Evening star., 1922-04-30


have you been doing It
''Since about midnight.
Really! Have you been sitting in
that absurd chair all nght?"
NO. Most of the time I have been
snoozing in the high-class bakery"
Then perhaps you're W. Niblack."
X x \
CHE shrewdly took stock of his
~ clothes, which, though obviously old,
We're of smart cut and good material.
No; I believe you're not You don't
look as If you belonged to this funny
little village at an
II don't
Then why sit there" she asked.
Hooking as if you owned it,
at do
You own the place."
"Every bit of it,
'fThis house I'm in
'Yes."
"rnen I'm much obliged for your hos
pitality. But what time is it,"
He drew out a pale and massive gold
watch which he consulted with anxious
concentration. Il think it's about
eight"
Think? Don't you know? Doesn't
that queer looking thing tell time?"
mot exactly tell. 1t hints at it,
"Why don't you trade it for an In
gIepury. then?' she suggested disdain-
fully.
My great-grandfather wouldn't like
it. He left it to me-
where am To-
IN pnscpaey
''Please say it again, slowly and in
a soothing tone"
"Pas-queet. The A as in aberra-
tion-mental, you know-and the ac-
cent as in mosquito"
Mental alteration: see. I Won
der if it's yours or mine? Or is it
just part of the story-like you and
the town.
"Oh, we're real. But SO is the story.
That is, it's going to be If only you'll
help by being yourself. please"
'Pn help. I love stories. But I'd like
the setting to be a little realer before
we go any farther
Anything can do to help
"You might begin by telling me
whether you found a Sterling Wright
runabout in a ditch somewhere within
crawling distance"
II did. 1t is real enough"
when 1 ran that car into the ditch"
said Miss Forrest, speaking very
slowly and distinctly. sit had just
skidded from a country road within
twenty miles of New York City. I run
OF a road in Westchester county and
wake up in a privately owned town in
Maine. It isn't reasonable
NOW don't get excited he soothed.
"You mustn't let
"If you tell me not to get excited and
that 1 mustn't do things, I'll bawl!
That's what they say to you in the
hospital after the accident. Did any
thing happen to me? Like conclusion
of the brain or ether or getting killed
and waking up in another worid?"
mot that I know of. You look quite
sound"
"And I feel perfectly sane. But then.
they often do, don't they? Thir (
they're sane, / mean. 1 don't believe
you're sane. But that's another symp-
tom, suppose. Oh, dear; do tell me
that Pasqueet. Me-, is just some kind
Of joke!"
we are in Westchester county"
Now you're being comforting again.
And it's no use. either" she walled.
II know every town in the county,
and there's no sucn place as this.
There just isn't! Where are all the
people?"
"Gone. We're the only Inhabitants.
It's a deserted village
"Then I can't get anything to eat at
the bakery?" she asked hollowly.
'I beg your pardon" he cried.
Every thoughtless of me. Would a
cup of milk be Of any use to you?"
'It would help" she confessed.
"Tneh If you'll excuse me for two
minutes I'll interview the cow
No sooner had he disappeared behind
IN empty cobbler's shop than she be-
thought herself of the freshening ef-
feet Of cold water. Presumably the
kitchen would be Immediately behind
the room she was in, which was
abruptly cut by a queer-looking, heavy
oilcloth drapery extending breadth
wise across, not six feet back from
her couch Sne pushed aside corner
of this and almost fell into the land
scape.
The house had no back.
X f
~EATING herself on the couch,
~ Dorothy reviewed the situation
from the point where she could be GER
tain of having been Ier sane and nor
NAL self In sane and normal world.
Certainly Tom Martindale's proposal at
the Country Club on the previous even
ing had not been illusion. 1t was far
too commonplace and sensible for that.
Lounging in a quiet corner of the
porch he had said to her with that slow,
broad, complacent smile of his: Dor
rit, expect you and I had better call
IL a deal and get married one of these
days, hadn't we?" And she had an
swered In the same tone of easy and
accustomed fellowship: Il shouldn't
wonde old boy" And he had con-
tined: Haven't got any crouch against
emeralds, have you? There's bird
Of a ring at" Which she had in
terrupted by saying: ''Oh, let's not be
really engaged, that ID publicly. yet
awhile" and he had agreed: "All right:
say when. Dorrit."
After the important colloquy she had
slipped away, telling Elise Goodwin
that she had changed her mind and
wasn't going home with ner. had got
out her car and started for home, heed
less Of the imminent storm.
The torrent Of rain had quite hswtl-
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