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Show I -Prudence's Daughter ; By ETHEL HUESTON 1 ' V ' Copyright by ths Bobbs-Msrrlll Co. ; 1 WNTJ ttfrte "Hut the whole street ta like It And the next one is worse, and the next till worse. Oh, some few house are nice enough, I suppose, but In the main hopeless! Our own used te be a funny, straight-up-and-down thing, too. We have pictures of It They built It over when I was a baby. No, It Is the state, Rae. We get that straight up-and-downness from the corn, I fancy." Rae, lnlent upon her search for a home for herself and her youug pharmacist, phar-macist, paid alight sttentlon te her friend's plaintive ratubllngs. She looked about her, with growing disfavor. dis-favor. And while she looked, ' Jerry stood In the doorway, and stared with Increasing amazement about the place. "It couldn't be a home, you know," she said te herself. "It might do as a garage, even as a stable If one didn't love one's horses. One could call tliem stalls, dinner stall, sleeping stall, cooking cook-ing stall It's the way they look. And you know really It wouldn't be so "hard to sort of switch things around a little knock out a wall or two twist that stiilrc'ase about some way and and" Jerry's eyes narrowed speculatively. She drew vague little designs In the air with a gloved finger. A curious brightness came Into her face. "It Is Impossible," Ilae said, coming back from her Inspection. "I wouldn't have It as a gift.'' "Thirty-five hundred. Is that what you snldT Can I get It on terms? Let's go down right away. I have av Idea." CHAPTER III The Summer Passes Prudence and Jerrold hud finished the soup and were starting with steal; and potatoes when Jerry ran In that night, profusely apologetic for her tardiness. Her face was aflame with color, her starry eyes aglow behind ths It's a crazy place to look for a house," she protested. . "Yes, but property Is so much cheaper. cheap-er. We wont to get house and furniture furni-ture all for ten thousand, you see. And then, Grant bus bought a drug store out. by the university, and it will be much nicer for him. lie can come home for luncheon," she explained with the pretty proprietary shyness of pre-nuptlal pre-nuptlal days. ' Following Itae's directions, Jerry drove slowly out along Central avenue and turned down Seventeenth street. When they enme to the house, she stopped the cur, and both girls turned about In their seats and looked at It, It was not prepossessing. Sot entirely en-tirely too far forward In a small lawn at the top of a steep terrace, It stood very stilt, very square, very high, with an awkward square porch, rlumsy square windows, the whole In grievous need of paint. "Will you tell me," Jerry said plaintively, plain-tively, "why my Iowa builds Itself such ghastly homes?" "He said It was a barn of thing," assented Rae. "But It Is very cheap. He said the real estate man, I mean-said mean-said It could be entirely built over for a few thousand. And It has good points, a garage In the back when we get rich enough for a car Just opposite oppo-site the little park you see on the car line and quite near the university and Grant's drug store." With these points to Its credit, Jerry followed her distastefully up the Bteps of the terrace, and still more distastefully distaste-fully on the clumsy, stiff square porch. "Why do they do It, Rae?" she wondered. won-dered. "Such stiff, straight, stupid lines the doors, the windows, the col- J . 1 THE BIQ IDEA ' V SYNOPSIS. PART ONE At a merry party tn the studio apartment apart-ment of Carter Blake, New York, Jerry (Cieraldloe) Harmer, Fru-. Fru-. . , .denue'a daughter, meets Duane Allerton. wealthy Idler. He ad- mirea her tremendously, and she ' tikes him. But Allerton seta a bit exhilerated, with unfortunate reeulta. Jerry, reeentlng hla as-- as-- 'sumption of familiarity, leavea the party abruptly. The atory i turna to Jerry'a childhood and , youth at her home In Uea Molnea. 1 - ,; , Only child of a weulthy father, '. when ehe la twenty ahe feela the ' . TV : rail of Art and aka her parent tl Vt her so to New York for study. With some mlHgivinfr, they agree to her going;. In New York V Y1 " ' Jerry nia'ae Uvr home with a Mrs. Delajjpy (Mlml"), an act- i reaa, who, with Theresa, a paint- ' - J rr, occuplr the house. Jerry ' -. takes an Isimedlate liklns to 1 ' Theresa, w l is talented and i j eccentric, u the two become ' 1 , t 'vnd. Jerry now devotes v hersrlf to Tht-rsisa, who returns her liking;. Jer::jr poses for Ther--f rsa'a muaterpitoe, "Ths Ocean ! w Hlder." Allerton'1 calls on Jerry. 1 V The girl refuses to see him. At .J a hotel dinner Jerry sees Duane . i and Is conscious of his admira- ( tion, but refuses to change her $ attitude towariV him. Jerry be- comes convinced she has not ths ability to become an artist. At ..-'J a party Jerry ngaln sees Duane, nnd will not recognize htm. ;' Theresa hints that Jerry should ' go home, and promises her '"present." Keternlng from an . evening of cayety, Jerry Is v shocked at hearing from Miml , She also learns that Mlml la Theresa's mother. The "present" Theresa had promised Jerry ; r provea to be her picture, "The ' Ocean Rider." Jerry decides to go home. At home she Is en-thuslastlcally en-thuslastlcally welcomed by her adurlng parents. She wins their V sympathies with the stories of ' : jj her New York life. t CHAPTER II J 10 Jerry Comes Into Her Own 'if ' i Jerry seemed to settle aguln Into the ,1; routine of every-duy life In her Middle i Western home without change. She ' nil ii red In the work of the house as she hud done before she went to New - ' u York, practiced her music, read a great deal, and drove out very often In the handsome little "Harmer" which was 1 her personal possession. 7 Her return was hulled with a great V lnvlshnesfi of celebration on the part i of her friends, for she had long been i a lender In the particular little set she claimed as hers. Immediately she was ;f made the occasion for a gny series of dunces, dinners and parties. Little flirtations. Inconsequential affaires, vhirh had faded away and died upon hir departure, struggled back Into a semblance of rejuvenation on her re- ' ' turn, and although they failed to stir j .lorry to active Interest, at least they played their part In whillng away the V hours, and helping to oceupy her It church, and It was not his Idea of worship. Prudence wrote to her father. And her father wrote back, with that gentle and forbearing patience which seems more rare and more divine In the ministry min-istry than auywhere else, that Prudence Pru-dence must go with her husband. "We have learned." he wrote, "that there are lessons In stones, and sermons In running brook. So If Jerrold -finds no religion In our church, It la up to you to find It In his." . Prudence swallowed hard, but she did It. . " It was not, as Jerrold frankly admitted, ad-mitted, that he cared particularly Hbotit attending any church with a painful degree of assiduity, but when he had church, he wanted church, and not a Sunday morning reception without refreshments. re-freshments. Of course Prudence had had to learn to dance. Having become an Episcopalian Episco-palian she could not plead the Mcth-.odlst Mcth-.odlst Discipline tn rebuttal, and thus unexpectedly torn adrift r.om her spiritual backbone, she agreed with Jerrold, rather faintly, that It would be a shame for her to go through life sitting out every enticing waltz and luring one-step. She must certainly learn to dance. She encountered difficulties from the start. A professional Instructor was brought In to teach her. And after many painful, painstaking lessons, she managed to get around very nicely. But when Prudence, In fear and trembling, trem-bling, got on the floor with any other than the instructor, she had trouble. "It Isn't that I don't try." she told her husband despairingly, but eager In her own defense In the face of bis derision, "I do tryl I put my whole mind on It. I know exactly what I am supposed to do, I count every step, and I never listen to a word my partner says, and I keep both eyes shut so I won't be afraid of running Into the wall I But I can't keep off his feet, nor from under them. You needn't lajgh, either, for I can't help It." When Jerry had come of an age to take a personal Interest In her mother's moth-er's social life, snd to feel a personal responsibility for her public appearance, appear-ance, she shared this burden with her father. And at regular Intervals, perhaps per-haps twice a year, the entire household was thrown Into a 'Mnultuoog state of excitement with teaching Prudence to dance. "Why can't you dance? Why can't you?" demanded Jerry earnestly. "Aunt Fairy dunces beautifully, Aunt Connie dunces, both the Twin Aunties adore It. Haven't they as much Methodist Meth-odist blood as you have? Why can't you learn?" "I don't know," acknowledged her I mother unhappily. "I certainly work hard enough to learn anything 1 I Just can't, and thofs all there Is to It." When Prudence, therefore, of her own volition and without coercion from anyone, voluntarily proffered herself fringing lashes. "Awfully stupid of me to be so lnte," she cried, tossing her gloves snd bat upon s chair, and sliding deftly Into her place at the table. "No soup for me, Katie. But be generous with the steak." She glowed around at her little family. "I've been having a heaveuly time, mother almost as exciting ex-citing as teaching you to dance again, And that reminds me" Jerry put her knife down and turned about, facing her father. "I'll have to borrow some money, father I don't know Just how much a thousand or so. Will you lend It to me?" Jerrold was working with a refractory refrac-tory bit of sirloin and did not answer upon the Instant. T will," proffered Prudence meekly. "It's awfully good of you, mother, but I think I'd better get It from father. . This Is business, you see, and It's Impossible to be real businesslike with you, you're such a lamb. Of course, father, I can give you a a mortgage on the 'Baby.'" Jerry always al-ways called her pretty roadster the "Baby." The first had been Just "Baby," the second was "Baby Junior," and this latest and finest one of all was tenderly known as "The Third."' "I can give you a mortgage on ber, but I'm going to be awful busy, and I'll have to use her Just the same." "It might be Interesting to know what you're going to do with it the money, I mean," her father put In gently, when she paused for breath. "Not thut It's any of my business, of course." "Oh, I don't mind telling not In the least." Jerry was Impulsively generous. gener-ous. She pushed her plate back little and launched Into a graphic account ac-count of the day's excursion with Rae In quest of a honeymoon borne. She descriled the "great grotesque burn of n thing" on Seventeenth street, opposite oppo-site Good park In no mild manner. , "Rae simply wouldn't give It a second sec-ond looK," she finished. "But you ! know, father. It looked pretty good to me. Lots of advantages, Rae suirf so herself right opposite the park, on the car line, near the university and lumber lum-ber In It, heaps of lumber! Well, I got to figuring. You could pull out a few walls, and build In a few windows, and switch things around a little bit and paint It, and sort of fuss It up, I figured out a hundred things that one could do to It. Well, you can buy It for thirty-five hundred, spend say sn-other sn-other thirty-five hundred In making It look human and I'll bet you could sell that place for Ten Thousand Dollars I" Jerrold was buttering his roll. "I'm sure of It," agreed Prudence. "But why oother?" asked Jerrold, after a little. - "Why go to all that trouble, and work, and expense " as a willing sacrifice to learn to dance again, she was driven to desperation. To her surprise, to her great concern as well, Jerry only laughed, and would not accept such martyrdom at her bands. "Nonsense, mother, yon can't dance, and you don't want to. Why bother? You'd belter Just stick to Wesley and eschew the devil and all his works." . "Bridge, then," pleaded Prudence hopefully. "Yon really ought to teach me something, you know." Jerry consented to add a few final touches to a course In cards which lmd already extended futllely over a period of twenty years, but she warned 'her mother to let no one Inveigle her Into playing for points. "For do your level best, mother, you can still lose the family fortune a great deal faster than father can earn it If you go In for points, the way yon play It." And so March blustered away, and April came, and May. And In all these months Jerry could not fathom that great mystery of what girls do, who have nothing to do, and go quite mad over doing It I "Will You Tell Me," Jerry Said Plaintively, Plain-tively, "Why My Iowa Builds Such Ghastly Homes?" nmns. Couldn't they put a little curve In once In a while for the same money?" "Beauty Is very expensive," said Rae lightly. "No wonder we all go off somewhere, to California, or to New York, If this Is the best we can do for ourselves,'' Jerry went on gloomily. "I don't blame us. Fancy living in a thing like this! Not Just, one. either all the inexpensive inexpen-sive poorman houses are exactly like It. The gypsies do better in tents." "Oh, bother the gypsies, Jerry; come on in ond have a look." Hue opened the door with the key which hud been given her. and led the way Inside where they stared curiously about them, a frowning disapproval on their two young faces. "l'eople must have lived In It some time," said Jerry. "Probably they died, poor things. I don't wonder." The house was divided with scrupulous scrupu-lous exactness Into four sections, rooms Jerry decided one must doubtless cull thoughts, which were not hoppy ones t fur the most part. "If Kven wlih so much to amuse and engage her. the days passed slowly, ami Jerry, for all the demands on her 4 time, rejiialned distrait and preoccu- pied, almost listless. And Prudence 1 drove herself well-nigh to distraction in her maternal anxiety to bridge the J? dangerous chasm between times past mid times present, but all in vain she racked her fertile brain for things to stimulate Jerry's interest. "Oh. my dear, you haven't taught me t to dance for nearly two years!" she f exclaimed one night, in the extreme of :j desperation. Jerrold and Jerry broke Into laugh- ter over her abject submission to f-i martyrdom for her daughter's sake. For Prudence found in dancing noth- hi'.' hut punishment and tribulation, i' ' Married life for her had been an ln- I trlcate matter at best, having as she' did the sacred shadow of Methodism i ftr a background. The church Itself t had been the first shadow to cloud the I heaven of their domestic harmony. ! t'hurch, to prudence1, meant Methodist, i and Jerrold, In the ardor of his young ; " love, attended services with her In the beginning with some fair display of ' Interest. Ills enthusiasm, however, was for Prudence only, not for the eiareb of her nfflliutlon. When she asked him how he liked :. It he said: "Oh, very much," to please I Prudence. ' After a time, growing suspicious as to the depth of this Interest, she pressed him further. Jerrold admitted ut lust that as fur as he was concerned, con-cerned, he considered It no church at all.' no real worship, no divine service. Prudence was shocked Into speechlessness. speechless-ness. Hut Jerrold, bard driven, stuck to his ground. He sold the way the Methodists clubbed ubout the door ano chatted and laughed was his idea of rank Irreverence. And for a preacher to get down on his knees Jn the pulpit and talk In that offhand and familiar fashion to the Divine Being Instead of reading respe-.-tfully from a book he allied It sacrlletc He was willing to f", to please Prudence, he was willing to shake hands, and discuss his wife's henjM and the state fair and tne corn 'rop at the' door to please her he as willing to follow through connt- ipm Intimate psrsgraphs of extern porn neons prayer but he did not cull Jerry was amazed at his stupidity. "Oh, a dozen reusons, father 1 In the first place, Iowa ought to be ashamed of Itself for permitting such a lot of these stupid, stiff, square houses, that no human being could possibly fll Into. Well, then, it would make a lovely and adorable little spot of a place that is now simply an eye-sore and a civic ulcer, as you might say. And once you get a' real sweet, dainty home up there. It's going to make the rest of the block ashamed of Itself, and fl-t thing you know they'll all be dolling up a little bit, to kep up with Lizzie. 'Souse the slang, mother I'm so excited. And besides" Jerry's voice rose triumphantly tri-umphantly "think of me! I'm goln to make a couple of thousand dollars on thut Job!" Evidently Jerry has found something interesting. Is it the beginning of a career? (TO BE CONTINUED.! It wits a morning late In May when she was called to the telephone. A girl of her acquaintance. Rue Forsythe, was going over to the other side of town to look at a house. She asked Jerry to go with her. Jerry, who hod driven her own car from the time she was fifteen years old, was used to these Invitations to go with her friends on errands to remote and Inaccessible places. Jerry understood It very well, hut her understanding wus quite without with-out malice. She did not blume them. She was sure If she had to go a long way to a strange part of town, and had no car of her own, she herself would invite as company for the occasion occa-sion one who had. So she accepted the Invitation very sweetly, and said she would stop by for Uae in the car, about eleven o'clock. She knew that Bae was going to be married in the fall, and that her father had given her ten thousand dollars to provide a bridal home. And this expedition, ex-pedition, aa she surmised, whs In search of a house. She picked up her friend at the designated hour, and turned her ear buoyantly to the north side of the city. "But why go sway put there. Bae? them to the left a stiff square parlor leading to a stiff squure parlor bedroom bed-room beyond to the right a solemn dining room, with a sober kitchen ad-Joining. ad-Joining. The stairs rose in a direct and businesslike manner, without pretense pre-tense or artifice, to the second floor, where there was another mathematical division of space, a bedroom, a bath to the left, two bedrooms to the right. Jerry stared and stared. "Wouldn't you think they must have died, Ilae?" she asked. "It would be like living In a cemetery, wouldn't It? Wouldn't you think that some time one of them would have taken a hammer to those walls. Just to break the deadly continuity con-tinuity of the thing? Poor corpses. I don't blame you a bit I think you're lucky." , Rae laughed at her. "You are funny. Jerry. But It Is a horrid old barn of a house. Isn't It? But then they are only asking thirty-five hundred for "Cheap enough, unless one has to live In It," murmured Jerry. "I hold It sgalnst the state, Itae," she went on. "I aimoet wish I had been horn in Arkansas, or Nevada, or Wyoming." "Don't blame the state," protested Rae. "People dont have to live In this particular noose unless they wish." |