Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-11-04
THE HEART HUNTERS.
By Mary Douglass.
Author cf"llunting n Husband. f" ..Hansllin
Husband
THE MEETING.
CHAPTER yCVIT
CHAPTER XCVII.

SHhr EN ANVIL.
| dreaded that interview with. my
father-trank Deand. l could not
picture it otherwise than as stiff and
| mawkish.
Ii WAS neither | k oclSed on the
| door of his studio and was told to ''come
, IN by weak voice. He sat in chair,
propped up with pi lows. He looked
| much as | had seen him last. Only
his voice was weak
II was he who spoke kindly. gent
"; made of our meeting natural thing.
He was my friend as he had been mt
teacher. | found that our relations
were unchanged; and my dream OF
undue sentiment was swept away.
His room was in careless disorder
Il gave me pleasure TO go about and
find places for the things that lsy on
chair and floor and table. 1t seemed
somehow, natural that should bc
there with him alone. listening TO him
! as he talked, and feeling that | had not
lost the friend, the companion.
When at last | was through. and
made the studio seem the charming,
old room that | remam bercd, | sat down
beside hlm. He told me of nv mother
as L had never heard of her Not in
the critical tone of Aunt Jennie; nor in
the sentimental mood of Aunt Ictitia
lie told me OF her rs a young girl, caught
In the mcShes Of Southtown convention
OF their meeting and marriage OF their
life In the city and the growing restless
ness which seemed TO smother him; and
then of his travels
| saw IL all as If il were n picture oh
unrolled before me. | grew to under
stand him with the story. II was late
afternoon when he ssked me to make
tea.
As | came out of the small pantry
with the tea, | had a swift memory
OF that other time had done this thing
and the feeling that had flashed across
me that this was all familiar-that |
had done II once before.
1t WIS a room like this that had seemed
familiar; there had been some meaning
IN II, then, that l could not fathom.
Now | understood.
As | went down the steep stairs, |
heard faint cough. stihed moment
| heard it again. Perhaps he was more
dangerously Ill than / realized
Betty had written to me when she
knew that was coming to the city
and asked me to STAY with her. | was
curious TO know how her marriage had
turned out, and If she had vet awakened
to Clarence's weakness.
| hoped not. | stepped on the up
going bus. Then came reaction the
'let down feeling. after the nervous
strain of seeing my father For al
though | had, shyiy, fought against
any undue display of emotion in his
presence, | now wanted to rush back
to hIm-to throw my arms about his
neck and try 10 compress into a few
short moments a ! the love | should
have been able to show him in the long
lonely years when ] needed a father 5
love and protection, Oh. 50 much,
And. strangely, unaccountablv, with
the realization that perhaps could
never creep as near - my
fathers heart AZ this. my thoughts
now switched to-Mrs Smith For
Mrs. Smith. lately, had seemed to take
the place of the Mother had lost Per
haps | now turned 10 her because Of
feeling that | could have Mother,
IN her, II | could not have n father.
And then. too, she was SO much like
Eddie
Tomorrow Betty's Marriage.