tr-Jffl
Uf'vj'it 'sf'jf7wcfj
VjfeV?
12
EVENING PUBLIC LEDGER PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 1922
i
'let ?
h
Irw
m
MISS
Twrd of a
By the
J TUST as she was about te vanish from
tj his effice Lewta Bcltleman stepped
Miss Centfcc. While she had been
sitting beyond the aim extension of his
desk, listening, as usual, with her gaze
concentrated en a pencil turning in her
thin fingers, he had been half conscious ,
of something disturbing in her appear- ,
ance. This impression had left him, been I
absorbed in the immediate subject of his
address, but It had returned in time for
him te bring her te a step at the deer. i
"Miss Cenifec," he said. j
She came half-way back, her brew
marked by a query in which there was
a trace of impatience, "what I wanted
te say was " he began; but this dis
pleased him. "I was thinking lately,"
he went ahead mere directly, "that
xeu've had tee much te de. New this
fast matter is disposed of, you might as
well take a rest. The shore's nice late
in May: you'd better run down for a
week or se."
"But this last isn't done," she replied,
sharply: "we don't knew as we can get
a leather that will suit our purpose; the
jyrices'll have te be lower than any we're
. quoted en first-class material; and we
ain't right certain hew many jobs It
would take te bring us out."
"Details," he replied, dismissing them
with a waved hand. "Ne, I'm set en
you getting a rest. You've been going it
tee hard at the office again."
A slightly deepened color answered
his solicitude. "Ne mere than usual,"
she answered him. "I can take a day
op two later, when things are fixed." In
reply he asked hew her mother was.
"Well enough," she replied almost de
fiantly. "Yeu work yourself te death for me
here, and the same at home for your
mother." Lewis Beitleman grew excited,
.angry. "The fact is," he exclaimed,
"that you ought te have an interest in
this office. If the world was run right
you would have, tee; you'd own 50 per
cent of this business today. It would
have been nothing without you." She
tried te step his speech, but it swept her
remonstrance aside. "You've been with
me fourteen years in all; and, since
Swope died, you and me have been It.
You've seen it come right along from
a half-dead carriage repository te a
pretty lively little automobile accessory
concern. Yeu brought it up as mucn as
any one, that's what you did; yes, sir,
. and mere. Yeu gave it taste, you gave
our jobs tone; and that's what sold them.
And new I won't have you working
yourself te death. If it wasn't for my
family "
Suddenly Lewis Beltleman's energy
suffered a collapse. "I want you te take
a holiday," he added impotently.
"Is that all, Mr. Beitleman?" she de
manded. He wouldn't answer her nor glance up,
and, after a moment, he heard the soft
impact of the deer. "Hell," he swore,
silently fidgeting. All that he had said
te Miss Cenifee was true; It was, rather
than an exaggeration, an underestimate.
She had been invaluable. As it was in
the last year the worst of years he
had made $14,000. This year, and it
was only May, it was clear that the
profits would be sixteen or better. Or
better I Miss Cenifec, that was the
answer.
He wondered hew old she was near
te forty, certainly, net a geed-looking
woman, nothing like as pretty as Naninc,
his wife, had been; and, of course, net
within sight of Eldreda, his daughter.
Miss Cenifee was tee thin, tee small; and
then her hair was no particular color.
She wero glasses of an unbecoming pat
tern, that a little magnified her very
earnest onyx-brown eyes; and , her
clothes te save his life, after being with
her day and day for fourteen years, he
couldn't remember a detail of her dress;
inexpensive, it would be that. The care
of her mother must absorb most of her
salary.
He had spoken of her geed taste, exer
cised in the direction of specialties for
automobiles; that was splendid, but it
wasn't her best quality; she was prin
cipally remarkable for the energy of her
mind, her energy" and a quality of deter
mination, of of courage. But, at Inst,
she was showing the effects of this; or,
as he had said, perhaps she was only
tired. He would make her take a rest;
he'd shut the office, close it down, he
thought extravagantly, if he couldn't get
her away by ether means.
Lewis Beitleman smiled; but, at the
same time he was annoyed all women
were se infernnlly set, Miss Cenifee and
Nanine and Eldreda. Following indi
rectly this fact, he wondered what
Nanine would say te a proposal of giving
Miss Cenifee something mere; enough,
in a necessarily limited way, te mnke
her future cafe. Net a half, but a fifth,
a sixth of the business.
As it was, he paid Miss Cenifee as
much as he could get her te accept. She
had positively refused a further raise.
He wished, vainly, that Nanine and Miss
Conifee might be closer te ench ether,
bb close as possible but en Nanine's
account. This desire suddenly recalled
te him the startling fact that Miss Coni Ceni
fee, except once when he had been ill,
te take dictation, had never been in his
Mlia Tim fnntfnnu rtflii. nnrl .ln,,vl.
M tr, had rooms in the congested city, but
l. hit house was in a suburb, where it was
', xeatful, quiet and green.
HIS customary train of lute afternoon
carried him for forty minutes
through the' city te its outskirts and the
HavalnnmAnf. nf whtnli tils linmn wna
V-PMt. Eldreda was outside, in a deep
'j.1 .wckir chair, absorbed in a magazine of
j jewiaapicturc wurw one was nine-i
yT .timrfMum nppealUur eyes, a spec-).
. :;lMterfiaUiralTyilMi hair, and
Series of Short Stories en Marriage
Best American
Fiction Writers
she had taken third prize in a beauty
contest conducted by just such a mag
azine as she was reading.
The photograph of her upon which
this triumph had been based, greatly en
larged, hung prominently en the wall of
the living room. In it her firm shoulders
were draped in a precariously Informal
seeming piece of silk, her hair was
dressed te its utmost effectiveness, and
the celebrated, the appealing eyes re
garded the world with an innocent and
tender surprise. Her mouth the pho
tographer had softened in shadow.
She nodded te her father, and in
stantly returned te the page before her.
Eldreda, he knew, was cress because he
wouldn't send her te California in order
te complete the success already se
auspiciously begun. Sending her West,
he had discovered, was net a simple
concern of transportation; it included
clothes; the right clothes; a hotel in
Les Angeles, the right hotel for, per
haps, a month; and then she would be
off, or rather, en. At least she, sup
ported by nor mother, said she would.
"With your favorites," he commented
in n determination of cheerfulness.
Eldreda raised her eyebrows. "In my
opinion," he said, "Gleria Swanson is
absurdly overestimated. What they all
see in her personally I can't make out.
But, then, every one agrees that what
the screen needs is new types, something
different." Her breast heaved sharply.
"Never has there been such an opportu
nity." Her chin drooped gracefully en
a hand steadied by the chair arm; her
body expressed a sort of resignation;
the eyes sought the far horizon.
"I hear the studies nre all coming
East," he observed hopefully.
"In time for me te play old women
bits," she retorted, in a voice with a
perceptible edge. She turned abruptly
away from him, the line of her cheek,
Jeseph Hergesheimer
Auther of this week's story in the all
star American fiction scries, is a Phila
delphia writer who has taken his place
among the foremost creators of our
modern fiction.
His latest novel, "Cytherca," caused a
sensation and has gene te Jt8 editions.
He produces his work in a historic old
Colonial country home out West Chester
way.
In talking with Mr. Hergesheimer, you
travel back and forth through the years,
in distant countries and customs, or, as
in the present story, a jaunt into your
own time and among your own people.
The big thing that impresses one is his
vital graxp of a vital subject. He deals
with life honestly, he treats it directly,
with force and human feeling. In a re
cent interview he made these observations regarding his outlook
en life and modem literature:
"People detest truth. In an address before a women's college asso
ciate I said: 'Ne matter what else you de, if your nose is shiny
you might as well be dead!' They didn't all take it correctly, but
what I said was truth. Yeu knew a woman's charm depends en her
beauty.
"In the Victorian age that age of conventional propriety and pub
lic morality women were lower gowns and get drunker than they
have ever since. . They drank sparkling heck and were lovely little
sprigged muslins and hoepskirts and caught their hair in nets of
gilt thread. I'd like te have seen such women.
"Russians and Latins xvrite best about xoemen. Te most of our men
women are symbols, but net individuals. It nust make women
smile te read what men write about them.
"Yeu mustn'tiake one woman as a symbol of what ethers areer
should be. Tfay should be studied individually te. the laA detail of
clothes and piriedinside and out" ffjji'li
XmMJL&y t ViMmmmwKJJl sz&zS I ills vvtHi 1 j)jL1K0 ;
9MmSmrM rJH Jeur MlmMUrsMdKMm&wifr i'"j2Ssc1vjr ., iA II Mm AVH H A V wM SB-
Mr. Beitleman!" her eicc was se choked that she was practically inarticulate. "What what de you mean? What
ever in my conduct gave you the liberty te say such things?"
her clenched hand, registered hardly
contained resentment
He went en into the house, and up te
Nanine's and his room. His wife was
reclining en a couch. Since she had
grown se fat she found it necessary te
rest a great deal. That fatness had
ceme upon her se overwhelmingly that
any vestige of struggle had been deemed
from the first. She had simply expanded
until she resembled an inflated cari
cature of Eldreda.
"There you are," she said languidly.
"Yes, here I am," he agreed, "I
thought, maybe, Nanine, the evening was
se fine we'd all take a little ride after
supper."
"It blows my hair," she answered,
without interest; "and that back seat
is tee short. Te say nothing of El
dreda's complexion."
"New leek here," he cried, "I've heard
enough about that back seat and El
dreda's complexion and your hair. There's
a nice little limousine I fixed up and the
owner can't pay for. Well, I can get it
right and I'm going te buy it for you
girls. Hew's that, hey?"
"It micht be ceed and then it
mightn't," she told him; "it depends if
; ..n.n ;Hwi jt :. .i it. ...in i i.
it rears inside.
If it does it will hurt
my head."
,v A, ig ,. AftLgfc'' -Met m. Ji B
XylWwEmN v i : JTmlfitw&HL
'Ml'twCii i wwamm
r:snm- . l, i v ' MAXwvmr
"I'd hate te think ever the times my
head's been hurt- through rearing," he
retorted, with a display of spirit, "and
there is another thing I get te speak of
that's Eldreda. I'm net going te give
her $3000 te go te California with, and
she might as well step posing and pos
turing. I ain't a camera, I ain't a di
rector, and it'll get her nowhere.
"Seener or later," Nanine asserted.
"What de you mean?" he demanded
heatedly.
"Genius will be justified," she added
emphatically.
"Genius 1" he was practically shouting,
"if either of you think rolling your eyes
is genius you're fooled before you go a
mile. It's the capacity for pains; and
that, en the ether hand, is what you give
mj pains."
"Yeu will keep en getting them, tee,"
her voice and manner were placid.
Suddenly he felt absolutely helpless;
nothing he could say would move, affect
his wife, nothing touch his daughter. It
might be wiser te give Eldreda the
money at once te speed her into the
West te the acclaim and fortune se
surely in her estimation and her
mother's waiting for her.
I "New if I was West I could get about
mere," Nanine asserted. "The weather
there, they say, is elegant." This was a
new phase of the Western project and
he was startled at the possibilities it
opened. Did she mean that she would
go out with Eldreda, he asked. Nanine
did. He could spend the winters with
them.
"Who would run the business te pay
for se much?" This question very si
lentjy he answered for himself, Miss
Cenifee. She could,' very nearly, almost,
de just that. But net quite; it was the
combination of Miss Cenifee and himself
that was se potent.
rpHE memory of the weariness he had
discerned in his secretary came back
te trouble him. She had grown visibly
elder in the last year. The day had
stayed warm into evening, and they,
Nanine and Eldreda and he, were seated
en the perch. There was an illusory
glimmer of moonlight, at intervals there
was a faint stir in the locust trees along
the sidewalk, and the ingratiating sub
dued ripple of a piano. At irregular
intervals Eldreda sighed explosively,
agonized with the tragedy of everything;
and though she was veiled from Lewis
Beitleman by the dark, he knew exactly
te which emotions she was giving form
and body.
Perhaps, with his slight assistance,
she might mount in a dazzling arc te
stardom in the sky. He wasn't, he felt,
mean, but, nside from the already com
paratively large cost of his family, there
was the greatest need new te turn every
thing possible back into his business
it could be counted en te make,
when all was considered, tremendous re
turns. In three years, it might be, they
could easily send Eldreda te the Seuth
Seas, and he said se aloud.
"I suppose," her voice answered out of
the gloom, "you chose the Seuth Seas
se's you wouldn't .have te buy me any
clothes.".
f "On tha contrary," he replied ex
plicity.'I was. trying te thlnkjOf the
farthest ancl me3t expensive place 'I
could. It seems like, with you and your
mamma, a person is always misunder
stood." "Don't pick continually en Eldreda, I
won't have it," her mamma put in. "Yeu
can't seem te learn that Eldrcda's deli
cate. She's net a pet, but a fine vase
easily shattered."
"Well," he replied pacifically, "it's tee
nice an evening for ructions. Things
are going tee smooth for that." The
smoothness of "things" brought Miss
Cenifee back te mind; and, after a mo
ment's forced hopeful consideration, he
spoke of her te his family.
"New, take Miss Cenifee "
"Who's she?" Nanine demanded.
"That's his stenographer," Eldreda
explained.
"She is mere than that, Eldreda," he
patiently corrected her; "Miss Cenifee
is a geed half of our business. She's
been with me new for fourteen years,
and in the first month after I get her
she near te paid for all she's had since.
Taste! That's where she's valuable,
that's what she is; we're a small house,
but I tell you our work's been compli
mented by big people. We are going,
net coming. What I am getting at is
this, and I knew " he hesitated
shortly, and then began again with a
rush, "I knew you'll both back me up.
Miss Cenifee's been with me, us, for
fourteen years new, and she's a part of
the place. The truth is she can't work
any mere without me than I can her.
If anything happened te that, she'd be
gene. It's her mother and her honesty
both together; her mother's get a kind
of expensive sickness and Miss Cenifee
won't take anything from me but a dog deg dog
gened moderate salary. She won't have
a penny mere, after all she's given us;
but with your help, with your approval,
I've thought of a way te make her safe,
when I pass en te my California. It's
this we will give her an interest in the
business, make her a small partner like."
He waited, en the mark of an opti
mistic interrogation, through the deep
silence that followed, a silence finally
shattered with an unqualified derision.
"Partner," said Nanine, "partner, her,
a stenographer? You're mad, ain't
you?"
His momentary unwarranted expecta
tions, like glass, fell swiftly, shattering,
en the hard ground of reality. Eldreda
giggled:
"Yeu don't knew the best, because you
haven't seen her why, she's a million
and leeks like an old whiskbroom with
most of the straws out. I'll tell the
street Pa's get some taste himself, I'll
say se."
"Yeu ought te be ashamed of your
self," Lewis Beltleman's wife told him,
"trying that en us. Yeu must think we
never see anything of life. Whnt makes
me mad is your speaking it right out te
us, befere your daughter."
"What de you mean?" he demanded,
vaguely trying te face them both.
"Take it te tne nrepiug," this was
dreda. ,
"Hew lemr has, this been goihsTen?"
I
'Iha maleMA r i
iiiiigau.ii '-.- 1 . . -i
urawn rigipiy up en, tne cagoef his
lgoef bit
By Jeseph
Hergesheimer
chair, with his face burning, he was, at
first, unable te reply te either. When
he spoke it was in a repressed hard tone.
"I told you," he said, "I told you Miss
Cenifee had been with me fourteen years
and I told you, tee, that we had her te
thank for a half of our success. What
I was trying te find out was could she
hope for a little kindness from you se's
she could leek easy at any future. De
you understand while Eldreda and you
hae been setting, sitting, at home read
ing moving-picture magazines, Miss
Cenifee and I were in it with our last
breath keeping a reef ever your heads
and wondering where we'd all be next
year. She's helped te make every deal
weve pulled out en these nights I was
se late we were sitting up figuring in
dimes "
A desolating feeling of the uselessness
of any attempted explanation smothered
his determined effort, and a fresh silence
fell upon them.
"Don't you give her a Christmas
present?" Nanine asked. "I said don't
you give her a present at Christmas?"
"Yes," he replied, finally.
"Well then ?"
"New, if she was young," Eldreda
spoke speculatively, "if she was young
and beautiful, with violet eyes and a
mass of hair geld in the sun, and you
were different if you were
rich and distinguished looking and had
a wife that didn't understand you
and your secretary secretly
was the daughter of a man your father
had ruined, who was seeking revenge,
and your wife was in love with with
a man who was plotting te get your
secretary in his. power, and and well,
if it had any class it would be different."
"However did you think of all that,
Eldreda?" her mother demanded. "It's
as geed as a picture."
Lewis Beitleman laughed, a sorry va
riety of mirth, "I'll tell you what," he
proclaimed te the dark: "I'm going te
bring Miss Cenifee right home te supper
and let you see for yourselves."
He was doubtful about the wisdom of
this later. Going te the office he re
velved it again and again in his mind;
but, confident that Miss Cenifee's splen
did qualities must be clear even te his
family, he asked her, very formally, te
supper at his home. She was obviously
startled, almost distressed, nnd in
stinctively she declined the invitation.
"Nonsense," he replied, back en hift cus
tomary footing with her, '"of ceurse
you'll come. My wife said very par
ticularly." That latter, he felt, since it
was absblutely necessary, was justified.
Well, she'd think; Miss Cenifee didn't
have a thing suitable te wear; the gray
voile that was Thursday, and, finally,
it was arranged that she should go out
with Lewis Beitleman, for an evening
at his home, en Monday.
"Isn't it ridiculous we never thought
of thi3 before," he said te her en the
train.
XTEITHER his wife nor Eldreda was
visible when, with Miss Cenifee, he
reached the perch of his home. "Nanine,"
he called through the open deer, "here
we are." There waB no answer, and he
was placing Miss Conifee in a comfort cemfort comfert
ablo chair when Eldreda appeared. Her
manner, he recognized, was that of the
Earl's daughter greeting the faithful
retainers from the castle terrace there
was a quick smile, a widening of the
notable eyes, followed by a congealing
of every human aspect. j
Lewis Beitleman knew 4his posture
well, and it teecklly irrltak.hlnT .
"Mamma." 'she said; "haT tnni, Lt
I ,ber ncuvi.anrtafkp ,t?jfcy 0 -,dVJ
x uiuin, -Knevf mat," he admltta
incautiously "I'll g0 right up .d2
her." "
"What's the matter with you?U.
demanded sharply, standing befer !!
recumbent Nanine. "It hurts my C
te talk," she explained hastily. He guJ
steadily at her, and 'then, without ft
ther speech, turned and left the roc'
r jui. i . .. ....
it was tee Dad about Mrs. BeitlenmL
Mis Pnnlfnn nnM TVi . 7T
.. CJr were n
table, and he was eating in a stntt
silence. Eldreda's hands dropped 1ft,
spent lilies en her wrists. She coute,
think why they had cottage cheesy
aisgusung aisn.
"Smear-caBe," Lewis Beitleman .
rected her, taking a conspicuous second
helping. His disappointment, his n.
sentment and anger had hardened witWn
him; he scarcely noticed Miss Cenlfw
se slight in the gray voile, with ig
appropriate pale flower under the cleu
rim of her hat. After supper the thru
sat uneasily in a May evening, palpably
silver under the moon, a warm sprint
breeze barely stirred the foliage of tl,
trees, a piano played and stepped.
T EWIS BEITLEMAN'S anger deserUd
him, but he ached as though it had
left an actual weunS. Eldreda rose, r
maining immobile, statuesque, watting,
ler a moment, and then, .without .
planatien, vanished into the hall. Thii
created in his mind an image of her
leaving for the West, for California. Eii
wife, as well, had spoken of going. Hi
could come out and see them in the win
ters. Sharply a voice within him tvhia-
pered, cried, that he didn't have te; they
ceuldn t drag him te California.
He could just see Miss Cenifee's pro
file, thin and worn, but fine. Her nar
row precise hands were quiet, for a lit
tle, in her lap. She was the most restful
woman in the world. It would be nice,
he thought, te go for rides with her ia
the car, the open air, en June afternoons
and through evenings in July. She knew
a let about wayside flowers, and they
would step for her te put some in hit
belt. Then he would drop her at til
little pTace in the peace of the country
where, with her mother, she lived; and
he'd go home te a swept and silent
house
It wasn't, however, of himself that h
was thinking, nor of Eldreda and Nanine,
but of Miss Cenifee.- His admiration
for her, he discovered, was imme
urable. And rightly; a person of in
tegrity, who-had given her vitality, her
life, te him and his interest. New sh
was an old maid. But he discarded that
term as seen as it occurred te him Mi
Cenifee was nothing se absurd. With
money, with the security he was about about
te offer her, she'd have mere hats with
roses, roses pink and net gray.
"Miss Eldreda is beautiful," she said,'
sudden and wistful. "We must see that
she gets te California. Couldn't we de
it this fall, Mr. Beitleman?"
"This summer," he corrected her; "and
Mrs. Beitleman is going with her."
"But who will stay with you?" Mill
Cenifee demanded.
"I'll be all right," he assured her. 1
can go out and see them in the winter!
if I have te."
"I don't understand," she replied,
slowly.
"Yeu will seen enough," all his re
straint was gene. "I don't care he
seen they leave and if they never come
back. If my money is all they want thiy
can have it, most of it, and I'm well rid
of them. What are they te me, I'd liW
te knew, the way you, are? Nothing
you and me have slaved long eneuga.
Frem new en we're going te worWsenw
for ourselves; we're going te have
litt ease and days off rolling ever th
country."
TURNED toward MjbS Cenifee he sw
her sway in her chair, and then J"
blundered te her feet
"Mr. Beitleman!" her voice was K
choked that she was practically inarticu
late. "What what de you mean! What
ever in my conduct gave you the lib"w
te say such things?" She sank back in
the chair. "I'm, I'm all in a tremble.
There was the stepped heave of a soft
"Understand that I am leaving V""1
employment as seen as you can get son
bndv 1ki "
"Miss Cenifee," Lewis Beitleman '
aghast, "hew could you think I'd in
you you being you and me me. I "W
want te protect you, your old age,
mean. I tried te get Mrs. Beitlernsn
and Eldreda te agree in making you
partner, but it Was no geed, tW
couldn't see it, se I was going te W
them go." ,
"Yeu put it very queer," she said,
I'm sorry I took you like that. IW"?
you, Mr. Beitleman " a tremor shoe
had interrupted her. In the silence
which followed he was conscious of t"
fragrance of the locust petals as tW
scattered through the air. Life miRM
it ought te be, the same: happy and irH
and and sweet. Miss Cenifee's vel
small but inflexible, finally a"sweredy
vague rebellious aspiration. "I c0 ,
never accept anything from yu "
way; remember who they are y
wife and dauchter!"
Frem the fleer above came the
sound of azy and contempt
nigger.
' ' ' 'ft
Cp-fplt.,
'iV'LSJ'i5'Ji.li"J . !." ' iii
rtiyjl- ,tjAJj4:
-Vj
ri&ra
.
m