The Carlisle independent., 1915-02-04
How beautiful you look tonight. my

How beautiful you look tonight. my dear"
 Do you like it?" Jane inquired. "T'm four times, and I'm almost satisfied myself now"
 Jane put her arm around her neigh bor's waist. She looked saucily at Brand
 Your wife never lets me forget that she is five years my junior" she said. But it's sweet of her just the same" !"
 And with this strictly feminine para dox the exchange of suavities ceased They heard Bob's step on the stairs. He shook hands with both.
 "Awfully sorry to have kept you waiting" he said, but with two such charming ladies I guess we won't mind entering little late. eh, Brand?"
 They look good to me-" the million aire agreed. Let's go."
 Mrs. Brand was, as Jane had said, five years her junior. Just how this fact ever came to be openly estab- lished is one of those mysteries that must go unsolved. Of course the one never referred to il and the other never forgot it. But It existed and 1t served as sort of balance wheel to their respective attractions. For Jane 1 one way or the other neither add nor detract from beauty. If the discrep- ancy had been the other way it might 1 have been noticeable. Mrs. Brand was a blonde and a beautiful one. She was nearly as tall as Jane and slightly more robust Blue eyed and fair skinned, with cheeks that drew their color from a perfect constitution, not from the embellishing touch Of rouge. No lady's maid in all New York had an easier task than Mrs. Brands and no modistes art was better rewarded than hers In the clubs where it was common talk that Brands patronizing hand had raised Reynolds out of ob- scurity, this striking beauty of the mil lionaire's wife served as a sort of anti dote to gossip. At least, men urged, it was a toss-up, and if Reynolds lost he was fool. From point of eye they were 6 wonderful pair and in that re- spect their husbands were not far be- hind them. At the opera or among the first nighters there wasn't quar- tette in the city that attracted more attention. Brand was fairly popular in the clubs, although he spent but little time in them. Reynolds, the new f. ural mixer and, whether he felt it or not, he maintained a cordial attitude toward new friends that made him welcome. Time did not press on Bob. either. He had declined Brands offer to go into the millionaires firm and he drew his living from the street. Brand had made good as prognosticator. Money did make money. From the time Bob buried his conscience and hurried over to New York after his wife and went from her to Brand, he had had no cause to complain. Forty thousand dollars was a good grub stake and with Brands assistance he had doubled it.
 Only one thing worried Reynolds. His wife's mania for money was insa- tiable
 Jane" he had told her a few weeks ago, we've got a fortune. Do you realize it? Eighty thousand dollars, Eighty thousand dollars and fifteen thousand dollar home. Let's quit and go away. With the rent from this place we'd have an income of seven or eight thousand and we could run all over the world on that. You know how we used to hope and plan for the 1 day when we could see something of other places. Not London and Paris and Berlin, but something really diff. 1 ferent I'd like to go down into Af- rica and India after some of that big game. Why, never shot anything in my life larger than rabbit and I'd money in the subtreasury. Come on, what do you say? You love the out. door life and we'll have the time of our lives"
 But Jane demurred.
 Let's wait little while, Bob. We've only just begun. Look what Brands got and he isn't hunting lions
 No" he said resignedly, The isn't hunting them and he couldn't hit one if he did. You got me into Brands class to some extent. but you'll never make him my model of man. can cross his bridges but I've got some of my own that make him stop and look. He found that out at school"
 He wasn't boasting. There was more of sadness than arrogance in his tone, but Jane noticed it; she held her peace. It was from that day that the bottle with the silver casing need ed much refilling in the Reynolds home.
 ITO RE CONTINTTED)