Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-04-04
CHAPTER XVII.

| had been threatening for some time.
Take an tmmovable body. represented
BY Mr.. HARRISON and his square Jaw,
and IN Irresistible force. Jimmy and
hts weight. md there - bound to b.
I trouble.
Tho real fault was Jim's. He had
Goos entirely mad again over Bella.
! and thrown prudence to the winds.
He mooned at her across the dinner
table. and waylaid her on the stairs
| or In the back halls. just to hear her
voice when she ordered him out of the
way. He telephoned for flowers and
candy for her quite shamelessiy, and
he got out book of photographs that
they had taken on their wedding jour
ney, and kept it on the library table.
| The sole concession he made to our
presumptive relationship was to bring
me the responsibility for everything
that went wrong, ard his shirts for
buttons.
The first heard of the trouble was
from Dial. He w'aylaid me in the hall
after dinner that night, and his face
was serior:
I'm afraid we can't keep It up very
long, Kit" he said. with Jim trail
| ing Bella all over the house, and the
old lady keener every day, it's bound
to come out somehow. And that isn't
all. Jim and HARRISON had set-to
today-about YOU"
About me-" repeated. ''Oh,
darS say have been falling short
again. What was Jim doing? Abusing
me?'
Dial looked cautiously over his shout
| der, but no one was near.
1T seems that the gentle Bella has
been unusually beastly today to Jim,
and-1 believe she's Jealous Of you.
Kit. Jim followed her up to the roof
before dinner with q box Of flowers,
and she tossed them over tho parapet.
She said. I believe, that she didn't
want his flowers: He could buy them
for you, and be damned to him, or
some iadylike equivalent"
"Jim is a jellyfsh," said con-
temptuously. What did he say?"
'rHe said he only cared for one wom-
an, and that was Bella: That he never
had really cared for you and never
would, and that divorce courts were
not unmitigated evils II they showed
people the way to real happiness.
Which wouldn't amount to anything
If HARRISON had not been in the tent,
trying to sleep!"
Dial did not know all tho particulars,
but 1t seems that relations between
Jim and Mr.. HARRISON were rather
strained. Bella had left the roof and
| Jim and the HARRISON man came face
to face in the door Of the tent Ac-
cording to Dial, little had been said.
but Jim, bound by his promise to me.
could not explain, and could only
stammer something about being IN
old friend Of Miss Knowles. And Tom
had replied shortly thAt It was none
Of his business, but that there were
some things friendship hardly justi-
fed, and tried to pass Jim. Jim was
instantly enraged: He blocked the
door to the roof and demanded to
know what the other man meant
There were two or three versions Of
the answer he got. The general pur-
port was that Mr.. Harrison had NO
desire to explain further, and that
VIZ 0ASu0SAoA "SO AVICou vi 04444s ouS
II he insisted-when 9 man system
atically ignored and neglected his
wife for some one else. there we're
communities where hs would b tarrsd
and fathered
Meaning me?" Jim demanded, apo
pletic.
The remark was q general one"
Mr.. HARRISON retorted, "but II you
wish to make . concrete applica-
tion-!"
Dial had gone up Just them, and
found them glazing at each other, Jim
with his hands clenched at his sides
and Mr.. Harbison with his arms fold
ed and very erect. Dial took Jim by
the elbow and led him downstairs,
muttering. and tho situation was
saved for the time. But Dial was not
optimistic.
"You can do bit yourself, Kit" he
finished. Look more cheerful, flirt
little. You can do that without try
Ing. Take Max on for a day or so:
1t would be charity anyhow. But
don't let Tom HARRISON take 1t into
his head that you are grieving over
Jim's neglect, or he's likely to toss
him of the roof
II have no reason to think that Mr..
HARRISON cares one way or the other
about me-" said primly. You don't
think he's-he's in love with me. do
you, DALI" 1 watched him out Of the
corner of my ego, but he-only looked
amused.
''1n love with youi" he repeated.
why, bless your wicked little heart.
no! He thinks you're married wom-
an! It's the principle of the thing
he's fighting for. II / had as much
principle - he has Fd-Vd put It out
at interest"
MAX Interrupted ~ just then, and
asked II We knew where Mr.. HARRISON
was.
Cant find him." he said. 1--WE got
the telephone together and have
enough left over to make another.
Where do you suppose HARRISON hides
the tools? I'm working with cork
screw and two palette knives"
heard nothing more Of the trouble
that night. Max went to Jim about
It. and Jim said ansrily that only q
fool would interfere between man
and hls Wife-wives. Whereupon Max
retogted that q fool and his wives
NAV Ia Nj