Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1939-11-09
CHAPTER XIV-Continued


have it with your berries, and some
Dutch cheese and cream"
''I'd love it," Jane said; II hoped
you'd ask me. We are going at four
to Delafeld Simns for the week
end. I shall have to be fashionable
for forty-eight hours, and I hate it,
Mrs. Toilette smiled indulgently.
"Of course, you don't mean it. And
don't try to be fashionable. Just be
yourself. 1t is only people who
have never been anybody who try
to make themselves like others
'Well," said Jane, "I'm afraid
I've never been anybody, Mrs. Fol
lette. I'm just little Jane Barnes -
Her air was detected.
whats the matter with you,
Jane?" Mrs. Toilette demanded.
Jane clasped her hands together.
"Oh, ! want my mother. I want
my mother" Her voice was low, but
there was a poignant note in it.
Old Mary came out with the tray,
and when she had gone, Mrs.
Toilette said, "Now tell me what's
troubling your"
''I'm afraid"
"Of WHAT"
ooh, of Mr.. Towne's big house,
and-I think Pm a little bit afraid
of him, too, Mrs. Toilette"
''Why should you be afraid?"
"Of the things he'll expect of me.
The things I'll expect of myself.
can't explain it. I just-feel it,"
Mrs. Toilette, pouring ice-cold
milk from silver pitcher, said,
"It is a case of nerves, my dear.
You don't know how lucky you are"
cam I lucky?" wistfully.
"Of course you are lucky. But
all girls feel as you do, Jane, when
the wedding day isn't far off. They
wonder and wonder. It's the new
ness-the-"
Laying flesh and spirit in
his hands >" Jane quoted, with
quick-drawn breath
IT shouldn't put it quite like that"
Mrs. Toilette said with some Sc
verify; 1--WE didn't talk like that
when was girl
Didn't your" Jane asked. Well,
know you were a darling, Mrs.
Toilette. And you were pretty.
There's that portrait of you in the
library in pink"
81 looked well in pink" said Mrs.
Toilette, thoughtfully, "but the best
picture that was ever done of me
is a miniature that Evans has"
She buttered another slice of bread.
She had no fear of growing fat.
She was fat, but she was also stately
and one neutralized the other. 4 To
think of Mrs. Toilette as thin would
have been to rob her of her duchess
role.
Jane had not seen the miniature.
She asked if she might.
"I'n get it," said Mrs. Toilette,
and rose.
Jane protested, Cant do it?"
'No, my dear. know right where
to put my hand on it."
She went into the cool and shad-
owy hall and started up the stairs,
and it was, from the shadows that
Jane heard her call.
There was something faint and ag-
itated in the cry, and Jane flew on
winged feet.
Mrs. Toilette was holding on to
the stair-rail, swaying little. 81
can't 60 any higher" she painted;
"I'll sit here, my dear, while you
get my medicine. It's in my room
on the dresser"
Jane passed her on the stairs, and
was back again in a moment with
the medicine, a spoon, and glass
of water. With her arm around the
elder woman she held her until the
color returned to her cheeks.
GLOW foolish" said Mrs. Toilette
at last, sitting up. ''I almost faint
ed. I was afraid of falling down
the stairs"
"Let me help you to your room,"
Jane said, "and you can lie on the
couch-and be quiet"
81 don't want to be quiet, but I'll
lie on the couch-if you'll sit there
and talk to me-"
So with Jane supporting her, Mrs.
Toilette went up the rest of the
fight, and across the hall-and was
made comfortable on a couch at the
foot of her bed
Jane loved the upstairs rooms at
Castle Manor. Especially in sum-
mer. Mrs. Toilette followed the
southern fashion of taking up win
ter rugs and winter curtains and
substituting sheer muslins and leav-
ing a delightful baroness of waxed
floor.
Perhaps 1 can tell you where to
find the miniature" Mrs. Toilette
said, as Jane famed her; lit is in
Evans desk set back under the row
of pigeonholes. You can't miss it,
and l want to see it."
Jane crossed the hall TO Evans
room. 1t faced south and was big
and square. 1t had the same stud
led baroness that made the rest of
the house beautiful. There was
mahogany bed and dresser, many
books, deep window-seats with
faded velvet cushions.