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Show iSMir n Edwin MVNr BALMER bnrel, three years of marriage an(J wo babies (as Mother had' had ml ? T flS hai,p-V as Mamma the "little" house where she had been a bride. ended' PPineSs tenlng? What "We're together! Isn't It good to be together, together so!" That was how the old house bad felt "ere It was gone. Most particularly particular-ly tonight it was gone from Father and Mother. You could feel no current cur-rent of closeness. Across the table Jeb sat. He was bappy to be here, and to have her here. Ue was in business clothes, as he had come from his office. He and Agnes were not to go out, to seek escape from themselves tonight. Quite to . the contrary! Wh hi,i Inspiring, Important and thrilling! When you did this, you omitted imagining them like their father. They must be more than Davis ever would be. Davis, your husband, who was only thirty but for whom you no longer held illusions of greatness, great-ness, though you loved him. Of course you loved him. He lacked something that,' for one, Jeb Braddon had. Jeb, who had been at "the house" last night, as Beatrice had learned when she phoned her father after dinner, to say hello. How much further had Agnes and Jeb "gone" last evening? eve-ning? Bee wished that Agnes would hurry over. There she was! They faced each other In the sun, but Agnes immediately immedi-ately bent to the babies. Bobble kissed back on her cool cheek after she kissed him ; she swept with her lips the soles of Davy's chubby little feet, one after the other. "How's Jeb?" asked her sister, seating herself before her. Agnes held to one of Davy's feet. "All right, Bee," she answered. "Did you go anywhere last night?" "Not us. Father and Mother went to the Stinsons' ; but we stayed home," said Agnes a bit breathlessly. breath-lessly. "What'd you do?" demanded Bee. "Bee, I guess Jeb and I got sort of engaged." Beatrice's gaze jerked up. "Don't you know?" SYNOPSIS 7e and fnntastl- ?',Cker of Chicago. -:-rfSu Agnes Glencllh. l! hier of a retired man-f. man-f. a doctor, in love f , his brother Jeb ,u- at Rochester. Jeb N-:'m M make a try for giving. I" R fere :n: obstinate decency and restraints than in Jeb - to be happy, a gul V fr'elf entirely to a man n:' Arable babies. Rod vis-?!'; vis-?!'; tens her of his great ;:,'re,iles It can never be That meant her and no one else. Always, ns long as she could remember, remem-ber, It bad been Father's greeting. Light One! Dark One! His two daughters his two babies, once. Beatrice always had been dark, like Mamma ; Agnes light, like himself. He bent and kissed Agnes now. "Hello, Light One!" he repeated! "How's Dark One?" "Oh, she's Bne, Father!" "How're the busters?" . "Father, they're wonderful!" "Good. Where's your mother? In?" "Yes, Father; she's In." conversation drag so? Her father mentioned Instill to Jeb. "Stronger every minute," Jeb said. "I'm putting all my people into Mid-West Mid-West Utilities." There Mother sat, alone, no longer long-er the closest, most necessary person per-son to any one. Her figure, once so slender, was by no means heavy. She had lovely hands, beautifully-shaped beautifully-shaped fingers with almond-like nails, which Agnes had Inherited. Her skin, though not dark, was less fair than her husband's, and it needed color now. ,' (.A?TER Continued -2- . m send me, if you will, ;'::ons; but you let me kiss ?' ."fin such tenderness, never " much strength restrained. I ' 's hands clasped her. His ',)n tier shoulders, he drew . She lifted her lips and iOoce; that was all; be ' try to repeat it .n, Rodney," she whispered, UOOCl. ' Agnes liked to have him linger with her, but the thought of her mother, waiting for him, tortured her. There had been a time when, if she had not met him at the door, he would have leaped up the stairs, two steps at a time, to find whal was the matter. Now he stood, back to the fire, without impatience. He had been away for a week in New York City; and his daughter, swept as she was with affection for him, and with pride in him, and with gladness In They bad gone out together, Simmons Sim-mons driving them. The leaping blaze in the drawing-room had burnt down to red-glowing charred logs that lay lazily on the andirons. Jeb gathered Agnes against him. "Don't fight It," he said. "It's no use. It's over for them. That's all." "Why's It over, Jeb?" His arm about her also claimed her right hand with his. He fitted her slender fingers in between his, as he liked to do, and clasped palm to palm. "I know he said we were, Bee." Beatrice quickly touched a bell behind her. - "They've been long enough in the sun," she decided suddenly, sud-denly, and bundled her babies Into robes. When the nurse knocked, she handed the children out. "All right now," said Bee, dropping drop-ping to the mat. "I'm going downtown to have lunch with him today." "But are you engaged? Did you say you'd marry him?" "I didn't; for I didn't know I would. I don't know now." rjjt't repeat-death," he de- t moved about the empty j, . azing out at the snow. r do no differently about r;slie did not love him. She t i'.;jn) with a keen pity which f' . equal in her meetings with !f; a she did not desire him. f ;.,f-deslre? Was that the de- -nation in your life? i -tairation for a man, sym-':i sym-':i him, caring for him, noth-iaparison? noth-iaparison? Did no qualities ''' diIii him count, unless you all her memories, could not down disturbing doubts. What had he "done" In New York during seven days and evenings and nights? He was full of feeling; and how good-looking he was ! He was now within two years of fifty, and he didn't appear forty. He honestly didn't. His hair was as youthful as Agnes' own. He differed from hers, however, in having a crinkle in It which made it take tousling well. His clear healthy skin was almost youthful yet. It was like hers, white except where the glow of him show- because its over; that 11 all any one can ever say. . . . There's Just so much in the cup, sometimes, I think, Glen. You can sip it all your life, afraid ever 'really to taste it; or you can dare to drink it down. That's what they did, I figure from what I've heard from you. They had it all ; they took it all, tipped it empty together. If he'd died, or she, ten years ago, it'd been a break for the poets ; true love for a lifetime. But why bother about such a thing, Glen? Do you want it?" . "What?" Agnes said. "Love for a lifetime. Tepid tasteless taste-less stuff you can bear to sip and "You mean you don't know whether wheth-er you want to?" "I guess I want to marry him, Bee." "Then what in heaven is it you don't know?" "What it will be like to be married mar-ried to Jeb," said Agnes. "I didn't want to talk to Mother about it, at all. She's too unhappy. You aren't." "No," said Bee quickly. "How was Father when he got home?" "No different." "But you and Jeb?" "He thinks we ought to get married mar-ried as quick as we can arrange it. Ob, Bee, I never, never had such a never need to gulp down. Do you want it? By God, you'll never get it from me. I've had girls, Glen, but m M I six Pi I h Wm 2- 'm! :rswere leaping and snapping l. itfle logs freshly laid on the 'jT. isse hearth of the hall ; and f vi glass eyes in the pair of !:: i leads on the wall opposite iL (Hlieir reflection of the danc- 1 tears ago her father had 2: t! Jaguars in Brazil, having 11 rJ found need to cease to be ,'(" ::!sctnrer of electrical equip-: equip-: ::i to become, Instead, a hunt-traversing hunt-traversing tropical jun-" jun-" s till something dangerous and dm Among other trophies, he te t'iijlit these back, installed :c and dubbed them "Han- : Gretel." jpr noise, which had never been jjS ?! as the home on Easter l id descended undeniably aft-ill aft-ill EM happened in this house? l 'i the little Swedish maid, I' ;i She was a lady's maid I Agnes and her mother; a ) ' ' golden-haired, bright-cheek-type of Swede. s's returned?" Agnes asked H Mr. Judson Braddon 0 1 d. He said to tell you he t out He will drive." ' :! B'les through this snow ! .(II! -toes. Jeb would. Gleneith has returned p Be will be home on his 11 '! thought Agnes, .''require me, Miss Agnes?" l"" Mother, Uogna." 8Wspw.l at each other 'wing ' Hlif; slim ho, CU. JL1C IVtlS UlilS fiUdVCIi. Father and daughter shared the same blueness of eye and straight-ness straight-ness of nose. Indeed, in the fullness of her lips and the turn of her good little chin, Agnes was a delicate refinement re-finement of him. He was six feet straight, distinctly more than average aver-age height. There was no mark of deterioration deteriora-tion upon him. It was plain that his impulses and his needs for closest, emotional contacts had not fled or even retreated. Plain, too, It had been for some time, that they had failed him here. What was be "doing"? "do-ing"? What had be done? "Don't think about it," instincts warned her. He swung about to her. "When I was in New York, I got out of something some-thing I got into awhile ago; and I made half a million. . . . Tell me what you want, little Light One." "I don't want anything, Father," she answered before she realized how much she was disappointing him; for she was thinking once more of her mother. He would offer of-fer to buy her, too, anything she liked; but this half-million additional addi-tional in his hands would not help Mother at all. "Bob?" they both heard her voice. "Bob? Are you home?" She had come to the top of the stairs and was calling down. Agnes saw him start slightly. "Hello, Tricie," he called back. 'Wait up there. Coming!" They screened their first meetings, these days, from their daughter. And he started for the stairs. Headlights played on the windows and swung away as a car skidded to a stop. day. Bod came in the afternoon." "Rod?" "I can't tell you about that. I can never tell anyone about that! . . . Then Father came home; and Mother Moth-er was making ready for him. . . . Bee, they'll separate when I get married, I know." "Then I -should think you'd hardly hard-ly rush off and marry." Agnes-started when she met Jeb. How much more hers, since last night, was this man at whom women wom-en gazed ; and for whom they turned, turn-ed, after they had passed. He took her away In a taxi, and still saved the tension of their restraints. re-straints. He named a restaurant where a few of their set were sure to be. So they sat side by side at a , little table, looking out upon the wide, gay room. So many people gazed at them; and Agnes knew that they whispered whis-pered to each other: "There's Jeb Braddon." Agnes' hand on the seat beside her touched his, and his closed on hers briefly only. "Nothing today," he told her, "or more !" More than last night? What could he mean? Marriage today? Had he a license in his pocket? They left the restaurant, and Agnes watched the women looking up at him; he watched the men's eyes on her, and was very satisfied. He took her into a taxi and gave an address on the North Side. "I'm going to show you a building, build-ing, Glen," he told her then, "where I figured you and I would start." "Oh !" "I spotted It for us you with me Ions aso." "Tell Me What You Want, Little Light One." never one like you. What we'll give each other will be beyond telling. I don't know how long It will last; and neither do you. 'And I 'don't care- nor do you. We'll have it we'll have It all while we're young, we'll tin up the cup won't we? The building was a tali, new apartment structure of splendid spread and height, with an agent In the ground -floor odices only too glad to show them through. Of course some one might enter and recognize them. That made It more exciting; yet it was disturbing enough to step into an empty apartment, apart-ment, and having Inspected the front rooms, follow a pattering little lit-tle spectacled man into another chamber, and have him turn to Jeb and you and say: "If you like separate sep-arate rooms, here are two perfect ones with a bath between. On the other hand, if you prefer the same room this is beautifully adequate for t'win beds, and of course for a double." (TO BE COST1MED) , 1 M. ' 5 UnU SaW. Dt . " ! " tln traveling away Hi ' Jeb forcinS hls car ; f .throush ("e snow. She m strain and laugh and r . H whoever tried to J 'nher lmaKlninSi Jh. ' Come on, Jeb I Ob. irVng Hod. I'd Jj: ,erou' I would; but 1 4 "15 fr,that Jeh -nS 5 -,t nnd Rod nearly v -ftathe difference be ';ivP0;MR was right un?fthef0Ct0rs '!f)o W , 'one-v-or at '5(dihe,rmarr,am m , had come- El "n? mother and fa- 51 ;;i Z:n the nther side thelr rooms' k. ' H . mn"eT- But $'!'e rouge, IZ " Patter 6 Cnme nome 'ft .,Si ,hat 0fT' he r . ' the door. V'h- . . . Hel jeb came in, cuiu auu and all alive. She was his goal, this girl above all others and all else in the world tonight, was the sole object he sought, and nothing could keep him from her. That was how Jeb made you feel when yon faced him. "Hello, Glen !" He held her, making mak-ing her palms press his. "Hello, Glen!" . . ., "Job why did you drive tonight t He laughed, and his happiness at the triumph of this arrival thrilled down her arms from her palms held "I had to. Are you glad, a little?" "Oh, yes, I'm glad, Jeb!" He ripped open his overcoat and threw it off. "Rod came?" he asked. "Yes; he came. He's wonderful, Jeb. Wonderful." "But you couldn't do It?" Jeb. "No, I couldn't do It." The four were alone at dinner. Her mother and father had dressed, for they were going out. Theie was always, in these days, something some-thing for them to go out to. if tney wished; and tonight, though he was Just home, they utilized this escape from their evening-together. She was forty-seven, for she had been twenty-two when she W home Hee the Dark one, the d.rmJ ter like herself. But Bee, after and drink the whole damn thing down while we're living. "Do you dream your mother today would trade what she'd had for anything else she ever heard of? It He thrust his free arm under her knees and claimed her close. With his lips over hers, he whispered. It taunted and tantalized her. "What is -it. Jeb, what are you saying to me?" The line don't you know It? that Francois Villon wrote, dear, for himself and his friends the night before he was sure they were all to be hanged. 'Men, brother men that a?ter us live. let not your hearts too hard on us be'." "But whv do you say It? , "Why, Glen? Because we-Gler, -we are going to be married. And then, at last, he kissed her. Beatrice Ayreforth had had a sun-' bath built in her home. The enclose enclo-se under the quartz glass roo, " s like a little Japanese room, with Jt U padded straw mots fitted ta Z er to form the floor, and w.th a gr htlv raised section, laid wuh Kfi and .often mats, for loung upon and sunning. He e in the soothing sun. you n hi .'.lay with your boys' round. V little bodies, and imagme Senrcat men, splendid men |