Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1939-09-21
CHAPTER X-Continued

that Delafeld is coming back?"
"Who told your" asked Frederick.
"Eloise Harper. Benny's sister
saw Del at Miami. She is sure he
is expecting to marry the other
girl
Dad taste, I call it,
Everybody is crazy to know who
she is"
"Have they any idea?"
'tNo. Benny's sister said he talked
quite frankly about getting married.
But he wouldn't say a word about
the woman"
'I hardly think he will find Edith
heart-broken." Towne glanced
across the table. Edith was not
wearing the willow. No shadow
marred her lovely countenance. Her
eyes were clear and shining pools
of sweet content.
Her uncle was proud of that high
held head. He and Edith might not
always hit it Off But, by Jove, he
was proud of her.
mo, she's not heart-broken," Ad-
elaide's cool tone disturbed his re-
Elections, "she is getting her heart
mended."
"What do you mean?"
''They are an attractive pair, lit
tie Jane and her brother. And the
boy has lost his head"
cover Edith? Oh, well, she plays
around with him; there's nothing Sc
rious in it,
"Don't be too sure. She's inter-
ested."
"What makes you insist on that?"
irritably.
81 know the signs, dear man." the
cat seemed to purr. but she had
claws.
And it was Adelaide who was
right. Edith had come to the knowl-
edge that night of what Badly meant
to her.
AS she had entered the ballroom
men had crowded around her.
"Why," they demanded, "do you
wear mistletoe, if you don't want
to pay the forfeit?"
Backed up against one of the mar
BILE pillars, she held them off. 81
do want to pay it, but not to any of
you.'
Her frankness diverted them.
"Who is the lucky MANI"
''He is here. But he doesn't know
he is lucky"
They thought she was joking. But
she was not. And on the other side
of the marble pillar a page in scar
let listened, with joy and fear in his
heart. ''How fast we are going.
How fast"
There was dancing until midnight,
then the curtains at the end of the
room were drawn back, and the
tree was revealed. It lowered to
the ceiling, glittering, gorgeous
thing. 1t was weighted with gifts
for everybody, fantastic toys most
of them, expensive, meaningless.
Evans, standing back of the
crowd, was aware of the emptiness
of it all. Oh, what had there been
throughout the evening to make men
think of the Babe who had been born
at Bethlehem?
The gifts of the Wise Men? Per-
haps. Gold and frankincense and
myrrh? One must not Judge too
narrowly. 1t was hard to keep sim
plicities in these opulent days.
Yet he was heavy-hearted, and
when Eloise Harper charged up to
him, dressed somewhat scantily as
dryad, and handed him foolish
monkey on stick, she seemed to
suggest a heather saturnalia rather
than anything Christian and civil
lized.
"a monkey for a MONK said
Eloise. 'Mr. Toilette, your cassock
is frightfully becoming. But you
know you are a whited sepulchre.''
cam II"
"Of course. I'll bet you never say
your prayers"
She danced away, unconscious
that her words had pierced him.
What reason had she to think that
any of this meant more to him than
it did to her? Had he borne witness
to the faith that was within him?
And was it within him? And if not,
why?
He stood there with his foolish
monkey on his stick, while around
him whirled laughing, shrieking
crowd. Why, the thing was carni-
val, not sacred celebration. Was
there no way in which he might bear
witness?
Edith had asked him to sing the
old ballads, Dame, get up and
bake your pies" and II saw three
ships a-sailing." Evans was in no
mood for the dame who baked her
pies on Christmas day in the morn
ing, or the pretty girls who whistled
and sang-on Christmas day in the
morning.
When all the gifts had been dis
tributed the lights in the room were
turned out. The only illumination
was the golden effulgence which en-
circled the tree.
In his monks robe, within that
circle of light, Evans seemed mys-
teal figure. He seemed, too, appro-
priately ascetic, with his gray hair,
the weary lines of his old-young
face