Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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FRAN d JOHN BRECKEN1UDCE IXUS Nuatrationt by O. Irwin Myers (i_<-p. r h ii . >.i. ik. 'L? Mi rrxu t>> ; Hie Isdy who was not Mrs. Gregory wee to pleased to see the gentleman who waa Mr. Gregory?they had not net aince the evening meal?that, at first, ahe was unaware of the black shadow; and Mr. Gregory, in spite of his perplexity, forgot the shadow also, so cheered waa he by the glimpse of his secretary aa she stood in the brlghtl) lighted hall. Such moments of delighted recognition are Infinitesi? mal when s third person, however shadowy. Is present; yet had the world beset there, this exebango of glancea must havc> taken place. Fran did not understand?her very wisdom blinded her as with too great light. She had seen so much of the world ti it, on flndinr s tree bearing apples. *he at once classified it aa an apple tree. To Gregory, Grace Nolr waa but a charming a id conscientious aympaihizer in his life-work, the at? mosphere in which he breathed freest. Ho bad not breathed x'reely for half a doson hours?no wonder he was glad to ice her. To Grace Nolr, Hamilton Gregory waa but a benefactor to man? kind, a man of lofty ideala whom it waa a privilege to aid. and since ahe anew that her very eyes gave him strength, no wonder phe was gl id to see him. Could Fran have read their thoughts, sie would not have found the slight? est oonaciousuesa of any shade of evil In their sympathetic comradeship. Aa ahe could read oily their facea, ahe disliked more than ever the tall, young, and splendidly formed secretary. "Oh!" aald Grace with restraint, discovering Fran. "tee," Fnm said with her elfish smile, "back again/' Just without the portal Hamilton "Good Evening, Professor Ashton." Gregory pause?) Irresolutely. He did not knew what course to pursue, ao he repeated vacantly, "I am willing to pay?" Fran interrupted flippantly: "I have all the money I want." Then she passed swiftly Into the hull, rudely bruahlng pa-Mt the secretary. Gregory could oi.ly follow. He spoke to Grace In a low voice, telling all he knew of the night wanderer. Her attltudo called for explanations, but ho would have given them anyway, In fi it low, confidential murmur. He diu uot know why It was?or seek to know?but whenever he spoke to Grace, it was natural to use a low tono, as If modulating his touch to sensitive string*?aa if i he harmony resulting from the Interplay of their aouta called for the soft pedal. What It to bo done?" Grace in? quired Her attitude of reserve to? ward Gregory which Fran's presence had inspired. m< ltcd to potential help? fulness; at he same time h<t dl.dike for the girl solldifh ?I 'Vhst do >ou advise?" Gregory aaked bia secretary gently. Grnce cast a disdainful look at Fran. Then abo turned to h r employer and h??r delhlously curved face changed moat charmingly. * 1 think." she re? sponded with a faint abuke of rebuko for his leuUucy, that you should not need my ad< lr?? In this matter." Why Should he stand apparently helplesa kWorn this small bundle of arrogant Impudence? Or* K?.ry turned 1 pon I i m with af Ibcted bars! ness "1 bsj met go." Hi waa annoy ! that Grace should imag? ine him weak. Fran's furo harden, d It became an SX of stone, sharpened at SSV h end, with eyea, nose and mouth in a nar? row lino Of told defiance To Craco trio acuto wedge of WfcitS forehead, gleaming Its way to ?M roots of the black hair, and the sharp . h n cut? ting Ita way down from the tightly drawn mouth, ajsike only of cunning. Hho regard? d Fran as a fox, brought to buy. Fran spoke with calm deliberation: "I am not going away." "I would ad 'se you," paid Grace, looking down ?t lo r from under dfOOp Ing Ibis, to go at oiM o. for a st >rm la rising. Do you want to bo caught in tho rain?" Fran "looked up at Graco, undaunt? ed. "I want to iptftl to Mr. Greg? ory. If you are the manager of this house, ho and 1 can go outdoors. I don't mind getting wot. I've been in al! klnda of weather." Grace looked at Gregory. Her si? lences were effective weapons. "I have no secrets from this lady," he said, looking Into Grace's eyes, an? swering her silence. "What do you want to say to me, child'.'" Fran shrugged her shoulders, always looking at Graco, whilo neither of the others looked at her. "Very well, then, of course it doean't matter to me, but I thought It might to Mr. Gregory. Since he hasn't any secrets from you, of course he has told you that one of nearly twenty years ago?" It was not tho rumble of distant thunder, hut a strange exclamation from tho man that interrupted her; it was some such cry as human crea? tures may have uttered before the crystallizing of recurring experiences into the terras of speech. Fran gave quick, relentless blows: "Of course he has told you all about his Springfield life?" "Silence!" shouted Gregory, quiver? ing from head to foot. The word was like an imprecation, and for a time It kept hissing between his locked teeth. "And of course," Fran continued, tilting up her chin as if to drive In the words, "since you know all of his secrets?all of them?you have natu? rally been told tho most important one. And so you know that when he was boarding with his cousin in Springfield and attending the college there, something like twenty years ago?" "Leave us!" Gregory cried, waving a violent arm at his secretary, as If to sweep her beyond the possibility of overhearing another word. "Leave you?with her?" Grace stam? mered, too amazed by his attitude to feel offended. "Yes, yes. yes! Go at once!" He seemed tho victim of some mysterious terror. Grace compressed her full lips till they were thinned to a white line "Do you mean forever?" 1 "Oh, Grace?I beg your pardon? Miss Grace?I don't mean that, of course. What could I do without you? Nothing, nothing, Grace?you are the soul of my work. Don't look at mo so cruelly/* "Then you just mean," Graco said steadily, "for me to go away for a little while?" "Only half an hour; that's all. Only half an hour, and then come back to me, and I will explain." "You needn't go at all, on my ac? count," observed Fran, with a twist of her mouth. "It's nothing to mo whether you go or stay." "She has learned a secret," Gregory stammered, "that vitally affects?af? fects some people--eorae friends of mine. I must talk to her about? about that secret, Just for a little while. Half an hour, Miss Grace, that is all. That is really all?then como back to me. You understand that it's on account of the secret that I ask you to leave us. You understand that I would never send you away from me if I had my way, don't you, Grace?" "I understand that you want me to go now," Grace Nolr replied unre? sponsive. She ascended the stairway, at each step seeming to mount that much the higher into an atmosphere of righteous remoteness. No one who separated Gregory from his secretary could enjoy his tolera? tion, but Fran nnd struck far below the surface of likings and disllklngs She had turned back the covering oi conventionality to lay bare the quiver ing heartstrings of life itself. There was no time to hesitate. The stone ax which on other occasions might be a laughing, elfish faco was now held ready for battle. "Hadn't we better go in a room where we can talk privately?" Fran asked. "I don't like this hall. That woman would jist as soon listen over tho banisters as nor. I've oeen lots of people liko hor, and I understand her kind." CHAPTER V. We Reap What We Sow. If anything could have prejudiced Hamilton Gregory against Fran's Inter? ests It would havo been hor slighting allusion to the one who typiiied his most exalted ideals as "that woman " Hut Fran was to him nothing but an agent bringing out of the past a SO* cret ho had preserved for almost twen? ty years. Tbls stranger knew of his youthful folly, and t he Piunt be pre? vent* <i from communicating it to oth? ers. It was from no sense of aroused con? science that he hastened to lead her to the front room. In this crisis, some? thing other than shuddering recoil from haunting, deeds was Imperative; unlovely specters must be made to vanish. Ho tried desperately to cover his dread under a voice of harshness: "What have you to say to me?" IYgg bad lost the insolent compos uro which the secretary had Inspired. Now that she was alone with Hamil? ton Gregory, it geegftOd impossible to ? peak. Sh?" clasped and unclasped her hands. She opened her moid b. but her Hps were dry. The wind had risen, ami us it went moaning past the window, it seemed to speak of the yearning of years passkii; in tho night, unsatisfied. At last cunio the words, giggled, frightened?"1 know all about it." "All about what, child?" He had lost gjg harshness. His voice was al BSOat coaxing, as if entreating the mercy of Ignorance. Fran gasped, I know all about it? "I Don't Want to Follow You Any? where. Thia la Where I Want to Stay." I know?" She was tenliled by the thought that perhaps she would not be able to tell him. She leaned heav? ily upon a tuble with hund turned backward, whitening her finger-tips by the weight thrown on them. "About what?" he repeated with the caution of one who fears. He could not doubt the genuineness of her emo? tion; but he would not accept her statement or? its cause until he must "Oh," cried Fran, catching a tem? pestuous breath, uneven, v olent, "you know what I mean?that!" The dew glistened on hid brow, but he doggedly stood on the defensive. "You are indefinite," he muttered, try? ing to appear bold. She kn IW he did not und erstand be? cause he would not, and now she real? ized that he would, if possible, deny. Pretense and sham always hardened her. "Then," she said slowly, "I will be definite. I will tell yoi. the things It would have been better for you to tell me. Your early home was in New York, but you had a cousin living in Springfield, where there vas a very good college. Your parents were anx? ious to get you away fron the temp? tations of a big city until you were of age. So you were sant to live with your cousin and attend college. You were with him three or four yeais, and at last the tlrxc came for graduation. Shall I go on?" He fought desperately for self-pres \ ervation. "What is there in all this?" "You had married, in the mean? time," Fran said coldly; 'married se? cretly. That was about nineteen years ago. She was only eighteen. After graduation you were to go to New York, break the news to your father, come back to Springfield for your wife, and acknowledge her You grad? uated; you went to your lather. Did you come back?" ? ( "My God!" groaned tho man. So she knew everything; muit he admit ; it? "What is all this to you?" he burst forth. "WTho and what are you, anyway?and why do you come here with your story? If it wero true?" "True!" said Fran bitterly. "If you've forgotten, why :iot go to Springfield and ask the first old citi? zen you meet? Or you might write to some one you used to know, and inquire. If you prefer, 1 11 send for one of your old professors, and pay his expenses. They took I good deal of interest in tho young college stu? dent who married and neglected Jo? sephine Derry. They haven't forgot? ten it, if you have." "You don't know." he gasped, "that there's a penalty for coming to people's houses to threaten them with supposed facts in their lives. You i don't know that the jails i.rc ready to punish blackmailing, for you are only a little girl and don't undcrstaud such things. 1 give you warning. Although /ou'aro in short dresses? ' "Yes," remarked Fran dryly, "I thought that would be an advantage to you. It ought to make things easier." "How an advantage to me? Easier? What havo I to do with you?" "I thought," Fran said coldly, "that It would bo easier for you to take me into tho house as a little ghl than as a grown woman. You'll remember I told you I've come here tc stay." "To stay!" he echoed, shrinking back. "You?" "Yes," she said, all the cooler for his attitude of repulsion. "I want a home. Yes, I'm going to stay. I want to belong to somebody." He cried out desperately, "ilut what am I to do? This will rjln me?oh, It's true, all you've said?I don't deny it. But I tell you, girl, you will ruin me. Is all the work of my life to be overturned? I shall gc mad." "No, you won't," Frau calmly as? sured him. "You'll do what every oue has to do, sooner or later?face the situation. You're a little late getting to it, but It was coming all tho timo. You can let mo live hero as an adopt? ed orphan, or any way you please. Tho important fact to mo is that I'm going to live hero. Hut I >n't \*ant to make it hard for you, truly I don't." "Don't you?" Ho spoke not loudly, but with tremendous pressure of do ?ira, "Then, for God's s?he, go back! Go back to?to wherever you came from. I'll pay all expenses. You shall have all you want?" "All I want," Prall responded, "is a home, and that's something people can't buy. Get used to th I thought of my Staying hero, that will mako it easy." "Kasy!" he ejaculated. "Then it's your purpose to compel mo to give you shelter because of this secret? you mean to ruin me. I'll not he able to account for you, and they will question my wife will want to know, and and others an well." "Now, now," saitl Pi an, with sudden gentleness, "don't bo bo excited, don't ? tako it bo hara. "Let them question. I'll know how to keep from exposing you. But I do want to belong to some? body, and after I'vo been here a while, and you begin to like me, I'll tell you everything. I knew the Jo? sephine Derry that you deserted?she raised me, and I know she loved you to the end. Didn't you ever care for her, not even at the first, when you got her to keep your marriage secret until you could speak to your father face to face? You must havo loved her then. And she's the best friend I ever had. Since she died I've wan? dered?and?and I want a home." The long loneliness of years found expression in her eager voice and pleading eyes, but he was too en? grossed with his own misfortunes to heed her emotion. "Didn't I go back to Springfield?" he cried out. "Of course I did. I made inquiries for her; that's why I went back?to find out what had become of her. I'd been gone only three years, yes, only three years, but, good heavens, how I had Buffered! I was bo changed that no? body knew me." He paused, appalled at the recollection. "I have always had a terrible capacity for suffering. I tell you, it was my duty to go back to find her, and I went back. I would have acknowledged her as my wife. I would have lived with her. I'd have done right by her, though it had killed me. Can I say moro than that?" "I am glad you went back," said Fran softly. "She never knew it I am so glad that you did?even that." "Yes, I did go back," he said, more firmly. "But she was gone. I tell you all it is because you say she was your best friend." "A while ago you asked me who I am?and what?" I "It doesn't matter," he interjected. "You were her friend; that 1b all I care to know. I went back to Spring? field, after three years?but she was gone. I was told that her uncle had cast her off, and she had disappeared. I It seems that she'd made friends with a class of people who were not? who were not?respectable." Fran's eyes shono brightly. "Oh, they were not," she agreed, "they were not at all what you would call respectable. They were not relig? ious." "So I was told," he resumed, a little uncertainly. "There was no way for me to find her." "Her?" cried Fran; "you keep on saying 'her.' Do you mean? V* He hesitated. "She had chosen her ! part?to live with those people?I left her to lead the life that pleased her. That's why I never went back to Springfield again. I've taken up my life in my own way, and left her?your friend?" "Yes, call her that," cried Fran, holding up her head. ""1 am proud ot that title. I glory in it And in this I house?" "I have made my offer," he inter* ! rupted decidedly. "I'll provide for you anywhere but in this house." Fran regarded him with somber in? tensity. "I've asked for a home with you on the grounds that your wife was my best friend in all the world, and because I am homeless, you re fuse. I suppose that's natural. I have to guess at your feedngs because 1 , haven't been raised among 'respect? able' people. I'm sorry you don't like it, but you're going to provide for me right here. For a girl, I'm pretty in? dependent; folks that don't like me are welcome to all the enjoyment they get out of their dislike. I'm here to stay. Suppose you look on me as a sort of cummer crop. I enjoyed hear* ing you sing, tonight? " *We reap what we sow. We reap what we sow.' I see you remember." He shuddered at her mocking holy things. "Hush! What are you say? ing? The past is cut off fiom my life. I have been pardoned, and I will not have anybody forcing that past upon me." (TO BE CONTINUED.) i Bird Robbed Hen Nest. Orangeburg News. Hen nests have been known to have been robbed by men and animals, but tho first instance where a nest was robbed by a bird has just been re? ported. The robber upon this occasion was a woodpecker, and the robbery was committed in this city a few days ago. In fact the robbing of the hen nest hod been kept up for sometime before the discovery was made that the culprit was a bird. Several days ago at a home in this city, eggs began to disappear from ,,ne of tiie hen nest.- in the yard. Close investigation failed to reveal how the eggs were being taken. Nevertheless as fast as the eggs were laid they WOUld as soon disappear. < mc afternoon one of the occupants ui the home was sitting on the rear I porch, when ;> woodpecker was notic* to Hv in the direction of the fowl h>?use An nvestigation of what bail attructed tin- attention of the bird in this direction, revealed the fact that the feathered visitor was robbing the hen nest. Tin woodpecker first pierced n l?de in the sin II "i the egg ami then drain* , i\ it ui its i nntents. As many ss two und three eggs at a time would be Ircuted In this manner .<t une time bj the w.Ipeeker. It uns uftcrwurds found that tin woodpe? k< r would peii h upon a near hv building, and as soon as the Inns began c.-n'kling, ho would go on a f,,iir ol Investigation of the foal house. i\< m: vsi: efficiency of si;k vick, Bunk ol snintor Now operate Receiv? ing ami Paying Tetters Windows. _ It is just a sign of the Increased business activity in Sumicr that the Hank of Sumter has just added an? other teller to its force to expedite business, thus having a paying teller and a teller for deposits. This is the first bank to have two teller's Win? dow? and the installment of this new man makes the service of the Bank of Sumter the quickest in the city. Mr. E. H. lthame, Jr., is paying tell? er and his quickness is well known in banking service. The new receiv? ing teller is Mr. E. Murr Hall, one of the most popular hank men in this city. Mr. C. A. Witherspoon is added to the force as bookkeeper. The enormous increase of the bank's business has necessitated this increase in the banking force. NEW plants discovered. One Hundred New Species of Plants Growing on Grazing Lands. In making a study of grazing lands on the national forests, 125 entirely new species of plants have been dis? covered by the government's experts, and will be named and classified by the botanists of the department of agriculture. Their discovery came about through the collection of some 9,000 different I plant specimens, with notes as to their habits of growth and forage val l ue. This work is part of a comprc ; hensive plan to determine the grazing value of every acre of national forest land; in which the capacity of the i soil to grow certain forage crops is to be determined and an effort made to decide for which class of stock, 1 sheep, cattle, or goats, the range is best suited. The men who have made the studies j have combined the qualities of prac? tical stockmen and trained botanists. ' They divided the areas into such small subdivision* that maps have peep pre? pared whi? h show exactly the kinds of Iced which grow on each acre, and (he time of year it is ready for graz? ing. The maps also show the stock's water supply and indicate the kind of stock best suited to the area. The Investigation also showed tho examiners many areas covered v. ith flourishing plants which apparently should furnish excellent grazing, but whi b were not of a character relish? ed by stock, these areas, therefore, had little or no stock carrying ca pacity. As a, result of the study, the for? est service announces that it will be in a position to perfect its system of grazing management to bring about still better conditions for both stock and range. WeYTSkSjofr. To an excuse to shirk anything tike work, A face that was never clean. Add tattered clothes, a bright rod nose? And behold this tramp serene. Quick Service The Bank of Sumter - Has Just Opened a DEPOSIT WINDOW To expediate the business of its patrons. Paying Teller and Receiv? ing Teller Quick Service Sumter Railway & Mill Supply Co., sumter, s. c. The season is here when you are obliged to have repairs, generally, as quickly as they can be gotten. We are in your midst, can give you quicker service than our competitors, and we bespeak a part of your business, guaranteeing satisfaction. Our Stock is Complete in the Following Lines: Roofing! rugated ami v Crimped: Klectrold rubber roofllAK? l 3 and S ply. floltinf ? Rubber, (iandy DBIIinfc,. Md leather. Injectors: Allk,?"1* Packing: ?***** as Hose' ^,rai"a,i(^water AX6S* 'vr"wy's f^rb^M. Blocks: JR& a,Mt Ohain' Meel loading end Uftelii ,,,oof to?ied. DhIIamc* Steel, lion jumI ruiicja. w)K?i Kpitt will tu unj tlxe nheft ? Lace Leather: 5f ,,Ml Babbitt Metal: ,() Shafting: MlilEC* Hangers: ,,ro|,w,dp~t Shaft Couplings, r":?^: plate end ribbed. v/aiwac Jenkinennd s' .k* IflllCa. kn] i-4Pi. t? ii. n *t?vk. Iln to to ftln. Iron Pipe Fittings. { all styles. Bar Irop. Round?m|fUt Dine ??* and Thr*ad*d ? 'H** from I-Ma, to ?In. In? clusive, to $?ke?eh. Wire Rope, Saws. \r cut anrt r,rru ChI Hooks, Pumps. Blacksmith Toils. In fact everything carried in mi up-to-date supply house. When needing anything write, phone, wire, or call. Your wants will have immediate attention. Respectfully, Sumter Railway & Mill Supply Co.