Evening star., 1921-10-16
THE BUSINESS MINISTER =

lucky. 1 didn't think you'd be like
this. I expected an old man with
glasses and"
This" said Reggie maliciously-
this is the Chief Of the Criminal In
vestigaton Department Mr.. Lomas."
Lomas let hs eyeglass fall. Il also
am young enough to go to the theater.
I shall go on being young as long
as Miss Amber is acting"
May / sit down."
Her golden eyes sent a glance at
Reggie. Il am Jane Brown. you
know. Amber-of course 1 had to
have another name for the stage
Amber because Of my hair" She
touched 1t.
And your eyes," said Reggie.
Never mind" said she. with an
out of them. MY father was a
doctor in Liverpool. He is worth
twenty thousand Of me, and he never
made enough to live on. A poor.
mtddIe-class practice, the work wore
him out by the time he was fifty. and
now he's an invalid in Devonshire.
He can't walk upstairs even-heart.
the kimball family went to. Old Mr..
kimball was a clerk, and the son.
the man who was drowned the other
day. began like that, too. The old
people died about the time young Mr..
kimball and his sister grew up. She
kept house for her brother. He began
as broker and got on. In a way
my father always says that-in a
way he was devoted to her. Nothing
he could pay for was too good for
her. But he made awful demands on
her. She mustn't have any interests
Of her own. She mustn't make any
friends. Like some men are with
h1s- ~
isn't it," She turned upon Reggie.
Common forms of selfishness Pass
ing into mania. Not only male. you
know. Some mothers are like that. -
Yes, I know they are. But it's
worse with men and their wives"
THE wife can't grow up. The chill
dren can" Reggie agreed.
lM You understand. Oh. well. Ellen
kimball fell in love. He was just an
ordinary sort of man. clerk of some
sort-Sandford was his name. Horace
kimball was furious. My father says
Sandford was nothing in particular.
There was no special reason why she
should marry him or why she
shouldn't. He was Insignificant"
Your father understood men, Miss
Amber"
Indeed he does. OF course. Horace
kimball did the absurd thing. said
she mustn't marry, abused Sanford.
and so on, and, of course. that made
her marry, Unfortunately-thisr real
ly seems to be the only thing against
her-unfortunately she was married
in sly, secret sort of way. She
simply skunk out of his house and
left him to find out. l suppose he had
terrified her, poor thing or his bully
ing made her sullen," said Miss Am
Der. Her brother was furious. My
father says that he never saw such a
| strange case Of a man holding down
passionate rage. He thought at one
time that Horace Kimball would have
gone mad. The thing seemed like an
obsession. Doesn't it seem paltry? A
man wild with temper because he was
jealous of his sister marrying"
Most jealousy is paltry." Lomas
shrugged.
Jealous Of his sister marrying
emotion. Commonest in the form of
mothers hating their sons wives. Miss
Amber. Still, men do their bit
Fathers proverbially object to daugh-
ters marrying. Brothers-well. there's
quite lot of folklore about brothers
killing their sisters lovers. Yes,
common human emotion"
"WELL" Miss Amber continued
Its fair to say Horace Kimball
He just lost himself in his business,
my father says. He wouldn't see his
! sister again, not even when her child
was born Ct was a boy). He simply
swept her out Of his life. Even when
Sanford got into trouble he wouldn't
hear of helping her. My father quar-
relied with him over that. He said to
my father, She's made her bed. and
they can all die in it, I call that
simply devilish."
| "Yes, I believe in the devil, too
said Reggie. "Devflish! You're exactly
right, Miss Amber. Sanford got into
trouble, did he? What was that?"
| "It was some scandal about his
business. A breach of trust in some
way. His employers didn't prosecute
but they dismissed him in disgrace
My father doesn't remember the de-
tails. It was giving away some busi-
ness secrets"
Reggie looked at Lomas. That's
very Interesting" he said.
Interesting! Poor people. it was
misery for them. Sanford was ruin
I
tried to make a fresh start. He just
died because he didn't want to go on
living. And his wife broke her heart
over 1t. She seemed like woman
frightened out OF her senses. my
father says. She got it into her head
that il was all her brothers fault
that he had planned the whole thing
It was absurd. of course, but can you
wonder?"
II don't wonder" said Reggie.
'She was deadly afraid of her
brother. She made up her mind that
The would be the death of her baby
too. So she ran away from Liverpool
and hid in a little village in north
Wales, Llanfairfechan, and nobody
knew where she had gone. She had g
little money Of her own. and her hus.
band had been well insured. She had
just enough. and she lived quite alone
| in q cottage of the road to the noun
tains, and there she died. My father
says her son did rather well. He got
scholarships to Oxford. and my father
fancies he went into the civil service
but he lost sight Of him after the
mother died"
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