New Britain herald., 1927-02-11

she was sure that Stella had killed herself.
 l Gus. will you drive me homer" i she asked. Mrs. Mangan says Stel- las lying on the floor in her room, and she can't get her awake" | Well. let her call doctor then! You can't do any good riff Stel- la's sick" he said, and afterward | Robbie remembered how his voice Y, faltered on Stella's name.
 Please run me home. Gusty," she begged, using her own nickname for him. I'm sure something terrible's s happened down there. Mrs. Mangan sounded as if she were scared to death, and tonight Stella" "Nonsense." Gus was scowling and impatient now as he always was when anyone tried to cross him. T m not going to leave this house to take you down there just because Stella's ! had a fit or something. You're go- ing to stay right here and so am l. Come on. you haven't met some of these people," He put his hand under her arm and drew her back into the big crowded room with its evergreen boughs and its red Christ mas bells and its tinsel.
 Somehow Robbie managed to smile and to murmur the names of all the strange well-dressed people, as Gus led her from one group to another.
 Then he. put her into the immense brocaded davenport beside Lottie Schultz. He gave her cigarette and a silver trimmed cocktail glass and told her to smoke the one and down the other.
 "I'll be back In a minute" he said. T want to see that the Japs don't get away with any of that champa gne out In the kitchen. Sit there and calm yourself" He press ed her shoulders caressingly with his hands, and vanished.
 For a second Robbie thought of asking Lottie Schultz to drive her down to the house. Then she saw the folly Of that. If Stella had only tried to kill herself and failed. there was no use In letting anybody know what she had done.
 Then another thought came to her. and she got up and ran upstairs to the powder-scented room where the women guests had left their wraps.
 H., cape under the spangled brocades and the snowy ermine wraps that were piled on the bed. It looked home made and shabby beside the others.
 Carrying 1t under her arm. so as not to attract attention. she flew down stairs and into the night. She had made up her mind just what to do, and how to do it.
 Gus's cream colored roadster stood at the door damned in between two other motors. But Robbie final middle of the driveway and down the hill.
 There was a heavy fog, and the plants and the trees on either side of the driveway were dripping. Be hind clouds of mist the moon was like the face of ghost woman, and the lamps along Sunset Boulevard were pale blobs of radiance.
 It took Robbie almost half an hour to reach Las Palmas street, for she lost her way twice.
 There was a light in the hall of the house and as Robbie went Up the front steps the door opened and Mrs. Mangan came out on the porcb.
 "Oh, I thought you'd never come. phoned for Monicker at last" she said in a whisper. T didn't want to let the neighbors know what's hap pened-and I couldn't ask Mangan to leave his place in the middle of the night"
 She talked on and one and on, as Robbie started up hte stairs. There was a queer smell in the upper hal-the same smell that had been there hours before Stella uncorked the little brown bottle before her uIeSSlllS tdple - tlic ciliSil cl Nll bolic acid.
 The door Of stella's room was closed.
 II shut it." Mrs. Mangan babbled. I kept imagining l heard her breathing in there-but she wasn't, of course. I just know she's dead I just know she's dead. Such a thing to happen in my house. My house."
 She stared wildly around her at the beautifully papered walls of the house that she worshiped. The house that she was slaving to furnish and pay for. The house that was to her what a child, sweetheart or a career is to other women. And to think that Stella had dared to bring disgrace upon 1t by taking poison there! There was surprise and fury written in Mrs. Mangans gray face, as well as fear and horror.
 She stood back as Robbie laid her hand on the door-knob. But just as she did it, the doorbell pealed through the house. Both women jumped, and then both remembered that Monica had been sent for.
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