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Show I The Married Life of Helen and Warren. 1 H Pxr 1TAPT7T Originator of "Their Married H Ljy iLlSJL,Lt Life." Author of "The Jour- 8 I - HERBERT URNER f of a N;f S6'" "The I Yoman Alone, Etc. jj HELEN'S EFFORTS TO SAVE A CLEANER'S BILL RESULT I MOST DISASTROUSLY (Copyright, 1U17, by the McC'Iure Newspaper Syndicate.! f z "I ora, I am going go-ing to clean some tilings in gasoline. gaso-line. Don't light the slove until I'm through ."cautioned ."cau-tioned Helen. "I was just go-In' go-In' to put on an iron for them doilies," g r u m -bled Dora, who never took an order or-der without some J Dropping back on the pillow, she saw Dora and Mr. Thompson, their . superintendent, at the foot of the bed. Standing just back of the doctor was .Mrs. Reed, who had an apartment on the floor below. Still dazed, Helen again sought refuge in the protective darkness of closed eyelids. The heavy odor of iodoform added to her sense of strangeness. strange-ness. Her mind was straggling to bring order and clearness from her chaotic thoughts. She heard Mr. Thompson murmur something to the doctor and tiptoe heavily from the roof". Then the telephone tele-phone rang and Mr. Reed whispered, "I'll answer it." "Does your head ache?" asked the doctor. As though to locate the confused throbbing pain, Helen raised her hand to her head. There was a blood-chilling feel of crisp sfhged hair. Then a leaping terror as her fear-stiffened fingers fin-gers groped over her face. "No, your face isn't touched," comforted com-forted the doctor, divining her fears. "You got off very easy gasoline is dangerous stuff. Does that bandage feel too tight?" A slam of the outer door. Though her face was to the wall, she knew It was Warren who burst into the room. The next second he was kneeling by the bed. The vague 'dread of his stern reprehension fell from her as she felt his encircling arms. "It's all right, Mr. Curtis,," the doctor's doc-tor's voice was quietly reassuring. "Only a slight burn under the arm." "How did it happen?" huskily. "Cleaning something in gasoline." "Gasoline!" groaned Warren. "Yes, they will use it. Your wife ran out into the hall worst thing she could have done. If Mrs. Reed hadn't thrown a rug about her it might have been serious. Everybody else seemed paralyzed." Mrs. Reed ! So she owed her rescue to Mrs. Reed ! The words throbbed in the blurred blnckness before Helen's closed eyes. With awkward, unsteady fingers Warren was smoothing back the singed hair. "She's suffering a little from shock. I'll leave some quieting powders in case she can't sleep. You can give her one at nine and repeat in an hour if necessary. I'll' call in the morning to dress the arm." The doctor gone, Helen for the first time looked up at Warren. He was strangely white and haggard. "Oh," faintly, "they frightened you when they 'phoned." "That's all rightdon't think of me. Does your arm hurt?" still smoothing the crisp, roughened hair. Her head moved in denial, not wanting want-ing to admit the pain. Mrs. Reed, who had been waiting in the other room, came to the door. "You don't need me now, Mr. Curtis, but If you should later just 'phone down." "I won't attempt to thank you, Mrs. Reed," Warren rose from the side of the bed. "There are some things you can " "Oh, please don't speak of it. I'm very glad I was able to do something. We had almost the same accident in our family I suppose that's why I thought of the rug." He was following her to the door. Their low murmured voices came from the hall. Helen's turmoiled thoughts were rehearsing re-hearsing the tragedy. The bathroom 1 What damage had been done? She had visions of a heavy repair bill of the tiled walls and porcelain tub cracked by the flames. Warren was again by the bed, but she did not look up. Just then it seemed easier to lie there with closed eyes. Now that they were alone, she was struggling against a hysterical desire to burst into tears. She yearned yet dreaded for him to comfort com-fort her. There was a long silence. He was holding her hand, stroking slowly the unbandaged arm. From the street came the rhythmic clatter of hoofs and the receding rumbling of wheels. "Well, Kitten, how about the gasoline? gaso-line? Is one lesson going to be enough?" Helen nodded, biting her lips to steadiness. Another silence. Then she asked, quiveringly : "Dear, the bathroom ! Did did it Injure the walls or ceiling?" "naven't looked," brielly. "You're all right that's all that counts. ' Any damage is dirt cheap if it'll make you leave that infernal stuff alone." "Oh, I'll never use it again," choking back a sob. "I'll never even have it In the house." "All right. Kitten, I won't rub it in. A jolt like this is pretty tough on both of us." Then, with relieving humor, "Well, you won't have to frizz your hair for a while. You've made a pretty pret-ty good job of that." M .bol Uorberl Urn.01 Objection. "Well, they can wait. Now, don't strike any matches, (iel me that big pan you use for the Ua rcli." Inthe bathroom Helen emptied the whole half gallon of gasoline into the starch pan and dipped into it her chiffon chif-fon waist. The filmy material wilted down as it .soaked up the fluid. Her hands in rubber gloves, she swished it around, held it up to drain, and pinned It to the shade before the open window. After dipping a lace collar and the iet yoke and sleeves of her gray taffeta, taf-feta, the gasoline was still clear enough fur something else. AVhile she was at it, she would clean those pink wit in slippers. Even w ifh the open window, the stupefying fumes were now sickening-iy sickening-iy Wrong. Hastily, with held breath, she immersed the slippers, brushing them with a soft nailbrush. The soiled gasoline she always saved to use again after it had cleared by standing, but now, too dizzy to pour it back into the small-mouthed boMIe, she emptied it out into the washbasin. Then, escaping from the bathroom, she closed the door on the Killing fumes. ' Here, Dora," as she took the starch pan nut to the kitchen, "wash this out 'well. This gasoline bottle's empty 'I'll put it here on the lower shelf. Be direful not to use it for anything else." When. ! little later, she went back ito tne bathroom, the waist, except for the thicker parts around the neck and vleeves, was almost dry. It was beautifully beau-tifully white. Had she sent it to the r- ,".' iH-rs. they would have charged $2 4 4 and done it no better. ff ft ,i'!is now after three, and she was anxious for the things to dry quickly o there would be no traces of odor .when Warren came home. He had repeatedly forbidden her to l use gasoline, insisting that he would pay any amount of cleaners' bills rather rath-er than have her take chances with ' this inflammable fluid. The dress on the towel rack she rearranged re-arranged so the air could get to the yoke and sleeves, but the slippers on the stone ledge outside the window wore still quite wet. She had just examined one and set It back when a lighted cigar butt, tossed from a window above, fell straight into the pink satin toe. A sizzling flash and the gasollne-isoaked gasollne-isoaked slipper was aflame. For a sec-iond sec-iond Helen stood petrified. Then, jerking jerk-ing up a long-handled bath brush, she thrust iu off the ledge. But it was too :Iate ! The blaze had leaped to the Jthin lace waist. Screaming for Dora, she hurled the f ' v 'waist into the bath tub and turned on Y ;the water. But now the dress had V. caught and the flames were leaping up Ithe tiled wall. I , '.Dora, bursting open the door, stared ji.-inic-strickon, then rushed back v shrieking: "Fire I Fire!" j The water, now filling the tub, ex-ingi;ished ex-ingi;ished the waist; but the dress, r.hich hung on the towel rack, was 'till ablaze. Frantically Helen tried to oke it down into the tub with the jlong-handletL brush. Then, reaching over to turn on the shower, the flames V "aught the lace of her kimono sleeve, aturated with the gasoline fumes. She might easily have smothered it Jt- with the heavy bath mat, but now, f paralyzed with terror, she ran wildly out, too frightened even to scream. Blindly she dashed through the hall t door that Dora had left open, t After that everything was a dazed A; Mur. The draughty elevator shaft r .fanned the flaming sleeve as she flew Ktumbllngly down the encircling stair-- stair-- -way. Excited voices, rushing feet and T Dora's still piercing shrieks of "Fire!" f. , Someone caught her. Something heavy was thrown about her. The f" rest blurred into oblivion. ; i "I've sent for her husband," it was f A woman's voice, lowered to a discreet y whisper. f.-' "She'll s.oon be all right," a man's t voice, deep and restful. . For several moments after the consciousness con-sciousness of the voices, Helen, still dinging to the sheltering darkness, kept her eyes closed. A sharp pain in her shoulder. Someone Some-one was bandaging her arm. Then she realized that the man bending over her Swas Doctor Marden, whose office was J on the first floor. "You're all right now," reassuringly, as he met her bewildered gaze. "Drink a little of this," raising her head to ' -he Klass. |