Show sahna S gl via of the minute s by HELEN R MARTIN by dom dodd wead mead co service CHAPTER X continued 23 he drew a long deep quivering breath well he would have an explanation of this mystery if he be had bad to drag afeefy by force into the parlor car to face either her empty chair or her living counter counterpart 1 meely she turned with a bound and at tight sight of him her dull face expressed surprise and pleasure well ot of all thinas I 1 mr creighton yet I 1 well me im that took back mr bir crelghton what brang you yon to new york tork over come on she said making room tor for him beside her and set down here side by each aint my lands she exclaimed as he obeyed her aint you feelen good mr crelghton creighton you look that calel most like a dead onel one 1 what alls yon anyhow are you bebby carsick car sick I 1 got awful carsick car sick goin but comin im feelen right good I 1 was to new york over to look for a place im a right good cooker and I 1 heerd they paid good cooks in new york as much as five dollars a week with room and board yet I 1 so I 1 says to pop fop 1 tays says she stopped short reached tor for a coat that was crushed between her and the window slipped it on and stood up come st croix she spoke naturally the games up of course lets go back to our chairs if youre not embarrassed to walk through this train with my pompadour 1 I 1 thought this the quickest easiest way to make you see how I 1 do it I 1 for im in the way of being a professional actress st croix and makeup make up Is my strongest point her countenance was concerned and sympathetic as sitting opposite him in the parlor car she considered his white faced suffering was she cruel she wondered but surely this was coming to himi him he deserved it and yet he looked so ghastly ghast lyl 1 perhaps he might kill himself and it would be her fault well would that be as bad as what he had bad plotted to do to meely ton it would not cot I 1 ill tell you st croix all about it if you want to know she suggested in a troubled voice her face almost as pale as his bis own im sorry it ive hurt you terribly but think how bow you were going to hurt hart me not you the girl you pretended to be he be said huskily and such ft girl would not have been hurt I 1 A girl like yon cant judge for one like mee alee of the cliton ton breed better than you can st crole 1 you yon would have ruined her life tor for her not if shed been what she teemed seemed he be insisted his voice low pitched and hoarse what she seemed was an ignorant stupid but perfectly decent garli and after the pitiful note mr ton wrote you which you thought was about me it was about his daughter nettle who he be knew was la in love lore with you it was she that sent you that fudge now how the h b 1 you ever managed the devilish couil coup he be exclaimed desperately pera tely the queer thing st croix was that there a thing premeditated about tt it it all just happened I 1 just fell ell into the thing step by step MI ill tell you ill begin with tho the mole I 1 knew that was a landmark for you so I 1 put flesh colored court pla plater plaster ter over it and powered the spot with flesh colored powder ate stared at her helplessly the big mistake you made st croix was in not knowing I 1 was the teacher tit lit wliilam penn school hettle ton you hadus had us mixed billed I 1 was the teacher and I 1 boarded tit at the ton farm but but he stammered then marvin mariln helped bellied you put this thing over on me oh dear nol lie he had nothing to do with it do you swear to me he know who rho you were st croix demanded with jealous suspicion rind and resent ment men well he certainly did suspect me die for a fraud and a bluff when tie he heard me be teach united states geography 1 but he know anything more about me than you did now ill tell you ALLI ALL ive always been mad to go on the stage or nr the sewn screen I 1 man aged to scrape together enough money to go to parts paris to study dramatic art an a 8 few months then I 1 got a small part in an english enec losli repertoire company hat at played in the provinces and I 1 partied earned enough to buy my passage to Atner america lea the only place I 1 was told where screen stars earned anything it was an amul risk my coming here I 1 bud bad so littia money put cut I 1 reas ream cured ray my annnus parents by telling them lint hat if 1 got stranded id sent gem out on AD 14 0 S tt to the family meantime as martin has ha jilted me mother and nd father decided there was no obligation t on upon us now DOW to tell dod your family of my adventure and my ambition until we saw aw how I 1 succeeded e d on the screen if at all allf I 1 but it has baa surely boon been understood all along sylvia that I 1 was wag eager to take tahe Mar garvins marvins vins place there here any place to take tahe st croix marvin may think to in his pride that lie he jilted me hut but ta the ie tact fact of the case Is that I 1 jilted him first I 1 never would hear of marrying either of you I 1 but my poor parents needed your money so BO badly they always hoped rd fd change my mind and so they never broke it to any of you that id fd hacked backed out well I 1 come came over to america in the utmost ignorance of everything I 1 should have known rather expecting to take hollywood by storm 1 feeling quite condescending in offering my talents which I 1 myself greatly admired to the amerlean american managers and not knowing that hollywood wits was three chousa thousand nd miles from new york fortunately I 1 learned a few needful facts on the way over sly my deck chair happened to be next to a young american woman who had been a country teacher she told me all about herself how she had gone over la in june with the student teacher excursion and ha had d met and fallen in love with a man on the ship a young college professor As soon as landed at plymouth gotten married traveled all summer and were now on their way home she told me the first thing shed got to do when she got home was to send in her resignation to the country school she was to have taught if she had not met her fate and gotten married when she mentioned the state county and township where she was to have taught I 1 recognized them al 11 1 11 you made love to that girl and would have despoiled and shed her its as the address of the creighton next thing I 1 was telling her my story and when she learned how little money I 1 had she was appalled and when she told me hollywood was three thousand miles from new york and that it took five days and live five hundred dollars to get there I 1 was panic stricken so we fixed up a plot tier her parents home was in reading heading pennsylvania and her husband and the bhe were going there until his college opened she invited me to go home with them and she would give me her normal school diploma and lend me the use of her name amelia ton now no do longer her name and I 1 could go and ap ate her school tor for a few months until id saved enough to go to hollywood she be was really a young woman of quite a feverish imagination I 1 do assure you her relatives had bad never seen her very distantly related s so 0 I 1 could pass myself off to them as their cousin the thing appealed to me not only as a solution of ray my penniless predicament but as a jolly adventure especially as I 1 knew the lie school was in the neighborhood of the Creigh creightonn tons home id have a chance I 1 thought to look them over without their knowing it of course st croix I 1 meant to make myself known to your family very soon but I 1 had not realized how difficult tut that was going to be I 1 got in deeper every day dar and it was such fun I 1 want to give up my lark and my freedom and become lady sylvia and it was all such a marvelous school of acting for me I 1 was to myself that I 1 could act nin mastering that dialect with its extraordinary inflections and succeeding in taking you in st croix so far beyond rny highest hopes it was when you were pointed out to me st croix at that barn dance that the idea first came to me to pass myself olt off to you as a pennal pennsylvania dutch girl for I 1 thought it would give we ne tuch such a chance na as no girl had ever had before to learn to kno my possible future husband hu annd 1 im afraid st croix murmured you think you learned to 0 o know him too well I 1 rm im afraid st croix I 1 did P po io you think it was fair to take me inu unawares like that wily not suddenly a new realization came to him that turned him a degree cold er than he already was hut if you were the teacher lie he exclaimed why then it was you that marvin was all the time seeing at that it was ba to you yon my 07 father pala paid live HT thousand dollars dollar to get et away I 1 my 0 d alf I 1 yes that a sprightly frenel what in im going to see ee your father about I 1 reu reo home to england with that money to feed my tarring starving parents now im going to make a clean breast of it all to your father and then if hell let me borrow what ive still got of that five thousand ill go to hollywood with it the only wot blot on my family escutcheon she sighed Is my having taken that bribe from your father 1 but I 1 needed it will you tell roe me demanded st croix frowning darkly Is 1 marvin in love with you aita im ure sure I 1 dont know he never told m me so go the one time I 1 met him un professionally and you yon ere are perfectly confident are you that marvin had bad no suspicions at all as to who you yoa were 1 I fancy he be had several suspicions oh ob st croix its going to be awfully embarrassing facing them all alii I 1 especially your awful father after my taking that money from mail it makes me shudder I 1 when we get there st croix let roe me walk in behind you will you and I 1 promise to bring up a good solid war rear in the procession I 1 oh but im nervous about it to see you sitting there looking like meely ton and talking straight english its the d t knock out ive ever experienced st croix almost groaned I 1 do the part to the lifer she amazingly appealed for applause now I 1 can go to hollywood not only to offer myself but my piece as well for ive written a scenario of this weird wild escapade st croix that they cant resist see yourself in a movie and find out just how just what youre like Syl sylvia vial 1 he leaned forward and took her hand band they had bad their end of the car pretty much to themselves give up this hollywood ideal you know how bow I 1 love lore you yon how she repeated thoughtfully as she gently withdrew her hand band yes I 1 know how but look here youre not going to hold me to account for treating you like the creature you pretended to be I 1 what sort of a creature was wag I 1 pretending to her be you ton know what I 1 mean Syl sylvia vIal yet you made lovit lov to that creature A mans standi standards ards she shook her head bead over iti it are certainly loilo low 1 high enough when it comes to choosing a wife sylvia then let a womans comans standards be as high when choosing a husband you dont know life my dear or you say any such an impossible thing my own standards are far more fastidious than the average gracious it if marry me ril ill worship and reverence and adore you all my life long I 1 my dear st croix I 1 cant imagine anything more uncomfortable than being reverenced reveren ced heavens I 1 youve known meely ton much longer and better than youve known cousin sylvia and im afraid if you married roc me be far more likely to bully and browbeat the meek and lowly meely than to worship reverence and adore the lady sylvia youre so used to bullying me 1 I risk it you actually believe I 1 could ever tor for a moment confound you with the stupid vulgar girl you pretended to be you made love to that girl and would have despoiled and ravished lavished ravi shed herl her he winced and looked shocked please Pl easel such words on your lipsi lips bunk bosh you would have done to her what you consider indecent even to speak of to me do you think I 1 forget what you yon told her of your feelings about your marriage you said to her ir 1 I will marry my cousin because I 1 shall enjoy the prestige this marriage will give to me and to my children you even hoping for love in your marriage that you would find outside of marriage with girls like meely ton 1 1 I seen you then sylvia you were planning to marry one girl while you were trying your best to seduce another and in the face of that you dare to speak of marriage to me yes I 1 because I 1 love you I 1 I 1 was mad about meely and you are she with ith just the difference that turns desire into worship im afraid st croix that Mar garvins marvins vins repudiating me is more to my taste you see my dear cousin I 1 know too well how you are to womanhood how you dishonor it and ravage it I 1 again he winced and drew back 1 I 1 cannot bear tie he frowned disgust in his eyes to hear such coarse language on the alie lips of a girl I 1 respect I 1 TO DO CB CONTINUED CONTINUE |