Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1920-12-17
Looking Like a
Million

| North Gilead after two years alb
sence in the metropolis, the clothes she
wore produced exactly opposite i'm
| pressions in the minds of Hugh Silsby
| and Imogene Dart
| Imogene, though she had but fleet
/ ing glimpse of Beth as the "jit' from
| Gilead Snorted through the village, eX-
ultanfly reported to Amy Austin that
Beth Bedell is home, wearing about
dollar and quarters worth OF dress
/ and forty cents worth of hat"
| Hugh, however, experienced a sud
den sinking sensation around the heart
| when he made an errap& over to the
| Bedells' that afternoon :sn1 found Beth
| looking, as he told himself, like mil
| lion dollars"
Beth's face lighted az the tall young
| farmer came through the gate, and if
| Hugh had been lass stunned by the
| luxurious aspect s'f she homecomer he
might have rotict> that the rose of
| her cbeeka grew deeper as she shook
| hand. WITH him.
| What really absorbed Hugh'S mind
| to most melancholy effect was the con
| viction that it had all worked out with
| Beth precisely as it always did in the
| Gilead theater mOvieS-Beth had be-
| come q regular fashionable city girl,
! quite unattainable for a plain fellow
| like himself Why. her clothes alone
must cost a lot more in year than he
| could clear on his place even with the
| best of luck
| Dspirited vaguely but keenly dis
| appointed-for he had been thinking
| Il deal, and with secret hOpefulness,
| about Beth ever since he heard she
was coming hOme-Hugh followed the
| well-blazed trail of ingenious youth in
such case made and provided. He
sulked, and his sulks took the guse of
| stiff formality.
"Glad to see you home, Miss Bedell,"
! he said solemnly.
Miss Bedell." laughed Beth. "Snce
when? Don't be silly, Hugh. It's aw-
| fully good to see you. Why don't you
| tell me I'm looking well?'
You look mighty nifty. if that's
what you mean" replied Hugh with
elaborate righteousness 'but you
! took like somebody else-somebody
| that flies high. Guess you perch on
different tree from old friends nova
| days, don't you? Your father in?"
For an instant Beth stared amazed.
| Then the rose in her cheeks died till
T.
'Hes out at the barn." she said, and
without further word walked straight
| into the house.
| North Gilead was very small place.
| IT boosted of only one rich man, and
of him it boosted not greatly. Merton
| Phelps at twenty-five was shade
| stingier than his father had been at
| seventy-twO. when after a lifetime OF
| miSerinesS he left a trunkful of be-
| loved mortgages and securities to his
| only son.
Young Phelps dressed showily, If
with infinite regard for bargain. for
| he was vain. He cultivated the man.
| ner of a village beau, for he had
keen eye for feminine loneliness. but
| no North Gilead girl could truthfully
| maintain that Merton had ever spent
a nickel on her. Still there is certain
| glamour to a hundred and fifty thou
| sand dollars, and girls were not want
| ing to welcome his inexpensive and in
/ sinuating batteries.
| On the afternoon of Beths home
| coming, within an hour after Hugh's
| brief visit she met Phelps in the post
| office And when. spurred by the fas-
| cination of beauty exceptionally
| groomed and fetchingly gowned, he
asked if he might drop around and
| set on the porch" with her that eve
ming Beth granted him the privilege
| with a condescension quite new to his
| experiences.
| Two evenings after that North Gil
| end was shaken to its foundations by
| the news. spread like wildfire, that
| Merton Phelps had actually hired Ed
| Godfrey's new roadster and taken Beth
| Bedell to ride, leaving his own second
| had fiivver idle in the garage. And
| when, next day, it transpired that he
had TAKEN her to Lake Chemung and
| paid four dollars for something to eat
at the Chemung pavilion, the COM
munity almost became speeches..
That was the beginning. For two
weeks Merton Phelps belied his repu-
| tation and his antecedents at ruin
Gus rate. The dark-green roadster was
at the Bedell.s door daily. And when
| 1t wasn't carrying Beth off on some
frightfully costly excursion or other 1t
was chasing into Gilead after choco-
lates and, finally, for box of orchids
especially ordered from the Gilead
| florist.
Meantime Hugh Silsby had suffered
axonies of remorse for his churlish be-
havior toward Beth-and continued to
sulk the deeper Not again did he see
Beth. save at a distance, except once
when she waved at him from the green
car and was gone like flash with
shat id monkey of Phelps" grin
ming at her side.
1t was the morning after the orchids.
- nh nrgf