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Show WITH SYNOPSIS Brooke Feburn visits the offxe of Jed Stewart, a lawyer, to discuss the terms of an estate she has Inherited from Mrs. Mary Armanda Dane. Unwittingly she overhears Jed talking to Mark Trent, a nephew of Mrs. Dane who has been disinherited. Mrs Dane had lived at Lookout House, a huge structure on the sea. built by her father and divided Into two. for her and Mark's father. Brooke had been a fashion expert, nd Mrs. Dane, a ' shut in." hearing her on the radio, had Invited her to call and developed deep affection for her. Mark discloses that Mrs. Dane had threatened to disinherit him if he married Lola, from whom be Is now divorced He sas he does not trust Henri and Clotilde Jacques, Mrs. Dane's servants. He says he Is no interested in an offer of Brooke's to share the estate with him. Leaving her department tore Job, Brooke refuses an offer to "go stepping" with Jerry Field, a carefree young man who wants to marry her. At a family conference she learns she must live at Lookout House alone, since Lucette, her younger sister who Is taking her job. her brother. Sam, a young playwright, and her mother plan to stay in the city. Jed and Mark are astounded when they hear from Mrt. Gregory, a family friend, that she bad witnessed a hitherto unknown will with Henri and Clotilde two weeks before Mrs. Dane died. Brooke bad arrived Just as she was leaving. CHAPTER III Continued 5 But how could "Destroyed Brooke Reyburn have known what was in the first will? Perhaps your aunt had told her that she was to be 'residuary legatee it doesn't seem probable, but women do fool things." He grinned. "Of course men never do. We've got to get busy. If it isn't destroyed, that will may be at Lookout House; you've never liked the Jacques and you say that they hate you. I have an idea. Open your house. Live there. Get friendly with the girl." "I would feel like a sneak to go there to spy on her." "You suspect that she may have influenced your aunt to make a will in her favor, don't you?" "I do." "Then give her a chance to prove that she didn't. Take a couple of Japs and go down and live next it? door." "I won't commit myself to that proposition in a hurry. If I decide to do it, will you come with me?" "Sure, I've been hoping you'd ask me. Philo Vance is my middle name." Stewart picked up the note lying on the desk. "You'd better cpen the investigation by accepting this." "The Reyburn girl's invitation to dine on Thanksgiving day? I would feel like a spy, a traitor. The turkey would choke me." "Do you want the truth about this will?" "You bet I do." "Then go. Don't write. We never send a letter when we can send a man. Phone the night before that you are coming. She'll have less time in which to think why you are accepting." Brooke Reyburn stood in the doorat Lookout way of the living-rooHouse. Behind her in the hall a graceful circular stairway wound up and up. She nodded approval. The room was the perfect setting she had visualized for the duchess of Argyle since the day she had known that her father had willed her the portrait. The green of the walls and trim repeated the color of the satin gown of the woman in the dull gold frame which hung above the mantel of carved black Italian marble, repeated also the shade of the feathers of the dozing parrot in a gilded cage, threw into relief dark polished surfaces of mahogany. She had had everything that she thought belonged to his family stored in the apartment over the garage. Curious that she had found so little silver. She looked at the door which Mary Amanda Dane had told her opened into the twin house. Something uncanny about it. Whenever she was in the room it drew her eyes like a magnet. Mark Trent's house was on the other side. It had not been lived in for years. What a waste. Had his wife refused to live there? His wife? She couldn't think of him as having had a wife. Why think of him at all? She resolutely switched her thoughts to her surroundings. This was the same room in which she had first seen Mrs. Dane in her wheel chair, but how different. Then it had been drab and heavy; now it glowed with soft color. She would never forget the pathos in the woman's eyes as they had met hers, nor the eagerness of her greeting. She had registered a passionate vow to make her lovely and attrac tive in appropriate clothes. That had been her job then and a thrilling job, too, to help women make the most of their good points. How Mary Amanda Dane had fooled her about money. The crippled woman had kept her feet firmly on the ground when it came to spending. Planning inexpensive, attractive clothes for her had been an exciting challenge. She had succeeded. The frocks had been charming, and with her drab wardrobe the invalid had shed much of her crabbedness. Lovely clothes did that for a woman. Pity that more husbands didn't realize the fact. Now she was gone and had left a small fortune behind her. Why had she denied herself so many of the luxuries of life? Brooke blinked long wet lashes and said aloud, as she had said many times since she had ume to live at Lookout House: m THE WHEAT AND EMERALDS 33 JIXf IKfiEj By Emilie Loring Enuue Loring. Service. WMU "Thank you for everything, Mrs. Mary Amanda. Thanks billions." She swallowed the lump which rose in her throat whenever she thought of the woman's incredible kindness. Hardly the time to go sentimental when at any moment the family might burst in on her. They were on their way to spend town would arrive. Come upstairi and I'll show you your rooms." A family might get on each other's nerves, as of course it did at times, but there was nothing lika it, Brooke concluded fervently, as after supper on a floor cushion in front of the library fire she leaned against her mother's knees. Lucette burst out nervously: "If Sam can stop that marathon, perhaps he'll announce the latest Reyburn news flash." Brooke sat erect. "What news?" Thanksgiving. For the first time Sam took careful aim at the parin the rot's they would see the changes perch. The nutshell struck its house; she had postponed their comand roused the dozing bird. bullseye orin it be until should ing perfect "Hell's bells!" he croaked, and der. ruffled his feathers. The of an automobile "Looks as if he were caught in a horn outside was followed by voices doesn't he?" The laughter typhoon, singing lustily: in voice vanished. "Mother " 'Over the river and through the hasSam's been invited to spend the winter wood, in England with her friend Lady Trot fast, my dapple-gray- ! Jaffrey." Spring over the ground. "Sam!" With the exclamation Like a hunting hound Brooke was on her feet. "Do you For this is Thanksgiving day.' " mean it? How perfectly grand! She The gay chorus was followed by lives in an old castle, doesn't she?" laughter and vociferous cries: "Hey, pipe down, Brooke. There's "Whoa there! Stand still. Lighta nigger in the woodpile. Wait till ning! Whoa!" you hear the condition." Laughing, Brooke dashed for the "A condition in Lady Jaffrey's infront door. It was so like the Reyvitation, Sam? I can't believe it." burn family to dramatize its arrival. "Be quiet, children. Let me In a rush of cold air and excited talk." Arms crossed on the back of she her mother piloted greetings the wing chair in which she had been sitting, Celia Reyburn faced her family. Her cheeks were pink; her eyes, as blue as her son's, were brilliant with excitement. She clasped her hands tightly as if to steady them. "The chair recognizes the lady from the big city," Sam encouraged with a grin. "Whats the condition. Mother? Don't you want to go?" "Very, very much, Brooke, but I shouldn't enjoy a moment of the visit if I left your brother and sister in that apartment alone. Perhaps I'm a selfish woman, but I would like to and will go, if my mind is perfectly at ease about Lucette and Sam. If they will come here to you, and if you will have them " "Have them! Mother, don't be foolish! I have been rattling around in this big house like a dried coconut in a shell. Of course I want them but will they come?" "Who's being foolish now?" Lucette flung her cigarette into the fire. Her cheeks were almost as red as her painted lips. "Of course we'll come, Brooke Reyburn. Of course we'll play ball Mother's way. fish. Sam and I aren't Laughing, Brooke Dashed fur to If the to sticks be chaptaking the Front Door. eroned by big sister will make and sister to the library. The star- Mother's visit happier, we'll settle tled parrot shrieked, "Stop! Look! down here with bells on. She's Listen!" earned all the fun she can get. She'll "Boy, you don't need a burglar have one grand time and mow those alarm with that announcer. You stiff Britishers down in swaths and come home Countess Whoosit, or I ought to loan him to a bank." Lucette made a gamin face at miss my guess." the parrot as she slipped out of her "Lucette!" Celia Reyburn proocelot coat. She dragged off her tested indignantly. hat and patted the swirl of her "Don't mind her Mother," Broke dark hair. reassured. "By the time you reBrooke hugged her mother. "It's turn your younger will wonderful to have you here, Celia have acquired all daughter the social devastatand aren't you Reyburn, graces " ensemble!" ing in that "Just a minute! Now I make a "Not as devastating as you are condition. I come only if I keep on in that shimmery white, daughter. with my job." It 'brings out the copper lights in "It would mean early and late your hair." commuting, Lucette." Brooke laughed. "We are like "I've thought that out. In Sam's two diplomats exchanging compliconvertible we can make it." ments, the difference is that ours "But you and Sam won't be comcome from the heart. Where's ing down at the same time, and" Sam? Don't tell me Sam isn't com"Don't be so sure, Brooke." Sam ing!" aimed a nutshell at the parrot. "The Lucette held a lighter to a ciga- theater has closed permanently and rette with a faint hint of bravado. I'm up against one of those simple "Don't cry, darling. Sam came. economic problems, where's the Didn't you recognize his voice sing- next job coming from? I'll go to ing as if his little heart would burst New York to see off Mother and from joy as we approached this take Now that producers baronial hall? Doubtless he is kiss- have my play.to sniff around for barbegun his convertible ing goodpeachy I may get my chance." gains, night in your garage. He's crazy "Sam dear " Brooke attempted about that coupe you gave him, to lighten her dismayed voice. Bad He has named it LightBrooke. for him to be out of work ning. And can it go! Who's the tall enough without having her turn with undertaker the gent expression who pulled our bags from the car as "You'll find something. I read the other day that the theater is on the if he were extracting upper and lowIf you don't oh, Samer molars?" a what chance for you to write! my, "Henri. He and his wife, Clotilde, worked for years for Mrs. Dane. Why not give your play a here? We'll do it for the town's I kept them on to help me settle. welfare fund, in the Club House theThey take a lot of handling, believe ater. What a chance to try 'Isit or not." on Arise' lands the dog!" it. room This looks "I believe "News flabh! The Reyburns stage like part of a House Beautiful exhiba play!" Lucette cut in. it. It's corking." "Why not?" Brooke persisted ea"Wait till you see the rest of the "Most of the summer homes gerly. Lucette. I Here's Sam. house, be to are kept open during the winwould recognize his bang of a door ter and Answer the phone, will if I heard it in Timbuctoo. Welcome to Lookout House, Sammy! you, Sam? Take the message for pestered to death by It's wonderful that the theater me. I've beenand insurance agents tradespeople closed just at this time." "Yeah! It's all in the point of wanting to sell me something. Tell view. There are them who think them I'm out of town for the eveotherwise. However, I'm not kick- ninganything." The siience of the room was ing." He caught Brooke in a bearlike broken only by the snap and hiss hug. He kept his arm about her of the fire as Sam Reyburn put the receiver of the handset to his ear. as he looked around the room. ' "Hulloa. Yes. Miss Rayburn is "Swell joint you've got here. I like the greenhousey smell from out of town for the evening. Sure, those plants. Say listen, we've she'll be back tomorrow. Oh, it is! missed you like the dickens, haven't Yes, I'll give her your message. She'll be pleased purple. I get we, Mother?" "We have, Sam." Celia Reyburn you. I'll tell her. 'Bye!" He laid steadied her voice. "We'd better the phone on the stand. "Who was it, Sam? What will stop emotionalizing and get ready for dinner. I have kept house years please me purple?" Brooke deenough to know that promptness manded uneasily. "A party by the name of Trent." at meals helps to keep the life's walk easy." "What did he want?" "Not much. Only to say that he "You would think of that, Mother. It isn't dinner to night. I planned accepted your invitation for Thanksa buffet supper, not being sure at giving dinner with pleasure." (TO BE CONTIMED) what time my relatives from the big honk-hon- New Russia Puts Past Behind Her Halliburton Doubts With Wheat; Holds People Will Be Forever Satisfied Emeralds as Big a Part of Life as Bread. e.w.jmi-nr-.- P . : -- .... v ' V Stjf . k cold-bloode- eel-gra- d y sob-siste- r. e. try-o- home-maker- 's ut fefcr S '?. C. fyk' 1 -- 3 W'WMW-C- J ri-r-- 'XJkJ. J ,U ... a Tr I - i 1 It wjjniinfilliM-- . jLweenaVsf I iawfJL p Vrr- "m X ' T "N. i t) to? , - : aa&A. ja si2Srr tiL, k -- la " 3 These photographs by Richard Halliburton illustrate the metamorphosis which has overcome St. i'etersburj since the formation of the communist government: 1. Soviet workers make themselves at home in the parks and palaces which once belonged exclusively to royalty. 2. Symbolic of the old Russia they know nothing about re the statues around which these young Soviets gather. 3. A group of Russian students. czars, she had starved them in By RICHARD HALLIBURTON Author of "The Royal Road to der to or- political, be shown. create immortal grandeur. On my first night in Leningrad I went to the Marinsky theater to see a ballet, "The Hunchbacked Horse." important story in I felt a real surge of excitement. 1AHE most world today and the This theater was almost holy ground. Here the most exalted of most interesting is Russia. hear This is not a phrase from the the old regime gatheredandto watch music Russian glorious Soviet propaganda book, nor incomparable Russian dancing. To the outburst of a parlor pink. attend the Marinsky, the nobility It is my own opinion, and no donned their richest jewels, their one could be more thoroughly whitest gloves, their most lavish and uniforms. Here the czar American, nor more of a cham- gowns and czarina with their son and pion of the right to live and daughters came frequently, to sit pursue happiness in one's own in the Imperial box. A more glitmanner (contrary to the Soviet tering, royal gathering has not been seen elsewhere. system) than myself. No theater have I ever seen as Riding into Leningrad from the beautiful as the Marinsky. The airport, I passed along streets walls are covered with yellow damturned upside down with pavement orchestra seat in the and each ask, scafconstruction, and walled wilh is an individual arm chair upholnew factories which behind folding and apartments were rising ten sto- stered with the same rich silk. At ries high. My motor car had to the back is the Imperial box, and on the sides the smaller boxes of the plow through dense throngs of grand dukes. The decoration has in for busy, hurrying pedestrians, the fury of the new enthusiasm, faded very little since they sat work goes on 24 hours a day. The there. Into this regal auditorium the new noise of the traffic, the concrete the steel masses were pouring. Some had on mixers, the steam-rollerriveters, was deafening and sweet! no coats, some had shirts but no It took me a full day to dig down neckties, only half the men had under all this mass of steel, trucks, shaved that day. Not one woman and swarming workers who are wore anything but the plainest, sack-lik-e dress. Not a building Leningrad, to find what I cheapest, really had come to see St. Peters jewel, not a flower, not a graceful attitude, not a beautiful person. A burg. sailor and his girl sat on one side Built Cuttu Aristocracy of me. Two students in The capital of old Rifesia was colorless wool slovenly blouses sat behind; one of the noblest, most 4eautiful next them, two women with gold cities on earth. It had spaciousness, teeth who were probably street-ca- r dignity, leisure, wealth, power. Pe- conductors or brick layers. From ter the Great, who built it on marsh the Imperial box leaned six laborislands at the head of the Gulf of ers, probably from the shoe facFinland, had no less vigor and tory, eating pastry. The musicians n in the orchestra wore wool shirts Imagination than the worker's of today. With a wave of and no neckties. No class his hand he swept aside all obstaand indeed anywhere cles to create public squares of why should there be! Everybody enormous area, and surround them present was a farmer or peasant with public buildings that are the a factory worker or a soldier or a largest and most lavish in Europe. sailor. There is no other class left The richest class of people in the in Russia. All others have been world during the Eighteenth and exiled or exterminated. Romance," Etc. s, coun-oilme- Soviet-glorifyin- films can1 g It seems to me that the Soviets discourage their people from having anything more than the barest' necessities. Clothes, flowers, mo. tor cars, simple romantic entertain- ment, are considered dangerously in the hands of private individuals. There is very little money among the workers to buy these things with, and any accumulation of money is a capital crime. And if the Russians did have the money there is almost nothing on which to spend it. In one fur shop I bought a sheep-ski- n Cossack hat. It cost 100 Soviet roubles. The average monthly pay for a worker is 150 roubles. My good German camera was stolen out of my hotel, and I tried to buy another one. There was not a single camera (except a few Russian imitations) to be bought in all Leningrad. On an island in the Neva river stands the Fortress of Peter and Paul, built by Peter the Great to protect his newly founded capital. This place is held in particular disfavor by the Soviets, for to its prison were sentenced the political enemies (now heroes) of the former government. All they did was to throw a bomb under the czar's carriage an blow a few of the royal counter-revolutiona- family to bits, which, as we know now, was a pious and glorious act of rebellion against the capitalistic system. As a prison, however, the place is unspeakable, and the agonies endured there in the name of politid cal faith helped drive the into of the country people revolt. Tombs of the "Tyrants." Another reason the Soviets dislike the fortress is that its church shelters the tombs of all the czars from the time of Peter the Great to Alexander, the father of the last Romanoff. Large groups of work-ow ers are led through this church-nugly and unkept, and stripped of all the splendor it once knew and shown the tombs of their mortal enemies, the czars. The aclecture, in brief, u The ballet, I am happy to re- companying lie the devilish tyrants this: "Here port, was superlatively good. Here who of fought against th? demands is one czarist art the proletarians thankful be the workers. Let us have not let die. Magnificent costhe Romanoffs are dead and tumes and color and light and skill that all the corrupt Russian capitalists flashed from the stage for four with them." hours. The audience ate apples all On another day I visited two of during the performance. Otherwise the most celebrated summer palthey were well behaved. aces Peterhoff and Detskyoye Selo. The former is famous for its founSatisfied With Barest Necessities. create The violent transformation of Len- tains which when they play loveliness a of scene extravagant ingrad from imperial to proletarian and and luxury. Here the czars is evident on every side. The ducal their courts danced and wore their Seand palaces, are now workers' apartments. The emerald crowns. In Detskyoe in imperial lived lo, Catherine Yusupov palace where Prince Felix 50 drawing-roommurdered Rasputin is a "house of splendor, amid her with amwalled her room3 culture and rest" for teachers. The with silver, with priceless murgreat suburban estates have been ber, als. Here she recetved in her gow turned into pleasure grounds where and crystal ballroom, dined witn the workers go to escape the desa hundred dukes in her banquet perately crowded quarters in which hall of jade and they live. two monuments to czarist These w The old Nevsky Prospect, now are now museums usednow called the Prospect of October 25, glory teach the modern proletariat once one of the smartest and richand shocking were tocriminal in est streets the world, is now one days and ways of the Romanonf. of the dingiest. True, three times This all seems to me to be as many people parade it as bea system as was the prr fore, but they are dressed in sacks lopsided vious one. Formerly a few peopw instead of furs, and have copecks and too maw to spend instead of gold roubles. had too much cake masses starves while the The shops that once offered only the emeralds, Now the masses 8" for best and the most beautiful are have wheat. and no emeralds. wheat, now poverty stricken, half empty man cannot live by bread and displaying only the of emeralds is Jusi ' cheapest u and most unattractive goods. No vital supply the as supply of wheat, individual pur is allowed. is to be worth living-t- he Every place is state owned and and esthetic is as necor state supplied. Taste and quality decorative useful and practicald the as are incredibly bad. There are book sary the emeralds alas, Leningrad, stores, but only revolutionary his- all been trampled underfoot. j tories and treatises can be bought. remains. wheat the Only There are cinema houses but only C Bell Syndicate. WWU Servlca. liberal-minde- blood-thirst- y ss Nineteenth centuries, the Russian nobility, flocked to St. Petersburg. Each noble tried to outdo his neighbor in the construction of palaces and in his show of splendor. In this competition the czars kept well in front, spending money and gathering treasures to an extent incomprehensible to us today. The resulting magnificence, built on the anguish and enslavement of the masses, shone with a blinding light. The Russian aristocracy developed taste, culture, sophistication. They became distinguished throughout all other countries for their regal manners, their extravagance, their incomparably beautiful women and lordly men. The greatest collection of pictures outside the Louvre found their way to the Hermitage gallery, the music of and (despite his radical tendencies) flowed from every orchestra. The art of became a Russian monopoly. St. Isaac's cathedral, an architectural wonder of the first magnitude, rose from the marshlands. Summer palaces were built to rival Versailles in splendor. Emeralds big as hen eggs glittered from the crowns of Russian queens. In the art and the grace of fine living, St. Petersburg, right up to 1914, led the great capitals of the earth. Splendor Recalls Czars. All this is gone, utterly, irretrievably, vanished. Leningrad hates, defames, jeers at what she used to be, just as the revengeful and bloody-fistepeasant women jeered at Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillc'ine because, like the Tschai-kovsk- Rimsky-Korsak- ballet-dancin- g d y run-dow- n woe-begon- e, s, lapis-lazul- i. aion"-Th- shop-keepi- e |