Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-02-24
The conclusion of Ruby NJ.
Ayres' absorbing novel,
"A Mans Way"
WM Be Found on Pages II

I
burst into frightened sobbins nnd tried
to overtnke the carriage, calling her
name pitifully. "
1t was my. father who followed and
prought me back: he held my arm in
MS nrm grasp all the wav to the
house.. When we were safely in his
study he shut the door and let me 70.
| threw myself into a chair, sobbing
still but now partly from fear of him.
| lie waited a moment, then he said in
that cold voice of his: "
Marjorie?' ' ~"''
down my face.
II don't want to 20 to school," I
SAID. II want to stay at home l want
He was staring at me with a strange
expression In his eyes. Suddenly he
said. as IL to himself:
God! How like her mother she Is -.
was too young to understand what
ne meant then. but afterward I knew
that 1t was because of that likeness that
ne was sending me away. They said he
could not bear to see me about the
mouse; that the sound of my voice or
my laugh tore open the wound in his
heart afresh.
| l suppose ! was like her. Judging
from her portraits. I still must be. We
both had brown hair. with little sus.
picion Of wave in It. Both had gray
eyes with dark lashes; both had pale.
clear compilations. My mother was
Irish. and she had all the vivacious
charm and wit of the Irish. In that
she was different from me; I was
rather quiet and inclined to dream.
Even Nance lost patience with nc
sometimes.
Where arc your thoughts. child?"
she used to say, sharply. "Live in the
world. not up in the clouds"
Well. went to boarding school. and
after l had gone my father dismissed
all the servants-except the housekeepet
and her husband-shut up the house
and went abroad.
1t was nearly five years before I saw
him again. He never wrote to me, he
never sent me present. The only
pocket money had came through a so.
licitor; the only person who saw my
school reports was collector; the only
person who ever visited INC at school
was solicitor.
me questions about what I had learned.
To me he seemed the wisest man in all
the world. He knew everything, and
the very knowledge that he knew so
much drove everything / had ever
learned out Of my head.
Miss Vivash. the head mistress, al.
ways said after visit from him that
I was a disgrace to her and to myself
a spot Of angry color stood on either
of her rather high check bones. I had
the sort Of feeling that she would have
slapped me had she dared.
The solicitors name was Tempest
He was a tall, thin man, with huge
forehead. and eyes that looked enor.
nous behind the pebble glasses he wore
He was a married man with several
children, knew and can remembe,
feeling vaguely sorry for the children
he seemed so cold and unfathcrly and
clever.
l pictured all the little Tempcsts as
being thin. with huge heads and spec
tacles. When, on one of his visits, he
told me his eldest son was coming tC
school quite near to Miss Vivash's use.
lect school for the daughters Of pro.
fessional men," I positively shivered
Whenever we went for walks after that
I used to look furtively at every small
boy I met who wore spectacles and
wondered il he was Richard Tempest
Holiday time was what l most
dreaded. used to watch the other
girls boxes being packed and labeled
with choking sensation in my
thront. used to listen to their eager
conversations about "homc' and
mother" with bitter envy. When they
had all driven away in the big omnibus
to the station used to 60 back into the
hnp xr,ifh
of ink -splashed desks and map hung
walls. and weep because ! had no
"home" and "mOther' to go 10.
longed to ask one of the girls to take
me home with her. but I was never
very POPULAR was too quiet and
dreamy for any one to be eager for my
company in holiday time.
Miss Vivash did not trouble much
about me in the holidays. Sometimes
she went away herself and left me to
the care Of the servants, and then
things improved.
None Of the servants wanted to be
bothered with me: they had their own
interests. and as long as ! appeared at
meals and went to bed and got up when
| I was told they let me do pretty much
what liked.
I had been at school eighteen months
when one summer holiday Miss Vivash
went off to Italy for month and left
me Mt Tie Oaks alone.
"Be n good girl" she said, "and do
az Jane tells you.
Jane and I exchanged glances. Jane
was the under -houscmaid. with de-
cided penchant for ono of the trades
men. She was a good hearted, rosy.
faced girl, who carried her duties lightly
and never knew what It was to worry.
So when the door shut on the austere
bock OF Miss Vivash she promptly began
to dance n jig in the hall.
remember being highly amused, and
r dare gny I should have Joined in but
for the fact that could never quite
rid myself of the feeling that Miss VI
wash was still haunting the house and
! that at any moment she might open a
door and push her sharp nose round it.
After dinner Jane gave me penny
and told me to amuse myself till q
o'clock. -,
Don't get into mischief. that
ALL" she said. And few minutes later
saw her soius DOWN the road IN her
best hat.
garden for a little while; then I. too
went off down the road.
The school was quite in the country,
It's windows looked on to fields back and
front, and the roads around about were
very quiet, and deserted as rule.
7 walked along soberly enough for a
little way, but the sun was hot and the
road dusty, SO presently climbed over
n fence into a field where the grass
looked long and cool, and through which
n stream wandered
1t is wonderful what attraction chill