Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-03-19

was udLc--anU MS IaVOFIt6 tHISIe
tainment was vaudeville with black
face establishment preferred. But in
his shy fashion he was kind and
generous and mighty good to me-"
eff you hadn't gone to war, but had
kept right at his elbow, the marriage
might have been averted," suggested
Searles. "He did leave you some
thing, didn't hep
Fifty thousand cash and the righ'
to use the garage at the Barton farm.
Calling it a farm is joke; it's rocks
mostly. He bought the house to have
a place to store his prints and Jap
ceramics. He hated motoring except
in taxis up and down town, and when
I urged him to set up machine, he
told he to go ahead and buy one and
build the garage. Told me I'd better
fix up the studio in the garage and
have it as place to work in. His
will provides that may lodge in the
garage for life"
'"The estate footed million, as |
remember so | can't praise his gener-
osity. But the widow, your unknown
auntie, the Eody-snatcher who annex
ed the old boy-what of her?'
''I've asked the trust company peo-
pie whether she's in sight anywhere,
and they assure me that she is not on
these shores. Terrence, the third
vice president-you know TORY; he
was in the class ahead of us at col
lege, the man who never smiles
TORY said she acknowledged the last
remittance three months ago from
Bangkok-wherever that is. l suppose
the old girls resumed her tour of the
world looking for another retired
merchant to add to her list"
Every likely. To what nation,
tribe, or human group does this pred
atOry person belOngw
"I'll tell you all know. Just as
was sailing from France / got letter
from Uncle Bash stating in most
businesslike fashion that he was
about to be married to a lady he had
met on the trip out to Japan. The
dire event was to occur at the Amer
lean embassy the following day.
From which l judged that my presence
at the ceremony was neither expected
nor desired. Oddly enough, months
afterward, 1 picked up an English
paper in French inn that contained
an announcement of the marriage in
the usual advertisement form. The
lady was succinctly described as Mrs.
Alice Wellington COrnfOrd, widow Of
the late Archibald Reynolds COrnford,
Pepperharrow road, Hants. All Tor
renee knows of the subsequent pro-
ceedings is what he got in official re-
ports of Uncle Basins death from the
sul-general at Tokyo. Whether
the widow expects to come TO Amer
lea ultimately or will keep moving
through the Orient marrying husbands
and burying them is a dark. mystery.
If she should turn up, the house at
Barton is hers, of course. but with
her rowing disposition / fancy my
aunt Alice wouldn't like the place.
The Jap stuff is worth a bit of money,
and if the lady is keen for such
things and not a mere adventures
she may take it into her head one of
these days to come over and inspect
the loot"
81 can see the var lpire," said
Searles musingly, landing at the
Grand Central with enough hand
luggage to fill freight-car; a big,
raw-boned creature, with a horse face
and a horrible mess as to clothes.
You will be there to meet her, defer
entail, anxious to please. You will
pilot her up to the coast Of Barton,
tip the servants heavily to keep them
from numbering her, and tWiddle
your thumbs in your garage as you
await her further. pleasure. BY the
way, are those ancient freaks still on
the place-those broken-down hotel
employees who were your uncle's sole
experiment in philanthropy?
florence assures me they are all
very much there"
Searles yielded himself to laughter.
"An Englishwoman with lofty ideas Of
domestic service would certainly enjoy
romp with that crew."
ooh, they are in the same class with
me-" / explained. '"The place can't
be sold till | die, and while / live
they're to be harbOred-abOut thirty
of them-clothed and victualed."
ST think there's farce in the idea,
and | may try it one of these days"
he said, scribbling in his notebook.
"A refuge for broken-down chamber
maids, venerable bell-hops grown gray
in the service, and the head waiter
who amassed fortune in tips and
then toyed with the market once too
often and lost his ill-gotten gains.
What was the head walters name
who presided with such stateliness
in the dining-rOom of the Tyringham"'
That's Antoine, who married the
assistant hOusekeeper at the Tyring-
ham He's the butler and has charge
of the place. When | get settled I'll
ask you up and you can study the
bunch at leisure"