The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1914-04-09
cHAPTER Xxx tcontinued,.

Mr.. Hemminger drove on with a sigh.
The story, Of them actresses" had done
Mr.. Curran M good, despite his win
ming fight. Neither did his Quixotic
championship Of the pocket squatters'
Mr.. Curran was always meddling in
some Improbable affair. the defender
or some larne-dog case. When Mr..
Hemminger reached Janet Vance's Of
nee to discuss the new seats for his
district school with her. he touched on
MT. Curran's weaknesses. Somebody
ought to hold Wiley in tight, Miss
Vance. He needs it. And he's coming
on 50 big, Wiley Is"
She smiled, wondering what curious
pain 1t gave her to hear Curran praised
by these rugged men Of the country
who daily came into her office. Her
farmer constituents took q shy graft
dcation in Janet's appreciation Of their
homely affairs. They were proud OF
her also. "old Jake's girl was a smart
one-maybe she would marry this new
lighting governor who was 80 mighty
Interested In heri But then there was
Wiley Currani They were proud of
him, too. ".
An hour later, glanctng out, she saw
Curran and Hemminger together. their
shoulders to a heavy casting, which
some farmer was trying to load in his
wagon at Dtckinson's warehouse. And
again her faint smile came. Yes, they
loved him-they had made place for
him. And she? Well, she had done
her part also for him. And she knew
him so much better than any Of them!
Curran had been busted all the final
campaign. There vas fear that the old
county gang would knife his candidacy
so his hackers had kept him at the
'front.'. But he had no misgtvings. He
had returned to his home town brown
n hearty, pleased with the sense of
victory. He had discovered surprising
qualities in himself. a caustic retort,
q merciless ~clearness that pleased the
armer The papers commented on
his "brilliance." Janet had ead and
listened. 1t was more than winning a
campaign; 1t was h making of q man.
He saw her when he passed the court
house and came to her, eager, volatile,
bubbling with tales of the progressive
cause. II made EN- listen, Janet!"
Then in her calm eyes, back Of her
serene smile, he seemed to read again
the inexplicable pain which he did not
care to fathom. And he went from
her, steadied by a sense Of her faith,
but refusing to dwell upon IT. It was
like his estrangement from Harlan
at first It had been a desperate hurt.
But through the weeks, rising with his
new fighting life, he had fiercely told
himself that be would yield nothing;
he was crying u to life with O Diony-
sian gladness-he would seize growth
n power n recreate himself. So
when he found a letter from Aurelie on
his desk, he cried out as II q meteor
had LIGHTED his dingy shop. Aurelie,
the village baggage, old Michigan's
hills, h ridiculous beauty prize win
ner; an actress trapesing over the land
with an ambition to come back with a
u pup and q press agent to startle
the old town! Janet was right: If
there was anything needed to finish"
Wiley Curran 1t was Aurelie Lind
strom. But he would not admit this.
His Celtic ems OF romano begilded
his world still; o bit of tinsel would
hold his v and always would. Yet
he knew better than any one how des-
perately he needed the cool and sober
Judgment Of men and women-that was
what could make him; that was what
was making him now in his new life.
the faith, the love Of these prosy farm
folk Of the midlands.
But Aurelie had writtenI And at
once the walls Of his shop fell away to
vistas Of enchantment.
TIM engaged" said Aurelie, in her
Arm. upright, high school hand. Mr..
Curran started feverishly. I'm q mu-
steal comedy and the manager says I
a singh Oh, what do you think OF
that? Not much. but enough. But Ada
Norman says my face did II, and I'd
never got a show II I hadn't made Co
hams Office boy laugh. But I tell you,
MI. 'Curran, we were right up against
IT. Ada and I pawned trunks, and
when she stacked nae out in the best
clothes we could get I sailed into some
of these people. And I tell you Mr..
Curran, the day I got my job we were
down to oatmeal cooked over the gas
jet in u room. But there's nothing
in a race but the finishI Oatmeal isn't
30 bad"
and that taxi, and the dollar you gave
a bell boy over at the Metropole!"
The letter went on: "And what do
you think, Mr.. Curran, I was only in
that chorus six weeks when Cohan &
Snitz decided to put a road show out,
and they picked me out Of the New
York production to understudy the
Coincidence. They said I was funny!
I suppose I made faces and kicked up
my heels" "Oh, Rome! oh. the
Shakespeare clubi" murmured MI.
Curran.-"So I'm going out on the road
with the second Girl and the Burglar
company. We aren't so classy as the
New York bunch, but It gives me q
p chance. I like new York. You ought
to see the clothes we got. When we
open in Chicago on the 10th you Just
got to come and see me act.
"P. S.-Teu all those grannies who
don't like me about The Girl and the
Burglar But don't say anything about
the oatmeal!
"P. S.-Pretty soon I'll send you some
stuff to put in the paper.
"P. Sd say three little rabbits I'M
der a bridge yesterday when the train
Went by. with love,
"Aurelie."
The congressional candidate folded
the letter over 30 that only with love,
Aurelie" showed. He gaSed at It. Then
he sat down and tried to recall Aurelie.
What she liked, and how she laughed
or r~ebelled-what i~nevitability Of life
had made her as It made all the rest
Of US. ~
He went about the next month, in
and out Of the county, speaking wher-
ever the need took him. Il was not
until his mex breathing space. that,
back fp his office to pick UP the ODDS
n ends OF work-for the task Of get
ting o the News had fallen to Aunt
Abby n his mongrel printers-he met
Harlan. While Wiley had been on his
whirlwind campaign, Harlan had kept
to his petty lawyering with Donley. He
a no fight TO make The county
committee took care OF that. His sort
OF politics needed no noise nor appeal
II was not q part OF the Cambridge
Virginia traditions Of his family.
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