The Holbrook news., 1922-01-20
we were late! We'd hardly con-

we were late! We'd hardly com. menced!"
 The remaining members of the fam lily now streamed forth: Fred Daven- port, thin, rather gray man of fifty, with an intelligent Hace, worried forehead, and kindly eyes; Julia, a blonde beauty of twelve; Nanny, a fat, sweet boy of five. with a bib on !; and Pip, a serious ten-year-old, with black hair and faded blue overalIs.
 Fred was newspaper man, one of the submerged many, underpaid, over worked, unheard, yet vaguely gratifed through fh the long years by the feel ing that his groove was not quite the groove of the office, the tellers desk. or the travelling salesman's "beat." Here in the little suburban town his opinions gained some little weight from the fact that he had been ten years with New York evening paper. Mrs. DavNport was interested in ev- erything her sister had to say; knew the Carters, and even some of their closest friends, by name. and asked all sorts of questions about them.
 Later in the evening Fred was at the piano. It was poor piano. and he was poor player who smoked his old pipe while he painstakingly fingered Mendelssohn's "Songs With out Words" or the score of 'The Geisha" But Linda loved him.
 ~He will butter away there per fectly content, for an hour" she told Harriet And at ten you'll see hip starting to get Josephine. They're great chums-She thinks there's no one in the world like Daddy."
 Harriet's thoughts had wandered.
 Flows David?"
 "Lo@ely. He always comes to us for Sunday dinner" Linda said. And he always asks for your she added, with some significance David Daven- port, Fred's somewhat heavy and plod- ding brother a successful Brooklyn dentist, had never made any secret of his feeling for the beautiful Har- riet
 "I like Davidw Harriet said, in an- swer to some faint indication of re- proach in her sisters tone. But in- mediately afterward she added, in a lower voice: Ward Carter has had Royal Blondin at the house this week !''
 Linda's rocker stopped as if by shock There was an electric silence. When she spoke again it was with awe and incredulity and something like terror in her tone.
 Royal Blondin! He's in England '"
 He was,' Harriet said, dryly. Ties been in New York for two years now"
 Linda shuddered.
 T know--I remember" she said in whisper. And she added fervently, 'I hoped he was dead!"
 "So did IT. Harriet said, simply. Our meeting was entirely accidental. Be had no idea of finding me; was as surprised as I was" She stopped abruptly, musing on some unpsiat- aBle thought. "You wouldn't know him, Lindn. He is perfect freak. New thought, and poetry, and the oc- cult, and Tagore and the Russian novelists, and the Russian music; he lectures about them and he has been extremely successful! He wears pon- gee coats and red ties. and has his hair long, and-well, you never saw women act so about anything OF any body! He's having dinner with the Carters tonight" To this Linda could only ejaculate an amazed:
 "Royal Blondinp' And as Harriet merely nodded, in the gloom, she add ed, vigorously, "Why, he hadn't a penny! He was always an idiot-he didn't have enough to eat ten years ago!"
 "Well. he has enough to eat now Ward told me that he gets three hun dred dollars for his drawing-rooIn talks-his interpretive musings, he called them"
 Well. that" Mrs. Davenport vas still dazed with astonishment and in- dignation. That really" she be gan, and stopped. shaking her head