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Show Sylvia of the Minute - CHAPTER VI Continued 17 "What put this idea into your head, that lie might marry a county teacher?" teach-er?" Mr. Creighton anxiously asked. "If he'd go that far disgrace me with low marriage " St. Croix realized, as he told his father the grounds of his fears, that they sounded rather insubstantial. "Rut he must have been closeted a long time with that girl this afternoon, after-noon, for It was nearly two hours after closing time," he explained. "And he seems to haunt her school-house school-house !" "She's young and pretty, I suppose?'' "Young and pretty, yes. hut deadly common !" "How do you know? Kver met her yourself?" "Yes. She's a relative of the farmer, farm-er, Sam Schwenckton, and hoards at his farm. I met her that night Sam Schwenckton snitched my watch." "Attractive?" St. Croix nodded. "But an Impossible Impos-sible little vulgarian. I can't imagine why they let such illiterates teach our schools. She murders the English language lan-guage as terribly as any uneducated Pennsylvania Dutch girl does!" "I scarcely believe, St. Croix, that Marvin could be attracted to such a girl as you describe. He doesn't usually usu-ally let his senses blur his judgment." "I'd think, too, but for what I've seen with my own eyes, father. If he could tolerate her for two hours alone in her schoolroom with her and then walk home with her for a mile I should think he must be pretty far gone !" "It wouldn't matter how far gone he were if it weren't that the young fool's apt, as you say, to marry her: Consideration for his family, for his mother trifles like that! would not stop him! Well, III nip It! I'll investigate in-vestigate the thing and if there's anything any-thing in it, I'll l-"ibe the girl to go away." "But wait we haven't much evidence; evi-dence; it would be a pity to let her hold you up for a pile of money ir there's nothing in It." "I'll soon find out whether there's anything in it." "But how?" "If I can contrive to got In touch with her, the rest will be easy!" "The danger of interfering is that It often starts just what you meant to prevent !" "I wasn't bora yesterday, St. Croix. Once I meet the girl, I'll soon find nut enough to guide me. If I waited for Indisputable evidence, I might he too late. I suppose I could drop in to see her at her school just at closing time, don't you think? Do you know what time in the afternoon the school closes?" "About four o'clock." "I'll look her over on -Monday. It won't do to dally with such a possibility! possibil-ity! I'm fast coming to the point of resigning myself to the fact that .Marvin .Mar-vin can't he coerced. Very well, then, we've got to circumvent him:" "Conceited, obstinate ass!" muttered mut-tered St. Croix. "Nothing of the kind! He has one of the few qualities in which men differ dif-fer from sheep. Backbone. He has backbone. Stands upright on his own. Refuses to get down on all fours and run after a tinkling leader!" "Steps out from the herd and thrown the whole works into disorder!" disor-der!" St. Croix contended. "He would say be was starting them on a better path away from the .slaughter house." "Sounds as If you agreed with him. Father!" "You know better. But I respect his backbone, nets it from mo," Mr. Creighton concluded, ns at this moment mo-ment the waiter presented the bill and St Croix rose from the table. CHAPTER VII When Marvin Creighton reached his father's house that same evening, he found, to his dismay, all the driveways drive-ways about the place tilled with limousines. limou-sines. A party on? But that was unlikely, un-likely, for now that be no longer lived at home, he and bis mother valued these Thursday evenings together too much to let anything interfere with them. This evening be especially wanted to see her alone for the reasons rea-sons he bad accurately staled to .Miss Schwenckton he wanted to see tic photograph he had asked his tool tier to unearth and be wauled very much to hear about the Knglish mall she had received. lie surmised that ho had probably come In at the tail etui of an after-noon after-noon club meet ing t he "Juo .Von , -cenrlim club." probably. Well, he didn't want to tie caught In that bod-lam! bod-lam! So be slob- In at a side dour and went upstairs to bis own rooms. The familiar sight of his bedroom and study, to which he could now ci, toe only on brief visits In his father's fa-ther's absence, depressed him. It all seemed so unnecessary, this bitter conl roversy between him and his father! fa-ther! Yet It was not a light thing of recent, growth, but docp-rootod In their cms' 11 1 in I differences of temperament tempera-ment and character and outlook his father being quite frankly primitive nod "human" (he claimed) In his g.n-pel g.n-pel of seir Interest, while lie himself wan Inherently, unconquerably socially minded, from Ids boyhood up Ids father fa-ther had tried In vain to l:noc( oat Of him hlS llllhll :itie'S like eon :idea- (Ion of the other fellow's point id view; and II had ended at la d lu their By HELEN R. MARTIN Copyright by Dodd. Mead A Co. WNU Servlco being unable to live under the same roof. The hardest part of It to Marvin was the distress It caused his mother. If anything could have made him deny his soul it was that. While he freshened up In Ids bathroom, bath-room, reveling in its conveniences and comforts (there was no bathroom at Absalom Puntz') he wondered how Miss Schwenckton, who looked so dainty and seemed so fastidious, endured en-dured the crude life at Schwenckton's farm. She didn't fit Into the picture. He knew the party must break up soon, for it was nearly dinner time and most of these people bad several miles to drive; and a few empty cups and saucers about the hall which the servants had overlooked told him they had already had tea. How did his mother, comparatively intelligent, stand that crowd? And yet, how else would she fill her life, emptied, through her great wealth, of the wholesome necessity to work? Superfluous Su-perfluous wealth was a Joy-killer as surely as poverty. The visitors were gone at last and Marvin went downstairs to take his mother In his arms. It was cozy having his dinner alone with his mother; and the taste and comforts of his home, after his dose of Absalom Puntz' menage, were certainly cer-tainly soothing. "father thinks a dose of plain living will cure me!" Marvin smiled as he helped himself to fillet of steak and mushrooms the butler was passing. "On the contrary, living at Absalom Puntz' lias made me realize, as I never did before, how much unnecessary luxury lux-ury we have here, which I always took for granted, not knowing any other way of life. So this throwing me out on my own is just having the opposite effect of what he intended It to have." "I don't like to think of your living in such discomfort, dear," his mother answered, "though you're not looking any the worse for it ! But how in the world do you stand their food?" "It's good. I walk about the coun try so much that anything tastes good. I'm getting to like sauerkraut and boiled beef and cabbage ! Bully! And fried ponhaus! And even smearcase!" "Imagine St. Croix eating at the table with those Punt7.es!" Mrs. Creighton smiled "Sauerkraut and smearcase and ponhaus!" "It's not their food so much as the way they e.it It that 'kreistles' me. Know what 'kreistles' means? Of course you don't. Means disgust, rubs me the wrong way, gets my goat. 1 can't watch them eat ; they are too darned Industrious about it." "Marvin, I want to ask you something some-thing I'm worried. St. Croix Is philandering, phi-landering, I'm afraid, with a very common com-mon girl and I do dread what can come of such entanglements. It's so imprudent! You get about the country coun-try so much I thought perhaps yon bad heari or seen something of It, have you? Do yyu know whb the girl Is?" "No," Marvin responded gloomily, his heart sinking; that car of his brother's near the William I'enn school and Miss Schwenckton pretending pretend-ing she had remained in school to work when she bad I n out on the road and that weird business of her changing her clothes "How did you hear of it. Mother?" "The girl sent a box of fudge here to the bouse for him. with a verse written on the wrapping paper the poetry being ns home-made as the candy ! I gave it to him when he came home and be was so embarrassed embar-rassed and angry I knew tie must tie involved rather deeply and I've been worried !" "What makes you conclude, Mother, that she's a 'common' girl?" "I ler poetry ! "When you rpcdv thlw box of futeti Vou'tl mi'Miv thick It nln't no mulch. But In oaft pt'TP I put n khs. You'll know which nrie--the swTteM tin " Marvin laughed Joyfully the author of that was not Miss Schwonoklon ! "St. Croix certainly takes Ids chalices, playing 'round with one of these Pennsylvania Dutch girls! find thing he knows be'li have a lawsuit on his hands. But I think." lie tried to comfort his mother, '"we nmv always al-ways bank on St. Croix' playing safe Philandering is of course always dan gerous where a Mill t for damages offers a big haul-- but In St. ( 'mix- philosophy philos-ophy of life. Prudence ami Kcspocl- $ ability are such Influential factors I think we needn't be anxious." "Well, I hope so," she sighed. "Another "An-other thing I wanted to ask you do you know, I'm beginning to think, Marvin, that there's more to this affair af-fair with our Knglish cousins than meets the eye?" "Alia! l'ou are? Well, so am I! Go on what's yours?" "You know that for months St. Croix has been planning to go to England Eng-land to see Lady Sylvia and. Marvin, Mar-vin, they keep holding him off! Their latest letter says Lady Sylvia has gone abroad. Now, of course they've no money to let her travel about the continent, con-tinent, so I'm sure she must have taken a position as traveling companion compan-ion or governess. I'm beginning to suspect, dear, that she's as much averse to this rather ridiculous marriage mar-riage scheme as you are yourself!" "V should think she would be! Probably Prob-ably she prefers earning her own living!" liv-ing!" "But she can't earn enough to save the estate !" "It's possible she may think more of her self-respect than of the estate." "Well, her parents don't admit anything any-thing like that they probably hope to persuade her to bring her 'round." "Vain hope. If she's a girl that's worth anything." "Yes only you must remember that the English don't regard such marriages mar-riages as we do, they're so used to them." "If she marries St. Croix, she's no better than any other courtesan that sells herself!" "What are your suspicions, Marvin?" Mar-vin?" "My 'suspicions'?" "You said you agreed with me that there seemed more to this affair than meets the eye." "Exactly. But let's not go so fast. About the girl's being ubroad,' now perhaps it's here, to America, that she has come to earn her living!" Mrs. Creighton looked startled. "What makes you think that? Do you know that she has?" Marvin regarded his mother uncertainly uncer-tainly a wild possibility Hashing upon his mind. His mother was always perfectly per-fectly open with him, but she was conscientiously con-scientiously loyal to his father and If his father had'usked her to keep a certain cer-tain secret she would certainly try to do it. "Mother," he asked, his quiet tone concealing his strong feeling, "do you know that she's here?" for perhaps he was being "worked"; perhaps the girl had been brought over here and placed where she was bound to cross his path, his father hoping that when his son met her without knowing who she was, he might "fall for her"; and all ibis talk about St. Croix marrying her was perhaps a bluff to throw him (Marvin) off the scent! Could this be possible? Was the girl conniving with his father to trap him, that her family and her home might enjoy the Creighton Creigh-ton millions? And was his mother playing a silent band? But a girl that could lend herself to such a plot! He felt a revulsion of feeling against her ut the bare thought of It and his heart sank like lead In his tireast. He would demand the truth from bis mother; she would not deny It. He put down his coffee cup and took both her hands in his. "You know, of course. Mother, why I a-d.od to see that photograph?" h" har-.irded. "Why. no. Marin, I don't," she answered, an-swered, very puzled. "Why did you? And what on earth makes yon think she may tie here?" "Mother, what do you know about this idiotic business? Let me lime the truth !" "I don't know n thing about It, dear, that you don't know, or not as much, evidently. What do you mean?" "You don't know whether Lady Sylvia St. Croix Is In America?" "(if course I don't. Why?" The possibility still remained that his father and Lady Sylv la might be working without bis mother's knowl-rdge. knowl-rdge. Here was an acid test of his suspicion. suspi-cion. "Are yon sure St. Croix means to go o er to England and try for her?" "Why or course! Why should I ilouhl It ? I le's crazy about II ! You know that. dear. And so Is your father. Wlin I Is In your mind, dear?" Marvin dropped her hands, leaned back In the deep couch and folded his arms. "I suppose I'm a fool, but I had it suspicion for a moment that father had got the girl over here anil vas Jabbing her on to me on the sly!" (Til I IK i-ONTINllKP.) |