The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1917-11-28

pumpkin PIC TIL long aIteT DARK. Vu6
feagt was ont to be q large one. but
Hortense was deliberate sort Of
cook, and so busy was she with Gull
nary preparations that she did not
take time to sit down or even to en-
ter the living rooms of the apartment
or her fathers and mothers bedroom.
II she had, she would have seen OBJ
jects that would have disturbed the
serenity OF her plans. AS she had
rplaced the broiler with turkey for
the Thanksgiving dinner, she salts
fed her own appetite-now well de.
yeloped, after all her many activities
ON half of the broiler, and another
tear stole into her eyes as she reflect
ed that this small bird had been in
tended to stay the Thanksgiving ar
dor of her parents.
When the livirg.room clock struck
10 Hortense concluded that her moth
or and father had determined to stay
down town to the theater as had been
their custom before Poor dears,"
she murmured. "It is probably only
cheap movie show" Worn by her
travel and her exertions she deter
mined to so TO bed, but first she wrote
little note which. without taking
the trouble to turn on the light in her
parents bedroom, she pinned to a
pincushion on the bureau there. 1t
said:
Guess what has happened. II you
can't guess then look in the kitchen
refrigerator and IL that doesn't tell
you, peep into the little bedroom and
see who's there"
This was the note that Colin Dare,
old bachelor friend OF the Yates,
found on the pincushion when he re-
turned to his room at II after an
especially trying evening spent with
client in his law offices. The hand.
writing was unfamiliar to him and
there was nothing for him to do but
to follow ihe instructions of the note.
He looked at the beautifully filed
larder and, still in doubt, peeped into
i the little bedroom that, for aught he
knew, had not been touched since the
| original tenants of the apartment had
left a week before. He softly opened
just enough OF the door to see Hor-
lenses tumbled cur!s on the pillow
| and then withdrew as silently as he
had approached, perplexed with what
was an extremely difficult question
to solve. 1t was Hortense-those
curls could be no ones else-and the
chances were that she would be in
high dudgeon when she awoke to
learn that he had allowed her to re-
main there all night.
So sure was he that he ought not
to allow her TO sleep peacefully on
that. he tried to imagine his best meth.
Cd of procedure in waking her. But
this seemed so much more difficult
than the task OF simply letting her
sleep that he faltered and soon retir.
ed to his own room. He intended TO
| stay awake all night so that he might
| be prepared to relieve her distress
when she discovered that her parents
| were not in the apartment But to.
ward daylight he fell asleep in his
| dressins.room gown on the lounge in
! his bedroom and slept so soundly that
only the tempting aroma of coffee and
Drowned mullins, waited from the kit
chen window through the court into
his own bedroom walked him.
It was a perfectly shaven, serene.
| presented himself at the kitchen door
half hour later. and was all but
caught in the embrace OF the very
much agitated Eortense, hot from the
oven and the mullins.
"oh, 1. thought you were father"
she gasped, and then leaned back,
limp and confused, against the kitchen
| cupboard.
The only thing to do was to eat
breakfast, and after that the only
thing to do seemed to be to spend
Thanksgiving Day together and feast
upon the good things that Hortense
! had prepared. There were meanwhile
many explanations and much discus.
! sion OF what should be done next. Col.
in Dare, though he recalled Hortense
as very dlsdainful little girl, whom
four years ago, he was in good way
OF being in love with If she had per.
mittea 1t, regarded her now as a sort
OF Thanksgiving angel, the personifi-
cation of bounty and good cooking. He
had hoped to keep house with a Jap
chef, but four within n week had prov
ed either thieves ior fools, so he had
despaired. The broiler. he explained.
was left from the order OF the one
that had left the previous morning.
"oncc you know, a girl would have
thought her reputation had been com.
promised Just because she had acct
dentally stayed in the same apartment
with man all night" Colin told
Hortense. Lam glad you didn't look
on 1t in that light"
Hortense assured him that she was
far too up.to-date for such foolishness.
"Still." she said, mother is a little
old fashioned. OF course. I'll take u
train back tonight and Ill tell her
Just what happened. I wonder what
girl would have done when mother
was young when she found herself in
just this situation"
"She would have felt that she had
to accept the man in the question as
her husband whether Sc wanted to
or not" pronounced Colin with law.
yer. conclusion. "That is why I'm
glad you are girl of today. If you