The Washington times., 1930-01-21
CHAPTER KIN

room door and stood on the
threshold. There was an. angry
puzzled look on his face as his
eyes searched Lovejoy's sleepy
ones.
what man would be tele-
phoning you long distance" he
asked bluntly.'
Lovejoy sat up In bed, shak-
ing her touSled head.
mo man." she said quickly.
''Why?"
well, a long distance call
( Just came in from South Port"
he answered frowning, "and I
heard a man talking to the
operator. Then he said Hello
to me and when / answered he
hung up."
Lovejoy was doing some quick
thinking y The man
who had telephoned must have
been Aline's Jack. She had
told. him yesterday To drive
carefully to their meeting.place
because the roads were wet
a" and South Port was
within easy driving distance Of
the down.
TT must have been some one
who got our number by mis-
take" she said, rubbing the
sleep out Of her eyes.
But Tom shook his head.
mo, I tell you I heard him
asking the operator for it, and
he had it straight enough" he
replied. Seems funny he hung
up the minute he heard a
mans voice at this end /"
You're sure it wasn't some one
yon know?"
There was a trace of suspi-
cion in his manner, and for q
second Lovejoy was tempted to-
tell him about Aline and her
! sweetheart.
But she didn't partly
because she wanted the friend
ship Of the AlderSons and
partly because she was a good
sport. A good sport did not
tattle on her friends, particu-
1arly when she had found out
things about them simply by
accident That was
Lovejoy's way Of looking at it.
"Tom," she said gravely, "I
don't know q man in South
Port or anywhere else who
would telephone me, and that's
the truth. = Don't I smell
coffee?"
II made some, and I was GO
ing to set it here beside your
bed. thought it would do
you good to sleep late for once.
] gave the kid his bottle at
o'clock, and he's been asleep
ever since"
He took out his watch and
looked at it.
'"Ten minutes past g." he
said quietly. I'm late this
morning 20 minutes
late. Funny that man
telephoned just about the time
that I'd be leaving the house,
wasn't it?"
Lovejoy saw that he was still
suspicious, and anger flared UP
inside OF her all at once.
Now, look here, Tom Nichol-
son." she said sharply. "You
can't talk to me like that. I
haven't any men friends, and,
there aren't any men who call
me up. So you can just keep
your nasty suspicious to your
self"
Glaring at him, she got out
Of bed and thrust her naked
feet into her bedroom slippers.
In another minute she would
have told him the truth about
the mysterious telephone call.
But before that minute was
up Tom left the house. He left
It without another word, put
ting ON his overcoat and hat as
he hurried away. +" And
Loyejoy was left, as many an
other Scolding wife has been
left to tell her troubles to the
four walls.
Out on the table in the
kitchen was the breakfast tray
that Tom had fixed for her
before the telephone call came
In to destroy the peace and
quiet of the little house.
A clean fringed napkin COW
cred 1t, and besides the fat lit
tie German silver coffee pot
was q plate Of hard burned
toast. Lovejoy's anger
melted away as she looked at
1t.
Tom did love her, and she
knew 1t. IF he hadn't loved her,
he wouldn't have been so
i Jealous and suspicious over that
telephone call, would he?
She found herself crying a
little as she broke off a bit of
the toast and put 1t into her
mouth.
What was the matter with
her and Tom lately? They had
had two quarrels in the last
Week-they. who never had