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Show ' old white house was a square structure sur-I sur-I mounted by a cupola, built in the early part ar of the nineteenth century. The sloping roof supported by great Corinthian pillars extended over a vide porch, and like many houses of that period both root and cupola were ornamented by low wooden railings. rail-ings. The trees and shrubs surrounding it had grown wi-pruncd wi-pruncd for years, and the once trim, box-bordcrcd garden beds were a tannic of Japan and Bermuda lilies pink sweet williams, blue bachelor's-buttons, fragrant phlox and flaunting hollyhocks. In spite of its general dilapidation it was a place which would have suggested infinite posibilities to en artistic eye, but Tom Hilary closed the gate of the old-fashioned white rail fence with an impatient bang. "I've a white elephant on my hands all right, all right," he reflected irritably; "but if I'd foreclosed Skinner's mortgage as he directed, and the property lad been put up at public sale, in all probability the place would have brought not more than enough to satisfy sat-isfy the lien on it, and there would have been nothing left for poor old Willard." lie paused to regard with covetous eyes on ornate Queen Anne villa in process of erection, "Something like that, now, was what I'd had in mind,' he thought, wistfully. "Mother's been used to living in a handsome house ever since Cchc married Jim LScnnett." Then his face cleared "I'll tell hrr just how it was," he decided. "Bless her heart, she'll be glad to know that I was able to do a good turn to the old man who was so kind to me when I was a kid!'' "nd, any how,' he continued with increasing cheerfulness, cheer-fulness, "I can furnish the old ark way up in G, and with freah paint pink instead of white all that shrubbery cut down, a nice smooth lawn, and pcr- thc unchastcned splendor of a Pullman ' palace" car. It would be unjust to condemn unreservedly my hero on that account, for the average man, unless he has been coaxed or bubied by some cultured sister, mother, wife, or sweetheart, into an appreciation of the modern craze for the antique in household art, evinces the same fondness for meretricious glitter and barbaric brightness of color that is seen in the child or the untutored un-tutored savage. The esthetic yearnings of Hillary's mother and sister sis-ter were as yet of that rudimentary character which finds full expression in machine-made furniture of golden gol-den oak brass beds with silesia-lmed lace 'Shams," red plush parlor sets, and walls hung with expensive gilt papers and adorned with various kitchen utensils violently vio-lently "hand-painted" and dccoralcd. Wife he had none, nor sweetheart, since a day when pretty Cynthia Lambert had been suddenly taken by her parents to Paris to complete her education and to recover from "a foolish schoolgirl infatuation" for .1 certain impecunious law student. ' Although several years had passed since then, the Lamberts were still abroad, living in the various cities of Europe where rich Americans "most do congregate," and so it happened hap-pened that this big fellow, who radiated cheerfulness and good humor like sonic great Newfoundland puppy, carried about with him a hidden hurt which rendered him impervious to the wiles of the charming girls who smiled so kindly on the rising young lawyer, and no cultured damsel had ever had the opportunity of teaching him proper appreciation of old mahogany and faded Persian rugs. As to the Misses Buckingham, pride and poverty had of late years erected a barrier between them and their kind that even the most hrarcn of "collectors" had not ventured to penetrate, and although the faded old Willard pbec, and I er think it would be a good plan to have the furniture sort of match the house." lint 1 in afraid it isn't worth all that money," quavered qua-vered Miss Luanda "Well, you sec, Miss Lucinda," rejoined the young attorney promptly, "there's so much wood in the furniture of yours that at the present price of lumber I wouldn't feel justified in offering less." The two old women looked innocently relieved, and Mis Manilla said impulsively: "We don't mind parting with our things if you are going to have them, Thomas," and Miss Lucinda beamed assent. "Then that is settled." said Hillary; "and I think that that this amount added to your remaining capital ought, properly invested, to bring you in enough to live on comfortably But perhaps." he suggested s nicwhat diffidently, "it would be well for ycu to place it in the hands of a trustee, for in that way you would be relieved of a great deal of anxiety and responsibility responsibil-ity " ' Why, of course," assented Miss Manila, "whatever you think best, Thomas." "There's something o unladylike about business," murmured Miss Lucinda, "that I'm sure sister and I would be only too thankful never to be obliged to come in contact with it again. But how shall we ever be able to show our gratitude to you, Thomas? If vvc could render you any assistance in settling the house gentlemen arc usually rather helpless "' "We could put up curtains, you know, and give those little finishing touches " chimed in Miss Manila breathlessly breath-lessly "Why, sure!" responded Hillary heartily. Then as he saw the eagerness in the wan faces of these old women from whom fate had withheld all that suasively, pointing to a sample where fleur-dc-lis and cat-tails ten feet high were sprawling in a flamboyant and intricate pattern "I I don't think it seems suitable, Thomas," demurred de-murred Miss Lucinda timidly. "These 'Colonial, papers, as they call them, are so dainty and pretty, Thomas!" said Misj Manila deprc-catingly. deprc-catingly. "This pale vellow would be charming for the drawing-room, and the green just the thing for the hall." "Nothing but the Colonial designs should be tolerated in a house such as you described," observed, the artistic salesman with finality. Hillary laughed and yielded. "I'll tell you what it is," he said, pleasantly, "I believe I'd better leave it all to you ladies. I'll go and look up a man I want to sec and meet you here later." That journey to town with its unique experiences was regarded by the Misses Buckingham to the day of their death as an epic moment m their monotonous lives, and the days that followed were only less exciting They threw themselves heart and soul into the renovation of the old Willard place, and felt the same fond delight in the growing beauty of the young man's future home that they would had he been a dearly loved son. They assumed little airs of affectionate dictatorship, and, fortified for-tified by their consultations with the artistic salesman, they vetoed Hillary's project of painting the house pink and turning the picturesque garden into a conventional conven-tional lawn. And, finally, they insisted on dividing-with dividing-with him the rare china and old-fashioned silver which had been part of their inheritance. One pleasant day a few weeks later, Hillary was pacing pac-ing up and down the walks that wound about box-bordered box-bordered garden-beds where the flowers, released from throttling weeds, were rioting in all their pristine splendor. The trees and shrubbery had been pruned, l...f ,.-....n r -,.1 o.wl askeVd0UGr5fcheneCn S1,Cr"-V' FraMnr And at Cynthia's reply that she had lived in Berlin for hve years, the homesick German MadJieu lingo, i until Miss Lambert, tasting her cup of fragrant coffee and setting her little white teeth into one of the c.kcs had declared that never even in that land of A'.itf.v and of huchen had she eaten anything so good Then md not until then. Grctchcn. fairly bursting with pride reluctantly withdrew Hillary felt exceedingly awkward as he sat balancing a frail cup on his big hand, until he forgot his dis.-om- . ? , Plc.asurc oi Cynthia presiding at Ins tabic and pouring out his coffee in tins delightfully domestic do-mestic fashion. But there was a wistful look in the girl s blue eyes which deepened as the moments passed, and in spite of her praise of them she had very little appetite for the excellent cofcc and cakes. When s.hc finally arose to go, however, her voice was quite steady is she held out her hand, saying: "Your house is charming, Tom, I I am quite sure that the girl you arc to marry will be happy here with you " "Oh, Cyi.thia do you mean it? Do you love me, after all?" Hillary stammered rapturously. The beautiful color rushed into Cynthia's checks. "I I don't understand." she faltered. "You said you were to be married this house " "I bought this house because my mother is to divide her time between me and my sister henceforth," said Hillary, "and I am to be married it you will have me, Cynthia." Explanations followed, and the old. old story of inter- ' Siii if IP mmm$mii - mmmm : M w wmm mMm WS0Wii0-Mm mm haps a fountain with the figure of a child holding an umbrella over her head like that one I saw in Peoria, it will look like a different place." His meditations were interrupted by an eager, plaintive voice, "Oh, Thomas!" Miss Manila Buckingham exclaimed, ex-claimed, "I'm so delighted to have met you' Sister and I were intending to call at your office this afternoon after-noon to consult you on a matter of of grave importance. im-portance. Hut there scans something so so indelicate indeli-cate in ladies calling on a gentleman that, perhaps, now that you arc in the neighborhood, you wont mind stopping." Hillary had swept off his hat and stood looking kindly down at a shabby little woman in rusty black. . "It will be a pleasure, Miss Buckingham," .he as-'surrd as-'surrd her cordially. . ; . - - Nevertheless. h seemed a trifle depressed as he relieved re-lieved the tremulous hands of some pitifully small brown paper parcels. He had known the Misses Buckingham Buck-ingham all hij life, and he was aware that, like many other women left alone in the world, they had allowed al-lowed a comfortable competency to slip through their lingers. He divined the nature of the "matter of grave importance," and his prophetic soul told him that he would be called to solve the hopeless problem prob-lem of making their impaired capital yield a living income in-come or the still more hopeless one of pointing out to two proud, luxuriously brought-up women past middle mid-dle age some means of earning a livelihood. Hillary himself had been a poor boy hut he bed come of sturdy working stock and his mother, left a 'widow with two young children to support, had applied ap-plied herself to the task with such indomitable pluck 'and vim that the little cottage where she bent daily 'over her wash-tub-; had been n happy home. And now Hillary, glancing at the delicate worn face beside him, 'realized the difference between the cheerful, hopeful poverty of his boyhood and that which confronted these two helpless women in their old age. For an instant he was tempted to plead a forgotten engagement and thus avoid a painful scene. But as a small boy with an unsathblc appetite for cookies and 'apples, the Misses Buckingham had often appeared to him in the role of Lady Itountiful, and gratitude was not merely a name with Tom Hillary. ' His manner showed no trace of his inward perturbation perturba-tion when Miss Manila ushered linn into the dim 'drawing-room where sat Miss Lucinda, a frail, thin, shadowy edition of the younger sister It was plain that in his capacity of legal advuer the sisters regarded their former protege with awe, and their natural reticence reti-cence made it difficult for them to acknowledge the Uraits to which they had been reduced; but by dint of skilful, sympathetic questioning Hillary at length succeeded in obtaining a clear idea of the condition of their affairs. "That gold-mine promised so well! sobbed Mi?s Marilla, m conclusion. "How could we possibly imagine that the bank was going to fail when the cashier himself, not a week before be-fore he was arrested or embezzlement, assured us that it was 'as solid as a rock'!" sighed Miss Lucinda, "Sister and I really cannot manage to live on what is left!'' she continued, tearfully, "and we thought, Thomas, that 'you could tell us what is best to be done." , "This great home must be an expensive place to keep up." began Hillary tentatively. "Have you never thought of disposing of it?" "Sell the home that has been in our family for four generations? We would rather stand" the old women cried as one person. The only plan which seemed to him at all feasible bring thus summarily rejected, Hillary sat thought-- thought-- fully frowning over the apparently insoluble problem presented to him when the silence was broken by Miss still tossed their branches overhead, while great syringas, lilacs and snowballs filled every' corner and over-arched the walks Both fence and house were dazzling in a coat of fresh white paint, and greet shutters shut-ters shaded the windows. A stout-armed German maid was hanging up dish-towels in a delightful "clothes yard" which was surrounded by a hedge of arbor-vita?. Hillary regarded the whole with a look of dawning resignation induced by the soothing influence of a good cigar and an excellent luncheon. "It might be worse." he conceded, generously. Glancing Glanc-ing toward the street he caught sight of a girl seated in an electric motor, gliding swiftly and silently along the smooth asphalt. He stared and stared again, passing pass-ing his hand across his eyes as if to clear their vision. "It isn't it cant be Cynthia 1" he muttered incredulously. incredu-lously. The jirl's intuitions were quicker.. The. little car stopped short, and Cynthia Lambert held out both her hands, crying, "Oh, Tom Tom !" Hillary flung down his cigar and vaulted over the fence. -With Cvnthia's slender hands again in his, and Cynthia's beautiful eyes meeting his yearning gaze with that look at once shy and tender which he so well remembered, re-membered, the young man could have stood indefinitely, unconscious of his surroundings But Miss Lambert was suddenly recalled to a sense of the proprieties by the impertinent regard of a passing grocer's boy who was surveying the pretty tableau with interest. Blushing furiously she withdrew her hands from ' Hillary's grasp and assumed a demeanor cf such cool indifference that the big fellow's hea.-t sank and he began to wonder if he could have mistaken the look in thoc dark blue eyes. But the next instant his spirits rose again, for as she glanced from his bare head to the house from whence he came her checks whitened unmistakably. un-mistakably. "Why, Tom Mr. Hillary," she faltered, "is it you who have made such changes in the old Willard place? I 1 hadn't heard of your marriage." "It hasn't taken place yet." Hillary replied calmly "I I hope you will be very happy, Tom," she murmured. mur-mured. Then as she bent forward and the little car responded to her touch, he exclaimed hurriedly. "Oh, Cynthia don't go!. The girl I'm to marry hasn't seen her future home, and I'd be so avvfullv obliged if you'd come in and look it over and see if everything is all right." Miss Lambert's pretty face flushed and then paled again. But she was far too proud to shrink from the proposed ordeal and with no perceptible hesitation she acceded to Hillary's request and walked up the graveled walk by his side, her graceful head erect, chatting and laughing gaily. In the hall they encountered Grctchcn, and a brilliant idea flashed into Hillary's mind. Ushering Cynthia into the drawing-room he excused himself and hastened back to the maid. "I say Grctchcn," he began, "can't you get something for us to eat?" Then, with the impulse to offer his sovereign lady the best his larder afforded, he added tentatively : "How would it do to broil that steak 1 sent up for supper?" "Yah. I get him rclly by scfen o'glock," said Grctchcn phlcgmaticallv- Tt was evident from the stolid obstinacy of Gretchcn's face that she had no intention of being cajoled into preparing what Hillary called "a square meal' at the uncauomcal hour of four o'clock in the afternoon, and the young man hastily capitulated "Well, never mind the steak," he said; "but Miss Lambert's lately been living in England, where they eat about this time of day. I read about it in some fool novel," he went on confidentially. "But, now I think of it, the food was mostly crumpets and plum-cake plum-cake and gallons of tea. Do you know what 'crumpets' cepted letters and consequent estrangement was revealed. re-vealed. After a time Cynthia lifted to her lover her lovely face, where tears and smiles were mingled. "Don't think too hardly of dear old djd, Tom," sl,e pleaded. "Both he and mother have a lot of un-American theories concerning the influence of early environment environ-ment and the impossibility of people who have been brought up as differently as you and I having the similarity sim-ilarity of tastes that makes for happiness in married life. But wait until they have seen this house and they won't have a word to sav for themselves it is just to my taie down to the smallest detail, and in order to rout them horse and foot you must be sure to offer the nachimttag Kafcc," she ended laughingly. , "Never heard of itiiclorc in my life' Hillary blurted out. "That was some of Grelchcn'i doings. I told her to broil you a beefsteak I rcjd in a book that across the big pond they fed about this time of day and I thought you might be hungry. Besides," be confessed helplessly, "I wanted to keep you here as long as I could." Miss Lambert blushed adorably. "Oil, Tom she protested, "you are ju.it the same boy you always were I remember how afraid you were in school days of taking any credit that didn't belong to you. But you can't explain away this house." she added triumphantly. Hillary looked troubled. If the hou-c and furniture really pleased Cynthia, it seemed hard to have to ' acknowledge just then that they had been practically forced upon him. Suddenly his downcast face brightened. bright-ened. After all, perhaps, she would have liked his' ideal home even better. "Wouldn't you have preferred something more modern, mod-ern, sweetheart?'' he asked with assumed nonchalance. "One of those Queen Ann houses farther down the street, for instance? I know a house of that brand where the parlor is furnished in red plush, and the carpet is white velvet with pink roses. The paper isn't as plain as this gilt, you know, with big flowers all over it and there are no end of ornaments hanging on the walls, made out of rolling-pins and butter-bowls, they told me; the whole effect was nice and cheerful, I thought." "Red plush butter bowls!" Cynthia gasped. Then out of pure lightness of heart she made an assertion as-sertion which she did not mean in the very least. "Tom Hillary ." ihc averred solemnly, "if I had come home and found you living in such a house as that I never would have had you in all this world!" Hillary stood quite filcnt for a moment, her soft check against his shoulder, her soft hair against his lips. Hitherto the straight path of truth and honesty had been the obvious one to Tom Hillary. He had felt not the slightest temptation to fellow that "easy way'" so assiduously pointed out to him by unscrupulous politicians; poli-ticians; but now it was only after a fierce struggle with himself that he was able to say in his usual quiet, mat-tcr-of-fact voice: ' I'm sorry to disappoint you, Cynthia, but that is the house I would hove chosen." She looked up in amazement "What can you mean, Tom? You surely were not obliged to buy this Dul there u-as a lAstful look in the girl's eyes uhich'd cepened as the moments passed. "Thomas," she said, faintly, "it would be exceedingly exceed-ingly painful to our most sacred sensibilities but but we might consent to disposing of some of our m to peak Lares and Tenatcs. We could spare wnat would completely furnish a small house without the fart becoming apparent to a a casual observer. Do ou think, Thomas, that you could And us a customer cus-tomer who would regard such a transaction as as confidential?" Hillary looked doubtfully about the dim drawing-room, drawing-room, whose treasures nf old mahogany, rare china and quaint bric-a-brac, fruits of the voyages of adventurous ad-venturous ancestors, would have caused a connoisseur connois-seur to swoon with rapture. But it may as well be at once admitted that the young attorney's idea home was that of his sister Cclia, who, at sixteen had married a rich plumber and had gone to Peoria "to reside," according to one of the local papers, "in one of the most elegant mansions of which our enterprising en-terprising citv can boast." The plumber was a generous gener-ous man who had been quite ready to undertake the maintenance of his wife's impecunious relatives, but Tom, although only a boy at the time, had elected to remain in his native town, where he had managed to work his way through the law school and later into a good pratisc by dint of pure "grit' and determination. deter-mination. . . He had, however, made frequent visits in Icorn, 1 where he had been innocently elated to find his motlicr I and sister living in an aggressively modern house, ot I which the architecture was s venal as the plumbing ' . was above reproach, and which was furnished with all rugs and old mahogany were dear to them through long association they were as ignorant as Hillary himself him-self of the market value of their "household gods " At their request the young man made a list of those articles with which they had decided to part, following them submissively about on a tour of inspection from attic to cellar. Hut be viewed without emotion the treasures thus revealed, from the dining-and card-tables with their claw-and-ball feet, the Chippendale and Sheraton sofas, chairs, highltoys and lowboys, and great mahogany four-posters carved in pineapple designs in the chambers down to the black oak dressers in the kitchen. "I'll bet no one would take that heavy, clumsy stuff as a gift," he reflected irreverently. By his business friends Hillary was supposed to have more heart than commercial instinct, and it would therefore have been no surprise to them if they had overheard him on his return to the dim drawing-room offer to become the purchaser of what was in his estimation estima-tion a distinctly undesirable lot of household goods at a price which caused the two old women to gap with incredulous delight. ''' "But, Thomas, what can you want of it?" cried Miss Marilla. "Do vou contemplate entering thethe holv bonds of matrimonv?" she added with a faint blush, for to Miss Marilla there was something- flavoring flavor-ing of impropriety in mentioning uch a subject to one of the opposite sex. ' " . Hillary's sunburnt face flushed like a' girls.' 1 "Not on vour life!" be-said hurriedly; "But . I m expecting my mother to live with me. 'I've bought the makes life worth living, he had an inspiration "I'd forgotten the curtains," he said, "and I wonder, Miss Buckingham, if you and your sister would kindly help me to select them, and the papers, that everything may be ready when my mother arrives? We will go to the city on an early train and when we've attended to this business we will dine at some roof-garden, see a few turns of vaudeville and come out on the last express ex-press " The wan faces brightened with a fearful delight Ihc terms "roof-garden" and "vaudeville'' suggested to these ancient maidens vague but horrifying visions of unholy dissipation. "Why, Thomas, is it customary for ladies to to frequent fre-quent such places'" a-ked Miss Lucinda dubiously. But Hillary responded so earnestly "Why, yes. Miss Lucinda; roof-gardens arc all the go, and I'm sure you will enjoy the experience, besides placing me under a tremendous obligation" that Miss Marilla cut short the discussion with unwonted decision "We'll go, Thomas," she declared recklessly. "We'd like to!" Although Hillary had been. actuated solcfy by a desire de-sire to afTord a pleasant 'outing to these old friends, he budded better than he knew, when he nsked them to accompany him on his quest, for1 their instinctive good taste, backed by the-oiinion of an artistic and autocratic autocra-tic salesman, resulted in the selection of delicate papers of Colonial designs rather than' the gilt and embossed horror to which he himself inclined. ( 'Don't you think, now. that there s something rich and handsome about a paper like thatr" he asked pcr- COPYRICIIT. I0OO- are, Grctchcn? he asked, anxiousiv vvatcning uer lace for some sign of intelligence "They put the whole business on a tray, you know, and cat in the parlor instead in-stead of the dining-room " Gretchcn's face lighted into something resembling animation ani-mation "Yah!" Yah!" she exclaimed eagerly. "Naehmittag Kaffee, nicht uuir?" Hillary eyed her doubtfully. "Now what kind of a mess will she hand out to us, I wonder?" he meditated uneasily. But trusting to luck that she would produce something eatable he proceeded to enact the role of cicerone on :i tour of inspection which he artfullv prolonged by everv device in his power, and when at length they returned to the drawing-room, Gretchcn was there beiorc them with a hug tv containing all the appurtenances of a genuine German "afternoon coffee." The quaint old room was a fitting background for Cynthia's fnh young beauty, and when, at Hillary's earnest solicitation she removed her hat and gloves and begon to pour the coffee from a massive silver urn, he sat gazing at her in a trance of dumb adoration blindly feeling the harmony between this Daughter of the Revolution and her present environment. "Whv I've not seen anv of those delicious cakes since I left Germany!" Cynthia cried in genuine delight, as her eves fell on a plate of German dainties which Grctchcn; unrestrained by the presence of an unappre-ciative unappre-ciative American mistress, had made and baked that morning.. old Mr. Willard's day. You are only trying to tease me, for no one who was addicted to red plush could ever have restored the place to such beauty." Hillary turned away abruptly as he answered, almost al-most rudely: "'I bought the house to obh'ge an old friend, and the furniture of two old ladies who were good to me when I was a kid, and tbey managed the whole businessbought busi-nessbought the curtains, rugs and papers to 'harmonize,' 'har-monize,' as I suppose you'd say. But, to tell you the honest truth, Cynthia. I think it is the limit!" As he stared moodily out of the window with unseeing un-seeing eyes, a pair of arms stole about his neck, and the sweetest voice in the world said with a laugh that was half a sob: "Qh, Tom, you dear, shocking, old rhilistinel" Hillary's arms drew her close as he questioned rapturously: rap-turously: "Put you love me just the same do you. sweetheart?" sweet-heart?" . , And to his lasting wonderment, for the subtleties of the feminine ' mind are quite beyond the comprehension compre-hension of a man like Tom Hillary, Cynthia replied with conviction : . "I love you thousand million times better!" |