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Show aHpaBBpaBaaaaBpaBB s , f$S5555S$$SS$S$SS5SS44$SS5$$$S5w$t REUNITED V By GRAYSON STONE. !? ' This was the situation with Cldo Richards when his twenty-first birthday birth-day til rived He had sold his first picture iih it landscape nrttt and his In other artists had found oul) u little fault with It. lie had mono) enough to sttugglo along until success came, but none to make u show with. Acquaintances Ac-quaintances had cautioned him not to hamper hlum-lf, and friends hud told him nuttlght that It would not he good pulley to handicap himself with a wife. Clyde lttthtirils was In love and hud been for a )cur or more, ami Mailau Fletcher knew that he was. but no wind hail been spoken. He was n regular caller at her father's house and hud lousoii to believe that his calls were rather looked for, but he did not Indulge In tin) hopes. Her father was a broker and reputed to be well off, and she held her head ery high as a daughter of a ikh man. A girl of nineteen is romantic, how-out, how-out, and had he spoken Ids loe who could tell what would have happened? The case stood thus when a word or two fiiini Miss Mnilitn dashed all of the )oting artist's hopes. io.e owning when he was u caller nnd they hail talked ii little of his art she said lu u laughing way: "l'lither Is so practical. He was talking about you the other dii), and I told him you were a landscape painter. paint-er. Hi" answered fioin his own view of things. He asked why )ou did not paint houses and barns and thereby make n good 'Ihing." It was n oiy foolish speech and Intended In-tended more as u Joke than to hint, and the glii regielted It as soon as the words had left her lips. It was too late, however. The ining man did not show his icscutmciil, but he jolt It and it biought about restraint between them, lie left the house with his mind made up not to call again. Six months later he saw In the papers pa-pers Hint tlie bioker Juid stilTcred u uiuiplcto collapse financial!), and was told by friends that he and his daughter daugh-ter luul retired to the country. A lolu-the lolu-the had given him a little farm, mid all their friends soon forgot them. It was two )ctus Inter that Mr. Cl)de Itkhards was motoring along n country load when lie came to a country coun-try Hchoolhouxc. School was dismissed for the day. On the steps sat a )oung woman who was weeping, and besido her sut an old tnaii whom 11115 body would have called a sklnlllnt after tho first glance. In a dim way the artist felt that he had seen the young woman wom-an before, but he could not fully recall her. He was driving his machine slowly slow-ly and he heard the old man say: "That mortgage and Interest ban got to be paid within ten ilii)s or I shall commence proceedings to foreclose fore-close 1" "Then we shall have to live In tho llelds 1" sobbed the girl. Ihe artist stopped his cur almost lu limit of them, for he saw It was u case of tlistless. The old sklnlllnt rose up and shook his list at lilui, and then said to tlie girl: ".Vow, then, remember what I have said. If the money Is nut paid, out )ou go I" I'tir 11 long minute after he hail walked aw a), the girl sat blinded by her tenis. Then she wlpetl them away 11111I looked up. She gae a sudden stint of .sin prise. She lull the steps and walked out to the car ami, utter taking a caietul look at the occupant, she tiled her best to smile us she said: "Wh), it's Mr. ltlchauls! Who would hae thought of booing )ou heioV" "Yes, It Is Mr. Rlchuids," was the icply. "Do )ou llo around heie?" "About 11 mile anil a hall down the load. Hadn't ou lieiutl that 1 was the schoolteacher lor this dlslilct?" He eUendod her his hand to help her Into the iiulo, anil, after a moment's mo-ment's hesitation, she was beside him. 1'hey 11ml gone half u mile befoie ho uid : "Now, then, tell me nil about it." He wus almost tlie lust mini in tho 01 Id she wanted to tell her tumbles to, but he spoke so kindly uud seemed so Ntiong that she begun to talk, and, utter a time, he kuew nil. Her father luul almost collapsed meutull) and lih)slciilly. Ho was able to do Utile or jo woik. They were, lu fact, pension. rvs on the bounty of relatives. Sho hud been a schoolteacher for two or llu co )ents, but tlie salary was so low Unit it did not help much. The old mail with whom she luul been talking mis a money-lender mid hud Induced her futher to moitgage a little faun ultlioul mi) lug mi) thing to her about It. She was not complaining nor lamenting. la-menting. She had done the best sho itiuld, and she would bear her troubled ihe best she could. He on Ids part told her of his suo less, but not lu 11 boasting way, anil tho past between them was not 1 inferred in-ferred to. When they arrived at tho little farm, he helped her out of tho car and, Instead of driving 011, lie ivnlked Into the house with her. After lie hail greeted her futher, lie sat down and said: "Mr. Fletcher, listen carefully to me. I 11111 going to marry our tlaugh-ter. tlaugh-ter. I am going to pay up that mortgage mort-gage and then you aie to deed tho place over to her. You shall live with is, and we'll muko you as comfortahlo is we can. This shall he my studio In tho summer, and In tlie winter we will live In town Marian, what do you ay to tills?" And Marlon's tears and blushes node the answer plain. ;Copyilht, 1916, by the McClure New. paper Syndicate) |