand ade an auburn haired beauty and dl that he ts koltgr to like virginia m densely an old negro tells sharley a tor tune and predicts areat trouble for her oa account of a man CHAPTER VIII what happened thirty years ago when sharley came across the lawn at rosewood major montague bristow eat under the arbor talking to her dobber the major was massive framed with a strong jaw and a rubicund complexion the sort that might be supposed to have attained the utmost benefit to be conferred by a consist ent indulgence jn mint juleps ills blue ayea were piercing and arched with brows like sable rainbows at variance with his heavy iron gray hair and imperial ills head was leonine and he looked like a king who has humbled bis enemy it may be added that his linen was fine and late his black string tie precisely tied and a pair of gold rimmed eyeglasses eye glasses ecung by a flat black cord against his white waistcoat i sharley eald her mother the ma s and he shan t bave his julep what has he been doing asked the other her brows wrinkling in a delightful way she had he has reminded me that I 1 m grow lag old sharley looked at the major skeptically tor la chivalry was un doubted during a long career in law and legislature it had been said of alm that he could neither speak on i the tariff question nor defend a man for murder without first paying a tribute to the women of the south flab nothing of the sort he rumbled mrs face softened to wistfulness sharley am I 1 she asked with a quizzical almost a droll uneasiness why I 1 ve got every emotion I 1 ve ever had I 1 read all the new french novels and I 1 m even thinking of going in for the militant suffragette movement the girl bad tossed her hat and crop on the table and seated herself by her mothers chair what was it he said dearest he thinks I 1 ought to wear a wor eted shawl and her mother thrust out one little thin foot with its slender ankle gleaming through its open work stocking like of pearl imagine in may and he kiowa im vain of my feet major it you had ever bad a wife you would have learned wisdom dut you mean well aad take back what I 1 said about the julep you mix it sharley youra Is even better than Rans tons she makes me one every day mon ty she continued aa sharley went into the house and when she isn t looking I 1 pour it into the bush there major laughed as he bit ane end off a cigar all the same be said in bis big rumbling voice you need cm I 1 reckon you need more than mint juleps too you leave shit ley said her mother the majora brutal the whiskey to me and the doctor and you take sharley and pull out for italy why not A year there would ao you a heap of good she elwook her head no monty it ant what you think its here she lifted her hand and touched her heart it a been so for a long time but it may it can t go on forever you bee nothing can the major had leaned forward in bla chair judith he said and bis and twitched it truer and hen how do you know she smiled at him you remember when that big surgeon from vienna caan to see the doctor last year welt aba doctor brought him to me I 1 d known tt before in a way but it bad gon farther than I 1 thought no ae can tell juet how long it may be it wy be acara ot course but I 1 m not ay aa trips monty I 1 he cleared his throat and his voice was huska when he spoke sharley doean doesn t know certainly not she austn t and then in sudden sharpness you shant tell her monty you dare no indeed he assured her quickly of course not it s just among us three doctor southal and you and me we three have had our before eh lion ty yes judith ye have she bent toward him her hands tightening on the cane after all its true today I 1 am getting old I 1 may look only fifty but I 1 feel sixty and admit to seventy five it s joy that keeps us young and I 1 dlan t get my fair share of that monty for just one little week my heart had it all all and then well then it was finished it was long before I 1 married tom dandradge it isn t that I 1 m empty headed it s that I 1 ve been an empty hearted woman monty as empty and dusty and desolate as the old house over yonder on the ridge I 1 know judith I 1 know youve been empty in a way too she said but its been a different way you were never in love really in love I 1 mean certainly not with me monty though you tried to make me think BO once upon a time before sassoon came along and beauty va llant the major blinked suddenly startled it vas out the one name neither had spoken to the other tor thirty years he looked at her a lit tie guiltily but her eyes had turned away everything changed then she continued dreamily everything the majors fingers strayed across his waistcoat fumbling uncertainly for his eyeglasses eye glasses for au instant he too atas back in the long ago past when he and valiant had been comrades it had been a curious three sided affair he and valiant and sassoon bassoon with his flair and ungovernable temper and strange fits of recklessness clean high idealer straightaway valiant and he a brastow neither better nor worse than the rest of his name lie remembered that mad strained season when he had grimly recognized bis own cause as hopeless and with burn ing eyes had watched bassoon and valiant racing abreast he kemem bared that glittering prodigal dance when ho had come upon valiant and judith standing in the shrubbery the candle light from some open door en their faces here smiling a little flippant perhaps and conscious of her spell bis grave and earnest yet wistful you promise john I 1 give my sacred word whatever provocation I 1 will not lift my hand against him never never I 1 then the ame voice vibrant appealing judith it isn t because because you care for him he had plunged away in the dark ness before her answer came what had it mattered then to him what she had replied and that very night bad befallen the fatal quarrel the major started how that name had blown away the dust that a a long time ago judith thirty years ago tomorrow they fought she eald softly valiant and sassoon every woman has her one anniversary I 1 suppose and tomor rows mine do you know what I 1 do every fourteenth of may monty I 1 keep my room and spend the day always the same way there s a little book I 1 read and theres an old haircloth trunk that I 1 ve had since I 1 was a garl down in the bottom of it are some things that I 1 take out and set round the room and there Is a handful of old letters I 1 go over from first to last they re almost worn out now but I 1 could repeat them all with my eyes shut then there s a tiny old straw basket with a yellow wisp in it that once was a bunch of cape jessa mines I 1 wore them to that last ball the night before it happened the fourteenth of may used to be sad but now do you know I 1 look forward to if I 1 always have a lot of jessa mines that particular day have shirley get me some tomorrow and in the evening when I 1 go down stairs the house Is full of the scent of them all summer long its roses but on the fourteenth of may it has to be Jessa mines sharley must think me a whimsical old woman but I 1 in alst on being humored lie smiled a little bleakly and cleared his throat isn t it strange for me to be talk ing this way now she said present ly another proof that I 1 m getting old dut the date brings it very close it seems somehow closer than ever this year monty beret you tremendously surprised when I 1 married tom dandradge 1 certainly was tell you a secret I 1 was too I 1 suppose I 1 did it because of a sneak ing feeling that some people were feel ing sorry for me which I 1 could stand well be was a man any one might honor ive always thought a woman ought to have two husbands one to love and cherlee cher leh and the other to honor and obey I 1 had the latter at aay rate and you ve lived judith he bald yes she agreed with a little sigh I 1 ve lived I 1 ve had sharley and she a twenty and adorable and I 1 ve had people enough and books to read and plenty ot pretty things to look at and old lace to wear and I 1 ve kept my figure and my vanity I 1 m not too old yet to thank the lord for that so don t talk to me about worsted shawls and horrible for I 1 won t wear cm not if I 1 know myself here comes sharley shea made two juleps and if you re a gen aleman you 11 distract her attention till I 1 ve got rid of mine in my usual way the major at the foot of the cherry bordered lane looked back across the box hedge to where the two figures sat under the rose arbor the mothers face turned lovingly down to sharley s at her knee he ethod a moment he inserted the key in the rusted lock watching them from under hla slouched hat brim ti ou never looked at me that way judith did iou he sighed to himself it fl been a long time too since I 1 began to want you to most forty years when t came to the show down I 1 gasn wasn t even as fit aa tom CHAPTER IX damory court dara deairy coot smack dab abald sun john valiant looked up facing them at an elbow of the bread road was an old gateway of alme nicked stone clasping an iron gate that was quaint and baady and red with rust he put out hta hand walt a moment he said in a low voice and as the creaking conveyance stopped ae turned and looked about him facing the entrance the land fell away sharply to a miniature valley through which rambled a willow bor dered brook in whose shallows short horned cows stood lazily beyond whither wound the red road be could see a drowsy village with a spire and a cupo laed court house and farther yet a yellow gorge with a wisp of white smoke curling above it marked the course of a crawling faraway railway et s er fine ol 01 place suh mid dat big revenue ob trees said uncle jefferson but ah reck n et aln got none ob de modern connla ances As valiant jumped down he was possessed by an odd sensation of old acquaintance as if he had seen those tall white columns before an allu sory half vision into some shadowy fourth dimensional landscape that belonged to his subconscious self or that glimpsed in some immaterial dream picture had left a taint etched memory then on a sudden the vista vibrated and widened the white col dumns expanded and shot up into the clouds and from every bush seemed to peer a friendly black savage with woolly white hair wishing houett he whispered the hidden country which his father s thoughts sadly recurring had painted to the little child that once he was in the guise of an endless wonder tale ills eyes listed over and it seemed to him that moment that his father was very near leaving the negro to unload his belongings be traversed an overgrown path of gravel between box rows frow sled lilio the manes of lions gone mad and smothered in an ac of matted roots and debris of rotting foliage and presently the bulldog at his heels found himself in tho rear of the house mine he said aloud with a rueful pride and for general rundown ness its up to the advertisement he looked musingly at the piteous wreck and ruin his gaze sweeping down across the bared fields and kempt forest mine he repeated all that I 1 suppose for it has tho sama earmarks of neglect between cultivated stretches it looks like a w de of sahara gone astray his gaze returned to the house yet what a place it must have been in its time lie went slowly back to where his con ductor eat on the horse bock ea heah called uncle jefferson cheerfully we gw inter do nex suh ah better go avab ter miss dandridge s place fer or crow bah bawd he added of he aln got da key yo think ob dat now john valiant was looking closely at the big key for there were words which he had not noted before en graved in the massive flange friends all hours he smiled the sentiment sent a warm current of pleasure to his fingertips hera baa the very text of hospitality 1 A lilliputian spider web was stretched over the preempted keyhole and he fetched a grasa stem and poked out its tiny gray striped denizen before he inserted the key in the rusted lock he turned it with a curious sense of timidity all the strength of his fingers was necessary before the massive door swung open and the lev cling sun sent its late red rays into the gloomy interior he stood in a spacious hall his nos tells filled with a curious but not un pleasant aromatic odor with which the place was strongly impregnated the hall ran the full length of the build ing and in its center a wide balus traded double staircase led to upper darkness the floor where his foot prints had disturbed the even gray film of dust was of fine close parquetry and bad been generously strewn everywhere with a mica like powder he stooped and took up a pinch in his fingers noting that it gave forth the curious spicy scent dim paintings in tarnished frames hung on the walls from a niche on the break of the stairway looked down the face of a tall dutch clock and on one side protruded a huge bulging something draped with a yellowed linen sheet from its shape he guessed athla to be an elk a head dust undisturbed lay thickly on everything ghostly floating cobwebs crawled across his face and a bat flirted flitted out of a fireplace and vanished squeak ng over his head with uncle jef ferdona fer sona help he opened the rear doors and windows knocked up the rusted belts of the shutters and flung them wide but for the dust and cobwebs and the strange odor mingled with the faint musty smell that pervades a sun less interior the former owner or the house might have deserted it a week ago on a wall rack lay two walking sticks and a gold mounted hunting crop and on a great carved chest below it had been flung an opened book bound in tooled leather john valiant picked this up curiously it was lucal he noted that here and there passages were marked with penciled elnoa some light and feml delcame del cate some heavier as though two had been reading it together noting their individual prefer ances he laid it back musingly and open ing a door entered the large room it disclosed this had been the dining room at one end stood a crystal knobbed mahogany sideboard holding glass candlesticks in the of ionic columns above it a quaint por trait of a lady in hoops and love curls and at the other end was a huge fireplace with rust red alro aogi and tarnished brass fender all chest with the round centipede table and the chippendale chabra set in order against the walls were dimmed and grayed with a thick powdering of dust the next room that he entered was big and wide a place or dark colors nobly smut ched of time it had been at once library and living room A great leither settee was drawn near the desk and beside this stood a read ang stand with a small china dog and a squat bronze lamp upon ft in con to the orderly dining room there was about this chamber a of untouched disorder a desk drawer jerked halt open a yellowed newspaper torn across and flung into n corner books tossed on desk and lounge and in the fireplace a little heap ot whitened ashes in which charred frag ments told ot letters and papers burned in haste suddenly he lifted his eyes above the desk hung a life size portrait ot a man in the high soft stock and vel vet collar of halt a century before the right eye strangely had been cut from the canvas he stood straight and tall one hand holding an eager hound in leash his face proud and florid his single cold steel blue eye staring down through its dusty curtain with a certain malicious arrogance and alls lips set in a sardonic curve that seemed about to sneer it was tor an instant as it the pictured figure confronted the young man who stood |