The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-01-24
CHAPTER discontinued.

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p
Mr.. Gassett smiled. s'Not old Wes-
ley Kip's girl?"
II believe did hear Miss Kip call
her father Wesley"
swell, I'd like to help Yves out. /
suppose might take chance. Do
you think you can pay for the ring in
ninety days?"
Easily"
Wimburn would have promised to
! tear down the world and rebuild it in
ninety edays.
81 shall have to add little to the
price for the risk and the accommoda-
tion."
Anything you like said Clay mag
nificently.
'Call it two hundred dollars"
"Certainly !" One could hardly
haggle over an engagement ring.
/ s.rll ask you to sign little docu-
ment.''
with pleasure"
He would have signed an agreement
to surrender pound Of his flesh.
Clay hurried out to find Daphne and
fasten on her the glittering give.
He might have taken further alarm
from the immense and greedy rapture
Daphne revealed at the sight Of the
petrified dewdrop set in the golden
circlet. Women are all misers when
| it comes to diamonds.
Wimburn noted only the joy the
bauble gave to Daphne, and the pretty
submissiveness with which she poked
out her slender finger and slid it into
the fetter. He felt that the kiss of
Alliance was worth years of hard labor.
1t was hard and bitter to rend their
cemented hearts in twain, but he had
to go at last. She fioated him to the
station in the little car and waved him
through the iron paling. She was I'M
imaginably precious and pitiful as she
stood there, and he wanted to blubber
when the vestibule was slammed shut
and the train slid out of the station
like a merciless snake.
He vowed that he would work with
the strength of ten and pile up a for
tune in the bank for her. But first
he must pile up enough to pay for that
solitaire.
Clay wrote Daphne fat letter .ev-
cry day. He usually sneaked it in
among his business correspondence
and took great pains that it should
never miss the Lake Shore limited at
five-thirty in the afternoon. A spe-
cial-delivery stamp put the letter in
Daphne's hands every next forenoon.
4 But after the letter had gone he
usually remembered that he had omit
ted to include some message of fright
fully important urgence. So he had
to send her every night night letter,
and frequently of mornings he must
fire off a day letter. These cost only
sixty cents apiece, but often he had
to send them in double or triple
length.
For occasions where time was yet
more uncomfortable there was the tele-
phone "a pittance of three dollars and
twenty-five cents for the first three
minutes, and dollar and five cents
4 for each additional minute or fraction
thereof would bring his lips to Daph-
mes ear.
From the little rubber mouth of the
receiver her voice came to him as
from a distant star by interplanetary
communication. The sense of remote
ness was unbearable. She seemed to
be dead and wailing across eternity.
Clay Wimburn was in complete dis
tress. His health wavered and his Of
flee work suffered till it won rebukes
and threats from his chiefs and COM
ment even from Bayard Kip, who
never suspected and was never told of
Wimburn's infatuati0n for his sister.
With lovers logic Wimburn per-
suaded himself that the only one who
could save him from destruction was
Daphne. With her married and all,
and ensconced in little nest in New
York, he could take up his office tasks
with whole heart. So he began to
! write, and to telegraph, and to groan
across the living wire wilder and
wilder cries for help.
Daphne wept back and repaid his
longings In kind and suffered heart
rending ecstasies of yearning. And
finally she promised frantically to
marry him without further delay.
With desire to economize in pain
she broke the double news to her two
| parents at the same time, telling them
both that she was engaged and that
she was about to wed.
They were stunned. They had never
experienced a suspicion of the acute
state of Daphne's heart affairs. 1t is
really astounding how blind parents
are to their children's activities and
how much can go on under their noses
without catching their heavy eyes.
Daphne easily browbeat her father
and mother into consenting to her