The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-02-08
There are persons who lie as
CHAPTER NO. 81.
Triumph.

Triumph.
Freddie arrived in Maplevile again
at about half past three in the after
noon. He went from the train and
stopped at the small hotel in the village
just long enough to leave MS luggage
and freshen himself a little AFTER M
trip. For some instructive reason ~
did not occur to him to go to the home
OF Mr.. and Mrs, Bates, the " old
people who only a few days before had
made Freddie so welcome. Perhaps ne
did not care to be questioned upon the
reasons for his return. At any rate, by
half past four he was walking up
Main street to the other part OF town,
where Jane Estrelda Smithers lived.
His heart was pounding in his breast
until he felt that it would burst
One Of the men with whom he nae
dealt three days before saw Freddfe
go past the glass window Of his shop.
Well I'll be darned," said he to his
clerk. THAT looks like young Mason
Back foFr?" and then distracted BY the
entrance into the store Of a customer
We'll, / guess IL amt him. Can't be.
Mason & Co. only makes this tGRn
three or four times a year"
Meanwhile, Estrelda was, rs yet, un-
conscious of her triumph. Earlier in the1
day, dressed in her very best, she had
been down to Mapleville's largest de-
partment store, to do a little shopping.
Thanks to the Crouch she had our
ished since Freddie's departure, he
father finally had been bullied into his
consent to a long coveted blue silk
dress. Estrelda had seen the costume
described in a fashion magazine and for
weeks had been imagining herself the
replica of that flat chested and hip
less damsel, with curiously unnatural
lines that the drawing and the descrip-
ton Of 1t had assured her were lust
from Paris" Now the material and the
trimming were bought. After an ex.
ceedingly hearty luncheon, that had not
terminated until four large slices OF
cake had disappeared, Estrelda had
taken her package to her room: There
she had removed her gown, n for an
hour or more amused herself by try
ing to pin the lengths Of silk into some
semblance Of the toilette she admired.
At last, weary Of this, she had flung
the material upon a chair without fold
ing 1t, had slipped out of her boots and
her bed, her feet on a pillow, the dress
cushion ono fo g0 her head. RRnd0from naT the
floor beneath heE, in the quiet house
there. echoed the sound Of the fkont
door bell.
When Ellen, the .smithers servant,
opened the door for Freddie she stared
at him. Such apparitions were uncon"
mon in her experience. Most of the
Mapleville young men worked In the
s ssGRs in Or th hing tHEn; GF IN were cens zen Tsal
Of which they did their calling In the
evenings. Moreover, the "bloods" of
MapleviIle's social set did not resem-
BILE Freddie any more than Freddie re.
sembled them, Ellen would haze found
there was between this caller and the
others, still-she felt it. She was quite
frankly amazed that a youth of this
class should come to see her young
very well. But now Freddie only took
her stiff attitude for stupidity, and,
having his own troubles to keep his
voice from quivering, he asked II
Miss Smithers RAJ at homer" And
-muttering something about going to
see" Ellen disappeared.
Came a long pause while Freddie
paced the parlor alone. He did not sit
down. The room when he entered II
had given him the feeling at once, that
comfortable in It A clock that never
went stood In the corner Of the draped
manteL, thanked by some grasses dyed
, bright pink. An array Of Photographic
i Of young |, people no locking tSsIs st tsfes and 1es wasf
| against the mantel mirror. Some wicker
> chairs had been gilded and had hrigh'
satin cushions tied to them with rib
, bons. Here and there one caught /;
and white siihouetted lamp shade ant
the introduction Of a tea wagon" which
obviously never had been used onc'
since its preliminary "try-out." Maple,
: vile did not go In for tea Estrelda hat
: read OF that function In a cosmopolitan
newspaper, but Mapleville had declared
that, tea spoiled its supper" AM
{ since then the tea wagon" only hat
! required busting at intervals. Though
its possession still bestowed distinction
4 | nn0n ita OwnHr.
But, in the long silence after Fred
I die had given his name to Ellen, ne. hai
time to wonder IL his advent had beef
3 announced For Ellen had not com
: AT that very instant she was working
: like a beaver to make her young mis-
v tress p~resentable.
I ELLEN haa not hesitated to awake
: Estrelda to tell her of Freddie's arrival
a Under ordinary circumstances had tina
! young woman fallen asleep the servan
would not have considered disturbin
a her slumbers unless the house actual
4 were burning oyer their heads. 81
: not to have a wholesome respect 70
= them. But by the same token Ellie
y knew-what she knew. She had OBJ
2 served the storm signals after 9TH
u young man from New York had lei
when she aroused Estrelda to tell he
q OF his return. Indeed she knew he
Judgment sound when she saw the loo
= OF excitement dasSn and flame In Els
y trelda's face. For
Ie "Mr. Mason is downstairsT', sh
r. said. Are you sur you're right, e.
Is len? Mr.. Mason? Don't grin at m
= like a fool! II you've got the nam
wrong tlase time. I'll get even with yo
K, s "Tm not wrong, Miss said Ellel
what do you want to put on7"
n, Estrelda was IN her feet, squeezir
le
In