Evening star., 1923-02-11

bluff would be closed for a year or
more at time. Giddy's father rather
liked Winnebago and would have
been content to spend six months of
the year in the old Cory house. but
Giddy's mother. who had been a Ley
den of New York. put that idea out of
his head
Don't talk to me-" she said, about
your duty toward the town that gave
you your money, because you know
you don't mean it. 1t bores you
worse than it does me, really"
Her husband protested weakly. 81
don't care. like the old shack. 1
want to live in it-once in a while
I'm used to it. was brought up in
il. So was the kid. He likes II, too.
Don't you, Giddy?"
The boy worshiped his mother
But. also, he was honest. So. "Yeh,
like the OIL barn all right" he con-
fessed.
Encouraged, his father went on:
Yesterday the kid was standing out
there on the bluff edge breathing
like a whale. weren't you. Giddy?
And when I asked him what he was
putting about he said he liked the
smell of the sulphur and chemicals
and stuff from the paper mills, didn't
you, kid?"
Shame-facedly, "Yeh." said Giddy.
Betrayed thus by husband and
adored son. the Leydens did battle.
you can both stay here. them" she
retorted, "and sniff sulphur until
you're black in the face. I'm going to
London in May
They. too went to London in May,
Of course, as she had known they
would. She had not known, though,
that in leading her husband to Eng
land in May she was leading him to
| his death as well.
"Al Winnebago will be shocked
and grieved TO learn said the Win
nebago Courier to the extent of two
columns and cut. "of the sudden and
violent death in England of her fore
most citizen, Gideon Cory. Death
was due to his being thrown from his
| horse while hunting"
! y X Il !:
! TINE widowed Leyden did not even
l. take the trouble personally to
superintend the selling OF the Cory
place on the river bluff. 1t was sold
by an agent while she and Giddy
were in Italy, and if she was ever
| aware that the papers in the transac-
tion stated that the house had been
bought by Orson J. Hubbell she soon
forgot the fact and the name. Giddy,
| leaning over her shoulder while she
| handled the papers and signing on
the line indicated by A legal fore
finger. may have remarked:
"Hubber. That's old Hubbell. the
drayman. Must be money in the dray-
ing line"
He should have known that the
| draying business was now developed
into the motor truck business. with
great vans roaring their way between
Winnebago and kaukauna. Winnie
| bago and Necnah. and even Winnie
bago and Oshkosh. He learned that
later.
Just now Giddy wasn't learning
much of anything. and. to do him
credit, the fact distressed him not a
little His mother insisted that she
needed him and developed a bad heart
! whenever he rebelled and threatened
to sever the apron strings. They lived
abroad entirely now. Mrs. Cory
| showed a talent for spending the
Cory gold that must have set old
Gideon to whrling in his Winnebago
| grave Her spending Of it was foolish
enough. but her handling of it was
criminal She loved Europe. America
bored her She wanted to identify
herself with foreigners, with foreign
life. Against advice she sold her
large and lucrative interest in the
| Winnebago paper mills and invested
great sums in French stocks. in Rus
! sian enterprises. in German shares.
She liked to be mistaken for
Frenchwoman.
! She was vain of Gideon's un-Ameri-
can looks. and cross with him when.
on their rare and brief visits to New
York. he insisted that he liked Amer
lean tailoring and American made
| shoes. Once or twice. soon after his
fathers death. he had said. casually.
You didn't like Winnebago. did you"
Living in it, | mean"
| Like it,
Well these English. | mean. and
French-they sort Of grow up i'm d
place. and stay with it and belong to
it, see what I mean? And it gives
you a kind Of permanent feeling.
Not patriotic, exactly. but solid and
native healthy and Scots wha -hae-
wi'-Wallace and all that kind of
STOP"
"Giddy darling. don't be silly"
| OCCASIONALLY too, he said, Look
here Jul;a'-she ked this modern
method of address-'look here. Julia.
I ought TO be getting busy. Doing
| something. Here ] am. nineteen. and
can't do a thing except dance pretty
well. but not as well as that South
American eel we met last week; mix
a cocktail pretty we'll. but rot as
good one as Benny the bartender
turned out at Noyot's: ride pretty well,
but not as we'll rs the English chaps
drive car-
She interrupted him there. Drive
car better than even an Italian
chauffeur. Had you there. Giddy
darling
She undoubtedly had Giddy darling
there. His driving was little short of
miraculous, and his feeling for the in
tricate inside of motor engine was
as delicate and unerring as that of a
professional pianist for his pet piano
forte. They motored a good deal
with France as permanent back
ground and all Europe as play
ground. 4 pleasing existence. but
unprcfitable.
*
lVIIHEN the storm broke Giddy
w promptly went into the La.
fayette Escadrille. Later he learned
never to mention this to an Amer
lean. because the American was sc
likely to say. There must have been