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Show ! "Tf.l fl FTT fl I Robert J.CSiead JO J ;1;i?3i'j Mt-'-f f f!! ! 1U'Ji?'j Other Po.m" $ 0 Li bdj v V u SiliijyvjjLiijij ,Mon lb J ;! IRWIN MYERS i Copyright by Harper 4 Brothers j. 4 drove into the country with Iiert Morrison, Mor-rison, when on the brow of a hill he switched off his lights that they might better admire the majesty of the heavens. That Con ward should place an evil interpretation upon that incident inci-dent was a thing so monstrous, so altogether al-together beyond argument, that Dave fell back upon the basic human method meth-od reserved for such occasions. His fist leaped forward, and Conward crumpled up before it. Conward lay stunned for a few minutes, min-utes, then, with returning consciousness, conscious-ness, he tried to sit up. Dave helped him to a chair. Blood flowed down his face, and as he began to realize what had occurred it was joined with tears of pain, rage, humiliation. ' "You got that one on me, Elden," he said, after a while. "But it was a coward's blow. You hit me when I wasn't looking. Very well. Two can play at that game. I'll hit when you're not looking . . . where you don't expect ex-pect it . .' .where you can't hit back. I know the stake you're playing for, and I'm going to spoil it." He turned his swollen, bloody face to Dave's, and hatred stood up in his eyes as he uttered ut-tered the threat. "I'll hit you, Dave," he repeated, "where you can't hit back." "Thanks for the warning," said Elden. El-den. "So Irene Hardy is to be the stake. All right, I'll sit in. And I'll win." "You'll think you've won," returned Conward, leeringly, "and then you'll find out that you didn't. I'll present her to you, Dave, like that." He lifted a burnt match from an ash-tray and held it before him. Dave's impulse was to seize the thick, flabby throat in his hands and choke it lifeless. With a resolute effort ef-fort he turned to the telephone and lifted the receiver. "Send a car and a doctor to Conward & Elden's office," he said when he had got the desired number, "Mr. Conward Con-ward has been hurt fell against a their daily needs. It, too, would soon be exhausted, and Irene was confronted confront-ed with the serious business of finding a means of livelihood for herself and her mother. She discussed her problem with Bert Morrison, with whom she had formed a considerable friendship. She wondered won-dered whether she might be able to get a position on one of the newspapers. newspa-pers. "Don't think of it," said Bert. "If you want to keep a sane, sweet outlook out-look on humanity, don't examine it too closely. That's what we have to do in the newspaper game, and that's why we're all cynics. Keep out of it." "But I must earn a living," Irene protested. "Ever contemplate marriage?" 6ald Miss Morrison, witli disconcerting frankness. The color rose In Irene's cheeks, but she knew that her friend was discussing discuss-ing a serious matter seriously. "Why, yes," she admitted, "I have contemplated contem-plated it; in fact, I am contemplating it. That's one of the reasons I want to start earning my living. When I marry I want to marry as a matter of choice not because it's the only way out." "Now you're talking," said Bert. "And most of us girls who marry as a matter of choice don't marry. ' I've only known one man from whom a proposal would set me thinking. And he'll never propose to me not now. Not since Miss Hardy came West." "Oh," said Irene, slowly, "I'm I'm so sorry 1" "It's all right," said Bert, looking out of the window. "Just another of life's little bumps. We get used to them in time. But you want a job. Let me see; you draw, don't you?" "Just for a pastime. I can't earn a living that way." "I'm not so sure. Perhaps not with art in the abstract. You must commercialize commer-cialize it. If you; on the one hand, can make a picture of the Eockies, which you can't sell, and, on the other, can make a picture of a pair of shoes, which you can sell, which, as a woman of good sense, in need of the simoleons, are you going to do? You're going to draw the shoes and the pay-check. Now I think I can get you started that way, on catalogue work and ad cuts. Try your pencil on something anything any-thing at all and bring down a few samples." So Irene's little studio-room began to take on a practical purpose. It was work which called for form and proportion pro-portion rather than color, and in these Irene excelled. She soon found herself her-self with as much as she could do, in addition to the duties of the household, house-hold, as maids were luxuries which could no longer be afforded and her mother seemed unable to realize that they were net still living in the affluence afflu-ence of Doctor Hardy's income. To Irene, therefore, fell the work of the house, as well as its support. But her success in earning-a living did not seem in the slightest degree to clear the way for marriage. She could not ask Dave to assume the support of her mother; particularly in view of Mrs. -Hardy's behavior toward him, she could not ask that. She sometimes wondered if Conward For a long while she refused to com: plete the thought, but at length, why not? Why shouldn't Conward marry her mother? And what other purpose could he have in his continuous visits to their home? Mrs. Hardy, although no longer young, had by no means surrendered all the attractions of her sex, and Conward was slipping by the period where a young girl would be his natural mate. If they should marry Irene was no plotter, but it did seem that such a match would . clear the way for all -concerned. She was surprised, when she turned it over in her mind, to realize that Conward Con-ward had won for himself such a place in her regard that she could contemplate contem-plate such a consummation as very much to be desired. Subconsciously, rather than from specific motive, she assumed a still more friendly attitude toward him. (TO BE CONTINT7ED.) CHAPTER X. Continued. 16 1'ld' ii sivitii;' on his heel and pacd lh- li-iiglli of the ollice in quick, sharp strides. When he returned to where Miss Wardin stood, wrapped about in her misery, his fists were clenched and the veins stood out on the back of his hands. 'Scoundrel!" lie muttered. "Scoundrel "Scoun-drel ! And I have been tied to him. I have let him bind me; I have let him Set the standards. Well, now I know him." There was a menace in his last words that frightened even Gladys Wardin, well though she knew the menace was not to her, but ranged in her defense. "Here," he said, taking some bills from his pocket. "You must tell him you can't go tell him you won't go; you must return his money. I will lend you what you need. Don't be afraid. I will go with you " "But I can't take your money, either, Mr. Elden," she protested. "I can't stay here any longer. I will have no job and I can't pay you back. You see I can't take it, even from you. What a fool I was I For a few clothes" "You will continue to work for me," he said. She shook her head. "No, I can't. I can't. I can't work anywhere near him." "You won't need to. The firm of Conward & Elden will be dissolved at once. I have always felt that there waa something false in Conward ' something that wouldn't stand test. Now I know." There was a sound of a key in the street door, and Conward entered. CHAPTER XI. Conward paused as he entered ihe room. He had evidently not expected to find Elden there, but after a moment mo-ment of hesitation he nodded cordially to his partner. "Almost ready, Miss Wardin?" he asked, cheerily. "Our train goes in " He took his watch from his pocket and consulted it. Dave's eyes were fixed on the girl. He wondered whether, in this testing moment, she would fight for herself or lean weakly on him as her protector. Her answer reassured him. "It makes no difference when it goes, Mr. Conward. I'm not going on it." Her voice trembled nervously, but there was no weakness in it. The money which Dave had given her was still crumpled in her hand. She advanced ad-vanced to where Conward stood vaguely vague-ly trying to sense the situation, and held the bills before him. "Here is your money, Mr. Conward," she said. "Why, what does this mean?" "Here is your money. Will you take it, please?" "No, I won't take it until you explain" ex-plain" She opened her fingers and the bills fell to the floor. "All right," she said. Conwnrd's eyes had shifted to Dave. "You are at the bottom of this, Elden," he said. "What does it mean?" "It means, Conward," Dave answered, an-swered, and there was steel in his voices "it means that after all these years I have discovered 'what a cur you are just in time to balk you, at least in this instance." Conward flushed, but he maintained an attitude of composure. "You've been drinking, Dave," he said. "I meant no harm to Miss Wardin." "Don't make me call you a liar as well as a cur." The word cut through Conward's mask of composure. "Now by God I I won't take that from any man !" he shouted, and with a swing of his arms threw his coat over his shoulders. Dave made no motion, and Conward slowly brought his coat back to position. posi-tion. "I was right," said Dave, calmly. "I knew you wouldn't fight. You think more of your skin than you do of your honor. Well it's better worth protection." protec-tion." "If this girl were not here " Conward Con-ward protested. "I will not fight " "Oh, I will leave," said Miss Wardin, with alacrity. "And I hope he soaks you well," she shot back, as the door closed behind her. But by this time Conward had assumed as-sumed a superior attitude. "Dave," he said, "I won't fight over a quarrel of this kind. But remember, there are some things in which no man allows another to interfere. Least of all such a man as you. There are ways of getting get-ting back, and I'll get back." "Why such a man as me? I know I haven't been much of a moralist in business matters I've been in the wrong company for that but I draw the line " "Oh, you're fine stuff, all right. What would your friend Miss Hardy think if I told her ail I know?" "You know nothing that could affect Miss Hardy's opinion." "It's too bad your . memory is so roor," Conward sneered. "Why were ! your lights off that night I passed your car' C-h, I guess you remember ! What ! wil? A,:Ss Hardy think of that?" I''"- a moment Dave was unable to foil p.' Conward's thought. Then his mirV "?ached back to that night he "Ever Contemplate Marriage?" Said Miss Morrison, With Disconcerting Frankness. desk, or something. Nothing serious, but may need a stitch or two." Then, turning to Conward : "It will depend on you whether this affair gets to the public on you and Miss Wardin. Make your own explanations. And as soon as you are able to be about our partnership will be dissolved." Conward was ready enough to adopt Dave's suggestion that their quarrel should not come to the notice of the public, and Gladys Wardin, apparently, apparent-ly, kept her own counsel in the matter. mat-ter. In a time when firms were going out of business without even the formality for-mality of an assignment, and others were being absorbed by their competitors, competi-tors, the dissolution of the Conward & Elden establishment occasioned no more than passing notice. The explanation, ex-planation, "for business reasons," given to the newspapers, seemed sufficient. suffi-cient. Irene Hardy found herself in a position po-sition of increasing delicacy. Since the day of their conversation in the tearoom tea-room Dave had been constant in his attentions, but, true to his ultimatum, had uttered no word that could in any way be construed to be more or less than platonic. She had now no doubt that she felt for Dave that attachment without which ceremonies are without avail and with which ceremonies are but ceremonies. And yet she shrank from surrender. . . . And she knew that some day she must surrender. The situation was complicated by conditions which involved her mother and Conward. It was apparent that Conward's friendship for Mrs. Hardy did not react to Dave's advantage. Conward was careful to drop no word in Irene's hearing that could be taken as a direct reflection upon Dave, but she was conscious of an influence, a magnetism, it almost seemed, the whole tendency of which was to pull her away from Elden. Mrs. Hardy had invested practically all her little fortune in her house. The small sum which had been saved from that unfortunate investment had been eaten up in the cost of furnishing and maintaining the home. Doctor Hardy, in addition to his good name, had left his daughter seme few thousand dollars dol-lars of life insurance, and this was ilia capital which was now supplying |