Show IM ou ain 04 i v r i 1 i r bj FANCES ii SHELLEY WES i copyright by frances shelley wees 41 ii it 1 B SYNOPSIS st bryn onI onidia IIa tall bronzed young man of wealth and las ills chum tubby forbes are bryns corning coming marriage tubby believes it scheme to eket bryns wealthy wealth from him chapter CHAP I 1 continued 1 d I 2 4 aeve neither did I 1 I 1 bryn irv yn said linger er dreamed of such a thing butikis but iwas urious rio us ill admit that you banya cur losty because got any imagination it if you had have been hanging around too you d have I 1 ranted to look atthe man in the case when he arrived for this wed dengo 6 girl hed neverseen never seen and then when you saw the man joud certainly shave have wanted to get a look ai at the girl and when you saw the girl bryn paused tubby looked at him curls curl bously but bryn coughed and went on immediately when you saw the girl you would most assuredly have wanted to know ho r it was all going to come out she sh well she his tipe type tub youre saying saving just what ive been trying to say tubby cried bild hoi worthya wor thys been w working on your imag illation In atlon lie ile kno knows nah whit what youre youre like well its succeeded Every things gona gone according ito to plan pan youre roped to night youre going to marry this girl that youve only ohly seen three times a girl you dont really know a darn thing about just because she has some kind of 0 cock and bull story about havi having ng to get married before her twenty first birthday and the man ashes supposed to harryf happen hap pento to take her fancy of course lie he take lier her fancy with you around certainly he what its all about you darn idiot you james weldon shipley pley Brynild brynildson ion third ye gods and little fishes arent there enough toen men on the coast who would marry her for this 3 fifty eltty thousand dollars ashes ad supposed to be paying you without you stepping into it its iasso so damned absurd what are yoli you doing it for F fifty efty thousand dollars mean anything to youl you and got got it all worked out so that therell be plenty of pub publicity lIcIt v and alid trouble when you want ant a divorce you going up into the oregon backwoods to live witcher with her for a icae year so rom romantic antiel 1 and shell turn out t to be a cheap little crook but shenille shell be married to you nil ail the sanie same and entitled to a lot of your property when lienthe the break comes and your name hs as wel kel it sound beautiful V dont be an ass bryn said bom comfortably fort ably we went to school with ted holworthy anyway I 1 happen to know anat this business Is on the level because ive known about the case for years As a ma matter ater of fact it w was a s I 1 who asked holworthy about it last year if remember which jou you pr probably wont I 1 met the old genile gentleman himself bim self debor Debo deborahh wis grandfather was here helie eight years ago fixing the will up with teds beds father it was just when I 1 was taking over my property and spending a good dealoe deal ot ti time me in Holworth ys office the old gentleman was waa a most interesting old C had chap and we e had several long co conversations u ile he wai was intensely co concerned n about tha this will he was making and very anxious to make sure that he was doing the right thing the old man put the thing up to me as a hypothetical ille case and asked me what I 1 troug thought lit sf of it being i young fool I 1 thought it sounded fine iise so tubby said eyeing him when it look as if it might be so fine you feel responsible Is that hat I 1 I 1 it t J Is s that why youre throwing yourself away like a sack of soft pot potatoes a toes bryn sighed 1 I do wish go and change your clothes he said you cant bemy wy best man in a white tie and tails not when im wearing a lounge sult wed probably have am e another earthquake aana and what about filar pilar Pl lar pilar DA dagulo what about aboul tier her well what about hert her for two years youve carted her around ashes had a smile for the last 23 months like a mouse in a cheese barrel everybody thinks youre going to marry her shell go when phe she hears bears this r have you told her anything 1 I j at atalia I 1 all S how hovi could I 1 tell her I 1 sure myself until two hours ago when I 1 telephoned you I 1 telephone fier ber could I 1 hello aliar im going to marry a girl in a few minutes and theres no reason why I 1 should ive never asked her to marryie mar marry me or even hinted about IV it ill welli welli dont j have to tell her do ir k 1 r r a bright idea bryn said happily P fix thanks old man ill do the same sam 0 id for you one of these days yh 11 tubby said mis mably i jj IU la that shell have me marrying her myself well all right bryn as curad mm kim youve always wanted to anaw anyway now on your way tubby go and get dressed burch will bring you your cocktail and lend you one ot of his shirts and a collar you can wear my pants tf not to take idee breach but I 1 dont think better try buttoning the coat coal all la in keeping shell think you got them second hanav starry filar certainly just the wife for you theres the blood of the con in pi alun take that to keep you getting any ratter fatter do to on youve only gottlie got five minutes 11 0 0 0 14 0 twenty three years previously anne ker r larned lamed had eloped on the morning odthe of the dayl dail ofer of aher wedding to courtney Court ncy graham and had married a young man who had lie he been a woman would never have been received in the society in which the larneds moved the consequences were ayere disastrous the young man had no nione money but lie he had expected to have a great deal dea when the lerneda relented and e their only daughter however lie he encountered unexpected difficulties with the daughter herself for when she discovered why lie he had married her slie she crept away from him haf pep her heart as nearly neaily broken as a physical organ can be broken by human cunha unha p and when her daughter sas awls only a few days das old she died fortu ina tely the young father who never knew that thadie lie was a father was kicked r in a vital sp spot 60 by y a horse ani and died before he co could uld cause auy any more misfortune fortu fortune ile thus strengthening the belief of a number of people in the vengeance arid and justice of god the aged and broken grandparents giand parents took their daughters child and also the blame for their daughters if they told themselves mis drably they had guarded her well ell she would never have haie met this handsome young scoundrel and oil all would have been as they had planned she would have married courtney graham scion ot of an old and spotless family and till all her ways would have been ways of pleasantness and all her paths would have been paths of pence peace the Gra grahams liams were among the first people of boston nowhere on their escutcheon could be found a blot and even the erasure marks were so carefully done as to leave no trace A perfect marriage it would have been but their daughter was dead and their bitter re greti as in vain however they still had the child and over the mothers grave they vowed to themselves that nothing should mar this girls life they dedicated their remaining years to her it seemed to them that they must creep out of the world with her hide her find for her a sanctuary they had bad sold the historic mansion in boston Bosto nand and with their beautiful old household goods had gone west as far fai as they could go 90 out to the oregon wilderness there in the most glorious natural surroundings they had built a huge stone house as like the boston house as possible and filled it 11 with their treasures they were miles from the ii nearest arest town and cut off f bromall fro rom mall all easy easy contact with civilization here the child deborah grew up with only odily her grandparents and the servants for her companions save for one trip to boston with her grandmother when she was eight years old she had scarcely been 0 off fe her grandfathers land in the early years when she was yet a small child she went infrequently with her grandparents over the rough mountain roads to the little country town or was perhaps allowed to accompany old gary their servant on a marketing expedition but as she grew older and her mothers beauty began to evidence itself in her she was kept more and more closely at home there were quite often guests at the great house when deborah was a child but they were grave elderly deop people le like her grandparents so that she grew up completely cut off from companions of her own age 1190 and generation she had however a library full of bools books and thre e people entirely devoted to her welfare it must be admitted that of the three grandfather grandmother and gary it ft was wag gary who taught her the most interesting things grandfather taught her history and science and geo geography graphy and political economy if he was a little vague in places 1 it far because there are matters of with which a woman need not sully her pure mind grandmother taught her needlework and a number of things that made them both blush and over which they skipped as hastily as possible but gary gary told her stories of people now never believe it he would begin but its a fact I 1 saw it with my own eyes saw what gary darling deborah would ask delightedly curling curliew up her feet vader underneath neath her on the table what old did you see with your very own eyes it was once when I 1 was in new york lie he would begin 1 I was walking down fifth avenue one day a very interesting street miss deborah the most interesting street in the world ive been told and right in front of me there was a young ady y walking along ng all dressed up in hat and feather boa two yards Varas longina crying C crying fit to kin bifi if you can imagine it yes there wai was gary grandfather Irand father and grandmother kept the iron gates leading to the world locked and barred but gary lifted the shutters of a tho thousand 11 little windows magic magi casements casement s till all of them opening on the foam of perilous sens TO BE CONTINUED |