Evening star., 1924-05-25

F RUTGER G TUNE had waited
two weeks longer to die he would
have had TO do a lot of explain
ing. And he had always hated
explanations.
4 plump, high-colored, well dressed
figure of a middle-aged man. he had
just passed debonairly through the
gates Of the Kansas City Union sta
ton on his way to take the eastbound
train. a deferential dushy porter
ahead of him, when suddenly he
crumpled. sank and became a mere
heap of haberdashery on the station
platform. Confusion, crowds, tele-
grams. And the Tune twins, already
motherlesS, were summoned home
from their commencemen.t exercises
at Eassar to find themselves pretty
much in the positic-s~of the two or
phans of drama fame, so far as
finances and future were concerned.
One week after the funeral: But
what did he do with ito" demanded
Hilda Tune. the beauty. Her tone
was perhaps eXcusably querulous.
considering that she and her sister
Hannah now found themselves pos
sessed of exactly 1920 each, the law
yers having just finished explaining.
He didn't have it, replied Han
nah. the plain twin. composedly.
Didn't have it. What nonsense.
Hannah. What did we live on all
these years? Our education and
clothes. and this huge house, and
fathers wine and food and horses.
and Her voice trailed off. Then
again, in helpless wrath; What did
We live on"
Bluff" said Hannah
But mother left heaps. And there
was all that stock in the packing COM
pany."
Yes, but father squandered heaps.
The stock must have gone years ago.
But it was ours! Lots of it was
ours. Yours and mine"
Hannah smiled grimly. You must
have understood something of what
Mr., Patterson and the other lawyer
meant when they said that father
had been unwise in his handling OF
the money He gambled, among 9TH
er things. Well, if we've learned any
thing practical at school, Hilda my
gal. nows a grand chance to prove
it."
* < X x
HANNAH resembled her simple,
IL straightforward. plain-featured
mother, who had been the Kansas City
bei-ess of the stock yards stock.
Hilda was undeniably her fathers
daughter-authentic offspring of Rut-
ger G. Tune of the Massachusetts
Tunes.
The girls had been sent to eastern
schools in their early teens. Also,
when the Tunes travelled it was al
ways in the east or in Europe. They
knew practically nothing of the vast
country that stretched 70 thousands of
miles west of Missouri to the Pacific
Mrs. Tune had loved her middle west
and she had, during her lifetime and
even after, shrewdly made it finan-
cially difficult for her husband to re-
main long away from the city whence
her income had its source. The twins
had once been taken to Colorado
Springs. Western railroad society
was largely represented at the Ant
Iers Hotel. Rutger G. Tune had not
liked it
"A lot of brakemen," he said, who
have worked their way up through
promotion to superintendencies, and
their wives, who have been mattresses,
probably, in the Harvey station eat
ing houses"
Mrs. Tune had spoken up at this.
my father used to say that those
western railroad brakemen and Har-
vey lunchroom mattresses were the
future aristocracy of the west. Fine
stock, he used to say, for foundation
material. Pick out. he said, almost
any we'll dressed. Intelligent. prosper
our looking woman who was the wife
of a successful ranch owner, railroad
official, mining or oil man living
within one thousand miles of the Mo-
lave Desert, and ask her if she was
born in the west Shed answer: "Oh,
no! I'm from Iowa'-or maybe Wis
consin, or Michigan, or Kansas. or
even Ohio-I used to be q Harvey
girl."' Pa said they were fine lot,
those Harvey mattresses. Pioneer
stuff, pa said"
We'll" interrupted Rutger G. Tune.
II prefer my hired girls in the
kitchen, not in the parlor."
At school the twins, Hilda and Han
nah, had been known. respectively, as
Tune and Cartoon. For nature, hav-
ing fashioned these two in like mold,
yet had so slightly. 80 deftly, 50 fiend-
ishly overemphasized in Hannah that
which was perfection in Hilda that
perfection became grotesquery. Still
Hannah might have been considered an
average-looking girl. which she real
Iy was-healthy, high-spirited, whole
some For that matter, there were
those who might have thought Hill
dat a:ps q shade too thin, just rs
others thought Hannah's mouth too
large
That generous mouth Of Hannah
Tunes was the index to her character.
II explained why she could be honest
II proud and pleased when people ex-
claimed about her sisters lovelinesa
+
TT had been June when Rutger G.
1 Tune had caused the little furry
RtAe HRiAa. .<atAta9R- -AR2 Tbs. .Kzeat