did not. It was his game now, not
hers.
All women are intuitive; women in
love are dangerously so. As well as
she knew that his passion for her was
not the real thing, so also ghe realized
that there was growing up in his heart
something akin to the real thing for
Sidney Page. Suspicion became cer-
tainty after a talk they had over the
supper table at a country roadhouse
‘he day after Christine’s wedding,
“How was the wedding—tiresome?”
“Thrilling! 'There’s always some-
‘hing thrilling to me in a man tying
himself up for life to one woman.
[t's—it’s so reckless.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That's not ex-
1ctly the Law and the Prophets, is it?”
“It’s the truth. To think of select-
ing out of all the world one woman,
and electing to spend the rest of one’s
days witk her! Although—"
His eyes looked past Carlotta into
distance.
“Sidney Page was one of the brides-
maids,” he said irrelevantly. “She was
lovelier than the bride.”
Mary Roberts Rinehart
i ee
(Copyright, by McClure Publications, Inc.)
(Continued from last week.)
SYNOPSIS. “Pretty, but stupid,” said Carlotta.
“I like her. I've really tried to teach
CHAPTER I—At her home In the Street, | her things, but—you know—" She
Sidney Page agrees to marry Joe Drum:
mond ‘“‘after years and years” and talks
to K. Le Moyne, the new roomer,
CHAPTER II—Sidney’s aunt Harriet
who has been dressmaking with Sidney’s
mother, launches an independent modiste’s
rlor. Sidney gets Dr. Ed Wilson's in
Re with his brother, Doctor Max, the
successful young surgeon, to place her fir
the hospital as a probationer nurse.
CHAPTER III-K. becomes acquaintec
#n the Street. Sidney asks him to sta)
on as a roomer and explains her plans foi
financing her home while she is in the
shrugged her shoulders.
Doctor Max was learning wisdom.
If there was a twinkle in his eye, he
veiled it discreetly. But, once again
in the machine, he bent over and put
his cheek against hers.
“You little cat! You're jealous,” he
said exultantly.
Nevertheless, aithough he might
smile. the image of Sidney lay very
school. close to his heart those autumn days.
CHAPTER IV—Doctor Max gets Sidney And; Carlota knew it.
nto the hospital school. * * * *
CHAPTER V—S8idney and K. spend ar
afternoon in the country. Sidney falls
into the river.
CHAPTER VI—Max asks Carlotta Har:
yison, a probationer, to take a motor ride
with him. Joe finds Sidney and K. al
the country hotel, where Sidney is drying
der clothes, and is insanely jealous.
CHAPTER VII—While Sidney and K
are dining on the terrace, Max and Car-
lotta appear. K. does not see them, bul
for some reason seeing him disturbs Car-
lotta strangely.
CHAPTER VIII—Joe reproaches Sidney.
She confides to K. that Joe knows now
she will not marry him.
CHAPTER IX—Sidney goes to training
school and at home relies more and more
on K. Max meets K, and recognizes him
as Edwardes, a brilliant young surgeon
who has been thought lost on the Titanic
K.'s losing cascs lost him faith in him-
self and he quit and hid from the world
CHAPTER X—Carlotta fears Sidney,
Christine Lorenz and Palmer Howe ar¢
married. The hard facts of her new life
puzzle Sidney.
dle of November.
Carlotta.
when Doctor Max could bring Sidney
back to the hospital in his car.
Sidney’s half-days at home were oc
casions for agenies of jealousy on Car:
lotta’s part.
month after the wedding, she could not
contain herself. She pleaded her old
excuse of headache, and took the trol:
ley to a point near the end of the
CHAPTER XI.
The supper at the White Springs ho-
tel had not been the last supper Car-
lotta Harrison and Max Wilson had
taken together. Carlotta had selected
for her vacation a small town within
easy motoring distance of the city,
and two or three times during her two
weeks off duty Wilson had gone out to
see her. He liked being with her. She
stimulated him. For once that he could
see Sidney, he saw Carlotta twice.
She had kept the affair well in hand.
She was playing for high stakes.- She
knew quite well the kind of man with
whom she was dealing—that he would
pay as little as possible. But she
knew, too, that, let him want a thing
enough, he would pay any price for it
even marriage.
She was very skillful. The very ar
dor in her face was in her favor. Be-
hind her eyes lurked cold calculation.
She would put the thing through, and
show those puling nurses, with their
pious eyes and evening prayers, a
thing or two.
During that entire vacation he never
saw her in anything more elaborate
than the simplest of white dresses
modestly open at the throat, sleeves
rolled up to show her satiny arms.
There were no other boarders at the
little farmbouse. She sat for hours
in the summer evenings in the square
yard filled with apple trees that bor-
dered the highway, carefully posed
over a book, but with her keen eyes
always on the road. She read Brown-
{ng, Emerson, Swinburne. Once he
found her with a book that she has-
tily concealed. He insisted on seeing
it, and secured it. It was a book on
brain surgery. Confronted with it, she
blushed and dropped her eyes. His de-
lighted vanity found in it the most in-
sidious of compliments, as she had in-
ended.
“I feel such an idiot when I am with
sou,” she said. “I wanted to know a
little more about the things you do.”
That put their relationship on a new
and advanced basis. Thereafter he
occasionally talked surgery instead of
sentiment. He found her responsive,
intelligent. His work, a sealed book
to his women before, lay open to her
Now and then their professional dis-
cussions ended in something different.
The two lines of their interest con-
verged.
“Gad!” he said one day. “I look
forward to these evenings. I can talk
shop with you without either shocking
or nauseating you. You are the most
intelligent woman I know—and one of
the prettiest.”
' The one element Carlotta had left
out of her calculations was herself.
She had known the man, had taken the
situation at its proper value. ‘But into
her calculating ambition had come a
new and destroying element. She who,
like K. in his little room on the Street,
nad put aside love and the things
thereof, found that it would not put
her aside. By the end of her short va-
cation Carlotta Harrison was wildly in
love with the younger Wilson.
They continued to meet, not as
often as before, but once a week, per-
haps. The meetings were full of dan-
ger now; and if for the girl they lost
by this quality, they gained attraction
for the man. She was shrewd enough
to realize her own situation. The thing
had gone wrong. She cared, and he
X ) 3 4
“Pretty, but Stupid,” Said Carlotta.
Street. After twilight fell, she slowly
walked the length of the Street. Chris
tine and Palmer had not returnec
from their wedding journey. The No
was not in sight, or Wilson. Bul
standing on the wooden doorstep of
the house was Le Moyne. The ailan-
thus trees were bare at that time.
throwing gaunt arms upward to the
November sky. The street lamp,
which in the summer left the doorstep
in the shadow, now shone through the
branches and threw into strong relief
Le Moyne’s tall figure and set face.
Carlotta saw him too late to retreat.
But he did not see her. She went on,
startled, her busy brain scheming
anew. Another element had entered
into her plotting. It was the first time
she had known that K. lived in the
Page house. It gave her a sense of
uncertainty and deadly fear.
She made her first friendly over
ture of many days to Sidney the fol-
lowing day. They met in the locker
room in the basement where the street
clothing for the ward patients was
kept. Here, rolled in bundles and
ticketed, side by side lay the hetero-
geneous garments in which the pa-
tients had met accident or illness.
Rags and tidiness, filth and cleanli-
ness, lay almost touching. :
Far away on the other side of the
whitewashed basement, men were un-
loading gleaming cans of milk. Floods
touching their white coats and turn-
ing the cans to silver. Everywhere
was the religion of the hospital, which
is order. Se ‘
Sidney, hdrking back from recent
cheerfully.
“A miracle is happening,” she said.
“Grade Irving is going out today.
When one remembers how ill she was
it’s rather a triumph, isn’t it?”
. “Are those her clothes?” :
Sidney examined with some dismay
the elaborate negligee garments in her
hand. :
have to lend her something.” A little
of the light died out of her face. “She's
had a hard fight, and she has won,”
Sidney came off night duty the mid
The night duty had
been a time of comparative peace to
There were no evenings
On such an occasion, a
vember evening was not cold. Sidney:
of sunlight came down the cellarway,
slights to the staircase conversations
of her night duty, smiled at Carlotta
and how we thought she could not live,
“She ‘can’t go out in those; I shall
I markable technique.
Anna,"
she said, “But when I think of what
she’s probably going back to—"
Carlotta shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s all in the day’s work,” she ob-
served indifferently. “You can take
them up into the kitchen and give
them steady work paring potatoes, or
put them in the laundry ironing. In
the end it's the same thing. They all
go back.”
She turned, on her way out of the
locker room, and shot a quick glance
at Sidney.
“TI happened to be on your street the
other night,” she sald. “You live
across the street from Wilsons’, don’t
you?”
“Yes.”
“] thought so; I had heard you speak
>f the house. Your—your brother was
standing on the steps.”
Sidney laughed.
“] have no brother. That's a room-
or, a Mr. Le Moyne. It isn’t really
right to call him a roomer; he’s one
of the family now.”
“Le Moyne!”
He had even taken another name,
It had hit him hard, for. sure.
K.’s name had struck an always re-
sponsive chord in Sidney. The two
girls went toward the elevator to-
gether. With a very little encourage-
ment, Sidney talked of K. She was
pleased at Miss Harrison's friendly
tone, glad that things were all right
between them again. At her floor she
put a timid hand on the girl's arm.
“T was afraid 1» had offended you or
displeased you.” said “I'm. 80
glad it isn”
who
Carlotta shivered under her hand. :
* * * * * * *
Things were not going any too well
with K. True, he had received his
promotion at the office, and with this
present affluence of $22 a week he was
able to do several things. Mrs. Rosen
feld now washed and ironed one day 8
week at the little house, so that Katie
might have more time to look afte:
Anna. He had increased also the
amount of money that he periodically
sent east.
So far, well enough. The thing that
rankled and filled him with a sense
of failure was Max Wilson's attitude
| It was not unfriendly; it was, indeed
| consistently respectful, almost rever-
ential. But he clearly considered Le
Moyne’s position absurd.
There was no true comradeship be:
tween the two men; but there was be-
ginning to be constant association, and
lately a certain amount of friction.
They thought differently about almost
everything.
Wilson began to bring all his prob-
lems to Le Moyne. There were long
consultations in that small upper
room. Perhaps more than one man or
woman who did not know of K.’s exist-
ence owed his life to him that fall.
Under K.'s direction, Max did mar-
vels. Cases began to come in to him
from the surrounding towns. To his
own daring was added a new and re
But Le Moyne,
who had found resignation if not con-
tent, was once again in touch with the
work he loved. There were times
when, having thrashed a case ott to-
gether and outlined the next day’s
work for Max, he would walk for hours
into the night out over the hills, fight-
ing his battle. The donging was on
him to be in the thick of things again.
The thought of the gas office and its
deadly round sickened him.
CHAPTER XII.
When Palmer and Christine returned
from their wedding trip Anna Page
made much of the arrival, insisted on
dinner for them that night at the little
house, must help Christine unpack her
trunks and arrange her wedding gifts
about the apartment. She was brighter
than she had been for days, more in-
terested. The wonders of the trous-
seau filled her with admiration and a
sort of jealous envy for Sidney, who
could have none of these things. In a
pathetic sort of way she mothered
Christine in lieu of her own daughter.
And it was her quick eye that dis-
cerned something wrong. Christine
was not happy. Under her excitement
. was an undercurrent of reserve. Anna,
rich in maternity if in nothing else,
felt it, and in reply to some speech of
Christine’s that struck her as hard, not
quite fitting, she gave her a gentle ad-
monishing. :
“Married life takes a little adjust-
Ing, my dear,” she said. “After we
have lived to ourselves for a number
of years, it is not easy to live for
someone else.”
Christine straightened from the tea
table she was arranging.
“That's true, of course. But why
should the woman do all the adjust-
ing?”
“Men are more set,” said poor Anna,
who had never been set in anything
in her life, “It is harder for them to
give in. And, of course, Palmer is
older, and his habits—"
“The less said about Palmer’s hab-
its the better,” flashed Christine. “I
appear to have married a bunch of
habits.”
‘She gave over her unpacking, and
sat down listlessly by the fire, while
Anna moved about, busy with the small
activities that delighted her.
Christine was not without courage.
She was making a brave clutch at hap-
piness. But that afternoon of the first
‘day at home she was terrified. She
was glad when Anna went and left
her alone by her fire, :
The day’s exertion had been bad for
Le Moyne found her on the
couch in the transformed sewing room,
and gave her a quick glance of appre-
hension. She was propped up high
with pillows, with a bottle of aromatic
ammonia beside her.
+ “Just—short of breath,”. she panted.
“J—I must get down. Sidney—is com-
ing home—to supper; and—the oth-
ers—Palmer and—" ’
That was as far as she got. K,
watch in hand, found her pulse thin,
stringy, irregular. He had been pre-
pared for some such emergency, and
he hurried into his room for amyl ni-
irate. When he came back she was
almost unconscious. There was no
rime even to call Katie. He broke the
sapsule in a towel, and held it over her
face. After a time the spasm relaxed,
put her condition remained alarming.
Harriet, who had come home by that
time, sat by the couch and held her
sister's hand. Only once in the next
hour or so did she speak. They had
sent for Doctor Ed, but he had not
come yet. Harriet was too wretched
to notice the professional manner in
which K. set to work over Anna.
“I've been a very hard sister to her,”
she said. “If you can pull her through,
I'll try to make up for it.”
Christine sat on the stairs outside,
frightened and helpless. They had
sent for Sidney; but the little house
had no telephone, and the message was
slow in getting off.
At six o'clock Doctor Ed came pant-
ing up the stairs and into the room.
K. stood back.
“Well, this is sad, Harriet,” said Doc-
tor Ed. “Why in the name of heaven,
when I wasn’t around, didn't you get
another doctor. If she had had some
amyl nitrate—"
“] gave her some nitrate of amyl,”
sald K. quietly. “There was really no
time to send for anybody. She almost
went under at half-past five.”
Max had kept his word. and even
Doctor Ed did not suspect K.’s secret.
He gave a quick glance at this tall
young man who spoke so quietly of
what he had done for the sick woman,
and went on with his work.
Sidney arrived a little after six, and
from that moment the confusion in the
sickroom was at an end. She moved
Christine from the stairs, where Katie
on her numerous errands must crawl
over her; set Harriet to warming her
mother’s bed and getting it ready;
opened windows, brought order and
quiet. And then, with death in her
eyes, she took up her position beside
her mother. This was no time for
weeping ; that would come later. Once
she turned to K., standing watchfully
beside her. /
“I think you have known this for
a long time,” she said. And, when he
did not answer: “Why did you let me
stay away from her? It would have
been such a little time!”
“We were trying to do our best for
both of you,” he replied.
Anna was unconscious and sinking
fast. One thought obsessed Sidney.
She repeated it over and over. It came
as a cry from the depths of the girls
new experience.
“She has had so little of life,” she
said, over and over. “So little! Just
this Street. She never knew anything
else.”
And finally XK. took it up.
“After all, Sidney,” he said, “the
Street is life; the world is only many
streets. She had a great deal. She
had love and content, and she had
you.”
Anna died a little after midnight, a
quiet passing, so that only Sidney and
the two men knew when she went
away. It was Harriet who collapsed.
During all that long evening she had
sat looking back over years of small
unkindnesses. The thorn of Anna's in-
efficiency had alway$ rankled in her
flesh. She had been hard, uncompro-
mising, thwarted. And now it was for-
ever too late.
K. had watched Sidney carefully.
Once he thought she was fainting, anc.
went to her. But she shook her head.
“I am all right. Do you think you
could get them all out of the room
and let me have her alone for just a
few minutes?”
He cleared the room and took his
vigil outside the door. And, as he
stood there, he thought of what he had
said to Sidney about the Street. It was
a world of its own. Here in this very
house were death and separation ; Har-
riet’s starved life; Christine and
Palmer beginning a long and doubtful
future together ; himself, a failure, and
an impostor.
When he opened the door again, Sid-
ney was standing by her mother’s bed.
He went to her, and she turned and
put her head against his shoulder like
a tired child.
“Take me away, K.,” she said piti-
fully.
And, with his arm around her, he led
her out of the room.
* * * 8 s =
(Continued next week.)
A Judicial Decision on Cats.
Pittsburgh, March 17.—It is not a
crime to steal a cat in Pennsylvania,
according to the decision of Judge
Henry C. Quigley, of Centre county,
in criminal court here this morning.
His decision was Jiven on a motion
to quash an indictment against
Charles E. Ryan, of Carnegie, charg-
ing him with the larceny of two $50
Persian felines from the cattery of
Miss Hattie Geis, of Verona.
Ryan's attorney contended that cats
were not subjects of larceny of com-
mon law, and have not been made
such by statute, and Judge Quigley
upheld him.
The quashing of the indictment did
not mean freedom for Ryan, for he
has been charged with entering a
building in connection with the theft
of the cats.
——Subseribe for the “Watchman”.
CASTORIA
Bears the signature of Chas. H.Fletcher.
In use for over thirty years, and
The Kind You Have Always Bought.
|
HAS NOT GONE UP
IN PRICE
EVERYTHIN
“All the goods we advertise here are selling at prices prevailing
this time last season.
MINCE MEAT.
We are now making our MINCE MEAT and keeping it fully up to our
usual high standard; nothing cut out or cut short and are selling it at our
former price of 15 Cents Per Pound.
Fine Celery, Oranges, Grape Fruit, Apricots, Peaches, Prunes, Spices,
Breakfast Foods, Extracts, Baking Powders, Soda, Cornstarch. The whole
line of Washing Powders, Starches, Blueing and many other articles are
selling at the usual prices.
COFFEES, TEAS AND RICE.
On our Fine Coffees at 25¢, 28¢c, 29¢, 35¢ and 40c, there has been no change
in price on quality of goods and no change in the price of TEAS. Rice has
not advanced in price and can be used largely as a substitute for potatoes.
All of these goods are costing us more than formerly but we are doing our
best to Hold Down the Lid on high prices, hoping for a more favorable
market in the near future.
LET US HAVE YOUR ORDER
and we will give you FINE GROCERIES at reasonable prices and give
you good service.
SECHLER & COMPANY,
‘Bush House Block, - - 57-1 - - - Bellefonte, Pa. :
mm
wan oe
Shoes. Shoes.
Big Reduction on the Price of Shoes
YEAGERY SHOE TORE
For One Day Only,
March 24th.
Saturday,
I will reduce the prices on certain lines of Shoes.
This reduction does not cover all Shoes, just
Shoes listed below.
money, you need the Shoes.
It is a case of I need the
Soft-sole Shoes for the baby - - 20¢
Men’s $4.00 Dayton Shoes wie $3.00
Men’s $3.50 Moose-hide Shoes - - $2.50
Men's $3.50 Scout Shoes - > $2.50
Boys’ $3.00 Scout Shoes - - - $2.25
Ladies’ $4.00 Nurse Shoes . - - $3.00
Childs’ $2.50 Tan Shoes - - $1.75
Men’s $7.00 Dress Shoes - - - $5.00
This is a bonafide reduction; every pair of shoes is
worth just one dollar more than I am selling them for
on this special day. Remember the day—
SATURDAY, MARCH 24 ONLY.
YEAGER'S,
The Shoe Store for the Poor Man.
Bush Arcade Bldg. 58-27 BELLEFONTE, PA.
A Bank Account
Is the Gibraltar of the Home!
If you are a man of family you must have a bank account. A BANK
ACCOUNT IS THE BULWARK, THE GIBRALTAR, OF YOUR HOME,
It protects you in time of need.
It gives you a feeling of independence.
It strengthens you. '
It Is a Consolation to Your Wife,
to Your Children heat
THE CENTRE COUNTY BANK,
BELLEFONTE
»