Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-11

| CHAPTER M.
~ RS. RAYNE had had a won.
| n n derful morning. Nothing was
| N too fine for her: she wanted
4 L only the best.
Haven't you better
quality?" she would demand, in quite
her old-time manner, and out would
| come boxes and wrappings; and out or
| those, again, wonderful things: stock
! ings and handkerchiefs, underwear
| and linen.
But she did not buy Holly's house
hold linens at Steinfeldt & Roder's.
| Not since Margaret's marriage had she
| been in that store.
BY noon she was very tired She
went up to the restaurant and ordered
herself a frugal luncheon, and, while
waiting for it, listed her expenditures
so far She had done well, she re-
Elected. True, Holly would not have
so many of each sort of thing-she
herself had had two dozen of every
thing, when she. had married-but
what Holly had was very good.
She had ordered a New England
boiled dinner, because it was ready
and cheap. The cabbage, sh0 knew,
gave her indigestion; but she was
above Indigestion that day. She was
luncheon, she made some more pur-
chases, looking wistfully at gray
gown with a chinchilla collar for her
self for the wedding, and then passing
it by. There may have been a mo-
ment when she thought of those other
bonds, lying where they had lain for
years, and doing nobody any good,
but she put the temptation away from
her. And what she called HOllys
money was not to be spent for her
self. Not one cent.
But the indigestion began to bother
her. She took taxi home. The floor
was piled with her packages: boy
had to carry them out for her. But
she could not wait for their delivery.
She wanted to get home and gloat
over them, like old times.
Like old times.
She took out the money for her
fare, and then closed her bag. After
time, she dozed off comfortably.
At the house Holly had mechan-
ically finished her belated morning
work and was watching for her
mother.
Holly had worked hard, for she did
not want to think-not just yet, any
how. She had told her story, and
they had not believed her. She was
free. But Howard Warrington was
under suspicion. She was free, and
they were after him, who had done
nothing, known nothing.
1t was noon before she sat down
and began really to think; and then
her thinking got her nowhere. Some
memory of Furness that morning
came back, and she wondered if she
had driven him away for good. The
thought left her entirely Indifferent,
save for her inner knowledge that,
for the first time since she had known
him, she had been absolutely honest
with him then.
Honest for once"' she thought "A1l
along, I've been acting and lying. It's
been wrong. It's been immoral"
But wasn't there a fundamental i'm
morality in the whole situation? Not
only the bond. That had been an ac-
cident, temptation in a weak mo-
ment. But all the rest Of it, their
pretense at gentility, their snobberies
and hypocrisies; how about them?
She was through with them. If,
after 1t all came out, she told Furness
how she felt about him and he still
wanted to marry her. she would. But
she would tell him first.
And it was out of that conclusion
that she came to another. She would
marry him, but her mother would
have to clear things up. She would
have to tell the police about the bond.
It would not be so terrible, after