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Show - I King Tommy By GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM llll Cooyrieht by Bobtw-Merrill Co. W. N. U. Service I "I thought not," said the king. "I thought not. I'm glad you've confirmed con-firmed my suspicion." "I've known many curates," said Janet, "perhaps hundreds of them, and I've never known one yet who behaved be-haved as this one does. He drinks cocktails In the morning and goes to the Mascotte In the evenings." "The patriarch wouldn't dream of doing such things," said the king. "Which makes me certain that he's not a curate or Indeed a clergyman at all." "That," said the king, "is more the sort of way a young man like Lord Norheys might behave." "Very possibly. I don't know Lord Norheys." "At the same time," said the king, "It is not our business to expose the unfortunate young man. Deplorable as his conduct it, I don't see that we need warn the patriarch against him." "For the sake of the reputation of the Church of England," said Janet, "I feel that I ought to make it clear that he Is not one of our clergy." "If he does anything scandalous while he is in Lystria," said the king, "kisses a housemaid, or anything like that, of course you'll have to tell the CHAPTER XIII Continued is "Even o," said the king, "you can carcely expect me to answer that question in detail. Even at the age of forty-five, If you really are forty-five" forty-five" "Fifty-two." "At any age," said the king, "such confessions are embarrassing, embarrassing embar-rassing for both of us. Besides, It Isn't only with Calypso that I want you to use your influence. There's - the patriarch. Do you know our patriarch?" pa-triarch?" "I hope to. I'm going to Lystria in order to enlist his sympathies in our great movement." "And Tm sure you'll succeed," said the king. "Our patriarch is full of eympathy with all good causes, and I'm certain that your movement Is one of the best." Janet helped herself to some of the veal which a waiter was pushing at her In a large dish. The king refilled her glass. She had sipped away almost al-most half of what was in it. r "It's the esablishment of world peace," she said, "through the medium of the United Christian Churches." "In that case," said the king, "you can count with certainty on our patriarch. patri-arch. There's nothing, absolutely nothing, he likes better than the es-' es-' tablishment of world peace except perhaps the Unity of Christian Churches, though perhaps he's a little Inclined to take the view that the other churches should unite with his and not his with them. I mean to say, he thinks that if there's to be a compromise, it must be on the basis of every one else giving way. But all ecclesiastics are like that. Our patriarch pa-triarch isn't peculiar." "When we speak of the union of churches," said Janet, "we mean a concordat based on the essentials of the Christian creed." "Of course," said the king, "and you'll find our patriarch absolutely agrees with you about that so long as you don't -ask him to shake hands with the Megallan Archimandrite. He might draw the line "there, though, as I said, he's always on for anything really good. A good cause simply fascinates fas-cinates him. If he has a weakness as we all have It is that he's not so fond as he might be of the things which aren't quite so good as the Causes. Take young men now. As you very rightly said a few minutes ago, young men are young men." "I said they ought not to be." "But they are," said the king, "that's what the patriarch cannot be got to see, but I am sure I can rely on you to put the thing before him in the proper light. After all, Miss" Temple is a long way off. It isn't as if she was In the least likely to turn up In Lystria." "I fear that I can scarcely undertake" "He Pretends to Be a Curate," Said the King. Churches, dropped hints about Tommy which set Calypso wondering. She said, -for Instance, that Tommy was hot the man he professed to be. So far as Calypso knew, Tommy professed pro-fessed to be Lord Norheys, and the thought that he might be somebody else gave her a queer little thrill ot pleasure. If he were not Lord Norheys, Nor-heys, then he was not bound in honor to marry Miss Temple. She began to look at Tommy with Interest, at first as a man whom It might be her duty to marry, later on as a man whom she might be content to marry even if it were not her duty. Her view of Miss Temple changed in an odd way. It occurred to her as possible that this London dancer might be one of those wicked women who lure young men into entanglements entangle-ments and then hold them to their half-made promises. She came by degrees de-grees to think of Miss Temple as a nuisance, some one who had no right to be there at all, certainly no right to interfere with Lord Norheys' life. Tommy could not fail to observe the change in Calypso's manner, and the thought that her feelings toward him were becoming more friendly filled him with a determination to go through with his adventure whatever happened. There were difficulties. One, trt fling In itself, but singularly embarrassing, embar-rassing, met him almost at once. On the evening of his arrival, while he was smoking a pipe before going to bed, Tommy was greeted by a cheerful, intelligent looking young Englishman. Eng-lishman. "Excuse me, sir, but aren't you Colonel Col-onel Heard?" Tommy was not Colonel Heard any more than he was Lord Norheys ; but he knew he had Colonel Heard's passport pass-port In his pocket and his party were entered in the hotel register as Colonel Col-onel and Mrs. Heard and Miss Gis-borne. Gis-borne. The king had done that for them before he went back to Berlin. "My name," said the stranger, "is Alien. I don't think we've ever met." "Never," said Tommy firmly, thankful thank-ful that Allen was not one of Colonel Heard's oldest friends. "But when I saw your name In the hotel register," said Allen, "I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm doing Reparations, Rep-arations, you know." He gave that piece of information as if It formed some excuse for having hav-ing seen Colonel Heard's name In the register book. Perhaps it was an excuse. ex-cuse. Any one concerned with Reparations Rep-arations is bound to be filled with curiosity cu-riosity and ought to investigate everything ev-erything he comes across. How else is he to know whether the conquered nations can or cannot pay the fines Imposed on them? "I hope," Allen went on, "that you'll Introduce me to Mrs. Heard. I'd like to tell my sister that I've met her." Tommy could not do anything else but promise to introduce Allen to Mrs. Heard next morning. But he could not help wondering which of his two ladles were the better suited for the part. Janet Church was almost the age that colonels' wives generally are. But Tommy knew that he himself looked absurdly young. There cannot be many Instances of colonels of twenty-six years old married to ladlei of fifty-two, and Janet looked every day of her age. On the other hand, one of his two ladles had to pose as the secretary of the Graves Registration Registra-tion commission. Calypso did not look like a secretary and it would be difficult dif-ficult to convince any one that she was chiefly occupied with graves. Janet, with her face and figure, looked exactly like a lady who spent her time In typing letters about tombstones. tomb-stones. Tommy made up his mind that Calypso must be Mrs. Heard. "I want to thank Mrs. Heard," said Allen, for all her kindnesses to my sister In 1915. She was like a mother moth-er to the girls In that canteen, and she kept a tight hand over them, too. Quite right. They needed it." The date gave Tommy a shock. In 1915 Calypso was at the utmost fourteen four-teen years of age and could not possibly pos-sibly have kept a tight hand over any one, except perhaps the inhabitants of a dolls' house. Tommy altered hia plun. Janet would have to be Mrs. Heard. But he was by no means certain cer-tain of how Janet would like that. She had already aeceptea the position of his aunt, and it is distinctly laid down in the Prayer Book that an aunt may not marry her nephew. Janet, with her strong ecclesiastical instincts, might very well object to committing herself to a breach of Pie marriage laws of the Church. (TO BE CONTIMITD.) J Do Not Force Plant If a plant has been growing thriftily ; for some time and then begins to go l back It probably needs a rest, and no ! amount of forcing will do any perms- ! nent good. During the resting period ! a plant Is better if left entirely aione j In a dry, cool ceilar. It will of Its own ' accord and without any attention of ' any kind begin to put out new- grren ; shoots. When these new shoots show i themselves the plant should be given a j thorough watering, a repotting If nec- i essary, and brought tip into its place j In the sun. After It ii growlcg well l may be Elven fertilizer. I patriarch and Calypso too, that he isn't a clergyman. You'd be bound to do that for the sake of the Church of England. But If he behaves with ordinary or-dinary decorum After all, he may have good reasons for pretending to be a clergyman. I'm pretending to be a head waiter in order to earn my living. There's nothing really wicked about that. I don't see that either you or I are bound to tell the patriarch patri-arch that he's not a curate." "So long as you know the facts I don't see that It's anybody else's business." bus-iness." "And I do know them thoroughly." "I felt bound to tell you," said Janet, "but I don't see that I need tell anyone else." "Thanks," said the king. Part III. Lystria CHAPTER XIV It took Casimlr two days to complete com-plete his arrangement for the reception of the princess at the schloss. The little party Tommy, the princess and Janet Church stayed in the best hotel ho-tel In Breslau. The king took rooms for them before he went back to Berlin, Ber-lin, a bedroom for Tommy, two bedrooms bed-rooms and a sitting room for the ladles. la-dles. The head waiter of the Mascotte Mas-cotte Is an important person In hotel keeping and restaurant circles In Germany. Ger-many. Tommy's party was treated with the greatest courtesy and consideration. consid-eration. But the two days In Breslau were not very pleasant for Tommy. He saw-but saw-but little of the princess, and he never saw her alone. They met at meals; but Jnnet Church was always there. Afterward the princess and Janet either eith-er retired to their own sitting room, or took a walk without asking Tommy Tom-my to go with them. He got no chance of explaining himself to the princess or trying to convince her that he knew nothing of Miss Temple. This worried wor-ried him. On the other hand, the princess' manner became gradually more and more agreeable. The extreme ex-treme hostility with which she had greeted him In the Mascotte and afterward after-ward In the train gave way to or-dlnnry or-dlnnry politeness and at last to friendliness. friend-liness. Janet, of course, was with the princess prin-cess all day and talked to her Incessantly, Inces-santly, almost always about world peace and the Cnity of Christian Churches. This would hav Inclined any girl to feel kindly toward a young man, even If he were the callous breaker of another girl's heart. And Calypso came to be doubtful whether Tommy had really broken Miss Temple's Tem-ple's heart. Janet, when her mind tauM be diverted from the Union of Janet was softened, perhaps for the first time In her life. If it had not been for the wine, the good food, and the king's charming manners, she would no doubt have replied to hlra much more blankly than she did. She might even have spoken fiercely. "I fear," she said, "I cannot undertake under-take to persuade the patriarch that Miss Temple doesn't exist." "Well, perhaps not," said the king. "After all, the patriarch Is a very difficult dif-ficult man to persuade. I never could do It. I dare say it will really be better bet-ter If he doesn't hear about Miss Temple Tem-ple at all. And he never will If Calypso Ca-lypso doesn't tell him." "I shall not consider it my duty to tell him," said Janet. "My business with him" "Is world unity through peaceful Christian churches." "World peace," said Janet, "through the Unity of Christian Churches." "Quite so," said the king, "and even if It had been World Churches Through the Unity of Christian Peace, It would still be far more important than our little affairs. Still, If you persuade Calypso not to tell the patriarch" pa-triarch" If Casimlr had been there he might have said that the king, dke poor old Lear's worst daughter, gave "sweet oelllades and most speaking glances" to Janet. I doubt very much whether any one had ever made eyes at her before. The treatment had a certain effect. "I shall not," said Janet, "advise that the patriarch be told." I dare say Janet's conscience was gnawing her a little. She had drunk a glass and a half of Burgundy and the king was putting a liqueur glass full of cognac beside her cofTee. That was enough to make her uneasy. She had promised to conceal, or help In concealing con-cealing a scandal. I suppose she had never before In her whole life agreed to do such a thing, and no doubt the thought of It wes unpleasant. By way of compounding with her conscience and so quieting it, she made up her mind to say something really nasty about Tommy. "Are you aware," she said, "that the young man about whom we have been speaking is not what he pretends to be?" "He pretends to be a curate?" said the king. "Exactly, and Tm perfectly certain ba' nothlnn of the tort" |