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Show bbbbbt V" tVaBBBBBBBBBsawV'1' r. mKmKI m Jbt IbbbbbbbbbbV BF"1 BPalaBBHABAflMAftBBPBBSH ww VJrmmlmmbiBBBmwBBY0 ""lBBBBBWyL t M. TX"""" ' " 1 'Wert, 'I'd" hate to have Julia's Jet) when she comas backM" Jalla's brother said ruefully, "What's tlintr "rirehklng It to her 'admirers.'" "Oh. she isn't going to do that!" '"8h?ll lmve to. now," he said. "Shell either hiie to v iltt- the news te 'asa, or else nil 'cm, face to face, whea bbb) WW li'uui'." , H j At This, the Isnr'jWr ef PlerenM Underwent s fsenolo aelsure, 1st J Her Chair. J J "She won't do either." "Why, how could she get out of Itf His wife smiled pityingly. "She hasn't set a time for coming home, has she? Don'tVyou know enough of Julia's ways to know she'll never In the world stand up to the inuslcT She writes that all the family can bo told, because she knows the news will leak ouLhtre. udthere, to eoandeoce.-Ut-lie by little; so by the time' she gets home they'll all have been through .their first spasms,, add after that she hopes they'll Just send her. some forgiving for-giving flowers nnd greet her. with manly handclasps and get ready to usher at the wedding J" "Weli." said Mr. Atwater, "f'm afraid you're right. It does seem rather like Julia to stay away till the first of Uie worst is over. I'm really sorry for some of her tove-lorners. I suppose It will get whispered about, and they'll hear it;, and. there are some of tho poor things that might take It pretty hard." " Take It pretty hard r " she echoed loudly. "There's one of 'em, at least, 'who will Just merely lose his reason I" "Which one?" "Noble Dill." At this, tho slender form of Florence Flor-ence underwent a spasmodic seizure, In her chair, but as the fit was short, and also noiseless, It passed without being noticed. "Yes," said Mr. Atwater, thoughtfully. thought-fully. "I suppose he will." "He certainly wINi" Mrs, Atwatae declared. "Noble's mother told me lest week that he'd gotten so be was Just as liable to drop a fountain-pen fountain-pen in his coffee as a lump of sugar; and when any one speaks to him he either 'doesn't know It, or else Jumps. When he says anything, himself, she says they can scarcely ever make out what he's talking about. He was trying try-ing enough, beforo Julia went away; but ,slnce she's been gone Mrs. Dill says he's like nothing In her experience. experi-ence. She says he doesn't Inherit It t 'Mr. Dill wasn't anything like this about her." Mr. Atwater smiled faintly. "Mrs. Dill wasn't anything like Julia." "flo," said his wife. "She was quite a sensible girl. I'd hate to be n,hcr place, now, though, when she tells Noble about "this!" "How can .Mrs. Dill tell htm,. Ibc she dcrilt know r.vjwrtfr- " "Weil perhaps she ought to know It, so that she could tell him. Someft body ought to tell him, and It ought to be done with the grralest tact. It ought to be broken to him with the most delicate enre' and -.sympathy, or the consequences" "Npbody could foretell, the consequences.'1 conse-quences.'1 her husband Interrupted "no matter how tactfully It's 'broken to Noble." "No," she said. "I suppose that's true. I think he's likely to lose his reason unless i Is done very tactfully, tactful-ly, though." "9o you think we really ought to tell Mrs. Dill, MoIIIot I mean, seriously: seri-ously: Do you?" For some moments she considered his question; then nswered, "No. It's possible we'd he following a Christian course In doing It ; but still we're rather rath-er bound not to spenk of It outside the family, and when It docs get outside the family I think we'd better not be the ones responsible especially since It might easily he traced to us. I think It's usually better to keep out of things when there's nny doubt." "Yes," he said, meditating. "I never nev-er knew any harm to come off people's sticking to their own affairs." But as he and his wife became si-tent si-tent for a time, musing In the firelight, fire-light, their daughter's .special convections convec-tions were fsr frorn coinciding, wljh theirs, although she, likewise, was silent si-lent a strangeness In her which they shou)d , hare observed. , But so far 'wefe they from a 'rue comprehension of her, they wero unaware that she) had more this a casual, yanag saw jrinlyjnttmt hi Julia, Ararsjtef'a js gsgem'tnt sad In those posa..-sequences posa..-sequences to Noble Mt, wttea they .bad sketched ,wtth ft.tatatttepal VxaggeHuton; aRttdfcldeiwltao the stnggartng seriousness KrYrlbatac to their predictions by thelt dattglrtef. Tbey did not oven notice her ! Men when Mr. Atwater snapped oat the lght, In, order tq eajl and ah , went quietly out of the library and up to, her. own. room.. On -the Moor, -near her bed, where Patty Fatrchlld had left her coat and hat, Florence made her second discovery. dis-covery. Two small, folded slips of psper lay there, dropped by Miss Fatrchlld Fatr-chlld when she put on her coat In the darkening room. They wero the re. plies to Patty's whispered questions, (ti tho game on the steps the pledged Truth, written' by Henry Rooter and Herbert Atwater on their sacred words and honors. The Infatuated pair had either overestimated Patty's caution, or else each had thought she would so prljce his little missive that sho would treasure It In n tender, safety, perhsps pinned upon iter blouse (at the first opportunity) over the heart. It 13 positively safe to say that neither of tho two veracities would ever have been set upon paper had Herbert and Henry any foreshadowing that Patty might be careless; and the partners would have been seised with the utmost ut-most horror could they have conceived the possibility of their trustful messages mes-sages ever falling Into the hands of the relentless creature who now, without with-out aii instsnt's honorable hesitation, unfolded and read them. "Tet. If I got to tell the truth. I know I have got pretty eyes," Herbert had unfortunately written. "I am glad you think so, too, Patty, because your eyes .are too. Herbert Illlngsworth Atwater, Jr," .,, ''And Mr. Henry Rooter had likewise rained himself In a coincidental manner. man-ner. "Well, Patty, my eyes are pretty, but suppose I would like to trade with yours'because you have beautiful eyes, also, sure as my name la Henry Rooter." Florence stood close to the pink-shaded pink-shaded electric dropllght over her small white dressing tab'lo, reading again and again these , pathetically honest little confidences. Her eyelids -ero withdrawn to an unprecedented BBJSBBJBaBJBjt, I "V shi., T H" ro,'"k''ly "he stared, I J Use? i,crln"M,, "'l 1" Prepare s hi w I"" "'l', n,U;"ll,t-, reception of I n hulk bnoml Its lotnl numelty. And I Uicm pluitlc token., ho Immoderate I mo Ui ordinarily the consequence of I nothing short of polKnnnt horror, were ou-rlnld by others., subtler and ! more glenmlng, hlvtt wrought the I trim slRtdtleanee ot the contortlon-o I joj tlmt wns (lumfoundlng. I Her thoughts were first ot Fortune's I Kindness In selecting her for a fnvor I so mlrueuloustly doctnMng Into the I precise need ot her life, then of Henry and Herbert, each at this hour prob-ably prob-ably brushing his hair In preparation for the Sunday evening meal, and both ouchlugly uncousclous of the calami. JT l araBsW LflHafcaflafefZvlaBBBBBEl wawYT P sBCbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbh -lfaBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBS BBbV .BBBBBBBBT ut What Kventiiallyr Engrossed ' Her Mind Was the' Thought of Wallle jTerbln. ty now befalling them ', but what eventually even-tually engrossed her mind whs the thought ot Wallle Torbln. Master Torbln, approaching four- 'teen, waa In all the town the boy most dreeTded by his' fellow-boys, and at girls of alraataaiatMiaa, taetiaUu ' jany of both. sexes ,wao knew hla oaly by slgbt-and, hearing' .He had no physical endowment or attainment worth mention fEut boys, who could, SrhVhlnrwiti-onrhanaV' becamel 'sycophants Id his tyrwaaca; the terror tki HisplMd waa moral. Ha 'had a, ape; .etanleyelepraent.of a faculty exl itt!& MWM M nt h- lfBsan,beIngs especially la their youth ) 1 saDoin'er ' wa-Ms,- h'e had gaarns 'nofc a'bwcW, ' gealui having" ta 4a 'wtth aaythlng generaM"Tecog8tfted as art or 'science. True, If he had been n violinist prodigy or mathematical prod- igy, ho would have had some respect rfrom, bis fellows about equal to that he might have received If he were gifted with some pleasant deformity, such as. six toes on u foot biit he would .never have enjojed.such deadly prestige os'lind actually come to be his. In brief, then, Wallle Torbln had a genius for mockery. Almost from his bnbyhood he had been a child of one purpose: to Increase In-crease by ghnstly burlesque the sufferings suf-ferings of unfortunate, friends. If one of them wept, Wallle Incessantly pursued pur-sued him, yelping In horrid mimicry; if one were chastised, ho could not appear out-of-doors for ihiys except to encounter Wnlllo and n complete rehearsal re-hearsal of the recent agony. "Quit, papn; pah-puh, quec-yctl ril never do It aguln, pah-puh I Oh, lemme alone, pah-puh 1" As ho grew older, his Insatiate curiosity cu-riosity enabled him to expose unnumbered unnum-bered weaknesses, Indiscretions nnd social misfortunes on tho part of acquaintances ac-quaintances and.1 schoolmates; and to every 'exposure hla notae aad energy gave a hideous publicity; the mora his victim sought privacy, the more persistently he wns sought out by Wallle, vociferous and attended by hilarious spectators. But. above; all other things, what most stimulated the demoniac boy to prodigies ot satire sat-ire was any tender eplsodo or symptom symp-tom connected wti the dawn of love. Florence herself had suffered excruciatingly excru-ciatingly at Intervals throughout her eleventh spring, because Wallle discovered dis-covered tha,t Georgia Beck sent her a valentine;' and the humorist's' many, many squesilngs of that valentine's affectionate, quatrain , Anally left , her unable to decide which she hated the more, Wnlllo or Oeorgle. That waa the worst' of, Wallle; ha never "let up"; and In Florencea circle there was no more sobering threat than, i "TR Ian Walrst" TarMar As -for Heary Maoter and Herbert Wings-worth Wings-worth Atwater, Jr.. they woald aa aaon have had n hend-bunter on their trail M,JYl!le Torbln with anything In his Jiands. that could 3ncjira(Mte.-t'hem In an 4 Implication of, lovp-Srran ac knowledgement of their own dentil Tim fabric of clvlllusl life N Int. i voen with hlnrkinnll; cm-ii miu the noblest people ln fnvH '- ' people kIiu are depended upon not ta tell somebody something that the no-hlcst no-hlcst people huve done. Blackmail Is born Into us all, and our nurses teach us more hlnckmnll by threatening to tell tur parents, If we won't do this und that and our parents threaten to tell the, doctor and so wo letayul Hlnckmnll Is part of the dally life of u chllil: displeased, his first resort to get his way with other children Is a threat to "tell"; but by-and-by his experience discovers the mutunl benefit bene-fit of honor among blnckmailera. Then-fore, at eight It Is 50 longer the ticket to threaten to tell the teacher; and, a little later, threatening to tell any adult at all la considered something some-thing of a breakdown In morals. Notoriously, No-toriously, the code. Is more liable to Infraction by people of the physically weaker sex, for the very reason, of course, that their Inferiority of muscle mus-cle W frequently compels such a stn, If they are ta have their way. But for Florence there was now no such temptation. Looking toward the demolition de-molition of Atwater ft Rooter, an exposure ex-posure before adults of the result of "Truth" would have been an effect of the sickliest pallor compared to what might be accomplished by a careful use of the catastrophic Wallle Torbln. " All In all, It was a groat Sunday for Florence. On Sunday evening Jt twaa her privileged custom to go at the house nf her fat. old great-uncle. 1 'i.u H Joseph Atwater, and ruaata sbbbbI 8bW H o'clock, In chatty compaaliaaajsj anUb JM TTncle Joseph and Aunt OUTM Ma WM wlf snd a few other ralavasirl ' WM were In the habit of dropping lathy U on Sunday evenings. In waasaasr. ,' wM ilenionnde nnd .enke ware fMajajsjaV M provided ; In the autumn, vaa aafl i HI found cake, and perhaps a pttefcar aa Dj dear new cider; apples were always n cerlnluty, Hjl (Continued next week; IB |
