The Press., 1918-10-24

eyes were softer. Poor little kid" he murmured. but Gregory did not hear 1t.
 'Please don't let any of the family know I told you about this," he said.
 And, Bob, please don't think that
 Helen is at all that sort of girl Helen
 and Grizelda are as different as two
 sisters could be-she has absolutely no
 patience with the child"
 Perhaps it was because or in spite
 of all effort on the part of the Ferrels
 to act as if the dreadful thing that
 had happened had not happened. At
 any rate the meeting of Helen Ferrel
 and Bob Lamar was not quite what
 anyone concerned had expected it
 would be. To be sure, Helen had
 changed almost none since the picture
 that Bob had treasured had been
 taken. She was the same Helen and
 Bob was the same Bob. but there was
 no quick look of understanding be-
 tween them that was part of the meet ing as every one had planned it. Per-
 haps this vas because Bob was pre-
 occupied. As soon as he could con- yeniently do so he made a strange re-
 quest Of Gregory. T want to see
 GrizeIda." he told him. "I can't get her out of my mind, l want to talk to
 her. Poor yOungster-We all SOW our | wild oats, and hers have been of a very tame Sort-but she's going through worse tOrture for It than you
 and l did for the worst crop we ever | s0Wed."
 Under protest, therefore, Gregory
 did secrete Bob up the back stairway 1 and into Grizeida's prisOn-a room that had been the schOOlronm when the l children WerP young and was now the
 barest room in the house. Bob asked
 to talk with the girl alone.
 He told her to begin with that he | had come to her as the best friend that
 she had. and then laughing Il little
 and taking her warm young hand, | asked her to tell him all about It.. Well, you see, they wouldn't let me tell them. l said l didn't mean to do it. and they said did, so l thought if they thought 1 wasn't telling the truth wouldn't tell. Well, it was this way You know Helen has that nice glinty kind of hair and so has Gregory, | and they've always told me my hair was potato color. AHq there was 2 girl at school and she said If let her wash my hair with something her mQther had in a bottle my hair would come out with @iRts iA il. and no one would
 know, but they'd Just mink it was getting that way: Well, ] went home with her and first time we used 1t, It didn't make much difference, SD we used mAFe the next time and when
 when it dried it was this color. And
 that's how it happened and now We'pe all dIsgraced and I'm just as wicked as If I'd done something perfectly
 dreadful They're going to send me away" she said without a tear. of they really loved me they wouldn't"
 Poor little girl" said Bob, and then he took the little blonde head on
 his shoulder and smoOthed the hair
 tenderIy back from her fair young
 forehead. "Every one makes 2 mis- take once in a while" he began
 *Rut you never did" said Grizelda
 definitely. "Gre@OrE tO'd Helen you hadn't and Helen says she never could
 marry H man that had SOWed any wild nAts, Nice P'"piF don't dA foolish
 things like thi~. do lheY? Helen would he fnrinHs if she knew VOL had Sern ,Ii ful?" eagerly asked the girl, who had
 wormcd il out of Gregory before that Bob Lamar had He!pn'S picture.
 "I'm not thinking about Helen just | now. except perhaps to think that she would never want 10 marry me, any
 way was thinking of a way out of this. I'm going out to Japan-nPxt week. I'll be gone six months The hair would he in brown again by that time, and in the meantime what differ anre would it make? Little Grzplda- I decided never to go away from civil iZation again without one of my own kind Could yOn go with me-wouId
 you marry me. right away quietly.
 right here and slip back tN New York
 and off to Japan with mR?'
 It was GriZeIda's only way out of
 her difficulty but she was sUDrcmey ! happy, and even Helen Ferrel forgave the slight. since it saved the family honor.
 'll really is wonderful" she some times remarked to Gregory. "that a man who had never done anything wild himself could symRathize so with
 one who had been SD foolish"
 And Gregory never suggests that l perhapS there were chapters Ip Boh | I.amar's life that had heen aS wild as the bleaching of GriaRlda'S hair.