Show the DIM M LANTERN IN aw by TEMPLE BAILEY 0 PENN publishing COMPANY SERVICE CHAPTER XIV continued 1 23 22 my dear child mrs follette said have lunch with me mary has baked fresh bread and well we U have it with your berries and some dutch cheese and cream id love it jane said 1 I hoped Y oud ask me we are going at four to delafield simms for the weekend I 1 shall have to be fashionable for forty eight hours and I 1 hate it mrs follette smiled indulgently of course you dont mean it and dont try to be fashionable just be yourself it is only people who have never been anybody who try to make themselves like others to well said jane im afraid ive never been anybody mrs follette im just little jane barnes her air was dejected the matter with you jane mrs follette demanded jane clasped her hands together oh I 1 want my mother I 1 want my mother her voice was law but there was a poignant note in it old mary came out with the tray and when she had gone mrs follette said now inow tell me troubling you im afraid of what oh of mr townes big house and I 1 think im a little bit afraid of him too mrs follette why should you be afraid of the things hell expect of me the thins things thin s ill expect of myself I 1 cant ex explain plain it I 1 just feel it mrs follette pouring ice cold milk from a silver pitcher said it is a case of nerves my dear you dont know how lucky you are am I 1 lucky wistfully of course you are lucky but all girls feel as you do jane when the wedding day far off they wonder and wonder its the newness the laying flesh and spirit in his hi hands jane quoted with quick drawn breath 1 I put it quite like that mrs follette said with some severity we talk ue like that when I 1 was a girl you jane asked well I 1 know you were a darling mrs follette and you were pretty theres that portrait of you in the library in pink 1 I loodea well in pink said mrs follette thoughtfully but the best picture that was ever done of me is a miniature that evans has she buttered another slice of bread she had no fear of growing fat she was fat but she was also stately and one neutralized the other to think of mrs follette as thin would have been to rob her of her duchess role jane had not seen the miniature she asked if she might ill get it said mrs follette and rose jane protested cant I 1 do it no my dear I 1 know right where to put my hand on it she went into the cool and shadowy hall and started up the stairs and it was from the shadows that jane heard her call there was something faint and agitated in the cry and jane flew on winged feet mrs follette was holding on to the stair rail swaying a little 1 I cant go any higher she panted ill sit here my dear while you get my medicine its in my room on the dresser jane passed her on the stairs and was back again in a moment with the medicine a spoon and a glass of water with her arm around the elder woman she held her until the color returned to her cheeks how foolish said mrs follette at last sitting up 1 I almost fainted I 1 was afraid of falling down the stairs let me help you to your room jane said and you can lie on the couch and be quiet 1 I dont want to be quiet but ill lie on the couch if sit there and talk to me so with jane supporting her mrs follette went up the rest of the flight and across the hall and was made comfortable on a couch at the foot of her bed jane loved the upstairs UP stairs rooms at castle manor especially in summer mrs follette followed the southern fashion of taking up winter rugs and winter curtains and substituting sneer muslins mullins and leav ing a delightful bareness of waxed floor perhaps I 1 can tell you where to find the miniature mrs follette said as jane fanned her it is in evans desk set back under the row of pigeonholes you cant miss it and I 1 want to see it jane crossed the hall to evans room it faced south and was big and square it had the same studied bareness that made the rest of the house beautiful there was a mahogany bed and dresser many books deep window seats with w I 1 t h faded velvet cushions evans desk was in an alcove by the east window which overlooked sherwood it was a mahogany desk of the secretary type and there was nothing about it to drain the color from janes cheeks to send her hand to her heart above the desk however where his eyes could rest upon it whenever he raised them from his writing was an old lantern I 1 jane knew it ii at once it was an ancient ships lantern that she and baldy had used through all the years a heritage from some seagoing sea going ancestor it was the lantern she had carried that night she had found evans in the fog since her return from chicago she had not been able to find it baldy had complained sophy must have taken it home with her but sophy had not taken it it was here and V Q 1 1 I 1 hope it wont rain edith said jane knew with a certainty that swept away all doubts why you are a lantern jane held high 10 she found the miniature and carried it back to mrs follette 1 I told you you were pretty and you have never gotten over it she had regained tier her radiance mrs follette reflected complacently that girls were like that moods of the moment even in m her own day she spoke of it to evans that night jane had lunch with me she was very tired and depressed I 1 told her not to worry its natural she should feel the responsibility of the future marriage is a serious obligation marriage is more than that mother what do you mean oh its a great adventure the greatest adventure if a woman loved me id want her to hy fly to me on wings be no fear of the future if jane loved towne but she does love him she marry him for his money no she with a touch of weariness it is one of the things I 1 cant make clear to myself and I 1 think id rather not talk about it mother they were in mrs Fol lettes room she had told her son about tier her heart attack and he had been anxious but she had been quite herself after and had made light 0 of f it 1 I 1 shall have hallam over in the morning he had insisted and she had acquiesced 1 I dont need him 1 but if it will make you teel feel better CHAPTER XV lucy was still to eloise harper the stenographer of frederick towne out of place of course in this tine fine country house with its formal gardens its great stables its retinue of servants what do you do with yourselves she asked her hostess as she came down ready for dinner in revealing apricot draperies and found lucy crisp in white or gandie with a band of black velvet around her throat do lucys bucys smile was ingenuous we are very busy del and I 1 we feed the pigs pigs eloise stared she had assumed that a girl of lucys bucys type would affect an elaborate attitude of leisure and here she was instead fashionably energetic they fed the pigs it seemed actually of course not the big ones but the little ones have their bottles there are ten and their mother died you should see del and me he carries the bottle in a metal holder round 11 lucys bucys hand described the shape and when they see him coming they all squeal and its adorable lucys bucys air was demure she was very happy she was a woman of strong spirit already she had interested te her weak husband beyond anything he had ever known in his drifting days of bachelorhood after dinner she told eloise ill show you dels roses they are quite marvellous marcellous marv ellous I 1 think his collection will be beyond anything in this part of the country delafield coming up said they are lucys bucys roses but she sa says I 1 am to do the work but why not have a gardener eloise demanded oh we have but I 1 should hate to have our garden a mere matter of mechanics del de I 1 ha has s some splendid ideas we are going to work for the flower shows prizes and au all that delafield purred like a pussycat pussy cat 1 I shall name my first rose the little lucy logan 11 edith locking arms with jane a little later as they strolled under a wisteria hung trellis towards the fountain said lucys bucys making a man of him because she loves him and I 1 would have laughed at him we would have bored each other to death T they hey will never be bored jane decided with their roses and their little pigs they had reached the fountain it was an old fashioned one with thin streams of water spouting up from the bill of a bronzed crane there were goldfish in the pool and a big green frog leaped from a MY lily pad beyond the fountain the wisteria roofed a path of pale light A peacock walked slowly towards them its long tail sweeping the ground in burnished beauty think of this said jane it and lucys bucys days at the office and yet edith pondered she told me if he h had ad not had a penny she would have been happy with him 1 I believe it with a cottage one pig and a rosebush rose bush they would find bliss it is like that with them the two women sat down on tite the marble coping of the fountain the peacock trailed by them its jewels all ablaze under the sun adelaide in her burnished tulle tall slender graceful as a willow was swinging along beneath the trellis the peacock had turned and walked beside her what a picture baldy could make of th that a t 11 edith said the proud lady 1 I do you know janes voice was also lower lowered td when I 1 look at her I 1 feel that it is she who should marry your uncle edith was frank 1 I should hate her and so would he in a month ashes artificial and you are so adorably natural jane adelaide had reached the circle of light that surrounded the fountain the men have come and have gone up to dress she said all except your uncle edith he telephoned that he cant get here until after dinner lie he has an important conference he said he might be late benny came of course yes and eloise is happy he had brought h her er all the town gossip why I 1 left I 1 hate gossip edith knew that pose no one could talk more devastating devastatingly ay than adelaide of her neighbors affairs but she did it subtly with an effect of charity 1 I am very fond ot of her was as her way of prefacing a ruthless revelation 1 I thought your brother would be down adelaide looked at jane poised on the rim of the fountain like a blue 1 butterfly b but ut he with the rest baldy cant be here until tomor row noon he had to be in the ot of fice 11 what are you going to do with Y yourself in the meantime edith adelaide was in a mood to make people uncomfortable she was uncomfortable herself jane in billowing heavenly blue with rose ribbons floating at her girdle was youth incarnate and it was her youth that had attracted towne the three women walked towards the house together As they came out from under the arbor they were aware of black clouds stretched across the horizon 1 I hope it wont rain edith said lucy is planning to serve dinner on the terrace adelaide was irritable 1 I wish she therell be bugs and things jane liked the idea of an out of door dinner she thought that the maids in their pink linen were like rose leaves blown across the lawn there was a great umbrella over the table rose striped chow how gay it is she said 1 I hope the rain wont spoil it when they reached the wide pil lared piazza no one was there the wind was blowing steadily from the bank of clouds edith went in to get a scarf and so jane and adelaide were left alone adelaide sat in a big chair with a back like a spreading fan she was statuesque and knew it but she would have exchanged at the ma moment every classic classi c line for the effect that jane gave of unpremeditated t grace and beauty the child had flung a cushion on the marble step an and d had dropped down upon it the wind caught up lier her ruffles so that she seemed to float in a cloud she laughed and tucked her whirling draperies about her 61 1 I love the wind dont you adelaide did not love the wind it rumpled her hair she felt spitefully ready to hurt jane it is a pity PAY she said after a pause that ricky cant dine with us jane agreed mr towne always seems to be a very busy person adelaide carried a little gauze fan with gold lacquered sticks when she spoke she kept her eyes upon the fan do you always call him mr towne of course but not when youre alone jane flushed yes I 1 do why not but my dear it is so very formal and you are going to marry him he said that he had told you ricky tells me everything we are very old friends you know I 1 jane said nothing there was indeed nothing to say she was not in the least jealous of adelaide she wondered of course why towne should have overlooked this lovely lady to choose a shabby child but he had chosen the child and that settled it as far as mrs laramore was concerned but it did not settle it for adelaide 1 I think it is distinctly amusing for you to call him mr towne poor you hold him at arms length why not well none of the rest of us have said adelaide deliberately jane looked up at her th the i e rest of you what do you mean mrs laramore oh the women that ricky has loved lightly the winds fluttered the ribbons of janes frock fluttered her ruffles the peacock on the lawn uttered a discordant note jane was subconsciously ly aware of a kinship between adelaide and the burnished bird she spoke of the peacock what a disagreeable voice he has adelaide stared who the peacock said jane 10 IO 10 HE BE CONTINUED |