The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-01
Chapter XIV TOHN MOBERLY sighed rather uaa rilu aa he seated himself hY the

~ open fireplace in his comfortable apartment in Washington Square. A moment or two later Mrs. Moberly en- tered the room. 'Oh, sorry if I've kept you waiting, dear, but our meet ing lasted longer than I expected. How ever, dinners all ready now and we can begin."
 That's all right, sweetheart" he said as he rose and, slipping her arm in his, walked toward the dining room.
 Its nice to be home again" he mur- mured for in their hurried and rather unexpected trip abroad, packing and unpacking so frequently had been a bit tiresome for her.
 "Yes, it is. Next time we go we'll go with more leisure, although all things considered you saw good many lovely gardens" answered Mir. Moberly as they seated themselves at table.
 How did things go today, dear" she questioned. She was always interested in the little gleanings of human interest that were forever cropping up in her husbands office5
 i've a surprise for you," he an- swered as his eyes twinkled.
 "Now, John Moberly, why didn't you tell me right away" she questioned with fine show of annoyance. What is it?"
 "A friend of yours came to see me today" he replied quietly as he helped himself to some celery.
 "A friend of mine? We'll, I've lots of them. Which one was it?" asked Mrs. Moberly eagerly.
 II want you to guess" he leased.
 No, John," she answered pleadingly, "you know it might take me till mid night and as we're going out after din ner l vote that you tell me right away"
 All right, honey. It was Joan Fair weather"
 "Oh, has she left Hearts Desire? I thought that she was staying there till the end of October"
 "She was, but something happened" he replied rather gravely.
 Now, John, you may as well tell me the whole story at once or all you know of it." she said as she smiled.
 "Very well, old lady," he answered. When she came in I thought she look ed bit tired out and as though things had not been going well with her, so 1 asked her if housekeeping was too hard. She shook her head and said she'd been back in town for a while and that her book was doing well. Of course 1 was interested in that and we talked about her financial affairs. Then I made some remark about Hearts Desire and she gave me the surprise of my life by bursting into tears."
 "Oh, John, hope you had your door shut, so that none of the folks around the office saw her," interrupted Mrs. Moberly.
 "Oh, yes, my dear. She was in for over an hour and by degrees found out what the trouble was. It seems she suddenly realized she was at Hearts Desire that she was in love with Ru- pert (of course you and I have known that they were both deeply in love with each other for long time)," and John Moberly chuckled, "so she decided to leave. Rupert thought she was go- ing to marry Dr. Lang and naturally grew rather frigid, but he discovered his mistake and when we were abroad he rushed down to New York and they be- came engaged. They were making plans for an early wedding when she received a letter from his releasing her from her engagement"
 "Oh, dear, that's not like Rupert. Whatever can he mean?" questioned Mrs. Moberly.
 II don't know, I'm sure. but she's terribly cut up over the whole affair and if it weren't for her work I guess she'd collapse"
 How dreadful" interrupted Mrs. of course sine cant forget at least not until she gets some ex- planation of this sudden change of heart. That certainly seems strange. I can not understand what Rupert means, and loans far too sweet q girl to be treated like that. Cant we do anything in the 
 Well, you might ask Joan down for n day or two. She's staying with Syl- via Desmond until she can get posses 'ion of her own studio. I don't believe ] Us wise to meddle in their affairs, als-