Evening star., 1925-01-04

/ competent. dictatorial. high and dry
/ on her chosen raft.
He was thinking of the day when
/ half the town had gathered TO see
the body Of Mortie Greer, the last
/ Greer, come home from its erratic
| wanderings. lie had been killed in
motor accident on his honeymoon
! And also they watched his widow in
: mourning modish as to win their
4 instant disapproTaI
! DO YOU thiuk YOU woNld like to
+ make your home in Marysport"'
! Haley owen, the Greer's lawyer,
! asked her.
Il mean to live here" she said
| briefly
| Old DIR. Will, thinking Of that re-
mark in the light OF what he had
| learned. could not restrain a grunt
| Of admiration. The auda city of the
woman, And the cleveness. the
, sheer touchness of fiber and tenacity
of purpose with which she had over
come her handicap.
For she had come among them
handicapped indeed; first, sby Mortie
| Greer's ne-er-do lowell reputation: sec
ond, by that formless rumor that ha d
started from burst of laughter from
Tully Foster.
Foster was d travelling man He
was i'll the habit of playing poker
| in the back room of Charley HAYES
occasions that ne had heard OF Nor
tie Greer's marriage.
You don't say" he excla e d.
Who married the old scout"
Charley Hayes told him, Nhat all
they knew about the marriage was a
paragraph in a Pittsburgh paper to
the effect that Morti<ler Greer had
been married TO Mrs. Ruby Dahl
gren, widow OF prominent lumber
man.
But for Tully Foster this appeared
to be more than enough
What name did YOU say" he
gasped
Mrs. Ruby Dahlgren, widow Of a
prominent lumberman. Know her,
Tully?'
Tully Foster leaned back in his
chair, while his jovial stomach shook
His laughter rose, ribald, mysterious,
full of a rich wonder at the capacity
Of human beings to fool one another
Mrs. Ruby Dahlgren, widow of a
promin ent-prominent---
Come across. Tully." they be-
sought him. What do you know
Tully Foster sobered. Perhaps a
belated sense of fair play stirred in
him. Il don't know a thing" he
said. A man makes hot lot of mis-
takes in this vale of tears Your
edge, Charley"
But his laughter had been sufficient
to tickle the suspicious of every man
in the room. Vague rumors about
the new and unseen Mrs. Greer be-
gan to float about. They were at
first formless and without detail But
it wasn't long before they had crys-
tallized into a general conviction that
poor, wild Mortie Greer had mar
ried fast" woman.
= i: <
GO Ruby came to Marysport. some six
~ months or so after her appesr-
ance at Mortie's funeral. II she was
puzzled or hurt by the standoffish at
titude OF her new neighbors. she did not
show it. She began making over the
old Greer place. 1t was rumored that
Mrs. Greer's colored cook was a regu-
lar chief: that there were a hundred
dollars worth of the newest phono-
graph records in the cabinet; that the
new veranda had a fine floor for dane
ing.
Mrs. Greer did not seem to mind that
no one called on her except Mrs Haley
Owen and the minister and Allie
Potter, who was SO good -naturedly un-
selective that she didn't count She
learned to drive Mortie's large touring
car. She began to take out for airings
Allie Potter and one or two old ladies
who were Allies protegees. 1t was the
old ladies who first spoke of her as
real goodhearted."
Then one day, when she had lived
in Marysport a few months, the town
was startled to observe Mrs. Charley
Hayes advancing to Ruby Greer's front
door.
Mrs. Hayes reminded her friends
afterward that her husband and Mortie
Greer had been school friends. There
were a few who recalled that the
Greer estate held Charley Hayes note
for sum that would have seriously en-
barrassed Charley had he been pressed
just then to meet it.
Lucy Hayes had nor asked Ruby to
her house, but before the end of her
call she had found herself involved in
promise to let Ruby drive her to
Hammondsport next day. So she asked
Ada Biggers to go with them.
Ada Biggers found Ruby amusing She
brought the two Connant girls, dying
OF ennui to call. Ruby, discovering
that the oldest Connant girl expected
a young man from the city for Satur-
day and Sunday and was at her wits
end to know what TO do with him,
offered her Veranda. her phonograph.
her cook. And the Connant girl, in
her gratitude, accepted the little dance
on Saturday and furnished the guests
After that Ruby Greer was high and
dry on the raft. Her house was always
open. her laugh always ready. Wom-
en- calling on her out of curiosity came
again because they had found there
was laughter there-life seemed jolier,
more expansive, more lavish.
Was there sickness in the neighbor-
hood, Ruby appeared with delicaces:
she sheltered and fed the entire Dolan
family when their house burned down:
she gave her lawn to the Red Cross
festival; her energy went far to make a
lively success out of the firemen's an
nual carnival.