Sioux County pioneer., 1917-09-20

WINE the OtnerS exchanged their cool
ly friendly greetings, with the state
ment:
"Rod's been trying to get me to go
to Rose and say tnat it was all his
fault, and won't"
"Why not?" said Harriet. "What
earthly thing does 1t matter whose
fault 1t is? He can have 1t his fault
II he likes"
"You know 1t isn't" Frederica nut.
tered rebelliously.
Harriet seated herself delicately and
deliberately in one of the curving ends
OF little Victorian sofa, and stretched
her slim legs out in front of her.
Certainly l don't care whose fault
1t is," she said. "You never get any,
where by trying to decide a question
like that. What I'm interested in is
what can be done about it. It's not q
very nice situation. Nobody likes it
at least l should think Rose would
be pretty sick of 1t by now. She may
have been crazy for stage career, but
she's probably seen that the chorus of
third.rate musical comedy won't take
her anywhere. The things simply a
mess. and the only thing to do is to
clear 1t up as quickly and as decently
us we can-and it can be cleared up If
we go at it right. OF course the thing
to do is to get her out of that horrible
place as soon as we can. And sup
pose the best way of doing it will be
to get her into something else-take
her down to New York and work her
into small part in some good COM
pany. Almost anything, If it came to
that, SO long as 1t wasn't music. Oh,
and have her use her own name, and
let US make as much of it as we can.
Face it out. Pretend we like it. I
don't say it's ideal, but it's better than
this"
"Her own name?" he echoed blank
ly. "Do you mean she made one up?''
Harriet nodded. Constance men,
toned it," she said, "but that was be-
fore I knew what she was talking
about. And Of course I couldn't go
back and ask. Daphne something, /
think. 1t sounded exactly like chorus
name, anyhow" And then: swell,
how about it? Will you play the
gamer"
"Oh, yes" he said, with a docility
that surprised Frederick. "I'll play it.
It comes to exactly the same thing,
what we both want done, and our rea-
sons for doing it are important to 20
body but ourselves"
She turned to Frederick. "You, too,
Freddy?" she asked. "Win you give
your moral principles a vacation and
take Rods message to Rose, even
though you may think it's Quixotic
nonsenseY
"1ll see Rose myself" said Rodney
quietly.
He was standing near the foot Of the
stairs when she came down, with q
raincoat on and a newspaper twisted
up in his hand, and at sight of her, he
took off his soft, wet hat, and crushed
it up along with the newspaper. He
moved over toward her, but stopped
two or three feet away. "It's very
good Of you to come" he said, his
voice lacking little Of the ridiculous
stiffness of his words, not much. 'Is
there some place where we can talk q
little more-privately than here2 ]
shan't keep you long,"
'.There's room here somewhere 81
she said.
The room she led him to was an ap.
propriately preposterous setting for
the altogether preposterous talk that
ensued between them. It had a mosaic
floor with red plush carpet on it, two
stained-glass windows in yellow and
green, f1anking an oak mantel which
framed an enormous expanse of mot.
tied purple tile, with diminutive gas
log in the middle. A glassy-looking
oak table occupied most of the room
and the chairs that were crowded in
around it were upholstered in highly
polished coffee-colored horse-hide, with
very ornate nails.
"It's dreadfully hot in here" Rose
said. "You'd better take off your coat.
She squeezed in between the table and
one of the chairs and seated herself.
Rodney threw down his wet hat, his
newspaper, and then his raincoat, or
the table, and slid into a chair oppo
site her.
i II want to tell you first" Rodney
said, and his manner was that of 6
schoolboy reciting to his teacher ar
apology which has been rehearsed al
home under the sanction of paternal
authority-"I want to tell you how
deeply sorry I am for :"
He had his newspaper in his hands
again and was twisting it up. His eyes
didn't once seek her face. But they
might have done so in perfect safety
because her own were fixed on his
hands and the newspaper they crum
pied.
He didn't presume to ask her for
giveness, he told her. He couldn't ex
pect that; at least not at present. HI
went on lamely, in broken sentences
repeating what he'd said already ii
still more inadequate words. He wa.
unable to stop talking until she SHOULD
sav something. II hardly mattorof