University of South Carolina Libraries
$T HALLE ERftlM KIVT5 OLUSTFATTD LAUREN 5T0UT "Shirley," said BOf mother, "ttu ma? jor's brutal, and he shan't huve hid mint-Julep. "What bat ho been doing?" asked the other, her brows wrinkling in a delightful way she had. "Ho has reminded ine that I'm grow? ing old Shirley looked at the major skep? tically, for his chivalry was un? doubted. During a long career in law and legislature it had been said of him tbat ha could neither speak on the tariff question nor defend a man for murder, without first paying a tribute to "the women of the South, aah "Nothing of the sort.** he rumbled. Mrs. Dandridge'fl face softened to wistfulnesa. "Shirley, am I?" she asked, with a quizzical, a I moat a droll uneasiness "Why, I've got every emo? tion I've ever had. I read all the new French novels, and I'm even thinking of going in for the militant suffragette movement'' The girl had tossed her hat and crop on the table and seated herself by her mother's chair. "What was It. he said, dearest?" "He thinks I ought to wear a wor sted shawl and arctics." Her mother thrust out one little thin slippered foot with Its slender ankle gleaming through Its open-work stocking like raother-of-pearl "Imagine! In Mr.y And be knows I'm vain of my fast! Major, If you had ever had a wife you would have learned wisdom. Hut yoa mean well, and 1 11 take back what I said about the Julep. You mix it Shirley Youra Is even better than Haast oil's " "She makes mo one every day, Mon? ty," she continued. ?.s Shirley went Into the house. "And when she isn't loosing. I pour It into tbo bush there." Major Kristow laughed ss he bit the end off a cigar. "All the same,'' be said in bis big rumbling voice, "reo need 'em. 1 reckon. You need ?tore than mint Julops. too You leave t is whiskey to me and the doctor, and yoa take Shlrl?y and pun out Tor Italy. Why not' A year there would do yoo a beep of good " She shook her he ad "No. Monty. It isn't what you think. It's?hero."' Abe lifted her hand and touched her heart "It's been so for a long time. 4lut It may?it can't go ou forever, yoa see Nothing can " The major had leaned forward In his chair Judl'h' he said, and hla head twitched, "it isn't trie!" And theo. "How do you snow 8he smiled at him ' V t rssBjSJgfcgf when that big surpoon from Vienna came to see the doctor last year? Well, the- doctor brought him to m*. I'd known it beforo in a way, but it tiad gone farther Thun 1 thought No one can tell Jint how ions: 1? may be. It may be years, of SOS ISO, led I'm not taking any sea trips Mot rj H>. SjSSffSd his throat and Ms voice was husky wh* n he spoke. "Shirley doesn't know*'' "Certainly not She mustn't." Aid then. In MSMSfl sharpness. 'You sbsn't tell her. Monty. You wouldn't dsre!" "No. Indeed." he assured her quick It "Of course not " "It's Just armng us three. Doctor Routhall and you and me. Wo three have had our secrets boforo, eh, Mon? tr*" Tea. Judith, we | She bent toward him, her hands lightening on Do- can?? \f??-r aM. It's trn? 'I d i'. i .mi k" ?M- , ;d | msy look only fifty, but I fsaj ?dxtr and I'll sdmlt to seventy five ||*| Joy that k??* ps ns young, and I didn't get my fair BBafS of tha?. Monty For Just nnn lpt1?. sjSJSi my hear' gad H all ?all and iBSl WsH. th ?n it was flnlsh'-d H WSf BSlSSjSd M ng be? fore I niarrl* I Totn I>.indr*<'*?' It isn't that I'm SSSStjf headed If " that FfSJ been an empiv fcsaftsd woman, Monty -as ewpf\ ,?t d dust' and dewo late as Mm old hou ??? over yondor on the ridge" "I know, Judith. I know " "You've BOSS ssjsjtp In i way. too," sh? said "Wilt it's n a different way You were n?-v?-r In love reallv ?n lore. I rnenn ('. rtalnlv not with me, Mon'v. though yoa tried to mak-> me think bo onee upon a tune, neforo Bassoon came along, and?Beauty Va? liant." Th*? major bl'nked, anddenly startled. It waa out, the one name neither had spoken to the other for rhirtr years! He looked at her a lit? tle guiltily but her eyes had turned away. Everything changed then," she continued dreamily, "everything." , The major's fingers str.\yed across his waistcoat, fumbling uncertainly for his eye-glasses. For an instant he, too, was back In the long-ago past, when he and Valiant nad been comrades. It bad been a curious three shied affair?he. and Valiant and Sassoou. Sassoon with his dissipated i flnlr and ungovernable temper and strange fits of recklessness; clean, high-idealed. straightaway Valiant; and he?a RriBtow, neither better nor worse than the rest of his name. He remembered that mad strained season when he had grimly recognized his own cause as hopeless, and with burn? ing eyes had watched SaRsoon and Valiant racing abreast. He remem? bered that glittering prodigal dance when he had come upon Valiant and Judith standing in the shrubbery, the i candle-light trom some open door en goldening their faces: hers smiling, a little flippant perhaps, and conscious of her spell; his grave and earnest, yet wistful. "You promise, John?" "I give my sacred word. What- j ever the provocation, I will not lift my hand against him. Never, never!" Then the same voico, vibrant, appeal? ing. "Judith! It isn't because?be? cause?you care for him?" He had plunged away in the dark? ness before her answer came. What had it mattered then to him what ehe had replied? Aid that very night had befallen the fatal quarrel! The major started. How that name had blown away the dust! "That's a long time ago, Judith." "Thirty years ago tomorrow they fought," she said aoltly, "Valiant and Bassoon. Evey woctan has her ono anniversary, 1 suppose, and tomor? row's mine. Do you know what I do, every fourteenth of May, Monty? 1 keep my room and Bpend the day always th* same way. There's a little book I read. And there's an old hair- , cloth trunk that I've had since I was a girl. Down in tho bottom of It are some?thingB. that I take out and set round the room ? ? ? and there is a handful of old letters I go over from flrat to last. They're almost worn out now, but 1 could repeat them all with my eyes shut. Then there's a tiny old straw basket with a yellow wisp In It that once waB a bunch of capo jessamines I wore them to that last ball?the night before It hap? pened. The fourteenth of May used to be sad. but now, do yon know, I look forward to it! I always havo a lot of Jessamines that particular day?I'll havo Shirley get me some tomorrow ?and In the evening, when I go down? stairs, the house Is full of tho scent of them. All summer long it's roses, but on tho fourteenth of May it has to bo jessamines. Shirley must think mo a v nimslcal old woman, but I in Bist on being humored." He smiled, a Uttle bleakly, and cleared his throat. "Isn't It strange for me to be talk? ing this way now!" she said present? ly "Another proof lhat I'm petting old Hut the date brings It very close; it seems, somehow, closer than ever this year ? Monty, weren't you tre? mendously surprised when I married Ton Dandrldge?" "I certainly was." 11 tell you a secret. I was, too. I suppose I did it because of a sneak? ing feeling that lomn people wore feel? ing sorry for me, which I never could stuDd. Well, ho was a man any one night honor. I've always thought a woman ought to havo two husbands: ono to love and cherish, and the other to honor and obey. 1 bad tho latter, at any rate " "And >ou'vo lived. Judith.*' he said. ' \ * ?." she agreed, with a little tlgh, "I've lived I'vo had Shirley, and she's twenty and adorable. And I'vo had 1 peoplo enough, and hooks to read, and j plenty of pretty things to look at, and pld leV I to wear, and I've kept my Rgura and ni> vanity?I'm not too i 1 yel to thank tho Ixml for that! Bo don't talk to DM about worsted shawll and horrible arctics. For 1 won t wolf 'em. Not If I know my? self! Hero come* Shirley. She's idi t".,, juleps, and If \ou'ro a gen llemsn. youll distract her attention till I e got rid Of mine In my usual v ay." The or, at tho foot of tho cherry b rder< d lano, looked b'ink across the 1 I. tO \v|i, rS thO tWO AgUtf i<b r ib" rose-arbor, the mother's face turned lovlrgrj down to Balrtoy'i at her knee Hi stood a moment watching thetn from under his ?kmchad hat brim. v..n never looked at rat that way. Judith, did you!" he sighed to him? self "It s been a long time, too, slnco 1 b. ?an to wan' \ou to 'most forty i Wboi it same to tho show* OOWBi 1 WafBl Oft? as fit us Tom I *ndl iilge'" CHAPTER IX. Damory Court. "Dar's Dam'ry Coot smack-dab ahaid, suh." John Valiant looked up. Facing than at an elbow of the broad road, was an old gateway of time-nicked stone, clasping an iron gate that was quaint and heavy and red with rust He put out his hand. "Wait a moment." he said in a low voice, and as the creaking conveyance stopped, he turned and looked about him. Facing the entrance the land fell away sharply to a miniature valley through which rambled a willow-bor? dered brook, In whose shallows short horned cows Rtood laxily. Beyond, whither wound the Red Road, ha, could see a drowsy village, with a spire and a cupolaed court-house; and farther yet a yellow gorge with a wisp of white smoke curling above it marked the course of a crawling far-away railway. "Et's er moughty fine ol' place, suh, mid dat big revenue ob trees," said Uncle Jefferson. "But Ah recVn et ain' got nono ob de modem conniv? ances." As Valiant jumped down he was possessed by an odd sensation of old acquaintance?as if he had seen those tall white columns before?an lllur He Inserted the Key In the Rutted Lock. sory half-vtBion Into some shadowy, fourth-dimensional landscape that be? longed to bis subconscious self, or that, glimpsed in some immaterial dream pfctnre, had left a i'aint-etohed memory. Then, on a sudden, the vista vibrated and widened, the white col? umns expanded and shot up into the clouds, and from every bush seemed to peer a friendly black savage with woolly white hair! "Wishing-House!" he whispered. The hidden country which his father's thoughts, badly recurring, had painted to the little child that once he was, in the guise of an endless wonder tale! His eves misted over, and it seemed to him that moment that his father was very near. Leaving the negro to unload his be? longings, he traversed an overgrown path of mossed gravel, between box rows frowalod like the manes of lions gono mad and smothered In an ac? cumulation of matted roots and debris of rotting foliage, and presently, the bulldog at his heels, found himself in the rear of the house. "Mine!" he said aloud with a rueful pride. "And for general run-down ness, It's up to the advertisement" Ho looked musingly at the piteous wreck and ruin, his gase sweeping down across the bared fields and un? kempt forest. "Mine!" he repeated. All that, 1 suppose, for it has the same earmarks of neglect. Between those cultivated stretches it looks like a wedge of Sahara gone astray." His gaie returned to the house. "Yet what a place It L.ust have been in its time!" He went slowly back to where his con? ductor sat on the lichened horse? block, i "We'R heah," called Uncle Jefferson cheerfully. "Whut we gwlnter do nex', suh? Reck'n Ah better go ovah ter Miss Dandrldge's place fer er crowbah. l.awd!" he added, "ef ho ain' got de key! Whut yo' think ob dat now?" John Valiant was looking closely at the big key; for thero were words, which he had not noted before en? graved In the massive Hange. "Friends all hours." He smiled. The sentiment seal a warm current of pleasure to his Angsr-tips. H?re was the very text of hospitality! A Lilliputian spider-web was stretched over the preempted keyhole, and ho fetched a grass-stem and poked out its tiny gray striped denizen be? fore he Inserted the key In the rusted lock He turned It with a curioue sense of timidity. All the strength of his fingen was necessary before the massive door swung open and the lev? eling Kim sent its late rod rays into the gloomy interior. He stood in a spacious hall, his nos? tril* filled with a curious but not un? pleasant aromatic odor with which the. place ?as strongly impregnated. The hall ran tin* full length of the build? ing, and in its center a wide, bains traded double italrcass led to upper dsrknett, The floor, where hit toot prlnti had disturbed the even gray dim <>r dutt, was of ?no close par? quetry and had been generously ?trewn everywhere with a mtca-llks powder, lie tooped and took up a pinch in his fingers, noting thai it gave, forth tho curious spicy scent Dim paintings in tarnished frames hung on the walls. From a niche on the break of the stairway looked down the face of a tall Dutch clock, and on one side protruded a huge bulging something draped with a yellowed linen sheet. From its shape ho guessed this to be an elk's head. Dust, undisturbed, lay thickly on everything, ghostly floating cobwebs crawled across his face, and a bat flitted out of a fireplace and vanished squeak? ing over his head. With Uncle Jef? ferson's help he opened the rear doors and windows, knocked up the rusted belts of the shutters and flung them wide. Hut for tho dust and cobwebs and the strange odor, mingled with tho faint musty smell that pervades a sun? less Interior, the former owner of the house might have deserted it a week ago. On a wall-rack lay two walking sticks and a gold-mounted hunting crop, and on a great carved chest below it had been flung p.n opened book bound in tooled leather. John Valiant picked this up curiously. It was "Lncile." He noted that here and there passages were marked with penciled lines?some light and femi? ninely delicate, some heavier, as though two had been reading it to? gether, noting their individual prefer? ences. He laid it back musingly, and open? ing a door, entered the large room it disclosed. This had been the dining room. At one end stood a crystal knobbed mahogany sideboard, holding class candlesticks in the shape of Ionic columns?above it a quaint por? trait of a lady in hoops and love curls?and at the other end was a huge fireplace with rust-red fire-dogs and tarnished brass fender. All these, with the round centipede table and tho Chippendale chairs set in order against the walls, were dimmed and grayed with a thick powdering of dust. The next room that he entered wa? big and wide, a place of dark colors, nobly smutched of time. It had been at once library and living-room. A great leather settee was drawn near the desk and beside this stood a read 1 ing-stand with a small china dog and a squat bronze lamp upon it. In con? trast to the orderly dining-room there was about this chamber a sense of untouched disorder?a desk-drawer jerked half-open, a yellowed news? paper torn across and flung into a cor? ner, books tossed on desk and lounge, and in the fireplace a little heap of whitened ashes In which charred frag? ments told of letteri and papers ; burned in haste. Suddenly be lifted his eyes. Above the desk hung a life-size portrait of a man, in the high soft stock and vel i vet collar of half a century before. I The right eye, strangely, had been cut 1 from tho canvas. He stood straight j and tall, ono hand holding an eager hound In leash, his face proud and i florid, his single, cold, steel-blue eye staring down through its dusty curtain with a certain malicious arrogance, , and his lips set in a sardonic curve that seemed about to sneer. It was for an instant as if the pictured figure confronted the young man who stood there, mutely challenging bis entrance into that tomb-like and secret-keeping ; quiet; and he gazed back as fixedly, repelled by the craft of the face, yet subtly attracted. "I wonder who you were," he said. "You were cruel. Perhaps you were wicked. But you were strong, too." He returned to the outer hall to find that the negro had carried in his trunk, and he bade him place it, with I the portmanteau, in the room he had just left. Dutjt was falling. "Uncle Jefferson," said Valiant ah ruptly, "have you a family?" "No, suh. Jes* me en mah oi 'ooman." "Can she cook?" "Cook'." Tho genial titter agair captured his dusky escort. "Whee she got de flxons, Ah reck'n she d? beaten'es cook in bis heah county." "How would you both like to liv? here with me for a while? She could cook and you could take care of me.' Uncle Jefferson's eyes seemed tc j turn inward with mingled Burprise and ' introspection. He shifted from one ! foot to the other, swallowed difflcultlj j several times, and said, "Ah ain' neb bah seed yo' befo', suh." "Well, I haven't seen you either, have I?" "Dat's de trufe. suh, 'deed et is! Hyuh, hyuh! Whut Ah means tei say is dat do oT 'ooman kain' cook no fancv didoes like what dey eats ur, Norf. She kin Jes' cook do Fei style." "That sounds good to me," qnotb Valiant. "I'll risk It Now as tc wages?" j "Ah ain* spocticulous as ter de Wages," said Uncle Jefferson. "Ab knows er geniman when Ah sees one.' "Then its a bargain," responded Va llant with alacrity. "Can you come al once?" "Yas, suh, me en Daph gwinetet come ovah fus' thing in de mawnin' Whut yo'-all gwineter do fo' yo' sup i pah.'" 'TU get along," Valiant assured h\m cheerfully. "Hera is five dollars. You can buy some food and things tc! cook with, and bring them with you Do you think there's a stove in the kitchen?" "Ah reck'n," replied Uncle Jefferson "En ef dar ain* Daph kin cook er Ckris'mua dinnah aid fo' stones en er tin skillet. Ya?, suh!" He ? nidged away Into tho shadows, but presently as the new master of! Damory Court stood in the gloomy hall, he heard tho shambling step again behind him. "Ah done neglect tinted ter ax yo' namo, suh. Ah did. fo' er fac'." "My name is Valiant. John Va? liant." Undo Jefferson's eyes turned up? ward and rolled out of orbit. "Mah Lewd!'1 he ejaculated soundlessly. And with his wide lips still framed about the last word, he backed out of the doorway and disappeared. Alone in the ebbing twilight, John Valiant found his hamper, spread a napkin on the broad stone steps and took out a glass, a spoon and part of a loaf of bread. The thermos flask was filled with milk. It was not a splendid banquet, yet he ate it with a great content as the bulldog at his feet gun wed his share of the crust. He broke his bread into the milk as he had not done since he was a child, and ate the luscious pulp with a keen relish bred of the long outdoor day. It was almost dark when the meal was done and, depleted hamper in hand, he reentered the empty echoing house. He went into the library, lighted the great brass lamp from the motor and began to rummage. The drawers of the dining-room sideboard yielded nothing; on a shelf of the but? ler's pantry, however, was a tin box which proved to be half full of wax candles, perfectly preserved. "The very thing!" he said triumph? antly. Carrying them back, he fixed several in the glass-candlesticks and set them, lighted, all about the somber room till the soft glow flooded its every corner. "There," he said, "that is as it should be. No big bla? tant search-light here! And no glare of modern electricity would suit that old wainscoting, either." He dragged the leather settee to the porch and by the light of the motor lamp dusted it thoroughly, and wheel? ing it back, set it under the portrait which had so attracted him. He washed the gla&B from which he had I dined and filled it at the cup of the garden fountain, put into it the rose from his hat and set it on the read? ing-stand. The small china dog caught his eye and he picked it up casually. The head came off in his hands. It had been a bon-bon box and was empty save for a narrow strip of yellowed paper, on which were writ? ten some meaningless figures: 17-28 94-0. He pondered this a moment, then thrust it into one of the empty pigeonholes of the desk. On the lat? ter stood an old-fashioned leaf-calen? dar; the date it exposed was May 14th. Curiously enough the same date would recur tomorrow. The page bore a quotation: "Every man carries hie fate on a riband about his neck." The line had been quoted in his father's letter. May 14th?how much that date and that motto may have meant for him! He ror?5 to push the shutter wider and in the movement his elbow sent a He Shuddered at He Stooped to Pick Up the Weapon. shallow case of morocco leather that had lain on the desk crashing to the floor. It opened and a heavy metallic 1 object rolled almost to his feet. He saw at a glance that it was an old fashioned rusted dueling-pistol. (To be Continued.) ?Poley Cathartic Tablets are entire ' ly effective, thoroughly cleansing and always pleasant in action. They con? tain blue dap, are a remedy for con { Btlpatioil and sluggish liver, and a ! tonic to the bowels, which are im ' proved by their use. Try them. They I do not fail to give relief and satis? faction. Slbert'a Drug Store.?Advt. The convict enge suffered some miner damages Thursday morning as i it was being taken out of the yard at Skinner's shop and bad to be taken back to be repaired before it could I)*' taken out t<> the eonvicl camp. Chamberlain's .blots. These tablets are Intended especial* i for disorders of the stomach, liver and bowels. It you are troubled with heartburn, indigestion or constipa? tion they wiil do you good. Try them. For s;il?' bj all dealers.?Advt. Marriage License Keeonl. Licenses to many have been grant? ed to John Davis and Besinn J. etc Fadden of Hhlloh, and Kobery Hen and Ainu Goodman of Lynchburg. ORDERED TO SET OUT. S?\.Mur?M,ti, Infantry Direct* <1 to Leave Soon. Atlanta. <ja ., March 14.?Order* were received at Port McPnerson here today ror the Seventeenth infantry, ordered t.. ;>,pie i>a.ss, Texas for bor? der patrol duty In connection with the Mextci n situation, to prepare to leave not later than next Thursday. Lieut. Col. Th .mas Griffith of the Nineteenth infantry at Jefferson barracks, St. Louis, is expected to arrive here to? morrow to take command of the Seventeenth. He succeeds Col. John T. Van t u sdale. who recently reach? ed the ag^ limit of army service. Avoid Stuffy Wheezy Breathing. ?Take Foley's Honey and Tar Com? pound for an inflamed and congest? ed condition of the air passage? and ) bronchial tubes. A cold develops quickly if not checked and bronchitis, lagrippe and pneumonia are danger? ous possibilities. Harsh racking coughs weaken the system, but Fo? ley's Honey and Tar is safe, pure and certain in results. Contains no opi ' ates. Sibert's Drug Store.?ASvt. MEMPHIS STEAMER BURNED. ? Boat a Total Loss But No Lives Lost. Memphis, March 16.?The steam? boat Harry Lee was burned at the wharf this morning. Xo lives were lost. A Word of Caution. One should be exceptionally care? ful just now about taking cold, and when a cold is contracted get rid of it as qu,ckly as possible. To accom? plish this you will rind Chamberlain's Cough Remedy excellent. It is not only prompt and effectual but is pleasant and safe to take, and has a reputation of forty years back of it. For sale by all dealers.?Advt. Saturday was a bad day for the blind tigers, half a dozen of them hav? ing been ca.ught in their operations. Special "Health Warning*' for March. ?March Is) a trying month for the ! very young and for elderly people. Croup, bronchial colds, lagrippe and ' pneumonia are to be feared and avoided. Foley's Honey and Tar is a great family medicine that will quickly stop a cough, check the pro ' cress of a cold and relieve inflamed and congested air passages. It is safe, and always reliable. Sibert's Drug , Store?Advt NO CONCESSIONS TO I LSTER. British < Government Will Carry Oat Home Rule Programme. London, \ arch 16.?That tho Brit? ish government will make no further concessions o the Unionists of Ulster province, who object to home rule was the announcement made today In the house of commons by Premier * Asauith. The programme is to give Ulster a referendum vote as to wheth? er they shall be excluded from the op? eration of the home rule law. Plain Truth that's Worth Money. ?Using Foley's Honey and Tar for a cough or cold may save you both i sickness and money. f. f. Monahan, \ Menomonie, Wis., says: "I am ex j posed to all kinds of weather and I , find Foley's Honey and Tar com : pound always fixe? me up in good ! shape when I catch cold or have a ; bad cough. I recommend it gladly." j Refuse substitutes. Sibert's Drug Store.?Advt. Tobacco planters should apply to ! the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, for Farmers' Bul? letin No. 571, "Tobacco Culture," by W. W. Garner, issued February 27, 1914. Conviction Bom of Experience. The man who has used Chamber? lain's Cough Remedy and watched and felt and realized its remarkable I curative properties will you that it has no superior f coughs and j colds. The renarkab* success of this ' preparation aided I / the personal recommendations o. people who have been cured by iU has made it one of the most popular medicines in use. Try it when you have a cough or cold and realize for yourself what a first class cough medicine will accomplish. For sale by a 1 dealers.?Advt. SUMTER COTTON MARKET. Corrected Daily b> Ernest Field Cotton Buyer. Middling II 3-4. Strict Low Middling 12 3-1. Low Middling 11 3-4. Strict Good Ordinary 11 -4. Staple cotton 13 to 15. \ New York Cotton Market. i New York, March 16. Opening Close. Mar.12.6? 12.65 Mac.12.07 12.0t ,]Ulv.ll.ta 11.91 Aug. 11.75 o,.t.11.46 11.39 Dee. lust right lor Hack a che and Rheuma - tiaiu. ?Foley Kidney Bills are so thor? oughly effective for backache, rheu? matism, swollen, aching joints, kidney and bladder a Iments that they are reoom mended everywhere. A. A. Jeffords, atcOtow, Nebr.. says: "My druggist recommended Foley Kidney Pills for pains in my back, and before 1 finished one bottle, my eld treuble entirely disappeared." Sibert's Drug Store.?Advt.