The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1939-06-08


no tears in those blue eyes.
She trod on her flowers as she
left the car. Looking straight ahead
of her she ascended the steps. With
in everything was in readiness for
| the wedding festivities. The stair
way was terraced with hydrangeas,
pink and white and blue. In the
drawing groom were rose garlands
with floating ribbons. And there
was vista of the dining-room-with
the caterers men already at their
posts.
Except for these men, maid or
| two-and a detective to keep his eye
ON things, the house was empty. Ev-
erybody had gone to the wedding,
and presently everybody would
come back. The house would be
stripped, the flowers would fade,
the caterers would carry away the
wasted food.
Edith stopped at the foot of the
stairs. "How did they announce it
at the church,"
THAT it had been postponed. It
was the only thing to do at the mo-
ment. Of course there will be news
paper men. We'll have to make up
| a story"
We'll do nothing of the kind. Tell
them the truth, Uncle Fred That
I'm not-wanted. That / was kept
waiting at the church. Like the
heroine in a movie"
She stood on the steps above him,
looking down. She was as white as
her dress.
II don't want to see anybody. /
don't mind losing Del. He doesn't
count. He isn't worth it. But can
you imagine that any man-any
man, Uncle Fred, could have kept
me-waiting?"
The thing that Frederick Towne
got out of his niece's flight was
this. ''She wouldn't let anybody
sympathize with her. Simply locked
the door of her room, and in the
morning she was gone. 1t has add
ed immeasurably to the gossip"
His listeners had, however,
weighed him in the balance of un-
derstanding and sympathy, and had
found him wanting. The youth in
them sided with Edith. But none of
this showed in their manner They
were polite and hospitable to the
last. Frederick, ushered out into
the storm by Baldy, still saw Jane
like bird, warm in her nest.
BY morning the violence of the
storm had spent itself. But it was
still bitterly cold. The snow was
blue beneath the leaden sky. The
chickens, denied their accustomed
promenade, ate and drank and went
to sleep again in the strange dusk.
Merrymaid and the kitten having
poked their noses into the frigid
atmosphere withdrew to the snug
haven of basket beneath the kitch-
en- stove. Sophy sent word that her
rheumatism was worse, and that
she could not come over. Jane, sur
veying the accumulated piles of
dishes, felt a sense of unusual de-
preston. While Frederick Towne
had talked last night she had caught
glimpse of his world-the great
house-six servants-gay girls in the
glamour of good clothes, young men
who matched the girls, money to
meet every emergency-a world in
which nobody had to wash dishes
or make soup out of Sundays roast.
She was cheered a bit, however,
by the announcement that her broth
er had decided to stay home from
the office.
"I'll have try at that magazine
cover"
Her spirits rose. Wouldn't it be
utterly perfect if you got the
price"
mot much chance. The thing /
need is a good model"
"And ! won't do?" with some wist-
fulness.
They had talked of it before. Badly
refused to see possibilities in Jane.
"Since you bobbed your hair, you're
too modern" She was, rather, me-
dieval, with her straight-cut frocks
and her straight-cut locks. But she
was figure so familiar that she
failed to appeal to his imagination.
Editors like 'em modern, don't
they?"
But his thoughts had winged them
selves to that other woman whom
his fancy painted in a thousand
poses.
IF Edith Towne were here-pd
put her on a marble bench beside
a sapphire sea-"
'Ill bet you couldn't get an edi-
tor in the world to look a. it. Sap
phire seas and classic ladies' are a
million years behind the times"
"They are never behind the
times"
Jane shrugged, and changed the
subject. "Darling-if you'll put your
mind to mundane things for a mo-
ment. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving
Day, the Follettes are to dine with
US, and we haven't any turkey"
"Why haven't WEI"
"You were to get it when you
went to town, and now you're not
going"
81 am not-not for all the turkeys
in the world. We can have roast
chickens. That's simple enough,
Janey."
''It may seem simple to you. But
who's going to cut off their heads?"
"Sophy," said Baldy. Having
killed Germans in France he refused
further slaughter.
"Sophy has the rheumatism"
''Oh, well, we can feast our
souls" Young Baldwin's mood was
one of exaltation.