L A Romance of the Commonplace ER. By Frances Parkinson Keyes WNU Bervice Copyright by Frances Parkinson Keyes SYNOPSIS through Vermont, Philip Starr, young Boston architect, meets Blanche Manning, seventeen, with whom he is immediately enamored. It being a long distance to Starr's desti- nation, Blanche suggests, the village of Hamstead not boasting a hotel, that he become, for the night, a guest of her cousin, Mary Manning. Mary re- ceives Philip with true Vermont hos- pitality, and he makes the acquaintance of her cousin Paul, recognized as her flance. Paul is Inclined to be dissi- pated. Gale Hamlin, long a suitor for Mary's hand, visits Hamstead but makes no progress in his lovemaking. Philip, from records of the Manning family, learns the sorrowful story of the “Countess Blanche,” French wile of a Revolutionary hero, Moses Man- ning, and of the peculiar “curse” she has transmitted to her descendants and the women of Hamstead. The evening of Philip's marriage to Blanche, Paul, under the influence of liquor, bitterly affronts Mary, and tells her their en- gagement is ended. Mary, at first acutely conscious of her position as a “Jilted” woman, is greatly comforted by her lifelong friend, Sylvia Gray, and the love of her two small brothers, Paul, really loying Mary, though with a seilf- fgsh attachment, finds life a good deal of & blank with her out of the picture, He expresses contrition and a keen de- sire to re-establish himself in her esteem, but Mary, disillusioned, re- jects him. Motoring CHAPTER 1X—Continued a} Violet, having fixed a date for her visit with Blanche, decided to go to New York for a few days’ shopping first. She had no intention, she sald, with a slight flutter of “nerves,” when Paul, who had been giving some pain- ful attention to the subject, pointed out to her that the state of their finances was still low after his sis ter's wedding and that such trips and shopping were expensive, of looking “countrified” when she first went to stay at her new son-in-law’s home, and to meet her daughter's new friends, “If you had shown any consideration of me at all, we wouldn't have been go straitened!” she sobbed. “Why, I never urged you to spend all that money.” “Don’t argue with it always prostrates gar quarrels going wretched affair with Mary hadn't end. ed every hope of our having her money! And then you try to put the blame on me and accuse me of “Well, I've played Mary so many dirty, mean tieks that I suppose it's natura! you should think I'd use her money to pay our silly debts. 1 prob ably would have—the way things were going. But I haven't accused you of anything. 1 only said—" “Oh, 1 know what you said but it makes all the difference how a thing is said, and the meaning back of the saying counts still more! 1 suppose you'll refuse to drive me to the mid night train, next!” Paul did not, of course, refuse to do anything of the sort. To tell the truth, he was almost glad to see his mother go. Her indolence, her extravagance, her selfishness, seemed so appalling to him just then, that he found them Increasingly difficult to live with, and none the less so because he thought he saw all these qualities reflected and magnified in his own character. It was also becoming clear to him that he must either earn more—or rather earn something-—or spend less, If they were to get out of debt, and that he could put considerable time to ad- vantage in figuring out how he was to do this, He began his reflections in this direction on his way home afer taking her to the station. An un- usually heavy snow storm had obliged him to drive the old family horse, in- stead of using the new motor, and it was two o'clock in the morning when be reached home. There was, he hap- pened to notice, a light in Mary's room. When he had put the horse up and was going from the barn to the house, he saw that it was still burn- ing, and heard her voice at the tele phone through an open window. Seth and Jane were both away, he knew, attending a Sunday school convention. Mary was therefore alone with the two little boys, and something was certainly wrong. He went up close to the house and called, “Mary! Mary! Is anything the mat. ter? Can I help? He was more frightened than before at the agonized voice that answered him, “Yes come I” He pushed open the front door and bounded up the stairs. Mary was nding over the bed. And on the bed lay Algy. gasping and writhing, and then lying deathly still, “He's got convulsions,” Mary man- aged to say in a stifled voice. “I can't leave him a second, He might choke to death If 1 did” “What am I to do first?” “Start the kitchen fire Bim Into n hot bath.” Paul vanished without another word, in an incredibly short time, he was back again. “What next?” “See if you can get hold of a doc tor. 1 tried, but Central was so slow in answering I didn't dare , . , Oh Oh" for the livid child was choking again, There was no resident physician at the little cottage hospital. Doctor me! You know me to have vul- on. As if this YES-—Oh, thank God you've We'll get Noble, the head surgeon, lived at home. After what seemed like endless wait ing, Paul got his house, “David's with Sylvia Gray,” he sald a minute later, turning with a white face from the telephone. *She's very in." “Try Doctor Wells, then" There was another long walt, and then again Paul faced the despair in Mary's eyes. “He's gone there, too, it's—it's a desperate case, Shall I call him up, there?” “Yes—no— Oh, Paul, what the trouble is there! lives, maybe, against one!” “He might at least be able to tell us what to do.” “You'll have to try White Water— Wallacetown — any place you can think of." Again Paul tried. One doctor was sick himself. Two had gone away to attend a medical congress. A fourth, twenty miles away, appealed to as a last resort, didn't know how he could get there—‘the roads aren't broken through down this way." : “We've got to face It alone,” said Mary at last, Paul knew that it was In that mo- ment that Ws selfish and Idle boyhood you know It's two “He's Got Convulsions,” Mary Man. aged to Say in a Stifled Voice. died and that the potential manhood in him came to life. “We've got to face 1t Mary,” he sald. It was eight o'clock in the gray No- vember morning when David Noble finally came to them. Mary was sit. ting In a large rocker, with Algy, a little gray shadow of the rosy child the day before, clagped In her arms. Paul, a glass of brandy-and- water in his hand, rose from his knees beside his cousin's chair, “Algy was all right when he went to bed night,” stated, briefly “He woke up In convulsions at mid night. 1 was passing about two o'clock and Mary's light She was all alone with him till then, We've done the best we could” together, of last he saw David raised the child's eyelids to look at the pupils and felt his pulse while Paul was speaking. He bent over, listening intently to the little heart. Then he raised his head. “You've saved his life,” he sald, with equal brevity. A few minntes later, in the blessed sense of security that had come over her, Mary asked for Sylvia. “She didn't get her twins, of course? she asked, almost lightly “She's talked of nothing else for months.” David's face contracted, and Mary noticed for the first time that he looked strangely old and very, very tired. “Yes,” he sald huskily., “She did. Twin girls, just what she wanted. And-—she's taken one of them back to Heaven with her.” CHAPTER X The tragedy of Sylvia Gray's death shook Hamstead to its very founda- tions, Austin was almost erazed with grief. Even David, who had always had more influence over him than anyone else except Sylvia herself, could not move him. “This won't bring her back, Austin, you know,” he said, at last, as gently as ever, but more firmly, “And-and she would have been the last toto want you to take it like this, Her courage never faltered through any- thing.” Austin neither answered por moved. “We must think what to do for the other baby. You've got her, you know, and the two little boys.” x “I don't want to think of the baby." “It isn't the baby's fault,” said David, still more gently, divining what was passing In Austin’s mind. “No—but It's mine! She wasn't strong enough for this! You said yourself, when the second boy came so soon after the first, that—that she shouldn't have another for a long time.” “Yes.” David chose his words care- fully. “But, Austin—you came first, with Sylvia, just as she did with you. She was 00 brave that It was hard te get hes to admit, ever, that she felt Hi=-that everything wasn't all right. But once she said to me, ‘David, if anything should go wrong, be sure to tell Austin, afterwards, that there wasn't one minute In our life together that I would have had different—that there's no price too great to pay for perfect happiness.’ She. meant It How many men's wives do yon think can say that?--AMine can't,” he ended, his volee breaking. Next to Austin himself, there was no one, perhaps, in the whole village, such a horrible shock as to Mary. Algy was still very ill. The fear that | Man-Tailored { fight for his life, grew a thousand times larger now that Sylvia's death had brought the Valley of the Shadow 80 close to her, days and nights, beside the actuality of the stricken ized the picture of Sylvia And she thought-—involuntarily, curse and Its reiterating fulfillment. Whom would It strike next? She thought of Blanche, seemingly so se- cure in her radiant happiness, trembled until her teeth chattered, The first time that Paul saw her again after the night of. the double tragedy -that long night through which they -he felt that he would gladly have given ten years of his life If he had not thrown away his right to take her cheeks and a smile to her drawn lips, As it was, he could only venture to lay one of his hands on the two that lay so tightly clenched in her lap, and put the other gently on her shoulder. “Don't,” wns all he could think of to say, all, that is, that he dared to say, his own lips quivering. “Don't Mary.” and was thankful when she did not repulse him, but to him, sobbing, while he stroked her goft hair. Paul was suffering, suffering with the revelation of truths that he had never sensed, with the facing of problems he had never solved nor tried to solve. The way that Austin loved Sylvia—was that the way men cared for women? The way that Mary loved Algy—was that way women cared for children? [Passion that was all love, love that was all self-sacrifice—what had that to do with careless sensuality, or equally careless affection? When, for the sec ond time, David Noble sought him out, he found that the boy had already started to find him. “What can I do to help? Paul asked abruptly. “There lsn't much, Your Cousin Jane is proving a tower of strength to Mary by relieving her of the burden of ordinary dally grind. We men clung 100, the to be cooked and dishes washed and fires built, no matter who lives or dies, do we? help Mary now. And no one in God's world can help Austin® “Then what were you looking for me tors “] wanted to tell you that I thought sou did darned well the night that kid almost slipped through Mary's fin gors He would have, If youn hadn't been there, And also message from Sylvia to give sou a She seemed to have a good deal of faith in you 1 had a rather long talk wi before she her about and one of "Tell to stop fAghting to fi week went the things she said to me Baul Manning not got Mary back, If he has to die dn ing it.'" “How-—how am I to go about it? *1 should think It might be rather difficult,” said David dryly “1 con fess It’s hard for me to see the justice of a Sylvia from Austin who worshiped the ground she walked on, and lets yon treat Mary like" Something in Paul's face him abruptly. dence sees a good many ignorant mortals don't.” he ended “Yes” sald Paul slowly, “1 guess it dods me a while ago that as long as a man had a woman like Sylvia, of course he'd make her his first consideration as long as he could? Maybe the time had come for Austin to make some thing else his first consideration. May was, stopped than he realized. a tragedy like that to show him how much he was needed” at the boy. He was too surprised at such conclusions reached from such a sotrce to give utterance to speech, “1 think you're right” he sald at ast. “But Austin isn't the only one you know, who's needed In France Just now” “1 know" sald Paol about the Foreign legion. I'll be up tomorrow night to have you look me over.” “Good for you! About eight? | shall be off myself pretty soon, now 1 waited before signing up until—after Sylvia's time, because Austin begged me to do so, Well, I'll see you to morrow night! Meanwhile, there are probably lots of little things you can find to do for Mary, if you really want to!” As David drove away, he found he could not get Paul and his unexpected sentiments out of his mind “Darned if 1 don't believe Sylvin was right about him, as usual” he reflected, “The phase that he's been passing through has been pretty unattractive, Lord knows, but It may have been just a phare, If only he hadn't lost Mary< Bat if he hadn't, he never would have started to think again—he was too lazy, Well, it's all beyond me.” (TO BR CONTINUED) True Wisdom To finish the moment; to find the Journey's end in each step of the road; to live the greatest number of good hours Is wisdom. Emerson. unES stepping along In the spring style shows the strictly tallored sult, daringly mannish down to the mi nutest detall, so much so as to’ provoke a question mark shrug of the shoul ders on the part of the more conserva Some of the new suits have gone so far as to be actually trou sered, worn with man-tailored shirts, sporty ties, stiff cuffs and swaggering fedora hata Bide a wee, ye who are skeptical, and give eye to another number of fashion’s program, for equally promi. nent on the horizon there rises a grace fully silhouetted figure clad In softly furred delicate gray or beige, made even more appealingly feminine with the accompaniment of a sheer little be. frilled blouse or the flaunting of one of those amusing huge butterfly bows of crisp organdie which are the rage just now, What with the elusive pas tel tone of these costumes so perfectly blended with hazy, misty fox fur the en semble melts luto the springtime scene as does the faintly tinged leafy ver dure during the lovely Maytime days Which to choose, the severely and daringly man-tailored or the beguiling aye, that's the question! Toss a penny it you will, for either way leads tri umphantly on to the very height of fashion. it your flippant penny happens to head toward the strictly tailored you will be tremendously interested in the the pictured group is wearing. Here HOW COLORS ARE USED IN STYLES Dark colors are in favor for cos tumes and bright accents of acces scarfs, pocketbooks, For evening the pastel familly of colcrs are In exceptionally good re pute. So that you will be up-to-date oir the names as well as the shades for old colors well in mind: Eelgray, sunset-orange, sulphur-yeilow, Jerusa- tealeaf- green, deepwater Many of these shades are old friends wedded to new titles to give you a fresher impression of them, Warm Weather Fashions Show a Youthful Trend Warm wenther fashions Indicate that the predominant trend this year would be toward youthfulness In de sign and fabrics. The variety of materials run all the way from chiffons to piques, and the colors shown were equally diversified. leds, blues, browns, beiges and grays were in evidence, used separate ly and In combination. The trends indicate that day wear will be shorter, slimmer and younger, while evening wear evidences a distinct Victorian influence, Many two-plece jacket and dress models are being shown, which Indl cates a tendency toward utility In street wear, Satins for Summer Satin is enormously indorsed, and Is to materialize this summer mostly in lacquered accessories and supple evening gowns In delicate shades like pearly pink or blue and nude, - is the masculine fashion at its pest. ft Is ap allernoon spit that copies the male tuxedo even toa satin lapels and a satin strip down either side of the skirt, The blouse which Is styled like a man's vest and the ascot tie are in white satin. For high-class swank this model stands at the very head of the list. The smart set are guite wild about it—this idea of the tuxedo suit. For less formal wear the double breasted suit sketched In the circle be low Is an excelient and thoroughly practical style, either in black or navy. Note the masculine derby hat which tops it. This model also looks good in tweed, and tweeds whether In cape costumes made up with the popular tailored fashion are “sll the go" for spring. If your fancy leads to the more .em inine type, why not a fox gray or beige woslen topcoat, shown to the left in the picture? How in delicate tones which are made or pate with matching fur, You are of fered your choice between caped types and those which “say It" voluminous sleeves, In either event handsome . borderings of luxuriant ensembles. The placement of fur on the cape is done with a view of keep stances so that the suit or coat may be happliy worn way top oval gives the idea. © 1933. Western Newspaper Union PIQUE JACKET By CHERIE NICHOLAS EARL ERI XI EEE ERE XX Waffle pique in a glowing peach tone mnkes the little jacket. Lacy blouse made up of peach taffeta cord. ing. Wool crepe skirt In dark brown. The smart, uptodate wardrobe is not complete this season If It fails to in. clude a little pique jacket. The eve ning Jacket made of organdie, with crisp, bouffant silhouette, due to iis large sleeves and, perhaps, a huge bow, is also one of fashion's iatest whims. Which goes to show the ime portance of cotton as a style factor, ° Give White Pique Touch to Spring Wool Frocks Many springtime wool frocks are finished with a touch of white plgue at the neckline. A black and white checked wool dress Is topped by » little detachable bib of white pique which buttons on the left shoulder, and a Chartreuse green wool has a band of the same ribbed cotton on one side of the neckline - How 1 Brokelnto The Movies Copyright by Hal C. Herman By REGINALD DENNY Y BREAKING into the movies was due to a series of circum. stances over which I can lay no claim to having arranged. In the language of the sporting world I got the “breaks” at the time they were most needed and I took them. I came into the industry that has treated me so kindly from a long and varied stage career and It was to the experience 1 gained as a legitimate ac- tor that I owe whatever success | have made on the silver sereen, and this experience has proven even more valu- able with the development of the talk ing picture, I was born in Richmond, England, and made my first appear ance. on the stage when 1 was seven years old, at the Old Court theater, London, In a play called “The Royal Family.” My father was W. H. Denny, of Glibert and Sullivan fame, and as ay grandmother was also an actress of considerable note, It is evident that I was slated for a from the start After leaving the St. Francis Xavier in 1 turned seriously Surrey, professional life college Sussex, Reginald Denny. the Orient and New York, In everything from musical comedy to grand opera with the Bandman Operas company. I also spent some time learn to be a prizefighter under the | tutelage of Harry Preston, famour English sporisman, but I soon tired | of this and welcomed an opportunity { 10 return to the stage. 1 had married Rene Haisman, an ac tress with Bandman Opera com- pany while we were playing in Cal. cutta and the close of the World war found us In New York, where signed a contract to appear in one of | Shubert's shows. Hardly had we started rehearsing, when the famous actors’ strike was called, and being | one of the first members of the equity, 1 was forced to obey the summons. Mr, Lee Shubert, knowing of my financial | difficulties, loaned me money to live ing he we At this time the actors’ strike seemed thing In the world, but It brought about, in an indirect way, my entry into the movies, Had it not happened, 1 might pever have jeft the stage, as I had never given motion pictures a second in fact I had always con However, one afternoon with a party of friends, I did visit the World Film studios on Fong Island. Evelyn Gree ly was to be featured in two pictures, and more to pass the time than any- thing else, 1 signed to play the lead opposite Miss Greely. As soon as the strike was seltied I returned to Shubert’s management and at the close of his run he loaned me to Arthur Hopkins to play with John Barrymore, but the day .after rehearsal began Barrymore had a pery. ous breakdown and I was again at leisure. In the meantime, the motion pictures that I had played in were being shown throughout the country, and as actors were not nearly so plentiful then as they are now, I received several of- fers to continue my screen career, At length 1 signed to play a “heavy” in a picture, and followed by playing numerous leads in feature productions. Then things came better. I was approached by an independent film producer who had purchased the screen rights to the HA CGC Witwer stories “The Leather Pushers” and after considerable financial stress they were completed and I was signed to a contract on the spot, The rest Is more or less known. 1 was made a star soon after the “Leath- er Pushers” were released, and since that time have appeared in countless other features. Recently I married an actress, Betsy Lee. Both of us now appearing in Universal pictures. Pic. tures have constantly beeh improving and 1 have striven conscientiously to keep abreast with them, The things that stand out as the most important in what success I have gained are, my trip to the Orient, the patience andl endurance of my father, and the actors’ strike in 1019, WNU Service Patti Was a Waitress Yolandl Patti was a waitress at a studio commissary until Al Santell chose her for a part In one of his pictures,
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