The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-10-16
CHAPTER TOT

CHAPTER TOT From the moment when MT. Hal
 dane revealed that he'd given over the management of HaIdane's to Carl
 Booth, Tom was so uneasy that wondered how 1t could escape any
 ones attention His stumbling reply to the invitation to meet Carl and his
 bride at dinner the next evening was
 enough to betray him to any but the
 sinplest-ninded of souls But little 1rma Warren Is the least suspicion of beings, and Loren HaIdane's business
 shrewdness doesn't lead him to ana lyze his friends or to question their motives.
 By jove! I'm sorry your enter taining for Booth tomorrow night"
 cried Tom, over-stres essing it again.
 You see since Mrs. Booth left my shop, I'm minus the cleverest assist ant I've ever had. I'd fallen into the way of counting on her. She's a. young woman of rare good taste. So now I'm scheduled to take a buying trip she would once have managed for me. And I leave-in the morn ing."
 Cant you postpone 1t one day?" ventured Irma. the color coming and going in her cheeks at her own bold ness. You ought to De weIcon11ng Mrs Booth" Perhaps nothing will be more wei come than the satisfa ct1on or know ing that I can't be at her dinner just because it's on her account r, can't" replied Tom trying for a light note. "Y ou see, celebrating Booth's luck in marrying a fine girl marks
 my loss in being minus a wonderful;
 manager
 That's so,'' Irrna dimpfed sweetly.
 ou do have to work hard, don't you? When I see how much busi- ness costs a conscientious man, I'm all the happier. because Uncle is go- ing to have a little playtime."
 "I'd not relish the playttre sd much if I didn't have this dear child to see that it's full of gala evenrs' said MT. Haldane' with his gentle smile. And I suppose I'd fret and fume lot over the way the ma asaz1ne is bound to go to the dogs without me, if I weren't turning it over to a young man I regard -as a son-apd a son who's a modern improvement on the old man. 'Haldane's' has been a one-man magazine long enough !
 He chuckled a bit TOT very pr1de in Carl and 1rma and I knew better than to protest. But Tonn-awKward- ly trying to say the right thing- stumbled into the wrong one.
 ''Well, sir" he declared, Booth is fine fellow. No one Tn the business world questions that But he can do nothing better than to carry out your policies
 ''I hope he'll grow beyond them.H said Loren Haldane iR his courtliest voice.
 Something in Irma's troubled eyes told me that she guessed the two men were not in sym mpathy. wondered how much the discovery meant to her. But at the moment I was too inapa- tient with Toms lack of perceptiod to pity him for the really b1inding love that has come to cloud his usua1 fine sympathy with men and their am bitions. ant If color1ess affair. After it we went on to the theatre. Irnaa and | sat between our escorts, and MT. Hai1 dane and I were afforded plenty of opportunity for tete-a-tete. This seemed the propitious moment fo9 discovering how much help I could count on from my former employer and a1l-time friend. But before I could do any investigating between acts MT. Haldane answered my un- spoken thought.
 You don't know how restful 1t i7 to feel that I have a problem in the world,' he sighed "Irma's future might worry me. if I didn't feel surs that the girls basic sweetness and hneness would act as a lodestone to pull her in the right direction. No man who isn't one hundred per cenH man and the same amount gentIes man is going to get past the barriers of her instincts. I can tell you how glad I am to know that-for I'm too old and tired to fight even for her"
 You're notn' I cried indignantly. If she needed you to guard her, yoR would
 "Td trp." MT. Haldane gently de. eIared. But I'm a tired old man and I'm near the end of the road. T hope it will be a, peaceful one.'
 Tt will if I can-help," I said.
 But that VOW meant taking on "a new problem-not getting lssIu with my old one.
 So 1t was that our evening ended with the twenty-four-hour r-oId worry Dad Lee had caused me, growing and hourishing-not solved. When I ler myself into the house, 1t was with morbid terror of another sIeepless night I knew that I must think or some way of handling the problem Dad Lee had raised when he declared that Dick and he knew Jin1's present. address.
 Bertha was not waiting up for me as she had done the night before But in a conspicuous spot on the coz sole table in the hall was letter It was a letter from Jim. Tonight Bertha had with instinctive tact ana inc feeling. left me to bear my haR- oiT1ess alone.
 raced upstairs with my precious etter. Closing and even locking ga,s ioor against intrusion, I flung myse nto the chair under the tall doo amp and opened my letter. And my eyes fell on the hEgt word in Jim etter, they filled with tears Bt hey were haray tears, for Jim began
 (To Be Continued)