The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-11-02

him like nightmare 1t the postscript, however.
that dealt him his death blow. If you break up
you expected" it said, and come 10 New
York Friday don't forget that expect you out here
Sunday. Come and spend the day I've told mamma
all about you, and she's crazy to meet YOU
1t was the fact that Ruby Hazel had apparently
taken her family into her confidence that made Jim
realize that the die cast. He sat damp leg
in the rainy woods that day and tried TO remember
what he had said Ruby Hazel. and what she had
tfpeq ua ms B PLtH I iS f Ii iris
than the idea of telling Ruby Hazel and her
parents there had been mistake, and that she
didn't for him in the least, which would have
been chyalrous if not convincing.
He have had very had two hours of it there
in the woods, but he evidently knew where TO put the
blame. for he back 10 camp feeling sick and
face the consequences Of his own diocy. meaning
of course. in plain language. that if Ruby Hazel
wanted him, he was hers and would be led as lamb
to the slaughter.
At the time it never occurred him that possibly
Ruby Hazel family might not consider an allowance
OF fifteen dollars week aGluence. or himself some
thing dropped down from ParnassuS to elevate the
He came to town the next week and spent three
miserable days in a closed house with the shrOuded
furniture and stopped clocks: and was torced TO I'm,
agine Ruby Hazel ornamentng the old rooms, and
grew cold the thought. 1t sheer cowardice
alone that prevented him from cabling his parents to
appear the scene and forbid the bans.
When Sunday morning arrived he faced it as
doomed prisoner might his hanging day but the same
vanity that occasionally actuats these gentry 10 array
themselves for the spectacle induced him TO don his
finest apparel
The one thing Jim does blush to remembe. is what
absolute smarness he strove for in his stfad days
He says that the fact that his throat was never
cut with his own collar is sign that the gods had
reserved him for lofty things in the future.
He arrived Ruby Hazels town, dismal little
suburban place, about two in the afternoon, and was
directed by the station agent the while divers small
hoys CAPPED at his splendor, to the Tompkins house
The man added facetiously. he hoped Miss Rube
would be nome-a suggestion which Jim haughtily
overlooked
He found the house without difficulty chance
remark of Ruby HaZel's to the effect that she
crazy about statuary led him to infer that the lawn
adorned with a huge plaster dog and stag. and the
drive ornamented with an iron jockey holding ring
aloft, led to her bower
He admitted by an untdy maid who apparently
by his appearance, gaped at him until a
whisper from the hall above instructed her to show
the gentleman into the parlor. The parlor quite
esei him that for the moment he forgot to be sur
Drised that Ruby Hazel hadn't appeared at her
front door to fling herself into his 1t all
red plush and gilt and tables and manteldrapes
and the easel in the held crayon portrait of
determined. if somewhat wild in the eye young gentle
with pOmpadour like brush. and an extrava-
CANT display of necktie. There realistic cluster
CT oranges made from yellow tissue paper dangling
from the chandelier and the walls crowded with
oil paintings, obviously of home manufacture, that
even in his distracted state enchanted him
Over the mantel a lion framed behind genuine
bars and bearing the motto, In Captivity. Also, he
noticed that he sitting directly in
which woven pleasing likeness of the late Gen
eral Grant with crossed American flags above his head
entwined with the quotation Let have peace" In
fact, the entire room was so reminiscent of Ruby
Hazels style Of Embarrassing that he wondered he
hadn't imagined it all on their first meeting and for
the hundredth time his brain throbbed at the evasve
recollection of what he had said to Ruby Hazel and
what he would be eXDect"l o when she appeared
1t was not Ruby Hazel who presently entered but
Ruby Hazel she would be thirty years hence
From the too elaborate hair to the strainng lace
blouse Mrs TomDkins was slammed like a coin with
her daughters personality He would have known
her in crowd, and the sickening conviction seized
him that she had come to demand his intentions and
that Ruby Hazel doubtless concealed in the next
listening
Mrs Tompkins herself however after the first for
NAL greeting, seemed ill at Jim himself She
evaded his natural curiosity concerning the where
abous of Ruby Hazel by an incoheren dissertation