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Show " WWTT O , 'AnJ now ttiafi sc-ttled." ho buK-gc-sU-d Joyously, "lot's swim a mUo way toward Spain." They dived toother and started off with tine abandon. Uut almost Immediately. It seemed to iilm she was tued again. Me made her'tum baok and again supported her on the return swim to the shore. When she left the water her mood had changed. "I'm as weak ns a cat." she said bitterly. Her eyes were full of fear ns she looked at him. "Hex. what does It mean?" she asked In a whisper. "We're going to find out." ' he promised. "Will you follow my ad-viee'."1 ad-viee'."1 "I think so. What Is It?" Naturally. I haven't any faith In Craig. Let me take you tomorrow answer till the next m , always did Th ? mornln8- so I course. By the w T fatal- 01 Pr-07 1 had for- Ver0"1.?bthtthe(m?"Hn,e tinned. "crtnt they standing around In rows reminding you?" lieve'T r6 K0t You'3 never be- V ll Rcx- bl" they forgot, too J"' month, ,at -J we were engaged or anything of hat sort every ,d of thm ,wo2 had refused him and that his heart was now another's. After a few years of this I remembered n?"Mh 8rfSP SpCnCer Forbesthe nlKht he spoke, and to write him a note the next morning confirming our engagement. I hastened our marriage, too. I realized that I couldn't keep the matter In mind that Hosanna will reconstruct my moral nature? She's been working at the Job now for more than a quar-If quar-If a century. There are mo-ments mo-ments when I feel uplifted, and al-most al-most discouraged." Hple went on to his room smiling. Dinner that night was a pleasant meal. The change in Bert, aa amazing and heart-warming change continued. His overwrought look, nis jerkiness of movement and gesture, ges-ture, were almost gone. Ainsworth observed everyone with his usual cat-like watchfulness. Though it was Friday night Casper Kneeland had not arrived. Rex suspected sus-pected that Kneeland was deliberately deliber-ately keeping out of the way to give him a free hand with Ainsworth. Miss Hosanna looked pleased and then sighed deeply when Hale praised the lobster a la Newburg. "Poison," she murmured. "All shell-fish is poison, of course. But you may give me a spoonful, Banks. I'll just try it." Joan, Rex noticed, ate little and said less. She listened to the others oth-ers and smiled occasionally. She was not the same girl who, on the float, had threatened to propose to him. These quick shifts of mood and manner were very disconcerting. disconcert-ing. After dinner they had a lesson in the new Continental, which Rex had learned abroad. Joan, who was a born dancer, was interested and fairly successful at it Ainsworth did less well, and Bert and Mrs. Spencer Forbes refused to try it at all. The party broke up early. Hale was not surprised when Ainsworth caught him by the arm as they left the living-room. "Will you make yourself comfortable comfort-able and drop into my diggings a little lit-tle later, old man?" he urged in a low voice. "I'd like a word with you." Rex glanced at his watch and nodded. It was only half past ten. He would be glad to have the showdown show-down with Ainsworth and get it over. He tapped at Ainsworth's door as the clock in the hall downstairs struck eleven. Ainsworth opened the door at once and greeted him almost al-most warmly. "Nice room," Rex approved. It was a nice room, as pleasant as his own. It had a more personal atmosphere, at-mosphere, lent by books and pictures. pic-tures. "Yes," Ainsworth explained, "I brought down a few things of mine from New York books, and such." Rex raised his eyebrows. "Then you're expecting to stay on?" he asked. Ainsworth looked surprised. The effect was convincing. He really seemed surprised. "Oh, yes. I'll be here all summer," sum-mer," he announced, "probably till the Camp closes. The family usually usu-ally goes back to town about the middle of October. That will suit me very well. Everything in New York will be dead till then, anyway. any-way. What I want to talk to you about," he went on conversationally, conversational-ly, as they sat down and lit their cigarettes, "is Craig. Didn't he leave pretty suddenly and, as it were, by request?" Hale grinned. Ainsworth's curiosity curi-osity always amused him. "He did and as it happened, by my request. But of course Uncle Cass bad authorized me to act for him," Hale ended sedately. "That's odd." Ainsworth looked at him thoughtfully. "One would have thought Bert would have had some voice about that," he ended after a moment of apparent reflection. reflec-tion. (TO BE CONTINUED) 1 hate to have doctors fussing over me." 1S telling - . 1Jtl brings of "s' illustrate .!jrtW' ne picture i;'1"1'1"; . , oman Arei ;"-or n,i: omen and 0 the lions rl burst ir It 'f sure she r kind we ion on the Jt-.o 'e re ; she said !:ir furnl-There furnl-There is a 7i0T.ethifi any Chris '., fc-u-h a:iJ ER NEEr MA-honse :tcdMr$. re .ii' in 2 . r;;fd. as she '. ;3 tf sand V- j S ;:e gu;ird-f gu;ird-f j slats! had -.rt Ml ready Or v. -IT cheer-'S cheer-'S I . -.," she in- 3 J; toward the ,.-:s d:s:ract-i d:s:ract-i i . That 1SS meI -better than lothing t . ds maar"-i B ::Im : r.p.t new. tnguage sair 10 e of has - : tec" she mured mur-ed over :I--a:e$ a 'Gent ,::r heartache called d 'jzis ar.d were tsh, too,' Is'-Pcse what : she added d up '-a up. "is ort," he 3 bro'-her rker. ! i Last ' tcward the id Mr J 1 crock g pcicted out. Jtever I, brother . :i ei-ely satis-plained satis-plained lat an i 1 do fo: . me 11 ita pat circles ;hout b ?:-a ses- But e mj morale ! - he remind- imptne " ' h is 12 r31 8eWcS tired i 98. Jmi urder her :r is 1 till they uch a ' Seculd teel the J allor?: hearl against j in? as they i ot the float i out of their r!;J. resting, and ; 3 a tie shore line. - ; " fence which he - - she said at ffi Se Qen Vic- S::" God." "Not even, I - 4 Bnes, do you Jp' "! our dear late kissi I ever objed I " ted 10 marry "Propose to him. j;;-Wdn't propose Foi some money, glad ;i;?iseii t0 Prince 1 5' Hale admitted :, I hi .:; rf1(1 he do it? Iy if lfcrttec the de-ir. de-ir. ;-, . i firmly, "in - leeway She Hlm''tate. She nasi , n ""at everyone 5 HCr7 her' a"d sr rn ,3, a well fall ast I f an-" 3 it? .'4 head. - declared. 8 Wt with :ipTj:;;;Velyy0lmg Jttij a pro-j pro-j ;.3lj,? were it. M'"m -,!!f?,ngely-What u Wow." . !teItn- Then I '"ili k ' Passion gu 4V bethe lit. Pmeoffmy Sat w he told "im t mtervlew I had ,p "ihL ? HaIe's .ghtImsf that at real Joan ' Cldn b any. !,ai LWlth a girl : 1 ,Spclon that '"ao ov injure her overstimulated after lunch to a New York doctor who has a camp near here Doctor Nicholas Crosby. Let him make a thorough examination and give you a diagnosis and a schedule. We'll take Bert to him at the same time. Bert may need some help in upbuilding." up-building." CHAPTER VIII When they entered the house Hale telephoned at once to Doctor Nick Crosby to make the appointment for the next day. The result was disappointing. dis-appointing. Joan stood beside him at the telephone. He made his report re-port to her with raised eyebrows. "Crosby is in New York. He won't be back till Monday." Joan nodded. 'I'm glad. I hate to have doctors doc-tors fussing over me, especially strange ones." "Just the same" He looked at her thoughtfully, surprised at his own disappointment and annoyance over the doctor's absence. For some reason the delay seemed serious. se-rious. "This is Friday. Let's go to New York early tomorrow morning, ne suddenly suggested. "I tw good doctors there. I can surely get hold of one of them by telephone tele-phone today. It I can't, I'll look up someone else." She scoffed at the idea. "In this heat? It would be a crazy thing to do." He persisted. ' .riv "No, it wouldn't. I'U get an early annointment for you. Then weU very long. Now tell me all about your sex life. Rex." Miss Hosanna rose, folded up her knitting, and regarded her friend severely. "Really, Ruth, you get worse every ev-ery day," she declared. "I'm afraid this young man is encouraging you in it." "I wasn't going to tell her a thing, Miss Hosanna," Hale protested earnestly. ear-nestly. "Not even about the Mandarin Man-darin Princess in Pekin or the Rajah's Ra-jah's daughter in Calcutta." "You seem to run to potentates," Mrs. Spencer Forbes murmured. "Were you ever in Pekin or Cal-dutta?" Cal-dutta?" "Never. That" Hale explained smugly, "is why I wasn't going to tell you about those ladies." Miss Hosanna sighed again and walked toward the door. "It's time to dress for dinner, she reminded them. "Why you two keen up this nonsense all the time fs more than I can see There's some excuse for this dear boy. He s young. But you, Ruth, are old enough to know better. Mrs. Spencer Forbes nodded sad- ly'-I know," she corroborated. "Thirty-six." . . . Miss Hosanna sniffed Thirty on looking, Hex, Forbes added tenderly. I 10 Forbes aau me one ha.V6 Tfnrfwe part." she added as Tee wlnt'upstairs together ?D0 y u think there's any danger lunch on the cool roof ot 8 York hotel, and take an early train s'he'was firm in her refusal and he had to give in. . "Aside from everything else she pointed out. "I want : a doctor J hand if I need one at all. wait for Doctor Crosby. Mrs. Nash swears by him." hlm Ainsworth waved a hand to him as they passed the .Ze Z-on Z-on their way upstan-s, but Hale . e corted Joan to her room nd went on to his own. Ainsw could wait. tpa Joan did not come down to tea and Hale was not surged. He voted himself to .Mrs. Forbes and Miss Hosanna and U tened InattenUvel, r tc Je rf long account of the e syg. too many eggs on tne uui tern. 1 ft ha ag. y0isShtoUlUve0'.ar efy on sured him, is to Jive fruit and vegetables. " es dered, and Mrs Spencer laughed unfeelingly- When, later, he and she were again together for a few ute - her to explain her crypUc of an hour ago. tne dea and pretended that she had what he was talking about. "Dear boy," she begged , expect me to remembe any say, or anything that any says When I yltd me to beautiful young men Dees d be be theirs I thought it my coy and maidenly to vow |
