| Show J il 1 lie T h IS commean me it by s RUPERT HUGHES copyright by harper A brothers F 0 CHAPTER conti continued aued 13 what they used to call the decent thing we call indecent you said yourself that marriage without love was horrible and it is its all quarrel and nagging and deceit if people are faithful to each other mor morally ally they seem to quarrel all the more long ago I 1 vowed rd id never marry and I 1 dont intend to 1 1 I dont want to marry you but I 1 want your life mr duane really this is outrageous no it 1 hush and listen honey miss kip daphne whatever let we me call you I 1 told you I 1 was stark starving crazy road mad about you when I 1 think of you looking for el ILI N lilt J w she was more afraid of him now than ever work living in that awful spare room of those awful when I 1 think ot of you going from place to place at the mercy of such men as youre sure to meet when I 1 think ot of you walling waiting for poor wimburn to get out of the poorhouse pool house I 1 want aut to grab you in my arms and run away with you it breaks my heart to see you in distress and anxiety tor for I 1 want you to have everything beautiful and cheerful in the world and I 1 can got get it all for you let me let me love you and try to make you happy wont you he had crowded nearer and he held her fast against the door of the car his right hand clung to hers his left slid down to her waist he drew her toward him staling up beseechingly ile he laid his check against her left side lite like a child the big man pleading to the little woman tor for mercy she felt sorry for win him and for herself she regretted that cruelty was her one unmistakable duty sho she had bad no right to be kind and charity would be a sin bin she wrung her hands free from his with slow persuasion and shook her head pityingly ile he accepted the decision with a nod but before she could escape from his arm she felt that lio lie pressed his lips against t her just above her heart it was as it if he had softly driven a nail into it tears flamed to her eyelids and foil fell on his hands as lie he carried them to ills bent brow ile ho crossed theann them nn the m wheel heel and hid bid his face in then gro groaning arkin 9 1 I 1 daphne 1 sliu slie yas was more afraid of him now than ever all the splendors he could promise her were nothing to that proffer of his longing while she waited in a battle of impulses lie he regained self control with self contempt in a general clench of resolution 1 I apologize lie mumbled ran im a fool to think that you could love me CHAPTER duano did not s peah till miles and niiles miles of black road hall had run backward beneath their wheels then he grumbled crumbled what a 0 fool I 1 was to dream of such a thing more miles went before her curiosity led ell her to say faintly what were you dreaming of lie ile laughed and did not answer tor for 49 a iother another while then he laughed again do you really want to know 1 I think so well you hate me any more than you do so ill tell you I 1 still bald to myself that I 1 would ne verbe the slavo slavi of any woman its not that I 1 am stingy about my money not that I 1 take the greatest pleasure in pauperizing pauper izing myself for tile the I 1 loved but that I 1 want her to take my gifts as gifts not as a tax si ar a salary some of those these women drink they are doing a oiin in a fenilous me favor by letting lett ln mail liim suji ort them that do get nan little bit I 1 believe it a mau man does a sit lint S it a muth much honor honor as she does him and sacrifices a blamed sight more lie he gives up his freedom and if i she gives up hers ashes only giving up something she know how to use anyway dailide had ball rarely found a man who would talk to her with duanes frankness and if there is anything that interests a woman more than another it Is to hear bear womankind analyzed even evan satirized satirizes zed site she was eager for more mord vinegar you wont be shocked and angry lie he asked 1 I dont think so you dont know how pleasant it is to talk life and love to a woman abo rear up and feel insulted at everything at first you gave me a couple of liow how dare but they dont count and it if you do hate me a little more why so much the better when I 1 thought you had broken with fill wimburn I 1 said to myself S hes the one girl in the world for me pin im going in to ask lier her to marry me but I 1 was afraid to for I 1 was afraid of marriage and then I 1 well id better not yes I 1 will I 1 said she believes tl that at men and women are equal and have equal rights and ashes going ng to get out and hustle tor for herself like a little man maybe she could learn to I 1 love ove me well enough to go into a partnership of hearts what I 1 sat said d to myself you think its because I 1 dont want to cleave to one woman its because I 1 do cut but I 1 liate hate handcuffs do dodou you see and now you know what I 1 was dreaming of what do you think of it the answer to his long oration was complete silence duane waited for imi ills answer and not gett getting ilag it laughed harshly weir that the next number on our program will be a ballad entitled 11 1 I never dream but I 1 bump buma my bly head go on marry clay wimburn on llo nothing thing a year and live miserably ever after she said nothing to this either duane was in a wretched state of bafflement fl he put the car to its pares and it ripped through space at fifty miles an hour daphne land had a new terror added to the load of her nerves the car went bo bounding finding up a steep incline toward the swerve of a headland cut in rigid silhouette by the far reaching searchlight of a car approaching pro aching from tile the other direction duane kept well to the outside of the road but just as lie he met the other motor and winced in the dazzle of its lamps a third car trying to pass it on the curve hurtled into the narrow space with a blaze like lightning searing the eyes there was wa a yelling and hooting of horns and a sense of disaster daphne bent her lead head and prayed for life but without falth faith duane half blinded swung his front wheels off the road and grazed a wall the rear wheels were not quick enough the other car smote them crumpling the mudguard and slicing off the rear lamp daphne was thrown this way and that and it seemed that her spine must have snapped in a dozen places when slie she opened her eyes again the car was standing still duane turned to her with terrified questions and his lauds sited her face and her atinis amis and shoulders lie ile held her hands fast and peered into her eyes while she promised him that she was not dead the car that had bested his did not return but the other did offering help from a sate safe distance till its identity was established in the light of its lamp duane got down and i examined his own car besides the damages in the rear it had sustained a complete fracture of the front axle a twisted fender and a a shattered headlight the driver of the other car came up and joined the coroners inquest ue he stared at duane and cried in the tone of an english aristocrat gob bless my soul aint sou tom duane duane blinking in the light peered at him and said yop copl I 1 I 1 cant see you but the voice would be brells cr ells right o cl its me oil oh pardon me youre not alone nobody hurt I 1 hope and pray no but were pretty far from home and country isee I see hurn m pity I 1 get the number of the swine that hit you I 1 rather fancy ill have to give you a lift what I 1 was out on a tan groo hunt but that will wait if you dont mind trusting yours yourself elf to bad company duane lowered his voice anxiously Is it very bad wetherell Wel herell put the ilie mute on his voice As good as yours ill A wager vager but ids e w ts not go into family history come along and well take you to the next nest neutral port that would be yonkers oh yes I 1 fancy those were the yonkers we came through a few miles back well come aiding dunno duane was embarrassed but he could do nothing exempt take wetherell to his car and introduce him to daphne miss kip he said ive got to present mr wetherell We lie he wants us to ride it ali as tar far as yonkers well get another car there wetherell came close and said did he say mrs kip I 1 cant see you but I 1 hope you are the fascinating mrs kip I 1 met at newport nave you forgotten we me so soon 1 I am miss kip said aid daphne oh so corryl sorry I 1 dont mean that either elt lier but my mrs kip was a siren leila was her first name I 1 called cr de leila you see and she called me samson she was ay a y she is my brothers wife said daphne oil you yon dont tell me wetherell eroll gulped and his abrupt silence was full of startling implications that alarmed daphne angered duane and threw wetherell into confusion duane helped daphne to alight from the derelict aud and transferred her to the other car where wetherell introduced them to a mass of shadow whose name mrs bettany meant nothing to daphne and everything to D duano ua n c duane arranged to have a wrecking crew sent out to ills his ro roadster I 1 lister a and ni chartered a touring car and a chauffeur for the trip into new york lie ile sat back with daphne and murmured prayers for forgiveness because of the dangers he be had carried her into and for the things he had said daphnes nerves lad had been overworked she had been rushed from adventure to adventure of soul ind and body she hall had been invited to enter a career of gorgeous sin and she had bad been swept along the edge or of a tearful fearful disaster mrs chivvis met daphne fit at the door iler recent affection had turned again to scorn and she glowered nt at daphne who crept to her room in hopeless acceptance of the role of adventuress ven tired as she was she could not sleep the clan clangor or ot of the morning called her to the window A gray day broke on a weary town the problem of debt and food and new clothes dawned again everything was gray before her wisdom whispered her to take duane at his Is word and try the great adventure now how could it bring her to worse confusion than she found about her now and then the morning mall mail arrived and brought her a large envelope addressed in a strange hillid hand she opened it and took from it a sheaf of photographs her fathers image a dozen times repeated lay before her the untouched proofs omitted never a line never a wrinkle ukle one of the pictures looked straight at her she recalled that once she had stood back of the photographer and her father had caught her eye and smiled just as the bulb was pressed site she made him smile like that what would his expression be when lie he learned that she had listened to reason ceased to be his daughter and become to tom in duanes slie she shuddered back from the word and the thought she forgot both in the joy of reunion with her father all the philosophies and wisdoms and luxuries were ansi answered cred by the logic of that smile she lifted his pictured lips to tiers hers with filial eagerness and her tears pattered palt ered ruinously on the proof she R F a tired as the was she could not 1 sleep was satisfied to be what tile the jeweler in cleveland hall had called her to clay wimburn old wes kips girl suddenly she ache remembered wetherell and his massages to leila she felt so virtuous herself that it seemed her duty to go do doa in and rebuke leila for her apparent dering at newport she was also curious to see how guilty leila would receive the news that wetherell had asked tor for her but she found bayard at home for luncheon and she was neither nand mad nor I 1 1 mean enough to contuse contuse leila before him A and thi this was s rather for his sake lhnn leilas leila was just informing bayard that the butcher mad had delivered the mornings order no further farther than tile the freight frei glit elevator and instructed his boy to send the meat up only alter after the money came down bayard had no money and the chagrin of his situation was bitter ile he snarled at leila tell tho the cub to take the went meat back and eat cat it himself then ill go over and butcher the butcher leila dismissed the boy with a fainthearted faint hearted show of indignation then she came back and said and now we have no meat to eat bayard was reduced to philosophy the he last resort of the desperate well the vegetarians say we ought never to eat meat anyway were poor but my lord were in grand company look at this cartoon of cesares in the sun faglier fath er knickerbocker turning his pockets inside out and not a penny in them new york city has to borrow money on short time notes at high interest to pay its own current bills look at europe all the countries over there were stumbling along under such debt that the they y wondered how they could meet the interest on the next pay day and now they are mortgaging aging their great grandsons property to pay for shooting their sons its the old thirteenth commandment that weve all been smashing to hinders flinder s and my god I 1 what a punishment were all getting 1 I and its only beginning they sat down to a pitiful meal meatless ma maitless mald idless less mirthless hardly more than the jaw raw turnips and cold water of colonel sellers leila fetched what victual there was after the meal bayard shrugged into his bis overcoat and left without lils kissing sIng his wife or his sister goodby daphne and leila went out to the kitchen set the dishes in the pan and the pan under the faucet leila turned on the hot water daphne was glad to be at work theres one good thing about n small meal she chirped it makes less dishes to wash then with as much trepidation as it if she lad had been tile the accused instead of the accuser she faltered oil oh say leila do you remember me antici a man named wetherell leila dropped a plate she said it was vas hot but other plates had been hot bot wetherell wetherell she pondered aloud with an unconvincing 9 uncertain uncertainty tk 1 I believe I 1 do remember meeting somebody of that name english he very oh yes ile he was at newport I 1 think why oh nothing I 1 met him last night and he thought I 1 was you you how could he be leila gasped we dont look the least alike it was in the dark in the dark good heavens where already leila had gained tate weather gauge daphne had to confess her outing ou ting with duane the crash of the collision and the return to yonkers in Wethe car leila took advantage of the situation to interpolate good heavens how could you you of all people and with tom duane what would clay think daphne knew that she had no rl right glit to reproach lelia for having known wetherell in newport she had no right even to suspect that leila lad had overstepped over stepped any of the bounds bound of propriety and still she was ax not C convinced 0 n of leilas itaRo innocence cence she was merely silenced CHAPTER the next nest day her fears of wetherell and of leila rekindled she went down to ask bayard to help her trace clay bayard was out and leila was vas on the point of leaving she was dressed in her kill ingest frock and hat and generally accoutered accouter ed for conquest arent we grand daphne cried you look like a million dollars where are you off to going for a little spin who with leila hesitated a moment then answered with a challenging a nee with mr wetherell an any Y ob je cOon daphne disapproved and felt afraid but when bayard came in un unexpectedly early and asked for leila daphne lied inevitably and said gald she did not know where she was she wed tried to be casual about it but bayard caught fire at once lie ile was already in a state of irritability tabi lity and Dap daphnes hrics efforts to reassure him asto aso lellas leilas innocence of tiny any gulle guile only angered him the more ile he kept leaning out of the window land staring down irto into the street fl lilily espying leila in Wethe car when it approached ill the c apart mont ment house lie dashed to |
