The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-09-26
CHAPTER NV. My Commission.

go out and look for inspiration" | CHAPTER ". My Commission. The determination was still upon l me, and the inspiration, when got | up early the next morning. Thank | the kind Heavens which had put my slippers into such condition that I | had concluded to substitute a pair of 'tSneakers'' for house use. The | rubber shoes would take a coat of two cents worth of pipe-clay and look like tennis. I still had left a suit | of flannels from the period of the l Willy-boy roles. They had small darn over one knee, but I figured it would be invisible across a tennis 1 court. and at closer range I could 1 hide it by draping myself gracefully with the other knee over it. At half past seven I was jolIying 1 the easier looking of the towns two l taliors into letting a fifty dollar suit | order wait while he cleaned and press l ed those flannel pants for twenty ffive cents.
 r The previous evening I had ascer- 1 tained that the towns one jitney di- l verted its regular route every morning after the nine-fifty train to take re- porters out to the Governors place. | I boarded the Jitney with six news I | running board.
 We were bounced along over a | magnificent road. We were passing \ a long, low stone wall. Inside it was a wide expanse of carefully kept lawn, which sloped upward to a big, colonial | mansion. I had located Wills place. My heart leaped.
 l Then my heart turned clear over The little jitney turned into the gate | at the middle of the stone wall. Yes, I saw it all in the brief time I it. took the light car to speed up the | drive. Will was Governor Bill Ham, mil, young millionaire philanthropist, disinterested politician, triumphant reformer. I ought to have guessed 1 that.
 If I lacked anything of certainty, 1t vanished when the car came to a jolting stop before the steps, and the | reporters scrambled out with the haste all good reporters keep in their 1 repertoire.
 It was the place where I had stopp- ed the night before. The lay of the drive, the porch with the long stairs i-why, even Alice's big Rolls-Royce was standing just where I had sat in it while waiting for her to hear wheth- CT Will came back to consciousness. l I sat there and stared.
 Don't you get off here?" grumbled the jitney driver.
 'I guess I do all right" I answer ed mournul1fy.
 would get off all right, indeed After last night Hammi1 proba b1y wouldn't be able to see me for a week I had figured on touching the gover- nor for a little advance. insisting or a weekly payment of fifty dollars un-
 til I had finished the job.
 l was probably a week luckier i
 he didn't see me. I could see hin
 taking me on after Alice had told hin
 she could marry me and couldn't eve
 marry him. I could feel the kick I't
 have given him, if our positions wer i reversed.
 My best bet was to stay where
 was until Alice came out, bid her
 long, lingering farewell, and beat
 out of Mi1vil1e Manor to see if on 1 of the grocers in the next town did mt need a clerk.
 I didn't have time to frame up l fitting farewell for the occasion. Allie, . 1 came tripping out of the front doc
 just as the first of those repotrer
 reached it.
 They all stopped, stared, turned t,
 watch her descend. It was of no us
 for me to feel jealous at their eff
 frontery. I might as well admire thei | good taste.
 You here!" Her laughing eyes up
 set the choice beginnings of the touch
 ing farewell before I had them ar
 ranged in my mind. What a joke
 on father! He might have knowr that. since you weren't trying to in- terview him, the only business a mag azine man would have here would be
 with the Governor Well, now you
 know"
 'Yes, I know I answered almost
 as gloomily as I felt. i've come g
 thousand miles toto do some pub licity work for the Governor; and , now I know he's sick, and"
 'tOh, he's lot better today. I made 3 him promise not to see the reporters 3 but he'll see you. And I'm awfully e glad you're going to help. Are you } going to write an article about him 9 , "A series of articles" I responde ed
 tOh, series." She clapped he1 : hands. You're really going to worl
 for him-for his reelection. Oh,
 know we'll win now
 Flows that2" I inquired "Oh, I can see that, if you sci , about doing thing, it's as good as done The State is saved"
 She laughed at the phrase of al : parties at all times. Then she sober.
 ed up.
 "It really is the only salvation fo1 I this state. you know. Father says 3 so And know a little of what VII ! has done. Oh, father will be so glad
 You haven't forgotten the tennis this ], afternoon, have you ?''
 There's Mir. Jones. to shoo off thu