Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-23

ETER PIPER drove Bossy back
- to the Herald office In a state
of inner turmoil such as he had
i seldom known.
"WeIl-for the moment-you
winl" he had said. And Barbara had
not refused the hand which Peter ex-
tended. At that moment Of parting she
had looked more than ever like Alice in
Wonderland grown up.
Impossible to connect a girl like that
with a secret-perhaps a sinister secret.
Why, she would not have looked out of
place playing house with acorn dishes
under a spreading treeI Peter smiled at
the picture-a dreamy boys smile. such
as no member of the Herald staf had
ever seen on his face.
He brought himself up with start.
Because a girl was young and pretty
childlike even-waS no reason at all why
she might not be capable of the whole
range of human passions and acts. The
clevereSt woman forger of her time, in
'terviewed by Peter in the city JAIL where
she waited trial, had been neat, moth
erly person, who looked as II she spent
her afternoons in baking cookies and
her evenings in tatting Mary Saunders,
the tiger woman" who had Killed her
rival by inviting her to call and then
eficiently hattering her skull with the
fire tongs, had a sweet, appealing face
and the air of one misunderstood by a
cruel. and captious world.
And there was more-much more-to
Barbara Cavanaugh than an attractive
face.
That's where women have the edge
on us every time!" Peter growled.
There's something to that Turkish
veil idea If they all wore wells, they'd
get away with considerably less"
He forcibly clawed his mind away
from the intrusive image of Barbara S
yellow-brown hair, curved above small,
close-Set ears. He even shut his eyes,
thereby narrowly missing collision with
q numbering truck.
"Au that aside" he murmured
All that aside, wave of spontaneous
admiration lifted him on its crest.
''Hco-oo-oo, hu-hu-hu-hoo, he whiS-
tied under his breath
THAT girl is no fool!" he crowed, and
found an inexplicable delight in the adj
mission. Well, he was no fool either,
il 1t came to that Suppose, with those
fantastic, story book notions of honor in
her head she had felt that Don Els
worth's detection was an affront to be
avenged. Suppose she had taken mat
tiers into her own hands to GUST Sheila
OShAy as an mCefl0per. suppose
nothing to be proved as yet. but good
deal that was worth watching. Peter
Piper was seized with q desire to under
stand Barbara, to know of surety what
unify1ng reality lay behind that wide
brow, and uplifting nose, and firn1 chin.
He wanted to know He wanted TO
know, not because 1t might be news, but
because the knowledge had somehow
become import: ut to him.
And meanwhile? Meanwhile he had
great follow story DR. Cavanangh,
when he had moved West from New
York, officially retired-thbugh his repu-
tation made complete retirement inn
possible-had introduced Barbara as his
daughter, which, indeed, she legally was.
The romantic, Cinderella story of her
adoption from q founding home. her
secret engagement to Don Ellsworth, the
spectacular young multi-milli onaire-a
great storyI And written as Peter Piper
would write it-delicately. with the
fairytaIe quality in it.
There's q little thing like loyalty,
Peter found that, remembering her
words. he remembered almost audibly