The Holly chieftain., 1924-02-14

JUST tnen-0nQ 1Or moment en0
stood before him. breathless and lit
tie flushed. Then she flung her arms
around him. tight. and kissed his
mouth. He gathered her up in his
arms, and tears. utterly unwonted and
amazing. filled his eyes.
ut was your beard 1 was afraid Of"
she murmured. "But I guess l like
it."
He let her go, abruptly. for there
was another damned echo in that. 1t
was thing that had been said to him
before.
Then he dashed the unwelcomed
memory out Of his mind. Look here 7"
he cried. "How long will 1t take you
to dress7 II you'll be quick. I'll wait.
Take you downtown with me to the
offlce. I want 'em to see you. Besides.
it's the place you'll have to come when
you want money"
"I'll hy." she said.
eyes, when she'd kissed him over their
first breakfast. obliterated the fear
that she'd be shipped back to Pasa.
dena as unsatisfactory; as his for
bearance, the evening before, had
made 1t plain that she wouldn't have
to run away from him. They'd "get
on" all right. And the menage she
found him in. as well as the place he
seemed to offer her in 1t. was far b@
yond the widest Of her hopes. The
good fiat" and the two cars he had
mentioned in his letter had suggested
no such establishment as this.
Anson - dignlfed, inscrutable, so
phisticated, and. implicitly at least,
under her orders-was as incredible as
If he'd come out Of the movies. And
Burns. the chaufreur-her chauffeur.
In effect. since her father seemed never
to require his services by day-was as
good-looking and Jolly and serviceable
to her caprice as any of the young
princes of Hollywood who sometimes
disguised themselves in Jobs like that,
for lark-or purpose.
The car she elected to do most of
her driving in was not the sumptuous
monster In which Joe had taken her
down to dinner on that first evening,
but a sport model Of the same famous
make. Her first edict was that sh be
allowed to learn to drive 1t. They
made daily cruises, she and young
Burns, of uncounted miles and un-
reckoned hours. She even liked the
country. The color and freshness and
variety of the foliage excited her, ac-
customed as she was to the palmetto
punctuated monotony of southern Cali
fornia.
Most of the time during those first
few days she felt like Ali Baba when
he had first said. "Open sesamew But.
again like ALI Baba, she was to expert
ence no comfortable security in the
possession Of her treasure-trove. There
were enigmas about her fathers life
she couldn't solve; alarms that kept
her constantly on the alert.
She'd stumbled upon the first of
these the morning Joe took her to the
Office. He'd introduced her round
promiscuously, during the ostensible
process Of showing her over the place,
to all sorts Of people-draftsmen
clerks. nographers-usually in a
perfectly one-sided manner: ''This Is
my daughter, Beatrice; Of course. 1t
didn't matter to her who they were.
But to this procedure there had been
striking exception. On leading her up
to one young woman-a creature with
some pretense to looks and a lot of
red hair; probably some sort Of head
stenographer since she seemed to
have an Office of her own-her father
had said, Beatrice. this is Jennie
Macarthur" He'd said 1t. too. on a
different note, significantly somehow.
and the Significance seemed to be that
here was somebody who, for an un-
guessed reason. did matter. He add
er, as IL to put 1t beyond doubt. II
want you two to get acquainted"
Beatrice. startled and feeling herself
flushed, managed rather cavalier nod
and an abbreviated "How do you do" :;
and then, though she hadn't meant to.
extended her hand.
The woman didn't act snubbed at
all, though the intention. Beatrice
thought. had been plain enough. Her
look was penetrating and. deliberate.
Were very glad you've come" she
said. Then. turning to him-her en-
ployer, Congratulations !" She didn't
merely say 1t, either; she put some
thing into it. some special meaning.
There'd been Observation-Disclosures
ed, rather at random-after this /;
questions about the sort Of trip she'd
had across the continent; brief ac-
count of what they'd done the night
before.
At last she said. amazingly, There's
nothing much here this morning, Joe.
Why don't you take the day orr
Though he vetoed the suggestion,
bruskly there was something he par
ticulahy wanted to get at-he didn't
seem to feel that there'd been anything
officious about IT. And the Joe"
neither of them seemed to have been
conscious of Mt NIL Evidently II was