The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-08


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 leather puttees and whipcord riding brooches, and Wickersham from the far side of the room bowed back in equal gravity Then Caleb Hunter erasped Steve's elbow and spun him around toward. the light and peered at him accuslngy. BafRara had not no ticed until themihow tSkvd Steve looked.
 Before the oth1rsa get to talking,' said Caleb, before the sttde grows too strong for my weak voice, young man, Iwant to deliver message. Miss Sa rah wants-it exphcftly understood that unless you stop in to say hello on your next trip down she herself will take the trail up here. And lest that ult1- matum sound to little threatening I might add that when Miss Sarah takes the trail she never travels with less than six trunks"
 Caleb clung 70 tightly b his arm that t brought . tinge of color to eteve's cheeks. It was minutes before he could get away to change his wet clothes, and in that minu4c or two he could not help but contrast, grimly, his own mud bespattered attire with that of Archie Wickersham. The tired blue circles beneath his eyes were even more noticeable when he returnd, to be ushered with much ceremony by Fat Joe to the head of the table
 1t was. an utterly irresponsible gath. ering that leaned over the red table. cloth that night--an oddly assorted group which from the very first Joe realized was not at all to Wickersham's liking. Dexter Allison himself. fairly radiating good will, sat at the foot of the table. with his son-in-law to be on one side and Barbara's little maid, Ce- cile, on the other. And between Ceciie and Barbara, who sat opposite Garry and Miriam, Eat Joe leaned both el bows upon the table edge and monopo- hzed the conversation. The seating ar. rangement was Joe's; 1t was his party And the absolute inattention to detail, the large indifference to veracity which his discourse disclosed before that noisy supper was over, grew to be an astonishing thing. His flights of fancy left Steve aghast in more than one in- stance; they. even forced a stiff smile to Wickcrsham's lips, and that is say ing much for Joe's success as an enter tainer, for in the bearing of those t,so men toward each other there had been evident from the first chill antipathy whick amounted actually to armed truce. An6the,coior in Miriam's cheeks. whenever his gazesstrayed to that side of the table, helped Steve to forget, temporarily, much that he found not pleasant to recall at all.
 For Mtriam's tongue was no less ir- responsible than was Joe's. Her mood Fas so mercurial that she drew time and again the eyes of all at the table. Ehe chattered with an abandon that scandallzed Barbara: broke in and in- terrtlctsd every argument with hoy denfsh trfvialities, in one breath. to appeal to Garry the next for refuta- ton. And Curry, the light tongued and quick witted, sat almost dumb of lip before her happy garrulity. But his eyes never left her; they spoke his thoughts aloud. The quick lift and droop of her eyelids, the brilliancy of her lips, made Miriam's face a living thing of h8pptness-made Barbara's st. lence seem even more profound. For the latter's withdrawal from the hilsr- fly, dominated half the time by her fathers booming bass, was nearly as complete as that of W{ckersham him. self.
 Just once, shortly before they with- drew fer the night. Stsvs canght