The Washington times., 1937-02-26

noon, and I'm tired, Mother" She
determined that she would not add
to her mothers troubles.
She was conscious that her
mother was still hesitating, want
ing to help her, no doubt, but there
was no help for an ache in the
heart, except time, supposedly.
Denise said, "I'll dress before I
go down to see Mr.. Windon, and
thank him." and fled.
In the draWing-room downstairs
Gilbert Windon had been waiting
alone a rather long time, for which
he was grateful, since it gave him
time to consider precisely what he
meant to say.
This tall man whom Felicia con-
sidered such an admirable solu-
ton for her sisters life, was, if
one stopped to look at him care
fully, not unlike Keith Sheldie in
appearance, in a much stronger
and considerably less handsome
version. That is to say, he was
broWn-haired and tan-skinned and
had pleasant features.
But Keith was in his middle twen-
ties. Gilbert was thirty-five, and
had worked hard most of his adult
life. Also, he had about him a
look that explained Felicia's,
"Westernersw Not that the hat
which ToWnes had taken was a
"five- gallon" hat, or that his suit
was any less well-tailored than one
Of Keith's; but there was a quality
in his appearance as of one whose
exercise had not been obtained
playing games, but working out
doors.
That was so. His grandfather
had made a large fortune in mining
and timber in western Canada. His
father greatly increased and con-
solidated that fortune. He himself
would continue to increase it, in
the much more modest fashion of
his period. But his interests were
sufficiently stable to permit him,
as they had never permitted his
father or grandfather. to take time
off occasionally.
CHAPTER V
He had been East a great many
times before, at thirty-five, he de-
cided he would like to spend a
good part Of his life there. That
happened at the precise moment
when at the house of his eastern
representative he first talked to
Denise Rendale, and she looked
at him kindly. if very remotely.
Her married sister Felicia Dayne
was much easier to talk to, he dis
covered. He wouldn't like his
wife to be quite as amiable!
For that thought, he occasionally
reproached himself as provincial.
Being provincial had worried him
occasionally in his life, especially
in London, where they called it
Colonial" with an odd infection,
He had regretted that his fathers
plan to send him to Oxford had
never been carried out
The war had prevented. He had
served. abSurdly young, with the
Canadians; and had come back to
find his father busy as ever, but
grown very old, almost feeble. He
refused to consider leaving him
again.
So his only education was at the
hands of the English tutor who
had accompanied his family and
himself about on their journeys
through British Columbia, ana
Alberta, east 20 Saskatchewan,
north to the Yukon. The tutor
taught him the classics well
taught him French with a bad
British accent, and English litera
ture Superbly. Curious man, that
earnest young tutor, with his de
termination plain never to show
surprise at the width of the open
spaces. He left them shortly after
, the war started and died in his
. first month at rhe front.
, Gilbert Windon stared into 8
! dim Venetian mirror in Michae
l Rendale's drawing-room with ar
t air Of surprise. Why should hi!
. thoughts suddenly be full of hi
dead tutor. and his boyhood wher
. the Northwest had seemed tht
: most glamorous place on earth
and he thought himself a kind Of
t crown prince to an important
j dynasty?
? He knew why: Because, beins
I perfectly confident in himself, ht
e feared nothing Of the judgment O,
r all the people he knew, except The
Judgment of a slender blue-eyec
t girl who might think him alien t.
!. her!
ITO be continued)
Copyright by Ursula Parrott
= Distributed nv KIM Raakuras -