The Oklahoma miner. [volume] (Krebs, Okla.) 1912-192?, 1920-12-30
BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON

Il love you that way" said Alice
as | stared yacantly at my plate. But
you really are not making yourself
disagreeable to us-really he is not,
Constance
Mrs. Farnsworth affirmed this I.
knew that ! was merely being rude, |
and the consciousness of this was not |
uplifting. At the luncheon hour the /.
influx Of shoppers gives the Tyring- |.
ham CHEEKY tone, and all about us
were. people apparently conversing |.
sancly and happily. The appearance |
Of Uncle Basins ghost in the familiar
dining room would have been a well
come diversion. l was speculating as
to just what he would say about his
widow and the whole mess at Barton
when Mrs FarnswOrth addressed me
pleadingly.
"If you knew that we want you to
play with us only few days longer
three days shall we say, Alice2-if
you knew that then we'll untangle ev-
erything, wouldn't you be nice-very
niceY
In spite OF myself | couldn't resist
this appeal. ! was more and more inn
pressed by the fneness, the charm of
Mrs. FarnswOrth. When she dropped
the make-believe foolishness in which
she INDUCED quite as amusingly as
Alice she appeared to be a very sen
sibe person. The humor danced in
her eyes now, but her glance was more
than an appeal; it was a command.
"if you knew that our troubles are
not at all the troubles you're thinking
about but very different"
please pardon me-" l muttered
hImbly, and wished that Alice were
not so bewtching in a sailor hat. It
nay have have been the hat or only
Mrs FarnswOrth's pleading tone that
brought me to a friendlier attitude
toward the universe and its visible
inhabitants. The crowd thinned out,
but we fingered, talking of all manner
Of things.
1--WE must come in again very sUon,"
sand Alice "And next time we shan't
run away, which was very naughty.
suppose when you begin a story you
! just have to keep 1t going or 1t will
! die on your hands. That's the way
with our story, you know. OF course
IT'S unkind to mystify you; but you
are in the story just as we are"
My mystlfcation was certainly deep
enough without this suggestion that
l was a mere character in tale whose
! awkward beginning aroused only the
! gravest apprehensions as to the con-
| clusion. She looked at her watch and
continued: I'm so absurd-really
am, in ever so many ways, that no
one would ever put me in a book.
| Everyone would say no such person
ever existed It's incredible And
so | have to pretend I'm in a story all
the time. It's the only way | can
keep happy. And so many people are
in my story now, not only MOntani
and the poor fellow locked up at Bar
ton--oh, what if he should escape |!
Constance, it would be splendid if he
should escapew
you didn't finish your enumeration
Of characters" / suggested. us my
part an important one or am / only
a lay fgure?"
my dear boy" cried Mrs. Farms
worth you are the hero! You have
been the hero from the hour the story
began. If you should desert us now,
whatever should we do"
IF I'm the hero" l replied in her
own key, 81 shall begin making love
to Alice at once"
Alice, far from being disturbed by
my declaration, nodded her head ap-
proyingly.
"Oh, we had expected that! But
you needn't be in hurry. In a story
like this one, that runs right ON from
day to day, we must leave lot to
chance. And there are ever so many
chances"
"Not all on the side of failure
hOpeT
"Ne must be going" She laughed.
l wished she hadn't that characteristic
little turn of the head that was so
beguiling!
Folly rode with us all the way to
Barton. If anything sensible was ut
tered on the drive, | can't recall 1t. Our
talk, chiefly of knights and ladies, and
wild flights from imaginary enemies,
had the effect Of squirting Flynn to
perllous spurts Of speed.
CTO BE CONTINUED)
Filipino Wife's Status.
, thn DhfIitnfpa Iglou1g