Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-04-11
CHAPTER x.
A Desert Dinner.

A Desert Dinner.
Innes Hardin was completing her
simple toilet. Not even to please
Gerty would she 'dress up for the
dinner. 1t would have been easy for
her sister-in-law to postpone it. How
could she expect Tom to go through
with it! She couldn't understand
Gerty!
An hour ago, hearing distinctly the
whir and splash of egg-beating, she
had run over to the neighbOring tent.
The clinking of the cake tins had sud-
denly silenced. Excuse me, won't
you?" Gerty's voice had come from
the lean-tO. the little kitchen shed.
I'm lying down."
'Iieing, yes!" grimaced the Hardin
mouth to it's reflection in the mirror.
How many times that week had she
been repulsed by a locked door, a sud-
den curtain of silence or run away
for while. Tn trying to catch
nap" Easy now to see why Gerty
had wanted to "hold the reins" that
week
She didn't need to pierce those can
vas walls to know that there had
been feverish activity for this dinner.
A new gown would appear tonight.
made secretly. An exquisite meal,
and no one must comment on it's elab-
grafton. Twice Tom and she had
been asked to take their lunch at the
hotel. Because of a headache!" A
headache
Toms wife could not even shop
openly! Bundles had always the air
of mystery, never opened before Tom
or herself. She must have yards Of
stuff laid away, kept for sudden emer-
gencies.
"She can't help it, It's her DISPOSE
ton. She can't help being secretive.
Look ut your face, Innes Hardin ="
What was it to her, the pettiness of
a woman whom an accident of life had
swept upon the beach beside her?
Gerty was not her kind, not the sort
she would pick out for a friend She
was an oriental, one of the harem
women, whose business it is in life to
please one man, to keep his home soft,
his comforts ready, keep him con-
WINGED, moreover, that it is the desire
of his life to support her. Herself dis
satisfied, often rebellious, staying by
him for self-interest, not for love-ah,
that was her parchment mot low
ing!"
lSoberly she covered her plain bras
siere with white waist of cotton
ducking. A red leather belt and GRIM
son tie she added self-consciously.
where is my bloodstone pin?"
Hadn't she spent an hour at least
matching that particular leather belt?
But he was a man, in battle. The
headgate held up; it was too bad.
Silent, Bodefeldt, Wooster, Grant, all
of them fighting mad because of the
deadlock at the Heading. All up in
arms, at last, against Marshall, be-
cause of this cruel cut to their hero,
Hardin. Her eyes glowed like yellow
lamps as she recalled their fervid par
tiSanShip.
Only one man who can save the
valley, and that's Tom Hardin" WoOs-
ter had said that but they all be-
lieved it. The loyalty of the force
made her ashamed of her soft woman
fears. For there We're times when
she questioned her brothers ability.
He had large, loose way of handling
things. He was too optimistic But
those men, those engineers must know.
1t was probably the mans way Of
sweeping ahead, ignoring detail. The
verdict of those field-tried men told
her that the other, the careful, plan
ming way, was the office method. Rick
ard, as a dinner neighbOr, she had
found interesting; but for great I'M
dertakingS a man who would let a
Gerty Holmes jilt him, ruin his life
for him! The whole story sprang at
last clear from the dropped innuendos.
She adjusted a barrette in her
smoothly brushed hair. Slowly she
walked over to the neighboring tent,
Gerty frowned at the white duck.