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Show j COPYRIGHT by BEa SYNDICATE W.N.U. S R VICE Mrs. Gntlln'i nerve did not Improve Im-prove through the years, although when Penelope was ten years old, a wandering evangelist came to town and commenced a furious campaign cam-paign of conversion and curing by prayer every disease that flesh is heir to; and Mrs. Gatlln became "converted." Thereafter life for Mr. Gatlin and Fenelopo became almost al-most unbearable. In a moment of insane fury, Mr. Gatlln performed what he considered consid-ered a long neglected duty. He took Mrs. Gatlin's classical countenance in both hands, bumped her head repeatedly re-peatedly against the wall and told her that If she ever opened her mouth again in his presence without with-out his permission he'd Just kill her. She didn't. She sued him for divorce di-vorce and had Penelope on the witness wit-ness stand to prove that Mr. Gatlin had beaten her; that ha had remained re-mained away from home until late at night and refused to reveal his rendezvous. Mr. Gatlin entered a cross-complaint and petitioned to have Penelope allocated to him. Unfortunately the Judge was a pudding-head. He refused to accept ac-cept Mr. Gatlin's explanation that he had laid hands on Mrs. Gatlin but once, and that only In a moment mo-ment of frenzy. He granted Mrs. Gatlln the divorce, liberal alimony and the custody of Penelope; whereupon the honorable court wag treated to the spectacle of Mr. Gatlln Gat-lln and Penelope weeping In each other's arms. However, Mr. Gatlln was permitted to have Penelope to himself two Sunday afternoons In each month and one-half of each school vacation. The first Sunday afternoon Mr. Gatlln availed himself of thlg privilege, privi-lege, his quondam spouse had hysterics, hys-terics, for with the malevolence of a devil Mr. Gatlln announced he was taking Penelope to a ball game. He took her, too, and they had a gorgeous time together until a home run sailed Into the bleachers and struck Penelope violently on her pretty little nose. Mr. Gatlln, with the unconscious form In his arms, fled to a hospital, where he was foolish enough to telephone Mrs. Gatlin what had occurred. She appeared on the scene and carrlod Penelope home at once. Mr. Gatlln knew what she was up to. She was going to cure Penelope's Pene-lope's fractured nose by faith and "Theodore," said his wife, from the other twin bed, "I should think you might be more considerate of mo than to whistle like that and wake me up." "I'm so happy, darling, I couldn't help It. Forgive me." "Have you thought of a name for the baby?" "I have. Penelope." "A horrid name. Where under heaven did you get that name?" To her unspeakable amazement he quoted a verse from Henry Herbert Her-bert Knibbs' poem, "Out There Somewhere." We'll dance a merry saraband from here to drowsy Samarkand: Alonff the sea, across the land, the birds are flying: south, And you, my sweet Penelope, out there somewhere you wait for me, With buds of roses In your hair and kisses on your mouth. They went by train to San Francisco Fran-cisco next day. With the child In his arms and accompanied by his wife and the lady manager of the' Infants' shelter, Mr. Gatlin repaired to the Superior court and legally adopted the daughter of Capt. Ronald Ron-ald Elliot and Janet Elliot, both deceased. From the courtroom they went to Grace cathedral and had her baptized bap-tized In the Episcopalian faith out of courtesy to Mrs. Gatlin's latest religious crotchet, Mr. Gatlin having hav-ing no religious affiliations whatsoever. whatso-ever. There was a slight hiatus here. The pastor had Just sprinkled water on the little dark head and said: "I baptize thee In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and give thee the name of " when Mrs. Gatlin interrupted softly "Lucretla." "Nothing doing," Mr. Gatlln declared. de-clared. "Lucretla! Wasn't that the woman that poisoned people a wop woman? Her name shall be Penelope. Pene-lope. I like that name." The pastor smiled faintly. Having Hav-ing already sensed that all of the enthusiasm for the child was Mr. Gatlin's, he was seized with a perverse per-verse desire to please the sentimental senti-mental fellow, so he said quickly: " and give thee the name of Penelope." Pene-lope." Mr. Gatlln hugged Penelope to him and kissed her back of the left ear. "You mustn't kiss her, Theodore," his wife protested. "Kissing Is unsanitary. un-sanitary. You might give her some sort of disease." "Oh, Lord," Mr. Gatlln murmured, "will I ever cease making hideous mistakes?" For in that Illuminating instant he realized that In adopting Penelope Pene-lope he had made a terrible mistake. mis-take. His wife didn't want her I At the very moment of the commencement commence-ment of his experiment, he knew It was a failure. However, it was no part of his wife's Intention (at least for the present) that he CHAPTER I fit. THEODORE GATLIN'S 1 married life had demonstrat- to him the absolute fallacy of the tclesiastlc contention that mar-ages mar-ages are made In heaven. In the beginning he had married oulse Hanchett for a number of ?asons, none of them really lmpor-int. lmpor-int. She was of good family; 1. e., :er parents were prosperous mld-le-class folk whom scandal had ?ver touched. They were emlnent-respectable emlnent-respectable If a trifle bovine In disposition and Louise was their nly child, and sole heir to such ; orldly goods as her parents might iave accumulated and which Mr. : atlin believed they were not likely :. dissipate: for which reason he :s id not contemplate having to sup-l sup-l irt them In their helpless age. ' These were the common sense asons which his self-respect as a iusiness man Indicated he should ionjure to his defense In making Ms important step ; In reality they rere merely a sop to his real rea-. rea-. on for the step, which was a mad nfatuatlon he mistook for love. Oulse Hanchett's cold, classical eauty and Vere de Vere form, rhlch she knew how to dress beau-ifully beau-ifully and in good taste, had so azzled him that It never occurred j him to ask himself whether the bject of his passion had wearing -uallties; if she had common sense; she was healthy and capable of earing children ; If she was of i ound ancestry. However, there 'ts some excuse for this careless-ess careless-ess In Mr. Gatlin's case, as, ln-eed, ln-eed, there Is In the case of all but 5 upermen. Engaged as he was In iOjie retail shoe business, he had nev-s4r nev-s4r heard of Mendel's law, and If lu nybody, In conversation with him, amd mentioned genetics, he would etoubtless have thought that they ; tere some new term of athletic rtontrlvance. The only practical In- had "taken after her mother,"' which meant that he had taken after his afflicted father-in-law I He gave considerable thought to the subject and finally decided that Louise would be all right If she only had something to occupy her mind. She sought happiness and blamed liim because she could not find It. Mr. Gatlln did not know where happiness hap-piness might be found, but Inasmuch Inas-much as he was moderately certain cer-tain of peace of mind while attending attend-ing to his business, he had a hazy impression that happiness Is not Infrequently found In securing a Job and working at It. So when a physician Informed him that his hopes of fatherhood were not apt to be realized he had a brilliant Idea and broached It to Mrs. Gatlin. "Let's adopt a baby !" he urged. Louise demurred. She had her doubts as to the advisability of taking tak-ing over somebody's else troubles one never knew how an adopted baby was going to turn out there was no hurry, anyhow she must have time to consider the Idea her health. "To h 1 with your health I" Mr. Gatlln roared, for the first time In his married life becoming vulgar. "Every doctor you've had tells me you're organically sound. You only think you're sick." "My nerves," she protested, but he silenced her. "You think too much about yourself your-self and not at all about anybody else, particularly me. What you need Is a baby to fuss with. You'll learn to love It In a month as much as If It was your own flesh and blood," "I'm afraid you'll not love It, Theodore. You're so cranky and irritable," ir-ritable," she defended. "Listen !" Mr. Gatlln commanded. "I'm at the point where I'm seriously seri-ously considering suing you for divorce di-vorce on the grounds that you're a barren woman. In other ways you don't measure up to my Idea of a iff wt If l Plff U snouid realize this, so she took the baby from him. For a month all went well with the Gatlins, and then Mrs. Gatlln Issued her flat "Theodore," she said, "I must insist in-sist on one thing. Penelope must never know that you and I are not her natural parents. I feel that such knowledge might detract from her love for us." "That won't work any hardship on me, my dear," he replied. "I feel Just as enthusiastic about her as if I were her real father." "Another thing, Theodore. I love Penelope dearly, as you know, but I can't be made a slave to her. Do you realize, dear, how she keeps me tied down?" He gritted his teeth, and his wife went on : "We simply must have a nurse for her." "Have two of 'em," he growled. "Whatever she needs she shall have." "That's right. Start spoiling her immediately." It was always like that. However, How-ever, as the child developed, she brought Mr. Gatlln each day closer to happiness than he had ever been before. She was his refuge. She was a healthy baby and hence a happy baby, and there was not the slightest chance that she would ever be spoiled by having her own wishes perennially deferred to. If Louise Gatlin accomplished nothing ilse worth while (and this she accomplished ac-complished unconsciously) she did nothing to Inflate Tenelope's ego, which, as everybody knows, Is the breeding ground of human selfish- wife and companion. It's no fun for me to come home night after night and have to listen to your tales of woe " "You are devoid of sympathy," his wife charged. "You neglect me." "Maybe I've failed," said Mr. Gatlin, Gat-lin, "but by JImlny, I've tried, and I'm willing to keep on trying a little longer. Only, from now on we're going to try my methods, and adopting adopt-ing a baby Is one of them. If that falls I'll take the baby over myself and ,wo'll call In the lawyers." She knew she had gone as far as she dared. Even the dullest of married mar-ried women know when that point is reached ; that Is, they know when It has been reached for that day. "Well, if we can find a baby, of good, sound, Intelligent, healthy parentage," par-entage," she assented grudgingly. "I've got one staked out," Mr. Gatlln cried Joyfully, "and I know Its parents. They're sound as grindstones. I know the grandparents grandpar-ents of the child on both sides." "I'll have to meet these grandparents grand-parents and parents, Theodore." "Unfortunately," he replied, "they're all dead." "What did they die of?" "The grandparents on both sides, of old age ; the father of the baby was an army captain and he got killed in a fight In the Sulu Islands. The mother died in childbirth and the baby is In the Infants' shelter In San Francisco." "Hoy or girl, Theodore?" "Hoy." "I could never stand a boy, Theodore. Theo-dore. I must have a girl." Mr. G.'iflln rrinned pvillv. "T n- "Boy or Girl, Theodore?" he had no faith In such therapy. He followed with a doctor, demanding demand-ing at the front door to be admitted a request which was ignored. So he kicked In the panels of the front door, which he had no business to do because It was no longer his, Mrs. Gatlln having acquired It In the property settlement Thereupon Thereup-on she summoned the police by telephone tele-phone and had him arrested, and the next morning he was tried, and found guilty and placed under bond of a thousand dollars to remain away from the place for one year. He didn't do It, because he knew what would happen to Penelope if he did. And he could afford a thousand thou-sand dollars fifty thousand dollars dol-lars if need be to prevent that I He attacked within twenty-four hours nf nltrlif hnt ha woa nillpf nhint it. He remembered he had never surrendered his latchkey, so ha entered en-tered quietly and kidnaped Penelope. Pene-lope. Within two hours he was arrested arrest-ed en route to a San Francisco hospital hos-pital in a motor car with Penelope. For disobeying the magistrate, he was adjudged guilty of contempt of court, hlg bond of a thousand dollars forfeited and he was sentenced sen-tenced to thirty days in the county Jail. Mrs. Gatlln preferred a charge of kidnaping against him, which is a felony, and since Mr. Gatlln knew he would be tried on that charge when he emerged from Jail he Improved Im-proved the shining hours by swearing swear-ing to a warrant charging Mrs. Gatlin Gat-lin with Insanity. Promptly she was brought before a board of alienists who declared her sane, and In order to avoid Investigation Into Mr. Gatlin's charge that she was denying Tenelope medical attention, she turned her house over to an agent and disappeared with Penelope. Pene-lope. (TO BE CONTINUED.) ured you'd try to edge out of It that way. It isn't a boy. It's a girl." Louise Gatlln was not very Intelligent, Intel-ligent, but she was sufficiently so to realize that for once In his life Mr. Gatlin was due to have his own way. That night as he lay abed, Mr. Gatlln suddenly gave himself a prodigious pro-digious poke in the ribs. "What a Jackass I was not to consult that doctor before I married Louise," he groaned. "When I thought I could father a child of my own I didn't pay any more attention to its ancestry an-cestry than I would to selecting a necktie. Anything that looked well would fill the bill. But when It came to selecting some other man's baby, I gave the Job all the attention atten-tion I would give to the purchase of a piece of property. If men would only employ that much common com-mon sense in selecting their wives or wives, In selecting their husbands hus-bands I knew what a nervous complaining, com-plaining, selfish old shrew her mother moth-er was what's that law the doctor spoke of? Ah, yes. Mendel's law. The law that like shall produce like. Simple! Natural! Any fool should have thought of that and yet it took an old monk a celibate to promulgate the news. Whew-w-w I" ness, which, In turn, accounts for the unhapplness of most of humanity. human-ity. Mr. Gatlin, of course, would have undone, in secret, much of this good work, had not the realization come to him quite early In Penelope's Pene-lope's little girlhood that any demonstration dem-onstration of excessive affection on his part was inevitably counteracted counteract-ed by an excessive severity on the part of his wife toward the child. She was a pretty child, of olive complexion, with very dark blue eyes and rich, shiny, Jet black hair. She was unusually Intelligent and affectionate, of quick sympathy and winning, gracious ways. She was the apple of Mr. Gatlin's eye, and by the time she was ten years old he no longer cared a snap of his finger for his wife. . if Penelope was Mr. Gatlin's refuge, he also was hers. She never nev-er complained to him doubtless because be-cause she feared her foster mother, who had succeeded in Inculcating In the child a duty complex quite out of proportion to the lady's deserts. Nevertheless It was understood between be-tween them that they were a pair of outlaws; mutual sympathy drew them closer together each day ; their mutual love was a sweet and i holy sentiment, 'formation he had on the Hanchett '"anilly was that Mrs. Hanchett was s shrew, that Mr. Hanchett was a JiiiUlille-aged man whose head was 'Woody and bowed; that Louise was yialiappy at homo, "j Following two years of married 1"fo, during which he strove manfully man-fully to accomplish the Impossible, 'jMr. Theodore Gatlin went into a ''"ontal haze. Six months of this '"nd he became peevish. He want-f'l want-f'l a child and when at last he re-'lU'lzed re-'lU'lzed that. In the phraseology of ''is times, there was nothing doing, ""here was born In him the first co-I'llwent co-I'llwent thought he had ever had on 3"ie suoject of matrimony. He told himself that he was sick unto death "riving to be a good husband and equiring no merit because of his cfTorts. He told himself he had a kuse but not a home; that Louise |
