Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-26

was going or how long he was likely to
| be away" she asked.
My master. ma'am,' replied Wigges-
| wick. never knows where he is going
That's why he wants a wife who can tell
him."
Fora rose and looked around her. Then,
with a sweep OF her umbrella indicating
the general dustiness and untidiness Of
the room:
THE best thing you can do said she
is to have the house thoroughly cleaned
and put in order They may be back any
day: III send charwoman to help you"
somewhat glumly. Although he had lied
volubly to her for his own ends. he stood
In awe Of her commanding personality,
and never dreamed of disregarding her
/ high behests. But he had moral disap-
prevail of work. He could see no nobility
in it, having done so much enforced labor
in his time.
do you think we need begin now,
ma amp he asked, anXiously.
AT once" said Fora. 1T will take you
| month to clean the place. And it will
give you something to do
| She went away femininely consoled by
| her exercise of authority-a minor victory
covering retreat. But she still felt very
angry with Septimus.
When Glenn Sypher came down to Pen
| ton Court for the week end he treated
the matter lightly.
He knew that he was acceptable to
| your mother and yourself, so he has done
nothing dishOnorable All he wanted was
your sister and the absence Of fuss. 1
! think it sporting of him. l do truly.
! And l think you're detestable!' cried
Fora. There's not single man that
can understand"
What do you want ME to under
stand?''
Il don't know said Fora, but you
ought to understand it,
| day or two later. meeting Rattenden
again. She found that he comprehended
her too fully.
! What would have pleased you said
| he, would have been to play the seur
noble, to have gathered the young couple
| in your embrace, and magnanimouSly
| given them to each other, and smiled on
the happiness of which you had been the
bounteous dispenser. They've cheated
you. They've cut your part clean out of
the comedy, and you don't like it. If I'm
not right will you kindly order me out
pause, during which she hung her head.
! oh you can stay she said with a
| half laugh. You're the kind Of man
| that always bets on a certainty.
| Rattenden was right. She was jealous
| Of Emmy for having unceremoniously
stolen her slave from her service-that
Emmy had planned the whole conspiracy
! she had not the slightest doubt-and she
was angry with Septimus for having been
weak enough to lend himself to such du-
! plicity. Even when he wrote her a duti-
| full letter from Paris--to the telegram he
| had merely replied, Sorry: impossible
| full of everything save Emmy and their
plans for the future, she did not forgive
! him. How dared he consider himself fit
| to travel by himself? His own servant
qualified his doings as outlandish.
They'll make a terrible mess Of their
! honeymoon she said to Glenn Sypher.
They'll start for Rome and find them
selves In st. Petersburg
They'll be just as happy" said Sypher.
If / was on my honeymoon do you think
I'd care where l went?"
well. / wash my hands of them,' said
| Fora with sigh, as if bereft of dear re-
! sponsibilities. mo doubt they're happy
in their own way.
And that, for a long time. was the end
of the matter The house. cleaned and
polished. gittered like the instrument
room of man-of-war, and no master or
mistress came to bestow on Wiggles-
wicks toll the need Of their appreciation.
The old man settled down again to we'll
earned repose. and the house grew dusty
and dingy again, and duStier and dingier
as the weeks went on.
| It has been before stated that things
happen slowly in Nunsmere. even the re-
awakening of Zora's nostalgia for the
great world. and life and the secrets OF
the earth. But things do happen there
eventually and the time came when Fora
found herself once again too big for the
| little house. She missed Emnny's period
| ical visits. She missed the regulation Of
| Septimus She missed her little motor
expeditions with Sypher. who had sold
his car and was about to sell 1.-THE Kur-
haus, Kilburn Priory." The Cure seemed
| to have transformed itself from his heart
| to his nerves. He talked of it-or so it
appeared to herewith more bragGadocio
than enthusiasm. He could converse Of