The Connecticut labor news., 1921-02-04
CHAPTER l-Continued.

'I'll tell you all know. Just as was sailing from France I got letter | from Uncle Bash stating in a most l businesslike fashion that he was about to be married to a lady he had
 met on the trip out to Japan. The l dire event was to occur at the Amer | ican embassy the following day. From which judged that my presence
 at the ceremony was neither expected
 nor desired. Oddly enough, months
 afterward, I picked up an English l paper in a 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 consul-general at Tokyo. Whether the widow expects to come to Amer ica ultimately or will keep moving through the Orient marrying husbands and burying them is dark mystery. If she should turn up, the house at Barton is hers, of course, but with her rowing disposition I 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"
 "T can see the vampire,' said Searles musingly, Handing at the Grand Central with enough hand luggage to fill a 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 ential anxious to please. You will pilot her up to the coast of Barton, tip the servants heavily to keep them from murdering her, ano 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"
 "Torrence 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."
 "Oh, they are in the same class with me-" I explained. "The place can't | be sold till I die, and while I live | they're to be harbored-about thirty | of them-clothed and victualed''
 ''I think there's a farce in the idea, and I may try it one of these days" ] he said, scribbling in his notebook 1 "A refuge for broken-down chamber maids, venerable bell-hops grown gray who amassed a fortune ill 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 I get settled I'll ask you up and you can study the bunch at leisure"
  of weeks. I'm going to Ohio tomor- row for a family reunion and a look at the loved spots my infancy knew"
 "You're lucky to have home-folks even in Ohio," I remarked enviously.
 'Well, there's always your distant auntie cruising the seven seas in pursuit of husbands. Nobody with an aunt to his credit can pretend to be alone in the world. Aunts must rank just a little below mothers in the heavenly kingdom. When I was l boy out in Ohio there were two great occasions every year in my ife-one when I went to visit grand old aunt I had in the country, he other when she visited us, arriv- Eg with Wagonload of jam, jelly, bread, pound-cake, and other unDurckas sable manna"
 Stop! or I'll call the food censor" pleaded, picking up my hat. "Send ne your copy of Lady Geranium' ,r not'
 Lady Larkspur,' he corrected ; with a shudder. You shall have it { ,y trusted messenger tomorrow" l
 I wired Antoine that I would reach 1 5artOn-on-th -the-SOund the following lay. This was September, 1917. i As the train rolled along the ( kmiliar shore toward Barton I shook (