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Show ular greetings Bryn asked him to procure ten pounds of jasmine tea from an old Chinese friend of theirs, a cook from an employment agency, three housemaids ami a butler. With the letter sealed in his pocket, pock-et, Bryn went down the stairs In search of Deborah. lie heard from the front of the house the sound of the piano. He went slowly toward the drawing room, listening. The piano was being banged with fury. Either Deborah or Grandmother was playing the "Norwegian Eridal Procession" In such a way that it sounded like the march on Paris. He knocked lightly on the drawing draw-ing room door, but the piano did not stop. He opened the door and went in. Deborah was pouncing angrily on handfuls of keys. Bryn stood for a moment watching her. He was restraining an impulse to lo be done," he said. "And there's potatoes to hoe and corn to weed and cucumbers and melons to water wa-ter and raspberries to tie up He propped his hands on the edge of the sink and looked up. "If you want to work," he said, "there's plenty to be done." Bryn put a foot on the chair beside be-side the sink. "Had your hands full hadn't you?" he said. Gar,y did not reply. He was still searching Bryn's face. Bryn met his eyes steadily. After a moment, Gary turned away, without speaking, and finished washing the sink. He was just untying his apron to hang it up when there was a light footstep foot-step at the other end of the room, and Deborah came In. She was very pale, and there was in her face such a look of misery that both men stiffened themselves involuntarily. walk forward, slip his arms underneath un-derneath her, lift her from the stool and hold, her firmly against him m& ill i'i1 1 ,m mm Am fir Jl" SYNOPSIS "O Mimes Brynlldson III), a O8"" ,rl voung man ot wealth, rf T"bby FOrb63' VSl d Bryn's coming marriage. M ssl"feves It a scheme to ect FtM Sm ' from him. Should the C'ifrcS wah whom Bryn had met 7'd!c oiS aaorney. Tod Hoi-loathe Hoi-loathe ofilce ot Graham before Bti'rW'ntv nrst birthday, she will f . vast fortune from her "jcK uher. Stuart had greatly dls-.HrDeborah, dls-.HrDeborah, who refuses to him Bryn, posing as an un-vTenBlneer, un-vTenBlneer, offers to marry """" Ih as Stuart, for $50,000, they Chl ve as man and wife. Twenty-"Sf Twenty-"Sf tears previous, Anne Larned .iKred with an adventurer on "'f J . Set for her wedding to t'Ltney Graham' Two dfyS a,tT lAirth of her daughter, Anne d.ed. r ,, after the father died. The ds grandparents, took the child - C them to Oregon where, without .:' i d companions, Deborah grew up. ia(e'uar(l her from some for-",' for-",' hunter, her grandfather had Caeed (or her to marry Stuart, SfcJ. ( Courtney Graham, when ot lir When Deborah was fifteen, her '"Grandfather died. Securities had jet aside to keep the family, market crash left scarcely 52nogH for them t0 "ve on' This was M inknown to Deborah's grandmother, W,'Jn Invalid, Gary, a servant, manag-ify,lf manag-ify,lf the finances. At twenty, the .'Vi)rtt of marriage greatly fright-44.11 fright-44.11 Deborah. Tubby and Bryn await Deborah In a hotel in Frisco. Over mKi period of one year the groom is lata,:, i. prove he Is no fortune hunter lose (til can make Deborah happy to the S and mislactlon of her grandmother. : yoj'vfjthern'ise, the fortune is to go to liihrily. The will is somewhat ambig-) ambig-) Ions as to whom Deborah Is to . tarry. The girl arrives with Hol-'J! Hol-'J! -toriny. Tubby Is surprised to find fttt'ir charming and sweet. The wed-nycWiiiE wed-nycWiiiE over, the couple arrives at the layiiribome ot Deborah's grandmother. The Jpsst ? grandmother and Bryn, who she be- 'lleves to be Stuart, take to one an-, an-, pa, which somewhat displeases ''Oikorah, who foresees difficulty when iley are to separate after a year. :sn JKr Oeborati remonstrates with Bryn for m'liirili familiarity and Insincerity. I there's even another girl somewhere some-where out In the world," she said with n breath of relief. "I am a stupid creature. I might have guessed. It's because we're so self-centered self-centered here. To put it perfectly plainly, you have been exerting yourself to the utmost to live up to your bargain, and I've been ridiculous ridicu-lous about It. Haven't I? I'm sorry. sor-ry. It's going to be . . ." she bent hastily and lifted her bowl. "I think I have enough," she went on. Tjryn took the bowl. They walked along leisurely toward the house. The sun had suddenly thrown off his veils of cloud and emerged In glory. Entering the kitchen together, they found Gary there. "This Is certainly an early-rising household," remarked Bryn. " 'Up with the birds,' must be its motto." Bryn put down his coffee cup, Gary having- served them in the sitting sit-ting room. He reached Into his pocket mechanically for his cigarette ciga-rette case. "Mind if I smoke?" ' Across the low round table, Deborah De-borah shook her head. "Tell me, is it a disgraceful thing to be divorced? Does it . . . mark one?" she nsked. "We can manage it so quietly that no one will know you've been married, mar-ried, Deborah." "I wasn't thinking exactly of myself," my-self," she said, faint color in her cheeks. "Nobody knows me. It wouldn't matter. I was thinking of you. I was wondering if the . . . girl you . . . that is, the girl you care about won't mind rather dreadfully. dread-fully. I don't quite understand these things," she hurried on, "but I think if I were she I should mind." "Did I say I cared about a girl?" Bryn Inquired, In surprise. "Perhaps I saw for myself that there must be one. Xou spoke of sacrifices.- You couldn't have meant "Grandmother liked the strawberries," straw-berries," Deborah said dismally. "She thought they were wonderful." She might have been announcing the end of the world. "What's happened?" Gary asked again, his face working. "What's the matter, Miss Deborah? Did you tell her? Did she guess about . . ." his eyes went to Bryn. Deborah shook her head. From her pocket she produced a long sheet of paper. "There," she said tremulously, "That's our marketing list for today." "Marketing list?" Gary repeated, with utter horror. He stared at the paper as if it were a message of destruction from Mars. "Five dozen wax tapers, of the best quality," Gary read out. "A cook and three housemaids." Gary groaned. "Copies of all the modern maga zines." Deborah swallowed. "A plumber to inspect all the plumbing of the house. A man to put the electric plant In order." "A catalogue of comfortable motor mo-tor cars." "Four or five gardeners." "Ten pounds of the best Jasmine tea." "Eight dollars a pound," Gary breathed. . "That's her special blend." "Well," Bryn said after a moment, mo-ment, "it's a fairly good beginning. I don't suppose she's heard of electric elec-tric refrigerators, or vacuum cleaners, clean-ers, or radios, or any number of other modern Inventions. The magazines mag-azines will undoubtedly help, unless we go over them first and cut out all the advertisements." Deborah sprang up. "Oh, what's the use of all this?" she cried. "I won't have you laughing at her. It's no use making fun. She thinks . . . she thinks we. can manage anything now. She doesn't know. However am I going to tell her? What am I going to do?" "It's all we can do to pay the taxes," Gary said at last. There was a silence. Deborah came back to the table. "I'll have to pretend I'm 111," she said. "I'll have to say I've a pain In my heart, or something like that. Something that can't stand excitement. excite-ment. That's the only thing." "Let's tell her the truth," Gary said sharply. "Let's tell her, Miss Deborah. We're getting in too deep." "1 Am Going In to Town, and I Wondered if You'd Care to Go." while she kicked and stormed and raged at him, while he looked down Into her dark eyes, smiling, waiting for her anger to subside. There would be a moment then when she would lie, limp and beaten, in his arms; and then, witli her face at his shoulder and her hair shaken loose over his arm, he could . . . The music stopped abruptly, in the middle of a bar. Her hands dropped to her lap, and she stared at him, mute and angry. "Sorry to interrupt," Bryn said ; "the music was beautiful. Such expression. ex-pression. But I'm going in to town, and I wondered if you'd care to go." "No." "It's a long drive alone," Bryn said plaintively. "I'm sorry." She got up from the piano stool with a swish of starched skirt. "You may add something extra ex-tra to your bill for the trip," she said coldly, and turned and . went from the room without a backward glance. He went upstairs again and knocked on Grandmother's door. She opened It promptly. "I have to go to town in the car," Bryn told her. "Would yon care CHAPTER III Continued I il d'111'' like lt- 1 won't have it. ""M bad enough to ... to deceive (tat all, but I have to do that for er own good. I have to do what t done. If I'd come back not Jflii married . . . and told her about . . him, then we'd have had to fjJ'lell her everything. How poor we ire, and how desperate. And she jrould worry so much about me it Jflltald kill her. There wouldn't be Qjjfaaylliing ahead. This way, there's (t least the money, and by the end .gHir He year ... but I won't take your career, because you told me yourself It was at a standstill. So there must be a girl. I am glad, of course. It will make Gary feel much better. But has the world become so liberal-minded that she won't mind this taking this way to earn money for her?" Her eyes lifted to his, waiting. Bryn considered. If he said there was no girl, Deborah might take fright again. So he said : "I assure you that no complication will arise." She had begun to speak, perhaps to question him further, when a fpilip Bryn rose and said, "The way out has just occurred to me. Mr. Hol-worthy." Hol-worthy." Deborah caught her breath. "What could he do?" "He knows the circumstances. He could advance us the money we need." "But will he?" t "We can try. I think he will. In the meantime, we can buy the smaller things. ... I have a little lit-tle money of my own, a few hundreds. hun-dreds. I am happy to put them at our mutual disposal." "We can't take your money." "Nonsense. Of course you can take my money. You can give me a note, if yon like, and pay me Interest. In-terest. So it's settled." Gary drew a deep breath of relief. re-lief. "I'd thought of borrowing before," be-fore," he said. "But until Miss Deborah Debo-rah was married, we didn't have any prospects of paying it back. Now it's all right. I can see it's all right. If you don't mind lending lend-ing what you have, sir." "I don't like borrowing," Deborah continued to protest, her cheeks flaming. "We're taking enough from you. We can't take any more." Gary turned toward her. "If we don't go through with lt, if you tell your grandmother now, then this gentleman won't get his money at the end of the year. She wouldn't recognize this marriage. It's too late to marry anybody else; your blrth- to put on your bonnet ana come.' We could be back by dinner time." Her eyes opened wide. "Go to Lynndale? I? In the car?" "The road is pretty rough, but I'll drive carefully. Come on, Grandmother, let's go on a bust." "Why ... I don't know." Her hands fluttered helplessly. "I have not been away frorn here for many years." "You'll be comfortuble. Really," promised Bryn. She lifted her chin. She drew a deep breath. "Very well," she said at last. He went downstairs and out to the car. He started the motor, turned the car carefully, came to a halt again at the door, and Grandmother Grand-mother was there. Bryn lifted her gently and put her down in the car. Bryn stopped the car at the gate. He pushed the button of the horn A long melodious call rang out. Instantly In-stantly Deborah appeared on tht little balcony before her room. Bryr opened Grandmother's door, and th old lady leaned out. "I'm going to town, dear," sh cried in her thin old voice, am sank back again with a sigh. Ant Bryn smiled behind his hand ai the expression of horrified inere dulity that had come over Deb orah's face. Bryn had finished all the impor tant business which had brough him to town. He had been to thi bank, had Identified himself as tin iagt wantage of her. I can't bear to on K We you making so much of her leyttlien you don't mean it, when Tly'fou're not honest." hedEis! "Don,t 5"ou believe in love at first jtjlriifeM, Deborah?" Mails She sprang up and faced him. Wat's what Gary , said you'd start to talking about next," she accused. tllllll! you might have better 'lisle, If nothing else !" une lit 11 slJPPose he compared me to a rstai: !Mth- I suppose he couldn't un-inut'-fcrstand that a young man could ?ss fc Wer Into a business agreement )er,Piillt a young lady on perfectlv als ctarand straightforward grounds, nali "I"tlon having no part thereof?" ,p se raised her eyes. "Just a mln- 1,8 S0 you started talking about '' lore at first sight !" ; child, I was speaking of your --' Smother. I Intended to explain . j, - it my feeling for her was, in JUh ' of your assumption to the con- !?; h"cst' 1 wns a00"4 t men-Wr men-Wr 1,w gentleness, and her dellca-Jli1!'1 dellca-Jli1!'1 a few other qualities which V ffln "e heart of a stone 1m-is 1m-is &';l t0 ex'P'in to you that any f f tentons 'hieh I dis-JJ dis-JJ jfi? t0W!lrd was quite sin- WflS gazlns lnt0 his face. A f iWV?f color, quite unlike the t n f " Sh0rt ti,lle "2. be" c " rt!Td UP fro her throat tW'eve f!lCe- Slle d'-PPel her "This Is Certainly an Early-Rising Household," Remarked Bryn. bell tinkled. She rose hastily. "That Is Grandmother," she explained, ex-plained, and hurried down the steps to the narrow side duor. Bryn sat down again and lit another, cigarette, ciga-rette, thinking. He recalled himself with a start, day is past. If we told your grana-mother grana-mother the whole truth, that your the man you've married is a stranger, paid to marry you, she would die. It would kill her. And then mavbe you could get the money, but it would kill your grandmother." Deborah listened, her eyes dark and smouldering. She lifted them at last to Bryn. "So it's just as a safeguard for yourself that you're offering your money?" she asked icily- r, "Something of the sort,' Bryn said with truth. CHAPTER IV owner of the account trnnsterrec from San Francisco a few days agn lie had been to the postoliice an. had posted Tubby's letter, as wcl as a terse one of his own to Hoi worthy. Grandmother was waiting In tin car. She had been sitting then ever since Bryn had parked the ca when they had reached town, he eyes wide and excited. From tim to time, he came hack to her, tw or three times followed by white aproned clerks with their arm piled high with packages whic they placed in the trunk at the re.'; of the long car. (TO BE COTIMED) and got up hastily.. He urteci uie table, dishes and all, and carried it down to the kitchen door. He set it inside, went In, and drew lt across the big room to the long white porcelain sink beneath the windows. Gary was there, with a big, clean apron tied over his trousers, trous-ers, washing up his own breakfast dishes. "It's a beautiful day, Gary." "Yes, sir. It gets very hot in the middle of the day in August, but the nights are always cool." Bryn picked up a dish-towel. "What are you going to do today, Gary? Can you give me some kind of an Idea of your routine? I've got to have something to do, too. I can pick cherries. Deborah said you could use them. And 1 heard hens cackling somewhere, although I didn't see them. I presume your fowl have the usual set of signals. So I can collect ggs." Gary .sighed. He rubbed vigorously vigorous-ly at a plate. "Ai! them thiuffS baa. it ''i!f"rr"'" Br'vn went on calm-"-ilorl ,n a be most Presumptuous Cr vV6 nny feeli" for Jo., i Va ;fIreC0snizet,lat' I have WCln vP?Mn,ln8 on thnt rela- . " t m TVm be fanher easlor 7 , n-ever-it might eff Wte nJ0 ' ' e oame to a defl- SentoahS-to T dut,csnnd oi '""H! 0bv'usly we cannot lasted." SiveriI'ces so far are I W She f l Saitieos td l!1- "Did rou make J!' :.I1(,PV d0 thls for mer she lan'Tha !f nny Partlcular Impor- -s I the C'notTbe far outweighed I ; lL HoSl 1 W receive from Rllton,M & 'Vei,r ,s a year."" $ I oJD to smile. ! sllppo3e 1 DRTX went upstairs to the south D wing where his own room lay. He entered, sat down at the small writing table before the window lifted the leather case from the floor beside him. unlocked it, lookout look-out writing paper, and began a let- tcr to Tubby. After the usual joc- Leisurely Traders The ancient riioi-nicians used t sail around Africa, trailing her and there, and to keep thcmselvc in food would anchor the ship: cow a. crop, wait to reap it, an then sail on. |
