OCR Text |
Show 'iBn 'Wf i i . I ' THE BINGHAM NEWS By EDNA FERBER (C. Doobisdsy, pc A Co.) WNU nleo. , ' 1 used to ride the old nags, bare-bac-on the farm.' "Yon'll have to learn. Then I'll have some one to ride with me. Theo-dore never rides. He never takes any sort of exercise. Sits In that great fat car of his." They went Into the coach house, a great airy white-washe- d place with glittering harness and spurs and bridles like Jewels In glass cases. It gave Dirk a little hopeless feeling. He had never before seen anything like It Paula laughed np at him, her dark face ntiturned to ll f j- ; ',' Chapter XII ' I 15 H la town Dirk lived In a large front ' I room and alcove on the third floor of ' a handsome three-story- - ' house. lie used the front room aa a living room, the alcove ;,! - as bedroom. Re and Sellna bad fur-- i, ' nlshed It together, discarding all of the room' original belongings except '' the bed, a table, and one fat comfort- - able faded old armchair whose bro-- !f' de surface hjnted a past grandeur. When ho had got his books ranged In open shelves along one wall, soft-sha-ad lamps on table and desk, the place Stormwood. A final turn of the drive. An avenue of trees. A house, massive, pillared, portlcoed. The door opened as they drew np at the entrance. A maid in cap and apron stood In the doorway. A n,an appeared at the side of the car, coming seemingly from no-where, greeted I'aula civilly and drove the car off. The glow of an open fire In the hall welcomed them. "He'll bring up your buir." said Paula. "Oh, 1 can't get excited about two pink healthy lumps of babies. I love tliern and all that, but all they need Is to have a bottle stuffed Into their mouths at proper Intervals and to be bathed, and dressed and aired and slept. It's a mechanical routine and about aa exciting as a treadmill." "Just what do you want me to do, Paula?" She was eager again, vitally con-cerned in him. "It's all so ridiculous. All these men whose incomes are thir-ty forty sixty a hundred thousand a year usually haven't any qualities, really,, that the man hasn't Somebody has to get the d dollar salaries some ad-vertising man, or bond salesman or why, look at Phil Emery I He prob-ably couldn't sell a yard of pink rib-bon to a schoolgirl if he had to. Look at Theodore He just sits and blinks and says nothing. But when the time conies he doubles np his fat white fist and mumbles, Ten million,' or 'Fif-teen million,' and that settles It." Dirk laughed to hide his own little mounting sensation of excitement "It isn't quite as simple as that, I Imag-ine. There's more to It than meets the eye." Something had annoyed him, she saw. Would he wait while she changed to walking things? Or per-haps ne'd rather drive in the roadster. They walked up to the house together. He wished that she would not consult his wishes so anxiously. It made him sulky, Impatient She put a band on his arm. "Dirk, are you annoyed at me for what I said laat ntghtr "No." "What did you think when yon went to your room last night? Tell me. What did you think?" "I thought: 'She's bored with her husband and she'a trying to vamp me. I'll have to be careful.'" Paula laughed delightedly. "That's nice and frank . . . What else?" "I thought my coat didn't fit very "Uow're the babies, Anna? lias Mr. Storm got here?" "He telephoned, Mrs. Storm. He says he won't be out till late maybe ten or after. Anyway, you're not to wait dinner'" Paula, from being the limp, expert, fearless driver of the roadster waa now suddenly very much the mistress of the house, quietly ob-servant, giving an order with a lift of the eyebrow or a nod of the head. Would Dirk like to go to his room at once? Dinner at seven-thirt- He' needn't dress. Just as he liked. Ev-erything was very Informal here. They roughed It (Dirk had counted thirteen servants by noon next day and hadn't been near the kitchen.) He decided to bathe and change Into dinner clothes and was glad of this ' looked more than livable; lived In. : During the process of furnishing Se-- "' Una got Into the way of coming Into town for a day or two to prowl the auction rooms and the second-han-stores. She had a genius for this sort - of thing; hated the spick-and-spa- n var-- '! nlah and veneer qf the new furniture to be got In the regular way. . j She enjoyed these rare trips Into j . town; made a holiday of them. Dirk would take her to the theater and she m would sit entranced. Strangely enough, considering the lack of what the world calls romance and adventure In her Ufe, she did not like the motion pic-tures. "All the difference In the world," ahe would say, "between the movies and the thrill I get out of a play at the theater. My, yesl Like fooling with psper dolls when you could be "There Isn't I I tell yon I know the whole crowd of them. I've been brought np with this moneyed pack all ray life, haven't I? Pork packers and wheat grabbers and peddlers of gas and electric light and dry goods. Grandfather's the only one of the crowd that I respect lie has stayed the same. They can't fool him. He knows he Juit happened to go Into wholesale beef and pork when whole-sale beef and pork was a new game In Chicago. Now look at him!" "Still, you will admit there's some-thing In knowing when," he argued. Paula stood up. "If yon don't know I'll tell you. Now Is when. I've got Grandfather and Dad and Theodore Jo work with. Ton can go on being an well and I wished I could afford to have Peel make my next one." - "Too can," said Paula. Chapter XIII Aa It turned out, Dirk was spsred the necessity of worrying about the fit of his next dinner coat for the fol-lowing year and a half. His coat dur-ing that period, was a neat olive drab aa waa that of some millions of young men of his age, or thereabouts. Most of that time he spent at Fort Sherldau, first as an officer In training, then as an officer training others to be officers. He waa excellent at this Job. Influ-ence put him there and kept him there even after he began to chafe at the re-- wben he found Paula In black chiffon before, the fire In the great beamed room she had called the library. Dirk thought she looked very beautiful In that diaphanous stuff, with the pearls. Her heart-shape- d face, with Its large eyes that alanted a little at the cor-ners; her long slim throat; her durk hair piled high and away from her lit-tle ears. lie decided not to men-tion It Dirk told himself that Paula had known her husband would not be home until ten and had deliberately planned a tete-a-tet- e meal. He would not, therefore, confess himself a little net-tled when Paula said, "I've asked tbe Emerys In for dinner; and we'll have a game of bridge afterward. Pfcll Emery, you know, the Third, lie used liiaying wun a real live Daoy. The day was marveloualy mild for March In Chicago. Spring, usually so coy In this region, had flung herself at them head first As the massive re volvlng door of Dirk's office building fanned him Into the street be saw Paula In her long low sporting road-ster at the curb. She was dressed In black. All feminine fashionable and middle-clas- s Chicago was dressed In Mack. All feminine fashionable and middle-clas- s America was dressed In black. Two years of war had robbed Paris of Its husbands, brothers, sons. All Paris walked In black. America, untouched, gayly borrowed the smart , baMUmsnta of mourning and ' now Michigan boulevard and Fifth avenue walked demurely In the gloom of crepe and chiffon; black hats, black gloves, j blgck sllppera. Only black was "good" , this jar. j ' Taula smiled up at him, patted the j leather seat beside her with one hand j that was absurdly thick-fingere- d In Its fur-line- glove. j "It's cold driving. Button np tight, Where'll we stop for your bag?" He climbed Into the seat beside her. j Her manipulation of the wheel was' i witchcraft. The roadster slid in and I out of traffic like a fluid thing, an enamel stream, silent as a swift cur-- - rent In a river. - When his house was reached, "I'm coming . up," she suld. "1 suppose you haven't any tea?" "Gosh, no 1 , What do you think I ami A young mu in an English novel 1" to have It on his visiting card, like royalty." The Emerys were drygoods; had been drygoods for sixty years; were accounted Chicago aristocracy ; pre-ferred England ; rode to hounds In pink coats along Chicago's prim and startled suburban prairies. They bad a vast estate on the lake near Stormwood. They arrived a trifle late. Dirk had seen pictures of old Phillip Emery ("Phillip the First," he thought, with an Inward grin) nql decided, looking at the rather anemic! third edition, that the stock was running a little thin. The dinner was delicious but surpris-ingly simple; little more than Sellna would have given him, Dirk thought, had he come home to the farm this week-en- The tulk was desultory and siraini. In the last six months of It (though he did not of course, know that It was to be the last six months) Dirk tried desperately to get to France. He was suddenly alck of tbe neat Job at home; of the dinners; of the smug routine; of the ollve-dra- b motor car that whisked him wherever he wanted to go (he had a captaincy) ; of mak-ing them "snap Into It"; of Paula; of his mother, even. Two months before the war's close he succeeded In getting over; but Paris was his headquar-ters. Between Dirk and his mother the first rift had appeared. "If I were a man," Sellna said, "I'd make up my mind straight about this war and then I'd do one of two things. I'd go Into It the way Jan Snip goes at forking the manure pile a dirty Job that's got to be cleaned up; or I'd refuse to do It altogether If I didn't believe in It as a Job for me. I'd fight or I'd be a conscientious objector. There's nothing In between for any one who Isn't old or crippled, or sick." Paula was aghast when she heard this. So was Julie whose wallings bad been loud when Eugene had gone Into the air service. He was In France now, thoroughly happy. "Do you rather dull. And this chap had mil-lions, Dirk said to himself. Millions. No scratching In an architect's office for this hid. At bridge after dinner Phillip the Third proved to be sufficiently the son of his father to win from Dirk more money than he could conveniently af-ford to lose. Theodore Storm came In at ten and stood watching them. When the guests had left the three sat before the fire. "Something to drink r' Storm asked t "Now, don't be provincial and Chl- - cagolsh, Dirk." They climbed the three flights of stairs. She looked about. Her glance was not disapprov-ing. "This tn't so bad. Who did It? She did! Very nice. But of course you ought to have your own smart little apartment, with a Jap to do you . up. To do that for you, for example." "Yes," grimly. He was packing his bag not throwing clothes into it, but folding them deftly, neatly, as the son of a wise mother packs. "My sal-ary'- d Just about keep him In white Ptjjn house-coats- ." , 'tiu going to send you some things for your room, Dirk." " "or God's sake don't I" "Why not?" "Two kinds of women In the world. I learned that at college. Those who send men things for their rooms and those that don't" I "You're very rude." I "You asked me. There! Fm all I !tt" He snapped the lock of his bag. "I'm sorry I can't give you anything. I I haven't a thing. Not even a glass of I wine and a what Is It they say In f books? oh, yeb a biscuit." I In the roadster again Paula maln- - I l:ilned a fierce and steady speed for I the remainder of the drive, i "We call the p'lice stormwood," J Paula told him. "And nobody outside :v the dear family knows how fitting that Is. Don't scowl. I'm not going to tell you my marital woes. And don't you f My I asked for It. . . . How's the i Job?" "You "Rotten." don't like it? The work?" "I like It well enough, only welt, yon see we leave the university archl- - mean," demanded Paula, "that you ac-tually want Dirk to go over there and be wounded or killed I" "No. If Dirk were killed my life would stop. I'd go on living, I suppose, but my life would hsve stopped." They all were doing some share In the work to be done: Sellna had thought about her own place In this war welter. She had wanted to do canteen work In France but had decided against this as be-ing selfish. "The thing for me to do," she snld, "Is to go on raising vege-tables and hogs as fast as I can." She supplied countless households with free food while their men were gone. She herself worked like a man, tnk-In- g the place of the able-bodie- helper who had been employed on her farm. Paula was lovely In her Red Cross uniform. She persuaded Dirk to go Into the Liberty bond selling drive and he was unexpectedly effective In his quiet, serious way; most convinc-ing and undeniably thrilling to look at in uniform. Paula's little air of pos-session had grown until now It en-veloped him. She wasn't playing now; was deeply and terribly In love with him. (TO BE CONTINUED.) "I Ustd to Ride the Old Nags, Bare- - back, on the Farm." architect If yon want to. It's a One enough profession. But unless you're a genius where'll It get you! Go In with them, and Dirk, In five years " "What I" They were both standing, facing each other, she tense, eager ; be relaxed but stimulated. "Try It and see what, will you? Will you, DlrkT "I don't know, Taula. I should say, my mother wouldn't think much of It." "What does she know! Oh, I don't meun that she Isn't a fine, wonderful person. She Is. I love her. But suc-cess! She thinks success Is another acre of asparagus or cabbage; or a new stove in the kitchen now that they've brought gas out as far as High Prairie." He had a feeling that she possessed him; that her hot eager hands held him though they stood apart and eyed each other almost hostllely. As he undressed that night he thought, "Now what's her game? What's she up to? Be careful, Dirk, old boy." As he lay In the soft bed with the UlrK. Dirk refused but, Storm mixed a stiff highball for himself, and then another. The whisky brought no flush to his large white Impassive face. He talked almost not at all. Dirk, nat-urally silent, was loquacious by com-parison. But while there was nothing heavy, unvltal about Dirk's silence, this man's was oppressive, Irritating. His paunch, his large white hands, his great white face gave the effect of bleached bloodless bulk. "I don't see how she stands him," Dirk thought Husband and wife seemed to be on terms of polite friendliness. Storm ex-cused himself and took himself off with a word about being tired, and seeing them In the morning. After he had gone; "He likes you," said Paula. "Important" said Dirk, "If true." "But it Is important. He can help you a lot" "Help me how? I don't want" "Put I do. I want you to be suc-cessful. I want you to be. You can be. You've got It written all over you. In the way yon stand, and talk, and don't talk, hi the way you look at people. In something In the way you rarry yourself. It's what thet ! tectural course thinking we're all go-- f Ing to be Stanford Whites or Cass 011- - berts, tossing off a Woolworth bulld- - l Ing and making ourselves famous over night. I've spent all yesterday and to-day planning a drygoods box that's going up on the corner of Milwaukee avenue and Ashland, west." j "And ten years from now?" j "Ten years from now maybe they'll 5 let me do the plans for the drygoods box all alone." ' "Why don't you drop It?" j He was startled. "Drop It I How I do you mean?" I "Chuck It. Do something that will bring yon itilck results. This Isn't an age of waiting. Suppose, twenty years j from now. you do plan a grand Gothic office building to grace this new and ( glorified Michigan boulevard they're always snouting about You'll be a middle-age- d man living in a middle-clas- s house' In a middle-clas- s suburb ( , with a middle-clas- s wife." j "Maybe" slightly nettled. I Titer tuned In at the gates ef j'-'V-- , - call force, 1 suppose. Anyway, you've got It." "Has your husbund got It?" "Theodore I No I That is" "There you are. I've got the force, but he's got the money." "You can have both." She was leaning forward. Her eyes were bright, enormous. Her hands those thin dark hot hands were twisted In her lup. He looked at her quietly. Suddenly there were tears In her eyes. "Don't look at me that way, Dirk." She huddled back In her chair, limp. She looked a little haggard and older, somehow. "My marriage Is a mess, of course. You can see that." "You knew It would be, didn't you?" "No. Yes. Oh, I don't know. Any-way, what's the difference, now? I'm not trying to be what they call an Influence In your life. Pm Just fond of you you know that and I want you to be great and successful. Ifa maternal, I suppose." "I should think two babies would aaUafy that urge." satin coverlet over him he thought, "Now what's her little game !" He awoke at eight, enormously hun-gry. He wondered, uneasily. Just how he was going to .get his breakfast. She had said his breakfast would be brought hlra In his room. He stretched luxuriously, sprang up, turned on his bath water, bathed. When he emerged In dressing gown and slippers his breakfast tray had been brought him mysteriously and Its contents lay on a little portable table. There were flocks of small covered dishes and a charming Individual coffee service. A llftle note from Paula : "Would you like to take walk at about half-pas- t nine? . Stroll down to the stables. I want to show you my new horse." The distance from the house to the stables waa actually quite a brisk lit-tle walk In Itself. Paula, In riding clothes, was waiting for him. She greeted him. "I've been out two hours. Had my ride. Yon ride, don't you?" TAARV GRAJWA BONNER. BUTTER AND EGGS "I'm butter." "I'm eggs." "I'm eggs." "I'm butter." "I'm butter and eggs." "I'm butter and eggs too." "So am L" "So you are, and bo am I, too." "Yet no one eats us as they do but ter ana eggs. "Hut we have a scent like a dairy, It Is snld." "And we're the color of butter." "And of the yolks of eggs." "We're butter and eggs." "No one spreads us on bread." "No one eats us for breakfast" "No one scrambles us." "No one boils us." "No one makes an omelet of us." "No one poaches us." "No one shirrs us." "No one con fry us." "No one spreads us on hot rolls." "No one melts us In the soup." "No one puts us Into a cake." "No one mixes us with sugar Into a hard sauce." "No one needs us to help In prepar-ing sandwiches for a picnic." "No one needs us for a sauce for asparagus." "No one needs us In salting almonds and peanuts." "You shouldn't say." remarked one to another, " 'I'm eggs,' for that Is In-correct" "Oh, It doesn't matter," said an-other, "we don't go to school." The flowers called Butter-and-Egg- a were talking. They were bright yellow In color and their little beads looked like to many cornucopias pluced very close together on long green stems. Theii M "Ws Really Aren't a Bad Lot." leaves were more like grass thnn leaves, and they all looked as bright as bright could be. "We're not fussy about where we grow," they snld. "We do not mind If the soil Isn't Just right." "We have been given our nnme be-cause of the bright yellow coloring we have." "Sometimes we are cultivated In gardens." "Some of our family live In Europe." "And some In Asia." "Some out West." "Some way East." "We always lok healthy." "We always feel well." "We don't bother anybody." "We never ask for any help or as-sistance." "We aren't really a bad lot." "We add so much gayety to the fields." "We believe In wearing our bright clothes all the time.' "We never wear dull things." "We are butter-and-eggs.- " "But we won't make you fat." "You can't eat us." "We will not appear for breakfast" "Nor for dinner." "Nor for supper." "Nor at a party." "Unless you put us in a vase." "Just to look at us." "Then we'll look at you." "And we'll smile." "Yes, we'll smile our bet sunniest brightest, most golden smiles." "And you'll say: "'No wonder they're called butter-and-egg- They are so bright a yel-low.'" HELPED THROUGH' CHANGE OF LIFE Took Lydia EPinkham' Veg. etable Compound during This Critical Tune-Bene- fited Greatly Baltimore, Maryland.- -'! took Lyd! E. Ptokham'a Vegetable Compound to . i help me through the Change of Life and jT for a broken-dow- n A system. I had been I 1 complaining a long I f2Li I time and dragging , I along had tried other vl '"34?v - J medicines which did (Lw. !T not help me much. I V.3 re8( m PaPer8 ' the Vege-.,if- "f table Compound and ftyi2f after taking a bottle I felt better. I did not stop with one bottle, but took it through the whole critical time and am now practically a well woman. I have two daughters whose health was very bad before they married and I waa wor-ried about them. I got the Vegetable ' Compound for them and it helped them, and after they married it also helped them in bearing their babies. This is a great and good medicine for all com-plaints of women, and I recommend it to all. "-- Mrs. L. Gingrich. 1375 Jtf. Gil-m- St, Baltimore, Maryland. The Vegetable Compound is a depend-able medicine for women of middle age. Let it relieve you of nervousness, that feeling of strain and those annoying hot flashes so common at this time. I Feel All Out of Sorts?! Is backache spoiling jour summer? Do you get up lame and stiff feel tired all day? Are you so nervous and worn out you cannot rest or relax? Look,' then, to your kidneys! Sluggish kidneys allow poisons to accumulate and upset the whole system. When this happens you are apt to suffer backache, sharp pains, soreness, stiffness, dizziness and annoying kidney irregularities. Help your kidneys with a stimulant diuretic. Use Voan t Pills. Doan' are used the world over. Aik your neighbor! A Utah Case VSk --Tun flaw Lonisx, jdi.jprop. of shoe re-V- y pair shop, Main --er'?rTs Nephl, Utah, MtVvVIVr'wr nes settled in my ffVWtlT 4h"'k. My back Vl.'il-Sw,,- s ,ore! weak ftni Painful and ijVJi 'rDt iimy kidneys acted 3i 'AM Jfl Irregularly. The . ifrtiTkidney secretions fl JJOT passed too freely. fyW N 1 uscd a box of ?' Doans Pills and my kidneys acted properly and distress left the my back." DOANW STIMULANT DIURETIC TO THE KIDNEYS Fotter-Milbu- Co., MIg. Cbem., Bufialo, N. Y. ' Say "Bayer"-Insis- t! For Colds Headache Pain Lumbago Neuralgia Rheumatism rfc Accept only a e Bayer package which contains proven directions Handy "Bayer" boxes of 12 tablets Also bottles of 24 and 100 Druggists Aspirin Is the tnfe mark of Bir Minn-factu- at UuioaoeUcacldnter of Btucjllcscia Sure Relief FOR INDIGESTION 6 B ELL-A- S UUlJ-St- n Hot water SsL-ri-P Sure Relief ELL-A-M S 25$ AND 754 PACKAGES EVERYWHERE CuticuraSoapl Pure and Wholesome Keeps The Skin Gear 3oi, OfaHrHmt, fsiCTim sold wrWt ' ' I 1 ' V. N. U., Salt Lake City, No. P8-19-25. fI5 f 1 I .. Lighter Boots for Miner a Mine of Europe have abandoned heavy hoots for lighter-weigh- t styles, and makers of the heuvy footwear re-cently faced the cliulce of making light boots or quitting business. Fast Trip Culler You say your boss wpnt to Europe this morning. When will he return? New Boy Well, It won't be before lunch anyhow. 38,000,000 in Italy Italy, with an area about equal to that of the states of Indiana and Illi-nois combined, now has a population of 38,0O0,0)0. Hose "Mother, turn the hose on me," said :ttle Willie, as his mother was dress-ing him In the morning. "Why, Willie, what In the world do you mean?" cried bis alarmed and loving parent "Why, you have put my stockings on wrong side out." Boys' Life. Posthumous Works Teacher Now, boys, can any ef you say what Is meant by posthumous works?" Boy at the head of the class Yes, sir; I can. "Well, now, let me hear what It means." "Sir, posthumous works are bookg which a man writes after he Is dead." Cost of "Lifting" Oil The bureau of mines says that from 20 to 90 per cent of the total cost of producing petroleum may be charged to lifting the oil. Although the lifting cost ranges from less than three cents a barrel at flowing wells, producing several hundred barrels a day, to $3 a barrel, at wells producing less than a fifth of a barrel a day, the lifting cost per well may range from more than $1,000 at large flowing wells of the type recently discovered In Okla homa, Texas, Arkansas and California, to less than $10 at many of the old wells pumped only a few hours a week, as In most of the oil fields of New York and Pennsylvania, where the average daily production per well per day is less than one-fourt-h of a barret Jimmie Apologized Little Jimmie was playing In the parlor and accidentally stepped on the foot of a lady caller. "Now, Jimmie," said bis mother, "you must apologize to the lady for having stepped on her foot." Jimmie went up to her and said: "'Sense me; I'm awful sorry yoo didn't keep yonr foot out of my road" Uncertain Max Well, old thing, are you com-ing to the show tonight? Maxine Oh, I don't think so, nnl my husband object |