Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-01-30
(Continued)


Tommy was with the counting party
a great deal these days, for he was
lonely, and there was somberness
on him which needed much gaiety
to relieve it. A change had come
over him, and it was due to Ger
aldine Benning. Since he had been
very small boy Tommy Tinkle had
enshrined Geraldine in his heart as
a goddess without flaw and without
imperfection. Now that she had, with
her own hand, shattered that idol into
minute fragments, Tommy found an
aching vacancy in his heart cores
ponding exactly to the space the idol
had occupied. So Tommy, for his
gaiety went, quite logically, to the
place where there always brooded a
somber specter which needed to be
fought off with gaiety.
BY winter, however, the specter had
ben driven well into the background,
and only now and then it's shadow
was seen in the patient blue eyes of
Jean and in the luminous dark gray
eyes of Tavy; but sometimes, even in
the happiest moments, an unexpected
word or sight would bring back a
flash of hideous memory; and this is
the price of wretchedness, that men,
ory never lets it die; it only slumbers.
For the most part. however, there
was nothing but joy in the enchant-
ed apartments, and the endless cur
rent of the river, passing the coZy little
bay window, send to be bearing to-
wards them only ecstasy. That had
been glorious summer and Fall.
for never were two bellies courted
more assiduously than Jean and Tavy
Stuart. There were the regulation
flowers and candy, and drives and
ptcnics, and excursions and parties.
with Tommy Tinkle frequently, and
in great glee, welding the baton in
this melodious quartette of love.
These, however, were only the or
dinary activities, provided by pair
of unusually ardent wooers. The
great, the marvellous, the over-whelm-
ing enjoyment was the house of the
royal princessi 1t had been bought,
at last and paid for out of Harri-
son Stuart's own earnings, beau
tiful little cottage, in sight of the
hour of the city, and with ground
enough to build another cottage;
spacious lawns between, shaded by
towering old trees, And for whom
was that new cottage to be built J.?
Billy and Tavy, of course! The plans
were being finished, and it was to be
erected While they were away for
their six months study of the archi-
tectural engineering of Rome, and
Egypt, and Paris, and almost every
where. So it was q very busy Jean
and Tavy and Hal and Billy, and
there were scarcely enough hours in
the day to get through it all, what
with the furnishing of the house for
the. royal princess and the brain
tearing problem of the new honey
moon cottage. For instance, should
the billiard-room be just off the din
ing-room, or would 1t be better to
have it lead off the library? You
see how important that could be,
don't you? Then the tiny little pink
and gold boudoir. Should it have
latticed French windows, or Colonial
A trifling detail? Certainly not; for
the solution to that tremendously i'm
portant question would dominate the
artistic treatment of the entire house!
OF course, the men had business
to look after, but the ladies were
equally busy at those times, for there
were trousseauX; two of them. And
such wonderful hand embroidery was
never wrought into filmy fabrics as
that created by the patient fingers
of Jean and the loving ones of Tavy;
for now all the skill which had been
laVished on the gay little court lady
dolls was brought into urgent requis-
ition. AS Jean worked, her eyes grew
constantly brighter. for they were set
constantly asparkle by an agreeable
CLEAN from her finger. oh, yes, she
wore a new diamond ring; one just
like Tavys.
There was an added dignity on the
night Tommy Tinkle presented the
blue and pink boxes, for now they
were ladies of business, with prop
erty in their own names and money
to make them independent. Careful
and cautious ladies of business they
were, for the very next day they
bought safe and solid bonds which
would yield them a comfortable in
come; while Hal and Billy, glowing
with pride in this beautiful achieve
ment, plunged furiously into work, so
that they should not be behndhand
when the flood of new commissions
overlook them.
There was only one cloud in Billy's
happiness; the floating dome itself
The congratulations he received
among his fellow members of the pro-
fession got on his nerves." and es-
pecially at the T-Beam Club, where
at his first appearance, they swallow
ed their Jealousy, and surrounded
him with solid phalanx of hearty
good will. The floating dome was
not mere personal achievement; it
was gift to the profession; and for
this, Bravo Billy!
Nothing like it," Billy had all
he could stand of obtaining praise
under false pretenses. II only wish
| had devised the floating dome, but
l can't take the credit for what doesn't
belong to me. The thing was in
vented by my partner, John Doe, and
it's corker!"
"Then why isn't John Doe a mem
Der of the T-Beam Club?" demanded
jovial old Ainsley Pulham, the presi-
dent of the organization. Bring him
around"
'All right" agreed Billy easily.
knowing that Hal would not come for