The midland journal., 1915-11-12
THE LONG Lane
By cArHARlNE cRANMER.
Copyright, 1915, by the Mcclure Newspa.
per Syndicate.)

Copyright, 1916 by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate.)
Tom Whiteford, once known among
his friends as the gay and light
hearted, began to feel that his way
Of life lay through the proverbial long
lane that has no turning Further
more, it seemed that behind every
mile post by the roadside there lurked
some form of hard luck. Just at the
time when his business prospects
seemed to Justify his proposing to the
dearest girl in the world, otherwise
known as Betty Underwood, the war
scare knocked him out of two of his
biggest advertising contracts; big
firm at the last minute switched its
contract to his least-suspected COM
petitor, and just as he had cinched
the contract for a gigantic mail order
campaign for another firm there came
out wordy postal ruling making it
impossible to use postage stamps for
the double purpose of stamping and
sealing, without which Toms unique
mailing proposition lost one, of its
chief charms, and he could not inter-
est the firm in any of his numerous
suggestions for substitute.
Soon after all these business mis-
haps he went for weekend house
party at Hillcrest Lodge, the home
of Betty's bachelor uncle, George
Wilson. There he was thrown still
deeper into despair by seeing Betty
accept with evident willingness the
chivalric attentions of one Charles
Arthur Mowbray, tall, dark, dreamy
eyed young man, said to have re-
turned but recently from long stay
in the Orient. AS the son of her
uncles Oldest college chum, he was in
vited to Hillcrest Lodge, where his
delineation of the legends of the Ori-
ent was chief entertainment feature
for Betty and some of the other girls
in the house, party Added to this
young mans charm of appearance and
conversation was the appealing way in
which he occasionally made reference
between heavy sighs to a tragic ro-
nance in his own life while in the
Orient
Another legend, I have no doubt
thought Tom when he heard the story.
when a good-looking chap backs up
his own tale of woe with lot of ro-
mantle stuff about some faraway land
it puts halo around his head for
every girl who listens to him"
The morose mood brought on by
such reflections did not enable Tom to
shine in comparison with the easy,
suave, fiattering chivalry of Mowbray.
And Betty, being young and pretty
and fond of novelty and fattery, was
visibly impressed. 1t seemed to Tom
that no matter where he turned he
found this man with Betty sitting out
dances with her in the evening, walk
ing in the garden with her in the
morning, sitting beside her at lunch
con, and at all times pouring out in
that deep but subdued voice legends,
legends, legends.
''T'll bet he's crook for sure" said
Jack Chisholm as they packed their
suitcases Sunday night preparatory to
returning to town. when fellow
purrs like cat always look out for
cats claws to show themselves sooner
or later"
Tom refrained from the profane ac-
Quiescence he felt with merely,
Should not be surprised"
He had made up his mind to have
few minutes alone with Betty before
he left and he hurried downstairs aft
er his packing to find her one of an in
terested group listening to yet another
legend of Mowbrays When the story
ended the talker was drawn into a
conversation with his host and Tom
lost no time in capturing Betty.
I've scarcely had glimpse of you,
Betty he said. May | steal you
away from the others long enough to
show you the prettiest October moon
on record?" Out on the broad porch
Betty clapped her hands rapturously
as she saw the great golden disk hang
ing Just above the horizon and throw
ing weird shadows through the bare
trees
"Oh, isn't it lovely?" she exclaimed.
Lovely enough to have an oriental
setting instead OF commonplace mod
ern landscape gardening and archi-
lecture"
commonplace! Oco WnlA, bSeey,
protested Tom, look at that sweep
of brown fields on the left and that
mass Of tree-studded hills in the
right, and this big, comfy home on
the highest hill of them all. Anything
commonplace about it all?"
There is a certain rugged beauty
about it, agreed Betty, but it
doesn't suggest romantic legends like
oriental lands must do"
"oh, / don't know" said Tom, who
had learned from his advertising work
not to let any personal anger get in
the way Of landing contract-and
he realized that he was now trying
for the most important contract he
ever hoped to land. Cant you i'm
agine some Iroquois maiden and her
Il