The Holbrook news., 1922-02-03

"Ths Lad Gets a Beautiful and Wise
 and Very Discreet Wife," He Was
 Beginning, But Harriet Sienced Him
 AngriIy.
 you say. Ward has had three years at college--Tve not been a member of the family all that time without know ing that he is not a saint! He has lived as other men do-as women per init decent men to live, I suppose Nina's different. She's younger. She has never had an affair"
 We were not discussing Nina !"
 "No, l know it. But you reminded me that what I object to in you, with her, I myself am doing with him-or something very like it! Except that" Harriet floundered a little but regained her thread-''except that he does care for me-" she repeated i; ''he loves beauty-I can say that to you without your misunderstanding !- and then. he knows me, we have been intimate for years, we are congenial '"
 He knows everything about you" Royal repeated. innocently. as if the defense she made were perfectly ac ceptable. But again she was stung to silence.
 ''I am going to tell him frankly eX- actly what you have said to me-" liar riet said. presently. with decision and relief in her voice. q shall remind him that 1 have always been poor, and that 1t Is utterly impossible for me to separate the thought of him from the thought of what my life as his wife would gain"
 Be careful how you play your hand alone!" the man said. Half confi- dence isn't much more than none at alli"
 A moment later they parted; the woman entering the house for cup of coffee, and some conference with butler and hOuSekeeper, and the man starting off briskly for his early walk But BlOndin was smiling, as he went upon his way, and Harriet was white with anger and impotence.
 "I'il put everything else I have in this world in the balance, Roy!" she said to herself, in the sunshiny silence of the breakfast room. ''But I'll hold no more stolen conversations with you. I'll break my engagement with Ward, I'll go to Richard Carter and humiliate myself, I'll go back to Lin da's house without penny in the world-but I'll be done with you, Thank God, however the story may sound. especially with your interpre- tations on it, you haven't my honor in your keeping, though you may seem to havei"
 The house was absolutely quiet :; the clock on the stairs struck a silvery seven. Harriet went noiselessly to her own room; Nina was sleeping heavily. She flung off her clothes, sank into bed And now at last sleep came, deep, delicious, satisfying.
 A day or two later there was a fam fly conference in the library, and Har- riet realized more clearly than ever that 1t was impossible to forecast the march of events. Richard announced that after consideration he had de- cided that it would be wiser for the family to weather the storm of talk that would follow Isabelle's disappear ance in some neighborhood less con- nected with her. He had therefore leased an establishment on Long Island, where the children could have their swimming and tennis, and his mother her usual nearness to town, but where they would be comparatively inaccessible to a curious press and public, and might disappear for a grateful interval. The life at Hunting ton would be less formal than at CrownlandS, but the house he had taken was comfortable and rOomy ; there would be plenty of room for Nina's girl friends and Wards guests. Miss Field. Bottomley ana Hansen