The Washington times., 1937-03-01

'OA 6ANS JS
quietly: IT sometimes do wonder
why you so much dislike me-"
His father put down the news
paper, and looked him up and
down. Since Keith had been 6
years old, that look had made him
feel Shriveled!
"I dislike you because you're
soft, like your mother"
Keith smiled. GAS I've said be-
fore, you should have married d
female lion-tamer. She'd have been
the only sort of woman hard
enough for your taste"
His fathers eyebrows, which
we're still black though his thick
hair had been white as long as
Keith remembered it, drew to-
gether. Keith was reminded, not
for the first time, of a very OLD
grizzly bear he'd seen once, in a
zoo-an animal that famed the
air with great paws that had lost
their strength, snd roared from a
mouth nearly toothless. Odd that
; he remembered that pathetic hulk
so often, and that the remem-
brance always made him vince.
Literally, it had no relevance.
His father, the doctor said, was
strong as an OK still, in spite of his
gout; and his teeth were in excel
lent condition! But there was
something about that Gagged
animal making futile gestures of
rage, and the man now opposite
him, that was so alike. Time had
so ruthlesSly gone past them both.
He said: Anything amusing in
the newspaper? May I see it, If
you're through, Tather?"
"Not through" His father
picked it up again.
Keith made himself drink his
coffee calmly. The daily irritation
of that single newspaper, insisted
upon by his father, had by repeti-
ton nearly lost its force-as so
many things had lost their force
in the long conflict of their life
together. Only the fact at the root
of that conflict had power still.
He looked up to the mantelpiece
behind his fathers head, and to
the portrait of his mother Mary
Sheldie hanging there. He had
her lovely looks; there was no
doubt of that. The thought, as
always, gave him a kind Of wry
amusement. For he had no feel
ing about her (since he'd never
seen her to remember herr
stronger than a kind of respect,
mingled with curiosity. How had
she managed courage to defy his
father at last! That dark gentle
glance of hers did not tell him,
nor the shy, WiStful smile of her
curving red mouth.
Mary Lane she'd been. only
child Of excellent people without
great deal of money. Eighteen
years old when his father swooped
into her life like an eagle. Keith
Sheldie, jr., who sometimes con-
sidered himself cursed with too
much Imagination, could we'll
enough imagine that wooing-that
his father, who was not young
even then, but must have had
great charm Gas he had in his rare
good moods charm about him
stilD, set about acquiring her as
he had already acquired so many
railroads, mines and companies;
that he must have impressed that
slender girl tremendously, with the
very drive of his nature; and that,
married to her. he must occasion
ally have terrified her with his
wild RACES, and neglected her be-
tween times while he was pursuing
his pirates career of adding for
tune to fortune +
At any rate, when he her son
was less than a year old, she had
run away with a man who had
given her singing lessons. Per
hapS she loved him. More prob
ably he represented escape. No
one seemed to know. For that
one mad desperate effort at de-
fiance took all her strength, so
she had none left to fight with
when, no more than a few weeks
later, she was i'll. She was dead
of pneumonia before her running
away was more than a whispered
scandal in that pre-war New
York that took its scandals so
much more seriously. When she
was dead. Keith Sheldie, senior,
brought her home to lie in the
Sheldie mausoleum.
Ito be cOntinued)
Copyright by Ursula Parrott
DiAtPibuted nv King FaatureR Iacl