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Show The Married Life of Helen and Warren f, By MABEL HERBERT URNER Originator of "Their Married Life." Author of The Journal of a Neglected Wife," The Woman Alone," etc Helen Hears Some Unpleasant Stories Circulated by Their Discharged Maid (Copyright, ISIS, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) "Can f UHe this, ma'am? Won't it ; come apart when I wash it?" With a j uaBD of dismay. S i" -A Helen took the dlsli. It was the gravy tureen of their best china, broken and crudely crude-ly glued together. "No no, of course you can't use It! Oh, that 1 girl was too sly for words! She tried to mend that bo I wouldn't know! Now, Anna, An-na, if you do break anything, I Helen caught her breath. For a moment mo-ment she was speechless. "I found out that Jane was sending things over here, and naturally I wasn't pleased. But Jane insisted that the girl was hungry; she had worked on her sympathies so that Jane really believed her." "Didn't give her enough to eat?" repeated re-peated Helen, dazed. "And she circulated circu-lated that story U through th house?" "I'm sure I don't know," with a supercilious shrug. "But, really, Mrs. Curtis, since servants are so gossipy, I think it would be Just as well if your maid and Jane, were not so friendly." So that was what Mrs. Gordon had been leading up to! Helen's face flamed. "I'm very glad you've mentioned this, Mrs. Gordon. I've Just had a talk with Anna about this very thing. I assure you it was quite as annoying annoy-ing for me to have your girl in my kitchen as it was for you to have Emma in yours. And I shall try to see that Anna has enough food," sarcastically, sar-castically, "so your maid will not feel obliged to feed her." "Oh, I hope, Mrs. Curtis, you're not going to be offended! Of course 1 didn't believe a thing Emma said. You know how servants will gossip." "Yet it seems that you've listened to their gossip." "If I'd thought you'd have taken it this way," Mrs. Gordon rose haughtily, "I certainly would not have told you." "I don't know what you mean by 'this way!'" Helen rose quite as haughtily and followed her to the door. "I'm simply assuring you that my new maid will not trouble you. I've spoken to her already, and I shall speak to her again." "Well, I'm very sorry, but of course if you insist on being offended I can't help it. I'm sure I meant it In a neighborly way. Good afternoon." "Good afternoon." And Helen closed the door very softly to keep from closing It very hard. Rushing out to the kitchen, with excited, ex-cited, vehement warnings, she confronted con-fronted the astonished Anna. Never, never, under any circumstances, must she go near the Gordons' kitchen or even speak to the Gordons' maid! Because she had to tell someone. Helen repeated all that Mrs. Gordon had said, her indignation and her rage increasing with the rehearsal. When Helen was thoroughly angry, it always made her ill. And now the thought of Emma's treachery and Mrs. Gordon's haughty insolence inflamed her to the point of hysteria. By the time Warren came home, her head ached, her throat ached and she had worked herself up into an actual fever. ; "Oh! What do you think? Who do you think's been here?" was her incoherent inco-herent greeting. ' "And what do you think that sly, hateful Emma is saying about us?" "How should I know?" indifferently, as he tossed her the evening paper and peeled off his overcoat, "That we didn't give her enough to eat! That's what she told Mrs. Gordon's Gor-don's maid, and Mrs. Gordon came In here today and told me!" "Huh, she had a lot to do!" "And that isn't all!" excitedly. "She said her maid had to practically feed Emma because we didn't give her enough! That Emma was always in her kitchen, and that she hoped I'd keep my new maid out!" "Well, she's right about that." "Oh," flamingly. "Wasn't her maid always in our kitchen? The very first thing I told this girl was not to go near the Gordons' maid." "Just see that she don't then. What's the sense of getting all fussed up about it?" "Put, dear, don't you care? Aren'i you furious that Emma should say such things about us? She's told everybody ev-erybody in the house I know she has that we're so stingy we didn't give her enough to eat!" "What if she has? We know it's not true, don't we?" "But other people don't. Oh, Warren, War-ren, don't you care at all what people think of us?" "Not anybody who'd listen to a lot of backdoor gossip." "Well, I care It makes me wild! And the idea of Mrs. Gordon coming In here with such a story! I'd love to write her a note and tell her just what I think of her!" "Now, see here. Don't you pull off ! any rumpus with the Gordons. We're In too close quarters to stir up any rows." "I stir up a row? Why, J. haven't been near her! She walked in here with her haughty, overbearing air! I hardly said a word. You know I can never talk back." "Oh, you're not so all-fired meek. I'll wager before she got out you made her feel darned uncomfortable. And once you get a grudge against anybody you never let up Now don't you try any of your 'getting even' schemes. Can that note business busi-ness and steer clear of her. Forget it!" And Warren opened the evening paper pa-per with cool unconcern. Mabel Herbert wa,lt 'ou to com Urner. straight and tell me. I can stand anything In a girl but slyness. What's that? Something else Emma did?" "I found it behind the ice box." Anna held up a napkin with the deep scorched Imprint of a flatiron. Helen bit her lip. "Throw it away. I don't want to see it. I suppose we'll iind a lot of things like that. Why, where did this come from?" taking up a gold-handed plate. "I don't know, ma'am; it was way back on the top shelf." "It bf longs to Mrs. Gordon! Anna," turning to her sharply, "there's something some-thing el:e I want to tell you. The Gordons have the apartment across the hall, and while Emma was here their maid was forever In our kitchen. Now I'm perfectly willing for you to have your friends, but I want you to have them outside. I don't want you to have that girl running In here. I ilou't want you even to know her. Do you understand?" "Yes'm. My aunt never likes me to So wlh the girls where I work." "That's right Have your friends outside it's much better. Now I'll send this plate back by the elevator boy. I don't want to give you any excuse even to speak to that girl." Helen had spent the day helping the new maid give the apartment a 1 borough cleaning. And now while Anna finished the pantry she decided to clear out the bookcase and rear-ran;;r rear-ran;;r tfte . books. It ij'as almost three, but it was'a dismal, rainy afternoon, and, confident that no one .would call, Helen went at the disordered bookcase with real enthusiasm. N ' ' She had mostof the books out, and was sitting on the floor sorting over some old magazines from the lower shelf when the bell rang. The tailor for Warren's suit, she thought unconcernedly. uncon-cernedly. Then, to her amazement, Anna, without any announcement, . -ushered in Mrs. Gordon. The books fell clattering from her lap, as Helen sprang up, panically conscious of her old kimono, her dust cap and gloves. The very modishness of Mrs. Gordon's afternoon gown made Helen's disarray more striking. "Oh, please don't let me disturb yon! But the maid said to come right in." "It's a new maid," stammered Helen. Hel-en. "I we're having a general clean-Ing-up day. Won't you sit down?" Although the Gordons had lived across the hall for over a year, Helen had met Mrs. Gordon only in the elevator. ele-vator. She was a pretty woman, but with an artificial society manner that Helen instinctively disliked. "Mrs. Curtis," in an affected voice, "I've come to speak to you about Emma. Em-ma. I understand you found her dishonest. dis-honest. May I ask if that's true?" "Why, yes." wonderingly. "That's why I discharged her." "Oh, you discharged her?" "Of course. What did you think?" "Why, I I understand that she " "That she left rue?" flared Helen. "I presume that's what she told your maid." "Oh, but I didn't believe it," hastily. '"To tell you the truth, I've just had quite a scene with my maid about Emma. Jane's been in this country only eight months, and she's very unsophisticated. un-sophisticated. She believes everything that anyone tells her, and Emma told her a great many things." "I shouldn't wonder," dryly. "You may not have known it," stiffly, stif-fly, "hut Emma was in my kitchen "half the time. I couldn't go in to give Jane an order that she wasn't there. Now that she's gone, I can tell you it was most annoying." "I can quite understand that," Helen's voice was icy. "for when Emma Em-ma wasn't in your kitchen, your maid was in mine." "I suppose so. Wei'., I thought when Emma left that would end it. tiut I find she still comes back to see Jane. She was there yesterday and again this morning. Now that I have it straight from you that she's dishonest, dis-honest, I shall certainly forbid Jane seeing her." "Yes, I shouldn't think you'd care to have her around." "I know I'll have trouble in keeping her away, for the girl's simply hypnotized hypno-tized Jane. She's made her believe all ports of things. You won't miDd. I know, for it's so absurd, but she actually ac-tually to!d ,Iani3 that you didn't give her enough to eat!". |