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Mane\&r\Vorst" <\\ /yy/L JLLVSTRATIONS *y M.G.KETI?R- \ N /^/ \ CHAPTER XXIII. In the 8uneet Glow. He lived through a week of bllai end of torture. One minute ehe prom leed to merry him, give up the etege go around the world on a yacht, whoe< luxuries, Dan planned, should lira nay boat ever built, or they would mo tor across Asia and see, one by one the various coral etrands and the gold en sands of the east. He could no* find terms to express how be would spend upon her this fortune of his which, for the first time, began u hove value In bis eye. Money had been lavished on her, still she seemed dassled. Then she would push It all ewwj from ber In disgust?tell htm ehe wee sick t everything? tbat she did at want any new jewels or any asv cloth ee. and that aba never want? ed to see the stage again or any place again; that there wee nowhere aha wanted to go, nothing ehe wanted to nee?that be must get some fresh girl to whom be could show life, not one whom be must try to make forget it Then, again, she would say that she loved the stage and her art?wouldn't give It up for any one In the world? that It wae fatal to marry an actress? that It was mad for him to think of marrying her, anyway?that she didn't want to marry any one and be tied down?that she wanted to be her own emlstress and free. fee One Would Have Dreamed That ?he Ivor Hed Known Another Love. He found her a creature of a thou smnd whims and caprices, quick to cry, quick to laugh, divine In everything ebe did. He never knew what she would want him to do next, or how her mood would change, and after one of their happieet hours, when ehe had hwen like a girl with him, she would hmrst into tears, beg him to leave the room, telling htm that she was tired tired?tired, and wanted to go to eleep end never to wake up again. Between them wee the figure of Ponlotowsky, though neither spoke of him. She ap peered to have forgotten him. Dan would rather have rut out his tongue than to epeak hie name, and yet he wae there in the mind of each. Dur* tog the fortnight Dsn spent thousands of pounds on her. bought her Jewels which she alternately rsved over or hut hslf looked at. He hed made his errangements with Oslorey peaceful? ly, coolly and between the two men It hid been understood that the world should think the engagement broken by the duchess, and ban's attention to Let* y Lane, already the subject of much comment, already conspicuous, erne enough to Justify any woman in taking offense. One day, the pearl of warm May days, when England even In spring time touches summer, Blair was so happy ss to persusde hi*, sweetheart to go with him for a little row on the river. The young fellow we!*ed for her In the boat he had secured, and she. motoring out with Hlgglns, had appeared, running down to the edge of the water like a girl, gay as a child let out from school. In a elmple frock, la a marvelouely fetching hat, white gloves, white parasol, white shoes, and ne Dan helped her Into the boat, pushed it out, pushed away with her on the creet of the s<in flecked waters, spring was In his heart, and h* found the moment almost too great to bear. The actress had been a girl with him sll day. giving herself to hU moods, doing whst he liked without demur, tslklng of their mutual past telling him one amusing story after another, proving herself an ideal com pan Ion, fresh, varied, reposeful; and no one to have seen I*etty Lane with the boy on thnt afternoon would have dreamed that h) e ever had known an other love. Tley had moored tholl boat down near Maidenhead, and he had helped her up the hank to the little inn, wh? re lei hhd * SOS Rtedt for them, and ggswed t(? Mm by her own beautifi 1 White hands He hue1 called for strawberries, and. like | eheptwrd In a pastoral, bad fed 'I.err to her. end as thef lingered the sun Send us your Job work. set came creeping Bteadlly In througt the windowe where they eat. Ae they neither called for their ac ! count nor to have the tea things taken i away, after a while the woman stealth lly opened the door and, unknown, looked st one of the prettiest pictures ever within her walls. Letty Lam sat on the window seat, her golden head, her white form against the glow, and the boy by her side had his arms around her, and her head waf on his breast They were both young I They might have been white blrdi l blown in there, nesting In the humble I inn, and the woman of the house, whe had not heard the waters of th? Thames flow softly for nothing, Judged them gently and sighed with pleasure as she shut the door. Here at Maidenhead Dan had lefl his boat and the motor took them back. Nothing spoiled his bliss thai day, and he said her name a thou sand times that night in his dreams I Jealousies?and? when he would let himself think, they were not one, the} were many?faded away. The duties that a life with her would Involve did not disturb him. For many a long I year, come what might, be what would, he would recall the glowing ol that sunset reflected under the lnc windows, the singing of the thrushes and the flash of the white dress and the fine little white shoes which h< had held in the palm of his ardent hand, which he had kissed, as he tolc her with all his heart that she should rest her tired feet forever. There grew In him that day a rever? ence for her, determined ae he was to bring into her life by his wealth and devotion everything of good. His lov? ing plans for her forming in his brain somewhat chaotic and very much fe? vered, brought him nearer than he had ever been before to fhe picture ol his mother. His father It wasn't easy for Dan to think of in connection with the actress. He didn't dare to dwell on the subject, but he had never known his mother, and that pale ideal he could create as he would. In think lng of her he saw only tenderness for Letty Lane?only love; and In hit room the night after the row cm the river, the night after the long idyl In the sunset room of the inn, some thing like a prayer came to his young Hps, and, when Its short form was fln lshed, a smile brought it to an end as he remembered the line In Letty Lane's own opera: "ghe will teach you how to pray In ao Eaatern form of prayer." ( v The ring he had given the duchess of Breakwater had been her own choice, a ruby. He had asked her. through Qalorey, to keep It and to wear it later, when she could think of aim kindly, in an ornament or some kind or another. The duchess had not refused. The ling he bought for Letty Larva, although there was no engagement announced between them, was the largest, purest diamond he could with decency ask her to put on hsr hand! It sparkled like a great drop of clear water from some foun? tain on a magic continent. In an? other shop strands of pink coral, set through with diamonds, caught his fancy and he bought her yards of them, ropes of them, smiling to think how his boyhood's dreams were come true. i He never saw Ruggles except at meals, hardly spoke to the poor mau at all, and the boy's absorbed face, his state of mind, made the older man feel like death. He repeated to him? self that he was too late?too late, I and usually wound up his reflections 1 by ejaculating: "(Josh almighty, I'm glad I haven't got a son!" CHAPTER XXIV. Rugglee' Offer. He felt as h* waited for her In that1 flower-ailed room, for she had recov? ered from hoi distaste for flowers, as ho glanced at the photographs of wom? en like herself in costumes more ot less frank, more or less vulgar, h? felt as though he wanted to knock down the walls and let In a big Ttgsj of the west?of Montana?of the hills With such a setting he thought hi could better talk with the lady whom he had come to see. Ruggles held an unllghted cigar be tween his fingers and gooseflesh rose all over him. His glasses bothered him. He couldn't get them bright enough, though he polished them halt a dozen times on his silk handker chief. His clothes felt too largo. Hi seemed to have shrunken. He moist ened his lips, cleared his throat, tried to remember what kind of fellow he hgd been at Dan s sgo. At Dun's ngi ho was selling a suspender patent on the road, supporting his mother and his sisters- hard work and few temp tatlons; ho was too tired and toe poor. Mint Lano kept him waiting ter minutes, and they wero hours to hei guest Ho was afrnld every mlnuti that Dan would COTAe In. Tho thoughts Olvs us your Job work. ne had garnered together, the plan o) action, disarranged Itself In his mind every time he thought of the actress He couldn't forget his vision of bei on the stage or at the Carlton, when she had sat opposite them and be witched them both. When sha came into the sitting-room at length, h? started so violently that he knocked over a vase of flowers, the watei trickling all over the table down on to the floor. She had dazzled him before the foot lights, charmed him at dinner, and 11 was singular to think that ho knew how this dignified, quiet creature looked iji ballet clothes an/:. In 8 dinner dress, whose frankness had made him catch his breath. It was! a third woman who stood before Ruggles now. He had to take her into consideration. She had expected him, saw him by appointment She had not climbed to her starry position without having acquired a knowledge of men, and It was the secret of her ' success. She showed it in the dress In which she received her visitor. She wore a short walking skirt of heavy eerge, a simple shirtwaist belted around, a sailor hat on her beautiful little head. She was unjeweled and unpalnted, very pale and very sweet ' It If had not been for the marks ot fatigue under her eyes, she would not have looked more than eighteen. On her left hand a siegle diamond, clear as water, caught the refracted light. "How-de-do? Glad you are back again." She gave him a big chair and sat down before him smiling. Leaning her elbows on her knees, she sank her face upon her hands and looked at him, not coquettlshly In the least, but as a child might have looked. From her small feet to her golden head she was utterly charming. Ruckles made himself think cf Dan Miss Lane spoke slowly, nodding toward him, in her languid voice: 'It's no use, Mr. Ruggles, no use." Holding her face between her hands, her eyes gray as winter's seas and as profound, she looked at him Intently; then, in a flash, she changed her po? sition and Instantly transformed her character. He saw that she was a woman, not an eighteen-year-old girl, but a woman, clever, poised, witty, un? derstanding, and that she might have been twenty years older than the boy. "I'm sorry you spoke so quick," he said. "I knew," she interrupted, "Just what you wanted to say from the start. 'T couldn't help it, could I? I knew you would want to come and Bee me about It. It isn't any use. I know Just what you are going l.o say." "No, ma'am," he returned, ' I don't believe you do?bright as you are." Ruggles gazed thoughtfully at the cold end of his unlighted ci|;ar. It was a comfort to him to hold it and to look at it, although not for any? thing In the world would he have asked to light It. "Dan's father and me were chums. We went through pretty much to? gether, and I know how he felt on most points. He was a man of few words, but I know he counted on me to stand by the boy." Ruggles was so chivalrous that his role at present cost him keen discom ! fort. "A lady like you," he said gently I "knows a great deal more about how things are done than either Dan or me. We ain't tenderfeet In the west, aot by a long shot, but we see so few "Dsn's Father end Me Were Chums." of a certain kind of picture shows that when they do come round they're likely to make us lose our minds! You know, yourself, a circus In a town j fifty miles from a railroad drives the , people crazy. Now, Dan's a lit tie like | the boy with his *yes on the hole in i the tent. He would commit murder | to get Inside and see that show." He nodded and smiled to her as though he expected her to follow his crude simile. "Now, I have seon ycu a lot of times." And she couldn't help re? minding him, "Not of your own ac? cord, Mr. Ruggles." "Well, I don't know," be slowly ad? mitted; "I always felt I had my mon? ey's worth, and the night yen ute with us at the Carlton I understood pretty * weil how the boy with his eyes at , the tent hole would feel." Hut he tapped his broad chest with the hand that held tho cigar between the first and second fingers. "1 know Just what kind of a heart you've got, for I waited at tho stage door and I know you don't get all the applause inside tho Gaiety theater." 'Goodness," sho murmured, "they make an awful fuss about nothing." "Now," he continued, leaning for* wtird a trlflo toward her languid, half Interested figure, "1 Just want you to think of him an a little boy. Ho's Olily twenty two. He knows nothing of tho world. The money you give to the poor doesn't come so hard perhaps i as this will. It s a big sacrifice, but Send us your Job work. I want you to let the boy go." She smiled slightly, found her hand* j kerchief, which was tucked up the cufl of her blouse, pressed the little bit of linen to her Hps as though to steady them, then she asked abruptly: "What has he said to you?" "Lord!" Ruggles groaned. "Said tc me! My dear young lady, he is much too rude to speak. Dan Bort of breathes and snorts around like a lunatic. He was dangling around that duchess when I was here before, but shci dldii't scare, me any." And Letty Lane, now smiling at him, relieved by his break from a more intense tone, asked: "Now, you are scared?" "Weli," Ruggles drawled, "I was pretty sure that woman didn't care anything for the boy. Are you her kind?" It was the best stroke he had made. She almost sprang up from her chair. "Heavens," she exclaimed, "I guess I'm not!" Her face flushed. "I had rather see a son of mine dead than married to a woman like that," he said. "Why, Mr. Ruggles," she exclaimed passionately, addressing him with in? terest for the first time, "what do you know about me? What? What? You have seen me dance and heard me sing." And he interrupted her. "Ten times, and you are a bully dancer and a bully singer, but you do other things than dance and sing. There is not a man living that would want to have his mother dress that way." She controlled a smile. "Never mind that. People's opinions are very different about that sort of thing. You have seen me at dinner with your boy, as you call him, and you can't say that I did anything but ask him to help the poor. I haven't led Dan on. I have tried to show him Just what you are making me go through now." If she acted well and danced well, It was hard for her to talk. She was evidently under strong emotion and it needed her control not to burst into tears and lose her chance. "Of course, I know the things you have heard. Of course, I know what Is said about me"--and she stopped. Ruggles didn't press her any fur? ther; he didn't ask her if the things were true. Looking at her as he did, watching her as he did, there was in him a feeling so new, so troubling that he found himself more anxious to protect her than to bring her to jus? tice. "There are worse, far worse women than I am, Mr. Huggles. I will never do Dan any harm." Here her visitor leaned forward and put one of his big hands lightly over one of hers, patted It a moment, and said: "I want you to do a great deal bet? ter than that." She had picked up a photograph off the table, a pretty picture of herself In "Mandalay," and turned It nerv? ously between her fingers as she said with irritation: "I haven't been in the theatrical world not to guess at this 'Worried Father' act, Mr. Ruggles. I told you I knew Just what you were going to say." "Wrong!" he repeated. "The busi? ness is old enough perhaps, lots of good jobs are old, but this is a little different." He took the turning picture and laid it on the table, and quietly pos? sessed himself of the small cold hands. Blair's solitaire shone up to him. Huggles looked into Letty Lane's eyes. "He is only twenty-two; it ain't fair, it ain't fair. He could count the times he has been on a lark, I guess. I He hasn't e7en been to an eastern col? lege. He is no fool, but he's darned simple." She smiled faintly. The man's face, near her own, was very simple indeed. "You have seen so much," he urged, "so many fellows. You have been such a queen, I dare say you could get any man you wanted." He repeated. "Most any man." "1 have never seen any one like Dan." "Just so: he ain't your kind. That is what I am trying to tell you." She withdrew her hand from his vio? lently. "There you are wrong. He is my kind. He is what I like, and he 1b what I want to bo like." A wave of red dyed her face, and, in a tone more passionate than she had ever used to her lover, she said to Ruggles: "I love him?I love hJm!" Her words sent something like a sword through the older man's heart. He laid gently: "Don't say it. He don't know what love means yet." He wanted to tell her that the girl Dan married should be the kind of woman his mother was, but Ruggles couldn't bring himself to say the words. Now, as he sat near her, he was growing so complex that his Drain was turning round. He "hearTl her murmur: "I told you I knew your act, Mr. Kuggles. It Isn't any use." This brought him back to his posi? tion and onco more he leaned toward her and, in a different tone from the nno he bad intended to use, mur? mured: "You don't know. You haven't any idea. I do ask you to let Dan go. Unit's a fact. I have got something else tO propose in its place. It ain't tpiite the same, but it is clear?marry me!" She gave a little exclamation. A Blight Smile Hppled over her face like the sunset across a pale pool at dawn. "Laugh," in? said bJUnbly; "don't keep in. 1 know 1 am om fashioned as the deuce, and mo and Dan is quite h contrast, but 1 mean jiib? what I BU) . my dear." site controlled bor amusement, if it was that. It almost made her cry Semd US your Job work. with mirth, and she couldn't help it. Between laughing breaths she said to him: "Oh, is It 11 for Dan s sake, Mr. Ruggles? Is it?" And then, biting her lips and looking at him out of her beautiful eyes, she said: "I know it is?I know it is?I beg your par? don." "I asked a girl once when I was poor?too poor. Now this is the sec? ond time in my life. I mean just what T say. I'll make you a kind husband. I am fifty-five, hale as a nut. I dare Fay you have bad many better of? fers." "Oh, dear," she breathed; "oh, dear, please?please stop!" "Hut I don't expect you to marry me for anything but my money." Ruggles put his cigar down on the edge of the table. He looked at his chair meditatively, he took out his j silk handkerchief, polished up his glasses, readjusted them, put them on and then looked at her. "Now," he said, "I am going to trust you with something, and I know you will keep my secret for me. This shows you a little bit of what I think about you. Dan Blair hasn't got a red cent. He has nothing but what I give him. There's a false title to all that land on the Bentley claim. The whole thing came up when I was home and the original company, of which I own three-quarters of the stock, holds the clear titles to the Blairtown mines. It ?.ll belongs now to me, If I choose to present my documents. Dan knows nothing about this?not a word." The actress had never come up to such a dramatic point in any of her 1 plays. With her hands folded in her lap she looked at him steadily, and I he could not understand the expres? sion that crossed her face. He heard her exclamation. "Oh, gracious!" "I've brought the papers back with me," said the westerner, "and it Is between you and me how we act If Dan marries you I will be bound to do what old Blair would have done? cut him off?let him feel his fee?, on the ground, and the result of his own folly." He had taken his glasses off while he made this assertion. Now he put them on again. "If you give him up I'll divide with the boy and be rich enough still to hand over to my wife all she wants to spend." She turned her face away from him and leaned her head once more upon her hands. He heard her softly mur? muring under her breath, with an ab? sent look on her face, accompanied by a still more incomprehensible smile "That's how it stands," he conclud? ed. She seemed to have forgotten him entirely, and he caught his breath when she turned about abruptly and said: "My goodness, how Dan will hate being poor! He will have to sell all his stickpins and his motor cars and all the things he has given me. It will be quite a little to start on, but he will hate it, he is so very smart." "Why, you don't mean to say?m Ruggles gasped. And with a charming smile as she rose to put their conversation at an end, ehe said: "Why, you don't mean to say vhst you thought I wouldn't stand by hin?" She seemed, as she put her hands upon her hips with something cf a defiant look at the elder man, as though she just then stood by her pau? perized lover. "I thought you cared some for the boy," Ruggles said. "Well, I am showing it." ; "You want to ruin him to show it, do you?" As though he thought the subject I dismissed he walked heavily toward the door. I "You know how It stands. I tave nothing more to say." He knew that he had signally failed, and as a sud? den resentment rose in him he ex? claimed, almost brutally: "I am darned glad the old man is dead; I am glad his mother's dead, and I am glad I have got no eon." The next moment she was at his side, and he felt that she clung to his arm. Her sensitive, beautiful face, all drawn with emotion, was raised to his. "Oh, you'll kill me?you'll kill me! Just look how very ill I am; you are making me crazy. I Just worship him." "Give him up, then," said Ruggles steadily. She faltered: "I can't?I can't?it won't be for long"?with a terrible pa? thos In her voice. "You don't know how different I can be: you don't know what a new life we Were going to lead." Stammering, and with intense mean ing, Ruggles, looking down at her, said: "My dear child?my dear child." In his few words something per? haps made her see in a flash her past and what the question really was. She dropped Ruggles' arm. She stood for a moment with her arms folded across her breast, her head bent down, and the man at the door waited, feeling that Dan's whole life was in the bal ance Of the moment. When she spoke aga'n her voice was hard and entirely devoid of the lovely appealing quality which brought her 60 much admira tion from tho public. "If I give him up," 6he said slow? ly, "what will you do?" I "Why," he answered, "I'll divide with Dan and let things stand just us they are." She thought again for a moment and then as if she did not want him to witness?to detect the struggle sh< was going through, turned awe} and walked over toward the window and dismissed him from there "Please go. will you" 1 want very much to bo alone and to think." (TO BE CONTINUED) Send us your job work. I N DUR WOOD CARRIES FLORIDA. LateM Returns Show That ( ongr man Has Won in Florida by Nearly Two to One. Jacksonville, May I.?Oscar W. iTn derwood of Alabama is the choice of ihe Democrats of Florida for tha Democratic nomination for preeMont of the United states, according t<> in? complete returns received up to tn early hour today in the presidential preference primary in Florida yester? day. Incomplete returns at this hour Indicate that he has a substantial lead over Wood row Wilson, and Tha Times-Union Of this city today claims that he will have a two-thirds major? ity over his oponent. Park Trammell is leading Crom well Gibbons for the governorship. FEATURES OF POSTOFFICE BILL Democrat* Smve^l in KeniO\io^ ?'dug" Hole?Xewi'papn Regwsa* t ons. Washington, April 30?Tho perfect ed poetoflfce appropriation bill. agreed upon after a session of the Hons,- which lasted until 7.50 ?.'che k tonight, contained several new fea turee of legislation advocat<<] by the l democrats. '?n?- was an abrogation of the rule, described by F mocrats as a 'gag" rule, which prevented Federal em? ployees In the postal service from complaining to Congress of their treatment. The bill contains a provision which would compel newspapers, j magaalnes and other1 periodicals to publish the names of their managing editors and stockholders who own 'stock valued at more than $550. j Tin- Bam hart bill also provides that all editorial or reading matter for Which money has been received must be labelled advertisement." a compormtse on the parcel post and express provisions occupied most Of the time of debate. These ques? tions are given to a committee of three Senators and three Representa? tives for study and report to the , next session of Congress. In the meantime a rural route par? cel service is provided. Its rates are 5 tents for the first pound and 1 cent for each additional pound up to 11 pounds. All of this mail matter Is confined to rural route service. I a general parcel post service of 1 - j| cents a pound f<?r 11 pounds is con? tained In the bill. j a proposal by Representative Red denberry, of Georgia, to prevent the I circulation of newspapers containing 1 liquor advertisements In dry terri . ton* w as defeated. SOUTH CAROLINA CROP. 1 Glaners Report Showing Total Yield of Cotton. Total number of bales Of cotton ginned, counting round bales as half ! bales, and excluding linters. for the I crops of 1910 to It 11? inclusive: I County. 19U 1ft 10 'Abbeville. 42,162 32.804 ?Aiken.51.361 36.160 [Anderson.SO.382 63.175 Bamberg.2%.019 16.572 Barnwell.67,601 42,958 Beaufort. 7,040 9,904 Berkeley.17,118 12.465 Calhoun.31,730 21,441 Charleston. 11.586 14.16!? Cherokee. 16.542 14,793 - Chester.36..012 28,3$. Chesterfield.36.418 29,8 78 Clarendon. 54.222 36,060 Colleton.21,910 15,571 Darlington. 57,700 40,369 Dillon. 50.576 40.376 Dorchester. 19,295 14,1 KS BdgeAeld.40.350 26,4 30 Fairfield.33.486 25.6*2 Florence.5s.902 33.916 Georgetown. 5.935 3.464 Greenville. 54.4-,2 37.369 Greenwood..4 5.54 6 29,74* Hampton.25.797 16,612 Horry.16.164 8.486 Kershaw. 36.193 23,063 Lancaster. 31.137 24.556 Laurent.54.686 42.312 Lee.47,713 28.459 Lexington.34.011 24.177 Marlboro. 75.942 66.413* N.w horry. 46.426 33,826 Oconee.2 2,S St 15.196 Orangeburg. 17.9 7 6 56.596 Dickens. 22.520 15.16 3 Rlchland. 22.613 15,249 Saluda. 30.470 19,t37 Bpartanhurg. 78,145 5t,111 . Sumter. 50,61 3 33. .?3*.? Union.23.029 18.167 Williamsburg.3S.701 24.79-1 York.4H.403 4 1. ?0S The State.1,6*2.146 l.Slt.fdl Babe Crlckendale, white, and Steve .Johnson, colored, have been arrested In the Dark Corner of Greenville Coun? ty for the murder of Tom Adams, col? ored. mild surprise you to know tho great u.1 that Is being done b> Chamberlain'*! Tablets. Dart us Downey, of Kowberg Junction, N. R., ui los, Mv wife has heell US'Ug Chamberlain's Tablets and finds th an vor> effectual and doing her lots of good/' 11 you have any trouble witH^ your stomach or bowels give them 1? trial. For sale by ;>n dealers.