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Show Beggars Can Chwse THE STORY Renewing a childhood attarh-nisnt, attarh-nisnt, KrneMtlne Etrlceland, of a woalthy family, In attracted by Will Todd, newspaper artlHt. Hur alater, Lillian, urea her to break off the affair, but KrneiAlne ro-f ro-f uh ah. A runaway marriage follows. fol-lows. Coring Hamilton wins Lillian' Lil-lian' coiiHont to become his wife. Will and Krne.stlne beln their married life In humble mirround-lna. mirround-lna. John Poole, Will's bnt friend, fclve a birthday party for iiirneetlne at ltuby l'aHtano's re-Hort. re-Hort. hlrneatlne and Will have their flint quarrel as a result. Will's father dies suddenly. Lillian Lil-lian and Lorlng are married. W ill's mother dies almost 1 in -med lately after Mrneati lie's baby 1h born. Changes In Will's oillce full to bring advancement. iOrn-ofitlne iOrn-ofitlne ftKaln la looking forward to molherhood. Will loes his Job and I'oole resigns. men tine faints on the Ktreot. CHAPTER IX Continued 9 "Mr. Hamilton's Rot a taxi for us out there had It since six o'clock. I don't know how much this'll cost him." "That doesn't matter," said I. Milan Impntlontly, and tried to control her perturbation. She was disturbed anew at the thought of Lorlng violent, uncontrolled she had never seen him so, except on the other oceaslou of Ills cjuarrel with Will. But this was worse. He had always been so fond of ICrnestlne ns though she were his own little sister. She felt a great relief re-lief to think that he had taken charge of the search. He would find Ernestine Ernes-tine If she were to be found. But the thought of her sister out In these hot streels. lost, 111 and alone, caused her such anguish that she could scarcely breathe. What would mammi. say to her? Mamma loved ICrnestlne the betler always had. Mamma had really left Ernestine to her. The door was Hung open and Lorlng stood there. Ills eyes were glittering with fear or fever. He looked at her as If he scarcely knew her. "Lillian!" he exclaimed. "I drove," she told him, "all the way. I've been so worried." "You had cause to worry," he said grimly. "When we lind Ernestine she Is going home with us to stay. Don't you ngree? She's got to have somebody some-body to take care of her." "Of course. Boring." "I've news of a sort," he said slowly, and they stared at him. "I don't know what It's worth. There was a woman taken to the County hospital this afternoon from this neighborhood. She was a young woman, and she was Ic be confined. It night have been Ernestine. I've sent Will out there, and I came by to see If you were here" to bis wife "and to wult here Tor a phone call." The telephone shrilled, and the sound leaped through them all. Mrs. Iiennett picked up the receiver with a trembling hand, while they all watched her In straining silence. "Yes yes this Is Mrs. Bennett. . , . Oh, he did. . . . Oh, thank you. . . . Her sister Is here. I'll tell them." She turned from the phone. "It's the hospital office. . Will has Identified Ernestine, and he's there with her. Oh, Mr. Hamilton you found her!" "Get your hat," sold Lorlng. "And come with us. Never mind your keys, Lillian. We'll take the taxi." At the hospital an Interne was very businesslike. "Her husband has Identified her. Yes, he Is with her now. No, you can't come In well, only for a moment." There lay Ernestine In the stiff, long-,- sleeved, hospital shirt, her hair black ! between her white face and the white " pillow, a nurse beside her counting her respiration, Will crouching there, his face against the covers. Her eyes were opened, flushed with fever. She was talking pleading In delirium. Ernestine, the darling sister in this dreadful placet "You will all have to go," said the nurse, snapping shut her old-fashioned watch and darting a resentful look at the Interne. "We cannot have any-tl any-tl " ' body In this ward after hours. Mr. Todd, you will have to go." "Ernestine," cried Lillian, and Ernestine Ernes-tine said quickly : "Will's coming. I tell you my name (s Brlceland B-r-I-c-e-l-a-n-d I flunk there's more. The bus ran over me It leaped at me " "She was crushed?" exclaimed L1I-llan, L1I-llan, and the nurse said: "No she's Just delirious. I'lease go." "Can't we have her moved to a private pri-vate room? Can't we move her?" It was Lorlng now. Will had lifted his face, and he stared at Ernestine and gently smoothed her cheek, while her bright eyes turned on him. 'Tapa you must find Will he'll worry," she urged htm. "I can't say about moving her. You'll have to see the floor doctor. She Is very ill to be moved please v . leave the ward now." The nurse was definite. Training and authority were behind her, and they withdrew. Even Will bad to leave her, but Ernestine made such an outcry that the nurse permitted him to come back until Boring should make arrangements to move Ernestine. Lillian found herself in a tiny reception re-ception room furnished barely. Lorlng had gone to the oflice, Mrs. Bennett to the phone booth downstairs. For a moment Lillian thought she was going go-ing to be sick. She clung desperately to the arms of the chair. She was Margaret Weyraoutii Jackson W.NU Service Copyright bjr Bobbs-Merrltl Co. the only woman In the room. A black nian stood near her, twisting a cloth cap In his hands, bis lips moving soundlessly. There was another man, shabby, unclean, suffering In patient silence, and they were Joined by a third and then a fourth vague quiet figure. Lillian's feelings were not of pity but revulsion. She could not bear it ICrnestlne here with the scum of the earth mamma's baby their beauty In this place that smelled of lysol, that was as full of the sounds of sickness and suffering as purgatory Is full of groans. This place was hell, It was nightmare. There came from the streets the clang of an ambulance and a stretcher moved In the hall. Lorlng was beside her, beckoning. "We are taking her to the Presbyterian Presby-terian hospital. They'll have a room and a nurse for her when we get there. Also a good doctor." Lillian followed him in confusion. The ambulance she had heard was for Ernestine. The taxi threaded after it through the streets, and again there wns delay. Mrs. Bennett left them to go back home. Will was with Ernestine Ernes-tine and the stretcher. But now, at last, a small freshly painted room, as clean as a scalded dish, a high narrow nar-row bed, by an open window, an electric elec-tric fan on a white dressing table, a chair or two, and a graduate nurse, capable, cool. There was a doctor, too. Lillian stood Just Inside the door. The doctor was silent for a long time, examining Ernestine, reading the copy of the chart that had been sent with her. "Uremea and some albumen," he said as though any of them knew what he meant. "The baby will be premature if we can get her through her confinement now swiftly, she'll be all right. When did you say she was expectant?" Will named the date. The doctor nodded with satisfaction as though his worst fears were confirmed. "Well, it's a nasty case," he said, "but perhaps we shall pull her through. Miss Nana" he turned to the nurse with a rapid Are of instructions and requests and laid his coat aside. "Now there's nothing any of you can do but give us elbow room and quiet. She's already had two convulsions. When the next comes we shall be ready for her " The horrid word shot through Lillian's mind like a sword thrust. No no only idiot children chil-dren only diseased and terrible people peo-ple only the poor and helpless were so afflicted. Not Ernestine oh, God not Ernestine I The doctor put them out with deliberate de-liberate firmness, allowing Will to stay. "If you go across the street, there's a nice little hotel there. Tell the clerk I sent you, and go to bed. Miss Nana will call you If there's any change, or if she's delivered. The battle bat-tle is ours, now." Lillian knew that It was as hard for Lorlng as It was for her to accept this dismissal and leave Will behind. Will was so futile! He would have left her in that other dreadful place. In silence they crossed the street, registered at the hotel, and were assigned as-signed a room. They moved about In silent misery, looking out of the windows win-dows at the walls of the hospitaL "Did you know Will lost his Job?" Lorlng hesitated. "Yes," he said at last. "I knew it." "But why " "I didn't know how Ernestine would take it, if I butted in. I thought she would let us know If she needed us." "You know how proud she is " Lorlng moved restlessly. "I think I'll go back to the hospital. You stay here. No need for both of us to go. I'll call you if you're needed." Weary and confused, Lillian took off her clothes, bathed in the tiny bathroom bath-room and lay down across the bed, partly dressed again. Her whole thought was strained at first toward the hospital and the possible issue of Ernestine's illness. Then her thoughts turned and turned, from Lorlng to Ernestine, to Will, to mamma and papa and Ernestine and back to mamma mam-ma again. Mamma had allowed papa and Lorlng to dictate to her nbout Will's father. That had really separated sep-arated Ernestine from them long ago. They had offered Ernestine their love and help only at the price of betrayal of her marriage. Tears came to Lillian, Lil-lian, and eventually, tired and sad, she fell asleep. Daylight streaming over her bed wakBned her. She rose, dressed, went across to the hospital and asked for Will, wondering as she did so whether or not she should have asked for Lorlng. Will came to her in the reception room, looking at her from dull heavy eyes, silent, waiting. "How is Ernestine, Will?" she asked him softly. "She is still very 111," he answered, and added as an afterthought : "The baby Is a girl." He was exhausted, unshaved, sad and awry. As he stood there looking vaguely about him he seemed to Lillian Lil-lian the most forlorn and helpless human hu-man being she had ever seen. She pitied him, but he vexed her. "Oh, Will," she said impulsively, "you shouldn't have allowed Ernestine to have this other baby so soon, when you weren't prepared. You should have protected her." He averted avert-ed his face, but she saw his flush. "I've got to go back upstairs," he said, and added, as he turned to the door, "Lorlng has already lectured me on birth control. He's left the hospital. hos-pital. You must have missed him." Lillian was ashamed. She had not Intended to say such a thing. It was none of their business, really. At the hotel she stopped at the desk for the key, but Loring had It. She went up In the quiet elevator. When she opened the unlocked door of their room and went in, Loring was lying back In a chair by the open window, his hat on the Boor beside him, his collar and tie lying upon It. lie WS staring straight before him, and when Lillian came to his side he looked up at her with a piteous expression. For a moment, standing there, a dart of such pain svent through Lillian Lil-lian that she cried out. This was what Ernestine could do to Loring. She knew, with a gripping pang of conviction, that nothing that could ever happen to her would cause him such anguish such rout. This was what Will meant when he said that he She Sat There and Watched Him Prepare Pre-pare Supper. . knew what was the matter with Lorlng Lor-lng ! She fell on her knees beside him, sobbing, and laid her face upon bis knee. His hand fell on her shoulders. shoul-ders. He mistook her fear and pain. "She'll be all right, Lillian," he whispered. whis-pered. "God grant she will ! The doctor doc-tor said that a day or two will tell. It's uremic poisoning." He sat forward in his chair, and his clenched hand fell on one knee, while the other arm held her convulsively. "Thank God you weren't there. Thank God you will never know how she suffered. Will fainted once, and the nurse brought me into the room. They were fighting death like a physi-cal physi-cal foe. I helped to hold her " He gave & stifled cry and tore the buttons but-tons from his shirt as he expanded his lungs against the crushing fear that lay upon him. "Oh, Lillian," he cried to his wife, "I don't see how she can live after last night. The doctor thinks she will, and so does Doctor Grey. He's with her now. But I don't see how she can survive that struggle. But one thing Is settled for us, for ever." He pulled her tear-wet face up from his knee, and looked at her with blazing eyes. "You and I will have to be enough. No child Is worth such anguish. an-guish. No life Is worth death. No children for us." She hid her face against him. Her arms held him close. "I don't care, if only you will love me." He pressed her to him but his eyes had flown to the windows of the hospital, hos-pital, and she felt a tremor pass through his big frame. Ernestine stayed in the hospital until un-til the baby was a month old. Will borrowed the money from Mr. Poole and paid the hospital bill, paid the nurse and the two doctors, the day she was to be discharged. Lorlng protested pro-tested In vain. The removal to the expensive private hospital had been his suggestion It was he who got the nurse, who got the two doctors; he had planned to meet all these expenses. ex-penses. But Will was deaf to him. He was going to pay Ernestine's hospital hos-pital bill, he declared, If he had to rob a bank. What business was It of Lor-Ing's? Lor-Ing's? It was Will's wife Will's child. Legally the debt was Todd's. There was nothing that could be done about It, but the argument Increased the bad blood between the men. Ernestine wanted to go to her own home, she told Lillian. Mamma was hurrying back from Europe. The house at the lake was closed. Lillian remonstrated with Ernestine's determination to go back to the house out In Mayfalr. "But what will you do?" she asked, and her face grew red. "Will isn't even working." "Yes, I am," said Will. "I started today. Mr. Poole Is going to open an independent studio, and I am going to work for him. He's got hold of the copyrights to his old strip and we are going to syndicate it ourselves. It will bring us In a lot of money. I'm to get fifty dollars a week to begin with . . . and we'll be all right." Lillian's dismay was Increased, not diminished, by this news. The combination com-bination of Will and Mr. Poole was worse than nothing, It appeared to her. "I don't know what mamma will say," she protested feebly, but neither Ernestine nor Will seemed to be moved by that. It was a wonderful day when Ernestine Ernes-tine went home. All the way home In the taxi Will held the baby In one arm and Ernestine in the other, and his face was shining with Joy when at last they stood in their little kitchen, she weak ayl trembling in his arms. He was starved for her, but he kissed her gently, got the rocker and filled it with cushions and placed It by the . open kitchen door. She sat there and watched him prepare supper. "Will," she said, when they had eaten, and he had closed the door against the fall dusk, "you're like you used to be. You're like you were that day we met upon the street, when I first fell In love with you. Tell me, what is it?" "The new Job, I guess. I'm crazy about it, Ernestine. In the first place, to be working again is good and to be working for John Poole. And then, Ernestine, I think we're going to do It. I believe we'll make a success a big one." His enthusiasm was boundless. While he washed the dishes he talked to her, and then they put the children chil-dren to bed, and he drew Ernestine onto his knees. "Tell me, Ernestine it was an ungodly un-godly business but you aren't sorry, are you? Now that you're both home again you're glad we've got her aren't you?" They sat looking at the baby. Will pressed his cheek against Ernestine's shoulder. "Tell me," he Implored her. Ernestine understood his need for assurance. He was still suffering from the humiliation Lillian and Loring had heaped on him. "They said I shouldn't have al-' al-' lowed allowed," he exclaimed sharply at the word. "I never thought about it." "We're married, aren't we?" asked Ernestine, and as his bright look questioned ques-tioned her she shook her hend a little. "That's all," she said. "That's the answer. I'm your wife I love you of course I'm glad." He kissed her passionately. It seemed so long since she had been In his arms like this close, close. "Oh, Ernestine," he said, "I don't deserve you. The future Is uncertain. But if ever a wife deserved a good husband, you do. But, sweetheart, It's hard. It's been harder for you than for me; don't think I don't know it. But it's been worth the risk, hasn't It?" "As long as we hold together," she whispered. "As long as we love." And he poured his kisses upon her thin flushed face. "I'll make up to you for everything you'll never be sorry," he told her. And she lay against him, yielding, tremulous and In love, forgetting everything else for him as she had forgotten again and again. CHAPTER X Will Has a Vision The firm of Poole and Todd found Itself at the end of two years established estab-lished beyond question. It owed its success to Will's terrific efforts. He had met and overcome one after another an-other of their natural foes: Mr. Poole's Idleness and Intemperance. By a kind of fierce affection he had dominated and controlled the old man and kept him working. The profits were divided, di-vided, after he had his fifty a week, and Poole bis hundred. And out of his share of the profits, Will repaid his partner for the loan for Ernestine's Ernes-tine's hospital bill. He repaid him the exact half of the amount Poole had sunk into the business at the beginning. begin-ning. And after two years he found himself him-self face to face with the one enemy he could not conquer. Ernestine noticed no-ticed that he grew thin and pale, that fall that the baby,- Elaine, was two. "What Is It, Will?" she asked him. "I thought everything was fine now." "It's Poole," said Will. "He's not drawing he's boozing, but, of course, that's not new. Only he's lost Interest." In-terest." "What do you mean, Will?" He seemed reluctant to put his thought Into crude words. "He's falling his health. His eyes are bad." "You mean he's old?" "Yes," said Will. "That's what I mean. He can't help it poor devil he struggles against it but it's showing show-ing on him." "But, Will, whnt are you doing?" "Why, I'm managing but that's all. When I can get him to help, we work together. We've got the strip all planned out for another year, the general gen-eral sequence of things. But I don't feel that I can do Poole's stuff. My own ideas would be different I can do the drawings well enough nobody would notice, probably but " "You don't want to go on without him?" "The stuff is his, Ernestine. I don't want to there's something fundamentally funda-mentally wrong even when I'm his partner, and all. For a while, as a makeshift, I can go ahead, and take care of the mechanics of It, and do the conversation but actually, we haven't any business at all. We only have him and when he's gone " Will sighed, and then squared his shoulders. "Well here's hoping," he said, and grinned at her. "I guess the old boat will sail another season. You see it's hard for me to crowd him, Ernestine. Ernes-tine. He Is old, and his eyes are about gone, and he hangs on me it's like making a sick old horse pull in the harness for us. Of course, It's for him, too, but it is really for us. We are the ones that will enjoy the money not him. I find myself soft with him." "I know." She understood this exactly, ex-actly, and her young face was troubled. She was blooming again with beauty and vitality. She had been a' lovely bud but now she was In flower in her middle twenties young with beauty and grace, but with poise now,' too, and a strong sense of accomplishment. accomplish-ment. She had background now of a new kind not the background of parents and school and a fine home, but the background of effort and self-control. self-control. "I'll take Peter," she said. "You can look after Elaine." She was going to Lillian's, to see mamma who was home from New York for another visit. Will watched the family away, Elaine perched on his arm. Elaine was happy with her father, and they made a game of supper. Now, at two, she was beginning to be a bonny baby. They had had a long struggle with her. But at last her heart was beginning to beat a rhythmic tune a healthy organ or-gan Instead of an undeveloped heart In an undeveloped body. It almost seemed that they could breathe again. After the little girl was sleeping Will sat beside her, smoking and watching her dreaming those things a father dreams for his little daughter. The daylight was going, and the last of the light seemed to gather in an Iridescence about the baby's face. Suddenly Sud-denly Will was shot through with an emotion more powerful than anything he had ever felt For Just an Instant the baby face seemed the only thing in the world the lashes down in a smudge against her cheek he saw not flesh, but color not bony structure, but pure line idea He stared at her, and saw not the child but her picture. In that moment he sensed the true identity of her being, be-ing, as one hears in astonishment clear tone and harmony where there is no sound. He was profoundly disturbed. Why. he could paint her this was new this feeling; he had not felt like this before, not even when he daubed so constantly in colors as a child. He bad never felt this; he could paint her; he knew that he could. During the whole month of January Jan-uary Mr. Poole did not draw a line. He came to the office and sat there, but Will could not get him to work, and found himself incapable of much arguing. (TO BE CONTLNUEP.) |