Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-07-24

In TWO PARTS-PART TWO
THAT gives me six months to try to
get a raise before he ONE to me"
Brighton told Doris Moon that
night. The spring time was far enough
along now for them to begin to sit
out in the porch swing again. A young
vine climbed a wire trellis and secluded
that end of the porch from the street.
If l a get a raise" Brighton con-
tinued, the extra expense OF having
him won't interfere with our plans.
But if I can't get a raise his voice
trailed off somewhat drearily. Bust
ness was very dull, and the company
had been retrenching, Brighton knew.
He was lucky to hold his place.
If you don't get a raise We'll just
have to wait a little longer, that's ALL"
Doris was quiet and matter OF fact
about it: amazingly so for a very pretty
girl deeply in love who had tentatively
set her wedding date for late autumn.
But, then. Doris was philosophical. She
had not worked her way up until she
was a teller in the Union bank, and a
notary besides, without having her
struggles and reverses. She knew more
about the form of strength which is
called patience than almost any other
girl who ever had wide set dark eyes,
smooth ash-gold hair. and a curved
coral mouth with a dimple at the
rne
All" said Brighton despairingly.
"Oh, I know!" she said quickly. But
after all, it can't be helped. He can't
help it. and maybe he minds more
than any of us. You'll have to be very
good to him. He's such a funny little
old man."
Even after we're married he'll have
to be with us three months out Of the
year, you know" Brighton unused. III
we ever get married, that isl" He
groaned and kissed her ~savagely.
Sometimes l wish I'd never seen you.
If I didn't love you I wouldn't suffer
SO much because I have to wait for
YOU" he cried rebelliously after the
manner of men who find love grown
so far beyond the frontiers Of reason
that, instead of caressing them like a
friend, it Furnishes them like an enemy.
But what he said was not true and
both he and she knew it. Because OF
her he courted longing and coveted
bondage.
Never mind. Next year. she
soothed him, her lips cool and sweet
with the passage of the night wind
across them.
From others besides Brighton Doris
heard of Uncle Albert. Elisabeth, and
later Frances, confided in her. They
liked her for herself, and they liked
her because she was SO different from
Genevieve. And, somehow, people al
ways found it easy to talk to Doris
Moon.
Hes a perfectly demoralizing in
f1uence,' walled Elisabeth. Il never
know what he'll do next. Fancy, I
found out Yesterday that he was help
ing Junior feed and care for a toad
Junior had struggled into his room.
My cook had to do the cleaning, and
the creature hoped out at her from
under the bed. She was quite hysterl-
cal.
Then, the other afternoon, | was
having my bridge club, and he came
into the sun room, not knowing we
were there. and when I began to in
troduce him he mumbled SO queerly
for a moment, then he reached down
in a pocket and brought out his false
teeth and put them in. After that he
was all smiles, perfectly confident OF
himself.
I'm always finding those teeth
about, Doris. He leaves them prac-
tically anywhere when he gets tired
of wearing them and WE run across
them on shelves, or tables, or on the
mantel %grinning at us. It's rather
chilling. l don't know what Frances
will do when he gets to her. She is
so squeamish about anything that
strikes her as unesthetic. She doesn't
realize now she doesn't sympathize
with me. I'm just waiting!
And Ralph feels his being with us
In his business. Ralph is handling
the sales of that suburban piece, Glen
Acres, you know. 1t hasn't been going
well, and l suppose Uncle Albert thinks
he is helping, but you never saw any
thing to equal the nOndescript people
he herds into Ralph's office for Ralph
to take them out and show them the
lots! We thought we knew everybody
in town, but most of these we never
ever heard of. I can't imagine where
he gets them. They seem to be rela-
tives Of men who were in school with
him when he wa a boy and people
he meets at the drug store and the
picture show. Of course they don't
buy. You can tell at once they haven't
any money. But Ralph has been de-
cent to them.
II told Ralph today, though, that he
mustn't waste any more time on any
body unless they are qualified pros
poets. We simply have got to have
money. / want another guest room
added on over the back porch. AS it
is, / can't have anybody with me, and,
even after Uncle Albert leaves, it will
be the same thing over again next
year. Mrs. Godfrey Vincent asked me
if I could let that lovely woman who
came to lecture to our club on the
English novelists stay with me and I
had to turn her down. But I dareSay
things will go on just the same!"
However, she was wrong. Things
did not go on just the same, for
presently Ralph's business began to
improve. Some of the men whom
Uncle Albert had introduced to Ralph
came back and brought friends OF
theirs until at last Ralph realized that
Glen Acres was selling remarkably well.
He and Elisabeth built their new
spare bedroom. And Ralph would have
been glad to encourage Uncle Albert
as his business aid, but he saw less Of
the old man now, since Uncle Albert