Show ae mao h L adment isy by RUPERT HUGH HUGHES copyright by harper A Brot brothers bers CHAPTER continued 16 that makes no difference daphne stormed ormed tt already converted to the shop religion custom customers ers must not find fand the door shut run open it at once suppose mrs romilly Itom llly dropped in wed loe lier unless this notoriety drives her away A little blush of shame shaine flickered in daphnes vale pale cheeks a inocent and went out she sighed 1 I suppose mr duane has stopped that check too if he ever sent it oh deara then nen ft a nurse knocked brought in a card growing in a large little azalea tree daphne scanned it mr thomas varick duane I 1 she peered closer at the and read aloud 1 III I just learned im fra heartbroken there anything I 1 can dot 0 o r daphne felt as if outraged society lad kad forgiven her lie he a darling she murmured mrs chivvis begrudged a stingy well of course P she had the poor folks conscientious scruples against wasting praise on the rich want to see him I 1 presume 1 but daphne had bid had bad enough of evil appearance see him here never she glared at poor mrs chivvis with avith a reproof that eliat was excruciating to accept and ordered her togo to ago down and meet mr air duane and incidentally learn leara about the check business Du siness is business she said mrs chivvis descended in all the confusion of a puritan wife meeting a cavalier beau she came back later to say that mr duane was really very nice and spoke beautifully and had bad sent the check and would send another if daphne wished it and would make old sirs mrs Ito romilly milly go on with the order and would she like some special fruits or soups or something ile he was really very nice daphne eyed her with ironic horror and said youve been flirting with bim and me so helpless here I 1 nee kip mrs chiv ris screamed the only counter thrust she could think of was and what floes does mr wimburn say this sobered daphne Da pline why had bad clay sent no word everybody else in town lad had seen the papers clay rend read the papers surely lie he was not capable of such monstrous pique when your worst enemy gets badly burt youve just got to forgive if youre human CHAPTER leila was determined to endure everything that might be necessary to regain her beauty she would go through any ordeal of knives or plaster casts or splints or medicines for that she was mas quite grim about it her resolution extended to the spending of as much of bayards bayaras Ba yards money as might be necessary on surgeons fees and doctors bills if she bankrupted bayard it would be with the kenderest ten derest motives five times she went to the operating table made that infernal journey into et etherl herland aad knowing what atter after anguis languishes anguishes hes waited her what retching and burning and bleeding she braved death again and again took long chances with cowering bravado and all for bayards bayaras Ba yards sake one morning g when bayard reached his bis office after a harrowing all night iril ifil at leilas side he was just falling asleep over the first mail when hen 0 his telephone snarled lie he reached for it with alarm A voice boomed in his tar car alt ah you thail yes kel p the line li please biase now you ah through h sir then a growl replaced the boom a prowl that made the receiver rattle ah you chah mr kip elp this Is colonel marchmont I 1 dare say you remember our conversation about those damned contracts with erell crell A little farther discussion might not be amiss if you could make it perfectly convenient to drop iwah at say a tali pabst fall good I 1 shall expect you at that bayard pondered what new persecution se was fate preparing As he went to the office he be bought an evening paper A heavily headed cablegram announced that the laborers in the british works were striking or threatening to strike A gleam of understanding came into bayards bayaras Ba yards eye ye when lie reached the desk of colonel Mar marchmont climont he be looked unabashed into the revolver muzzle of the old war horses one eye without any preliminary courtesies or anny softening of ills previous tone the colonel snorted those devilish contracts you made with wetherell the poor fellow Is no longer alive mores the pity but well im afraid I 1 was a bit severe with you I 1 fancy we might see sec our way to renewing those contracts at a reasonable figure say at a 25 per cent reduction from the terms you quoted I 1 inyart smiled and his hl head lie bluffed the bluffer tile prices we included only a fair profit colow 1 since then materials have xen x een en going up in price every minute swine I 1 fi the demand from and the home market Is booming we can sell all our product here and more too than we can make colonel marchmont squirmed but lie he was a soldier and loved a good counterattack counter attack lie ile smiled as lie he squirmed wetherell Wc therell was avenged when his successor signed new contracts at a higher price than lie he had made the changing times changed everything yesterdays exorbitance was vas bargain bayard departed with a wallet full of business lie ile got hack back to his office on feet fledged with mercurial gingg ills his toot feet were beautiful on the rug of the presidents office bayard felt so kindly to nil the world that he hurried to the hospital A za Z I 1 za wetherell was avenged when his successor signed new contracts at a higher price than he had made to scatter good news like flowers over leilas couch she was in that humor when anybody alses good fortune was an added grief to her im no use to you now she walled wailed 1 I never was much but st at least I 1 dressed and kept looking fit and you said I 1 was pretty but now oh bayard bayard 1 you used to call me beautiful and I 1 tried to be beautiful for you but now to be ugly and useless both its too much wise pathfinders path finders say that when you tire are wandering in strange country you should turn every now and then and look back at the way you came it wears a different aspect antl entirely r ely from its look as you approached and you will nil need to know how it will look when you return from childhood on leila lad had been warned against extravagance as bayard had as have we all but only now that she was looking backward could she realize the wisdom the intolerable truth of the adage waste not want not meanwhile daphne was having so dLf different ferent a history that she felt ashamed it seemed unfair to her ter to get well quickly and with no blemish except a sear scar or two that would not show while leila bung between death and deformity but seeing bayard alone and hearing leila fret she felt confirmed in her belief that she had done the wholesome thing when she joined the laboring classes there were discourage merits ments without cease cef daphne was learning what a remedy for how ma many ny troubles there Is la in work it seemed to be almost panacea it was ebelt exciting ing fatiguing alarming but it was objective site she was on her way at last to that fifty thousand a year she had dreamed of she was uncertain yet of ea earning m ing a thousand a year but she was on the road clay wimburn seeking chances in the west did not see the new york papers or any other record of daphnes accident when he be got back to new york its his pockets full of cona coa tracts bayard equally successful greeted him enthusiastically then lie learned of the accident and the tact fket that daphne was in trad lie ile was indignant at the news and wanted to see lier her at oace once bayard gave him tho the address and clay no time asking ashing further questions lie ile made haste to the subway fur fuming ning left the train at the grand central station and climbed up to a taxicab then lie found daphne sho she led him into a little shop empty of everything but the debris of removal where are we said clay this was my shop the matter busted already clay asked with a not unflattering cheerfulness not in the least daphne explained pla ined weve expanded so fast we had to move we sublet and ana moved across the street you remember mrs chivvis dont you mrs Cl clauvis Avvis you for batten mr wimburn Wlm barn burn lies kept away so BO long iong you might have though wherever reve you rou been clay but wait you can tell me on the way over to the new shop 1 when she led him into her new emporium the graceful fabrics displayed were till all red rags to him he was a bull in a crims crimson on shop da daphne ahne made clay sit down and asked him it if it were not all perfectly lovely ile he waited until mrs chivvis went on oa to the workroom ne ile had a glimpse of a number ot of girls and bome on sewing bent they were laughing and chattering lie ile answered its perfectly loathsome instead of resenting this insult daphne laughed till she fell against the counter the worst of it was that her eyes were so tender where did you get all the capital for all this stock clay demanded with sudden suspicion oh part of it we bought on credit rind and part of it on borrowed money borrowed from whom from mr duane this was too much of too much clay stormed ill get him I 1 oh no you wont 1 I oil oh yes I 1 will 1 I wont have you assaulting the best friend ive got in the world lie ile groaned aloud at this not noticing how she used the word friend she ran on she had not talked to him for so long ong that she was a perfect chatterbox lie ile lent me five hundred dollars when I 1 know where else to pet get it and it nailed our first real contract a big commission from old sirs mrs romilly Rom llly we paid back mr duanes five hundred and then she giggled in advance at what was coming to clay and then I 1 borrowed a thousand from win him wo we owe him that now clay was as wroth as she had wished he took out a little book well ill give you a check for that amount or more and you can pay duane off with interest I 1 wont have you owing him money you wont navel havel daphne mocked yoa itou wont have since when did you become senior partner here senior partner clay railed im no partner in this business I 1 I 1 hate this business it makes me sick to see you in it then step out on the walk said daphne youre searing scaring away customers and using up the time of the firm the boudoir Is no place for you anyway A young woman with a bridal eye walked in and daphne left clay to blunder out sheepishly ile he did not see that she cast cheeps eyes after him ile he was a most bewildered young man ile he had made a pile of money and still he was not happy I 1 CHAPTER in the course of a few wretched days clay picked up some of the facts about daphnes presence in wether oils fatal car ile was more furious at her than ever and more incapable of hating her ile he saw bayard often but cayard bayard knew little and said less one afternoon he invited clay to ride with him to the hospital whence leila was to graduate ne ile warned clay not to betray how bow shocked he would be at leilas appearance which he said was a wonderful erful improvement on what it lad had been she was indeed a mere shell and clay was not entirely successful with ills compliments leila sighed much ob obliged liged for your good intentions im a mere sack of bones but im going to get well the doctors say that if I 1 take care of myself every minute and go to a lot of specialists and go to bar harbor in n the hot weather and to palm all beach each in the cold and spend about a million dollars ill be myself S some om e d day ay not much but it its S all ive got to work for poor bodiel ne ile know he was endowing a hospital when nhen he married me what to do I 1 care honey bayard cried with perfect chivalry the money Is 11 rolling in and pd id rather j pend it on you titan than on anybody else the moneys rolling out just ns as fast as it rolls lu in leila sighed the lord seems to provide a new expense for every streak of luck and my middle name expense she had actually learned one lesson that yas was a hopeful sign clay sought daphne in her odious to him place of business she asked him what site she could sell him ile he said lie he would walt wait till the shop closed she raised her eyebrows impudently and gave him a chair in a co corner ne he S sat at there feeling us as out of I 1 place as a strange man in a harem eventually the last garrulous customer talked herself dumb the last seiling sen ing moman went mrs chivvis pulled down the curtains in the how ladow and at the door and bade good night then daphne locked the do door or dropped viea wearily rIly into a chair and feigned well clay 1 I want to know why you dont alva up tom duane she her excellent shout dors ders again but she did not smile she instead 1 I d dont nt ask you to give up your stenographer oh its like that eh well then why nily wont avont you let me lend end you money instead of tom duane her answer astounded him with its feminine logic 1 I can borrow of air duane because I 1 dont love him and never did and ho he knows it I 1 cant borrow of you because I tie ile leaped at the implication ide because you love me because I 1 used to dont you any more he groaned how can I 1 tell its been months and months since I 1 saw the clay wimburn that came out to cleveland and lured me on to new york the only clay wimburn ive seen for some time has been a horribly prosperous domineering snob who is too proud to be seen with a working woman ile he wants to marry a lady I 1 never was one and dont want to ile be one im a business woman and I 1 love it and you give up your 51 shop op tor for me certainly not nc ile looked at her with baffled emotions she was so delectable and so obstinate so right hearted and so wron wrong it was intolerable that she should keep a shop ile he spoke alter after a loni long delay slay imay I 1 come and see you once tn in a while if you want to where you living now still at the you ought to take better care of yourself than that surely you can afford a better home 1 I suppose so but it would be lonely anywhere else it has been safe there since you quit calling on me it cost me much but youre making so much money not so very much yet but its all my own and I 1 made every cent of it 14 and golly I 1 how I 1 love to watch it grow you miser maybe I 1 guess the only way to save money to make a passion out of it and get a kind of voluptuous feeling from it but I 1 really think that its the fun of making it that interests me most it certainly keeps me out of mischief and out of loneliness oh theres no freedom like haling a job and a little reserve in the bank its the only life clay 11 and you give up your freedom as you call it even for a man you loved you love ii a man enough to do that 1 I could love a man too much to do that for wheres the love in a womans comans sitting around the house all day and waiting for a man to come home and listen to the gossip of her empty brain that loving loafing clay was not at rill all persuaded but theres no comfort or home life in in marrying a business woman how do you know you know plenty of unsuccessful wives who are not business women romen 1 I want a housekeeper not a shopkeeper go get one then I 1 say if a woman cant earn enough outside to hire a housekeeper let her do lier her own housework wa rk but it if she can earn enough to 01 16 1 it seems to me it help being a better and a happier way of living hire a hundred housekeepers why should she stick slick to the kitchen in my home if I 1 ever get one the cook will not be the star besides beside it enlarges enlarge life so instead of two living on the angos a of one two will live on oil the earnings of two it seems to me it help being a better and a lisp hop pier way of living clay alny blushed vigorously as he hica your business woman ingoing going to do when the the babies come or do you cut out the biddles kidd les daphne blushed too well I 1 should think that the business woman could afford babies better than anybody else she has to give up the mhd housework |