The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-12-28

own apartment.
 Julia had. expected to find her
 mother at home. Instead the room was empty, but the gas was flaring
 high, and all about was more than the customary disorder; there were evil
 denees that Emeline had left home
 ln something of a hurry. The girl
 searched until she found the explan-
 atory note, and read it with knitted brow,
 ''Im going to Santa Rosa. on inn
 portant business deary," Emeline had sor1bbled, and you'd better go to Minis for a few days. I'll write and
 leave y6u know If there ts anything in
 it, otherwise there's no use getting There's ten dollars In the haripin box With love, Mama"
 Well, I'd give q good deal to know what struck Elm" said Mrs Tarbury for the hundredth time. It was late in the evening of the same day, and the lady and Julia were in the room shar- ed by Miss Connie Gtrard and Miss Rose Ransome. Both the young ac- tresses had previously apepared in a sktt at a local vaudeville house, but had come home to prepare for a SUD-
 per to be given by friends in their own profession. after the theatres had closed. Each girl had a bureau of her own, hopeless1y cIuttered and crowded. and over each bureau an un- shielded gas Jet flared.
 Well, I'm going to knOwt" Julia added, in q heavy. significant tone She had come to feel herself very much abused by her mothers treat
 ment. and was inclined to entertain Igly suspicion.
 "Oh, come now!"s Rose Ransome 1 said, seow1ing at herself in a hand
 mirror as she carefully rouged her lips. Don't you get any silly notions 'No," Mrs. Tarbury added heavily, | as she rocked comfortably to and fro.
 mo, that ain't Elm. Elm is a cut-up. albright and she's a great one for josh with the boys. but she's as straight as a string! Youn find that she's got some good reason for thisl" Well, she'd better haveH Julia said sullIily. Pm going out to see my
 grandmother tom borrow and see if she SnOws anythingi"
 But sine really gave less thought to her mother than to the sttging mem- ory of Barbara Toland's generosity and Carter Hazards S deception. She set led down contentedly enough, sharing he room with Connie and Rose, and sharing their secrets, and her visit to 1ld Mrs. Cox was indefinitely postpon- ed. The girls drifted about together | in and out of theatres, in and out of restaurants and hotels, reading cheap theatrical magazines, talking of nothing but their profession. The lays were long and dull, the evenings | feverish; Julia liked it all. She had | no very high ideal of home life; she | did not mind the disorder of their room, the jumb1ed bureau drawers, | the chairs and tables strewn with gar | nents, the fly-specked photographs aailed agains the walls. It was a l comfortable, irresponsible, diverting | xistence,at its worst.
 Emeline did not write her daughter | for nearly two weeks but Julia was l not left In doubt of her mothers s 1 moral and physical safety for that 1 inc Only two or three days after | 'Imeline's disappearance Julia was | 'alled upon by a flashily dressed, Oarse-featured man of perhaps forty | rho introduced himseIf-in a hoarse ! yoice heavy with iquor-as Dick 'almer.
 ''I used to know you Pop when you's l onIy a kid" said the caller. and I l he's gone down to Santa Rosa, see?" "What'd she go there for?'' Julia emanded clearly
 Mir. Palmer cast an agitated glance 1 bout Mrs Tarbury's dreadful draw 7s room, and lowered his voice con- i fdentially:
 .ow v|e"' it d'ys Es. see Your fsps's hs5e's
 town there in Santa Rosa. I run crost him in a boarding house a few | lays ago, and dye see-he's sick. | That's right" addeed the speaker "Dying?" said Julia dramatically, NO, he ain't dying. It's like this," pursued the narrator, still with his | ir of secrecy, there's a party there hat runs the boarding house - her same's Lottie Clute, she's had it for
 ears. and she's got on to the fact nat George Is insured for nine thou and dollars, dye see? Well, she's 'ot him to promise to make the pol cy over to her"
 Hal" said Julia, interested at last.