Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-03

at the restful angle which bespeaks din
ner enjoyed-a days work well done. His
host. James Henry Smylie, gazed into the
open fireplace, his shoulders hunched for
ward aggressively. his fragrant Havana
belching forth smoke at that angle which
always suggests a problem yet unsolved.
That's the third governess she has fired
in three months. hire them and she fires
them. 1t is a regular game Of tag. with
the governess always it,
when do you expect Mrs. smylie home
from Europe?"
smylie ignored the question with a Shout
der shrug which Carruth did not under
stand-as yet.
Bessie says she is tired Of fossils who
never were young. Says they lack SYM
pathy. Now I am going to try young
woman, as near Bessie's age as dare to
venture"
"Yes," said Carruth, feeling that he was
expected to say something, yet, being
bachelor, somewhat at sea when consulted
on this particular domestic problem. Now,
II Smylie had wanted to know the best way
Of whipping the Bradley Construction Com
pany into line or handling the B. & L. peo-
pie. Carruth would have been wide awake
In minute, but why James Henry Smylie,
president Of the Cement and Concrete trust,
should be worrying about domestic matters
when he had a wife and a staff of servants
was something beyond Carruth's compre-
hension.
The young lawyer had some old-fash-
Toned ideas about women managing the
home and all pertaining thereto. Besides.
he had never met the second Mrs. Smylie,
at present buying feminine fripperies In
Paris in preparation for the summer cam
paign at Newport, and he did not realize
that she was much more OF butter
fly, much less able to grapple with domestic
problems. than even the tyrannical and
youthful Bessie whose long line of COVER
nesses and companions had become a thorn
in the flesh of her father.
II have wired for Peggy Moreland. She
is a well-bred high-minded girl. who will
rather than by precept. No lectures from
Peggy, 1 feel sure, but wholesome COM
partnership"
Sounds like a paragon" replied Car
ruth reaching for fresh cigar.
mo; a girl who has had the good things
of life and lost them through no fault Of
her own. Her father is an underpaid col
lege professor at -. He was one OF my
classmates at Harvard and her mother Is
a typical southern gentlewoman. The girl
was practically adopted by an aunt, edu-
Gated abroad, has travelled, and was the
aunt's heiress. The only trouble was the
aunt, in her second childhood, took to the
Street-and there was nothing left for
Peggy to inherit. Peggy. understand, has
taken up the deal-level life in a midwest
college town and her father has written to
a post as private secretary here. I'm going
to trust to her having inherited the high
ideals of her father and the good breeding
of he'd mother, and give her chance with
Bessie
So did Max Carruth first hear Of Peggy
Moreland Two weeks later. lining again
with the Smyaes, he met her Two hours
after dinner he left the house feeling that
1t would be a long time before he knew
her.
And SO it proved. The quiet-voiced girl
with the smile sympathetic and friendly
when turned upon her charge, inScrutable
and impersonal when turned upon him, still
remained a stranger to him as the summer
months rolled round. Carruth had come
out of the west, not as Colorado David
Harum, who knew naught of finger bowls
or evening clothes, but possessed Of certain
democra tic ideas, absorbed from million
aire cattlemen and. millionaire mine owners
whose legal difficulties he had solved Smy-
lie had found him there among the daring
operators in the silver and gold fields and
had decided that his were just the keen
mind and strong healthy nerves needed for
the Cement and Concrete Trust.
Carruth had sigralized his entrance into
eastern life by buying a high power motor
car and he could not understand why Miss
Moreland did not want to share this car on
his exhilarating runs, also various other
privileges offered in the most friendly
spirit 1t never dawned upon this demo-
cratic spirit from the west that Peggy
Moreland had studied the character Of
Lily Bart, in THE House of Mirth," TILL she
was positively morbid regarding her re-
lations with the very set of society in
which her aunt had introduced her before
the unlucky venture on the street. When
she was alone with Bessie, all barriers We're
down, and intuitively, Mr.. Smyate felt that
all was well. Three months without a COM
plant about gOverness broke all records
in his family circle. He was not looking
for psychological study-but peace within
his home.
NIGHT of ho
dance which was to mark the opening of
the new Smylie country estate in the Berk-
shires.
80 cannot live without you. sweet
heart, and now that the way is open for
us, are you brave enough to come to me?
We can signal the express at Lanes juno
ton, and be on board the steamer before
the dance Is over-ready to sail at day.
break. Do not fail me- dearest
Until death, yours devotedly,
ARTHUR"
Peggy Moreland dropped the fervid note.
on the cretonne-covered dressing table and
buried her face in her hands.
How could she do it? Was there any
thing more cowarday, more ungrateful? A
few scalding tears trickled between her
trembling fingers, then suddenly she pulled
herself together. Picking up the note. she
tore it into pieces and tossed them upon
the smouldering Goals.
With lips tightly compressed she looked
around the room until her glance fell upon
a somber automobile cloak OF dark blue
silk, flung carelessly across gay little
chair Of white and gold enamel. Pinning
the train of her soft black gown to it's
silken girtle, she slipped on the coat COM
pletely hiding her bare neck and Shout
ders. The motoring cap she pulled we'll
over her eyes, driving the long hatpin firm
ly through her pale gold hair and tying the
veil recklessly under chin. Lightly she
crossed the room to the open French win
dow and looked out.
A fire secape fell In white angular lines
from the small Italian balcony. On the top
rung a lace-edgedN handkerchief swung.
She stopped to pick this up, then deftly and
silently she crept down the first Of the
three ladders.
Max Carruth brought his car to a sudden
stop and peered through the vista of care
fully trimmed trees. With a sharp excla-
nation he ran the car to the side of the
drive, sprang lightly to the ground and
cut across the lawn toward the house. The
dark figure coming down the fire escape
stood out like an exaggerated silhouette
against the white stucco background of the
Smylie villa. When her feet touched the
last rung of the ladder the girl closed her
eyes, gasped, clutched the next to the last
rung with her firm. strong hands, swayed
in mfdair an instant then dropped straight
into Carruth's arms.
You"
They uttered the word as in a common