The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1919-06-14

| NCODSTlbnl, 1919 Dy the MGCluT6 News
paper S~yndicate.)
Barbara leaned forward as the car
turned off Nassau street into Liberty.
How narrow it was down here, and
how like canyons, with the great dull
gray walls towering so closely to-
gether on each side Of her. She won
dered how on earth Truesdale could
spend half his life in such a place.
Yet in a way he was like it, deter
mined and silent. Even before her
father died, when she was only twelve,
she remembered him as a young man
who rarely smiled. Her aunt had al
ways said he was so reliable and
steady-quallties which had never rec
ommended him to Barbara's favor.
She went up in the elevator now with
a feeling of relief that she was twenty
one and his guardianship was ended at
last.
Allan was alone in his inner Office
waiting for her, the clerk said. She
glanced around it curiously as she
sank down in the leather armchair he
drew forward. 1t was tall and narrow
and somber like the street outside.
Only a ]lat-topped desk seemed to
show any human interest. In a copper
urn was a bunch Of arbutus, and a
little squat silver figure of Il Chinese
mandarin perpetually made obeisance
on an inkStand.
1--WE been planning to do so many
things that never dared even to men
tion before" she told him happily. 81
want TO go somewhere and build my
self a wonderful mountain bungalow
and have horses and n sort of play
ranch. And then I want to give Aunt
Cecilia n solid annuity so she won't feel
as If her whole life was to be spent
keeping n eye on me. And I'd like to
just sell out the whole business so I
won't have to look after anything at
all, and l thought I'd love to found an
orphanage or something like that"
Allan listened attentively, but with
no smile on his close lips. He was
marking star shapes on mis- blotter and
watching the clock above her head now
n then. i was nearly four. He o
dered If he would have time to tell
her before Yates arrived.
"When Mr.. Curtis died his affairs
were in a very tangled state" he said.
He always suspected lawyers and his
death anne so suddenly there was no
chance for him to attend to anything
or to explain anything"
What was there to explain" asked
Barbara, with a touch of her fathers
quick pride.
Much" answered Allan tersely.
"He had been persuaded to tie up his
money in n lot of unsafe speculation,
and had borrowed heavily to cover his
own outstanding liabilities. These OBJ
legations to banks and friends had to
be paid out of the estate. A few of
us who had been close to him carried
ours under interest"
"Did father even owe you money!
Some. l vas very glad to help
him."
He turned his attention to n mass
Of papers at his elbow, sorting and
arranging them for her perusal, while
Barbara was undergoing a mental re-
adjustment. 1t had never occurred to
her that Tom Curtis, her father, could
possibly be under obligations to any
one. He had seemed to rule that end
of the state politically, and there had
been his railroad, and-oh, it was alb
surd to talk so. She looked at Allan
aggreSsively.
81 don't see how it could be true
You will find everything here" he
told her a bit YEARLY. "There Is moth
ing for you to worry over, Barbara.
You may not be able to found your
~orphanage, but you could still have a
bungalow. Another thing 1 should tell
you before we part as ward and guar
dian. Paulton Yates has told me you
are engaged to be married"
Barbara did not look at him this
time. Only from his voice she could
tell that he did not care one single
bit. He went on talking to her in the
same impersonal, aloof way he had
always used ever since he had found
her on the veranda With Paulton. And
it had been so perfectly silly to imag,
inc she cared for him seriously. He
always took things for granted. There
came a call for him in the outer office
and he left her alone just as Yates
arrived. Allan told him he would find
Barbara within. But it was a different
Barbara who faced him from the gir'
he had danced with, ridden with, firt
ed with for the past year.
She was not engaged to him at all
she told him Indignantly. He had had
no right to tell her guardian hat she
was. And Paulton, stung by her tone
and manner, laughed at her faith in
Truesdale.
Everybody knows he's played fas
and loose with your money, Bah. What
have you got left now? I've always
cared for you, you know that, and il
doesn't matter about money with me