| Show dont 0 nt tell elife 1 BY jay 1 WILLIAM BC 0 U BRU N ey s heretofore dannys exemplary loyalty to their marriage vows added to her own spirit about buch buan things had kept her from cheating now NON divorce or no divorce she com considered that dannys patent desertion of his ideals his lapse from their joint loyalties unfettered her own actions joan too therefore began to count the hours until she could be alone with abner after quietude had descended upon the yacht and upon all its iti passengers except these two whose hearts beat for each other alone toan joan bent upon abner a glance as affectionate and caressing as those she had been casting at ranny and clare were icy it made pulses leap and his impatience strain at all bounds clare meanwhile was continuing her desperate play for ranny when the seating arrangement placed her next to she had arbitrarily usurped the place of another guest next to ranny and refused to surrender it there could be no denying favors favor to that sweet baby voice that wistfully pleading sn smile dle both of which could assume an adamant underground of finality etiquette to the four winds she had carried her point livingstone living stone and the dispossessed guest made the graceful best of the situation and there was much bantering so it came that ranny had the ravishing aroma of golden olden hair brushing close to his no nostrils tails and clinging little fingers constantly touching his arm during dinner but clare had begun to pall on ranny it was not within the fundamental nature of a man so singly tracker tracked in hi his emotions as ranny forbes to long tolerate the kampish insipidities of so multiple minded a person as sirs mrs clare Cle moneau she was too much for him dabbling with her at first only in a spirit of counterplot he be had suddenly felt himself dangerously allured by her undeniable physical charms several things had conspired to bring him to his senses however his love for joan his wife for instance wh w h i c h resolute resolutely lv subordinate it though he would always al ways focused back into its natural and rightful place as the paramount theme of his spiritual moral and physical life then for the second point there was ins his own sense of humor last and far from least was the sharp admonitory lecture that had been dermed dinned into his big ears cars and hammered upon his devoted head by faithful clay varick ids his alert chum in the interval before dinner clay in his forthright way had swept through the chaft chaff and penetrated right to the gist of the situation bitingly clay had reviewed the developments ranny was making a public ass of hi himself in self he had come on this cruise solely and notably because it offered an excellent chance to entrap the interloper abner gratman who was ste stealing alffie the wife of his heart hea rt from him because it afforded an opportunity port unity to begin a campaign to r e ills his wife and win back her 10 love e yet fret here he was letting himself be made a donkey of bya designing little bundle of sophisticated and trouble making femininity nei heie e tie he was ims forgetting the aim and end of 1 the serious business I 1 in hand under the spell of baby dumb eyes here he was forsaking the role rile of a man for that of a monkey I 1 aman defending the sanctity of his marriage contract and the virtue of Ms his wife descending to senseless philandering an and hims elfr r and what vas thinking did ranny imagine wito who wanted clare with whom ranny earnestly desired to become associated in in a busin business wayt was thwarting the billionaire lumber ring king in an affair of the heart even as he had recently failed him in ift the matter of the polo wager vager a se sensible n way war for ranny to endeavor to achieve socias ams business succeed with Stiv nerT nerr St miers whore career ii n as a record of laving broken the beckless Tec kless ess men who tried to stand in Ms his way and Stiv ners heart was even now a seeth ing furnace of jealous fires white whirl tile the frait frail blonde flower of his most anost ardent desires leaned toward another sun thus cray kad had raved and Kan nys head x ad harf bowed and his eves had lowered under tire the storm for the pro dutch uncle had bothin nothing on cray when it came to deti delivering veri ng a hari nan nu raising sing bawling out a era crackling piece or of his ranny who was but a boy at bearr i writhed under the lash of clays i tongue like a ewt under parental wood shed chastisement it had dusted dusta d the nonsense from his pants his mind that is ii and eba chased s ed the seductive spell of clares whimsical enchantment from ids his eyes heart soul and mind he had become the concise and straight fighting ranny forbes once more the strong male sc elting to wreak the vengeance of his hands upon the invader of his hearthstone hearth stone narrow eyed ranny sat through dinner anticipating the nion moment nent when he anil and clay could set their trap for abner and joan spring it entangle slinky steps and finally submit the cad to the punishment they had devi devised ed as meet and fitting for such as tie he almost surly in his outward aspect ranna maintained a steade and searching scrutiny of abner until that worthy lost most of his insolent self assurance and was driven almost to jumping out if his skin with uneasiness here agabi clay intervened with swift kicks on shins under the table covertly signaling to him to desist lest abnor abner take warning and abort their plot in airs claro clare Cem little blonde braill cranium um however as she sana 1 ed cd the sudden en colla bollap or of in 19 ina interest tere in her and calculated al c a led son therefore there was w a S no r thought t of surrendering so cas easily y and readily the grip rip she had so carefully caie fully lai laid dupon upon him smile and lisp still coil concealed clea led thea the true trend of her thoughts but inwardly she was gloating upon the t there he realization aliza tion that ranny had publicly committed himself to her in interest te r Cs t now t to 0 a degi degiac cc from which he would not well withdraw draw without trouble and ami lots lota of it 7 CHAPTER X on livingstone Stiv ners floating palace the social amenities were wert as well preserved the routine w as well ordered as in the most fastidious mansion ashore accordingly after dinner the men behind Sti viler and withdrew to the smoking room for cigars and ana conee coffee while the women retired to the tha drawing room for cigarettes coffee and scandalous gossip inasmuch as the men too were not biot averse to an exchange of spiry spicy chit chat the main difference between the two post dinner gatherings lay in what they smoked hanny and clay bursting with eagerness ss to absent at the first opportunity to go about the preparation pa ration of their mantrap man trap welcomed this splitting up as kunfi as clare clara resented it clare in fact petulantly and peremptorily ily demanded of that he recognize the modernist view of sex equality by having both men and women congregate in in the smoking room however stoutly insisted upon the sacred inviolableness of the sni smoking oking room as the one and only place on the speedwell bai bw baited ted red to the dainty feet of the ladies Stiv ners insistence truth to tell was wa not so anul cuciz h in defense of an ideal as it was a strategic and justifiable use of the one effective means at his disposal with which he could maneuver a temporary 1 separation of clare from ranny the sex division of the party therefore was complete and entire but for one factor joan forbes pleading a bit of a headache anti and a consequent indisposition for coffee cup c up conversation excused herself and escaped to the outside deck abner conveying nondescript excuses to 5 hastily followed her the maneuver was vas so breau that every pair of eyes in the remainder of that party shot quizzically to ranny forbes face knowing full well his temper and fists one and all air expected an immediate scene a delightfully scandalous eruption INT nothing othin g short of the pitching overboard of abner ranny however prolonged trie ane spicily expectant agony of the mongers bongers by pretending to take no notice of what had occurred at cost of what a struggle only CI clay ay and he ime knew with a raging internal torria tornado 0 held in leash by an iron wi will 11 behind an external appearance of cool unconcern and innocenc innocence P ranny laurry strolled along with the other men dov down n to the smoking room and joined in the general conversation there I 1 I 1 the instant he dmd quit the presence of the ladies their tongues wagged in tile the wild littfe tattle regardless of clares presence cheu Ph eu giggled dowager steffens ens I Ilia have vc visions of my picture in the paper as a witness to the crime dear me ine I 1 do hope trey they spell my name correctly by no untoward word or glance or gesture did ranny minny in the slightest manner betray trepidation or apprehension as to the trin thin ice over which hi his s wife was flauntingly skating it was a magnificent and unselfish exhibition of public faith in her conduct but deep in the grim glance he exchanged with clay lay the reason wherein he be found moral courage in this crisis for his hour of vengeance wash was at hand |
