ECE eT EA Tn FCT TR — Sh w PRT TT RT A TT A TALE OF RED ROSES Po By GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER Copyright, 1914, by the Bobbs- . Merrill Co. SYNOPSIS a typical politician, fa with Molly Marley, a street car company president. her red roses. : On Molly's Invitation Sledge attends a party. Before the crowd disperses Molly thank he pro becomes in- daughter of He sends Sledge for his kindness, and then poses’ marriage. Her’ refusal treated as only temporary by Sledge. Molly attends the governor's ball, and her attractiveness results in her climbing the dizzy heights of popularity. The no- table respect accorded Sledge, however, perplexes her. : dge moves for the car company’s re- tion. He asks Marley for Molly's "but is refused. Having financially ruined Bert Glider, Sledge threatens to do the same to Marley. Marley's loans are ordered called by Sledge. Feeder, who receives a salary for keeping quiet about the public fund scan- dal, confesses during Sledge’s questioning and is roughly handled. Molly becomes angry at her father’s ob- vious fear of Sledge. He tells her to mar- ry him, but she refuses and suggests a «ght on Sledge, which encourages Marley Sledge visits Bozzam, and a heated ar- gument arises. The chief finds Bozzam is working against him. The reorganized railway company stockholders meet. Mar- «oy presides, and Sledge is present. The two votes of Marley and Bert Glia- er are sufficient to carry the amendment to the resolution for the purchase of, the franchise for $50,000 cash. Sledge receives an announcement of tng engagement of Molly and Glider. Bozzam tells Marley Sledge decided not to sell the franchise at any price, and that he is financially dead. Sledge goes to the state capital and gets everything fixed up for the passage of a bill granting a new car company a fifty year franchise free of charge. ' Marley visits the state senator at home and meets Sledge. He finds out the par- ticulars of the bill and then wires a syn- Sisate for best offer for controlling inter- est. is panied by Fern, visits Sledge. Delighted, Sledge again starts to lavish presents on her. Marley arranges a meeting with the chief. ‘Two exquisite autos acre sent Molly and Fern. Sledge orders Marley to say he sent them. A quarrel arises between Glid- er and Molly, but he checks it quickly. ii ig PEER ds Som > “What kind of 4 ghow is this?” asked Bledge. BER : ® “Rotten!” the ticket man informed him. “It's highbrow stuff, ‘Hamlet.”” «Hunh!” gmanted Sledge. ‘Any mu- sic?” «Orchestra. Ophelia sings, but you'd think she was having her teeth fixed.” «Hunh!” observed Sledge again, and walked out. . Two blocks up the street, on his way x to the Occident, he stopped at an auto- EE mobile salesroom. a «This working?’ he inquired, point- fog to the shining big limousine which occupied the center of the floor. «All it needs is gasoline,” replied the salesman, «put some red roses in that flower thing, and send it up,” Sledge directed. “About dinner time?” .surmised the galesman. «Possibly I'd better send it up before, Mr. Sledge. It has some im- provements your man might want to look into.” «p11 send Billy down,” Sledge. He turned to go when, in the ad- joining window, he caught sight of a little, low, colonial coupe, with seating capacity for three. It was of an ex- decided Ave. quisitely beautiful shape, with small, latticed window panes and dainty lace curtains. He walked slowly toward it, his habitually cold gray eyes bright- LE. ening, and as he stood before it he yandle HH thrust his hands deep in his pockets ble to \ and positively laughed aloud. «That's our newest ladies’ car,” ex- erent plained the salesman, following him. F cots “The women are Crazy about them. ly and Self starting, electric lights inside, Der shopping flaps everywhere, adjustable Celley, satin seat coverings and all the latest presi- boudoir improvements.” f hotel Sledge scarcely heard him. He was nerous still laughing. Nothing he had ever id ser- seen had struck him so humorously as the “cuteness” of this car. . «1¢'s swell!” he chuckled. “Got a red one?” $1.50 “No, they're only made in black,” $2.00, the salesman told him. “The color ef- ditional fects are obtained by the cushion cov- With er erings and silk curtains.” : ; «put red ones in this. Got another c Club a dinner ; one? «here's one just being set up in the shop,” stated the overjoyed salesman. “It’s an order.” . J “Make that one blue.” ! = “Db you want them this afternoon?” asked the clerk, figuring that it was | g rhi t off the other cus- 11s of bik while to pu | weak “gure!” said Sledge. “Right away.” mac- «1'1] get busy immediately,” promised the the salesman, delirious with happiness. cting “yhere do they 20?” the red one. The Nix on “Molly Marley gets blue one’s for her friend Fern. who sent em.” - «They'll want to know,” the sales- man insisted. “Aw. tell em Frank Marley.” ' the jeweler, immediately aglow with Just across the street was the largest jewelry shop in town, and the display in its windows gave him an idea. He strode in, asked for the proprietor and got him. “1 want a rock that weighs about a’ pound,” he stated. “A diamond? Yes, Mr. Sledge. Some- thing for an emblem?” “Naw! Lady’s ring—solitaire.” “We have some beauties,” bragged get some more. What else does he think?” “Heaven knows,’ snapped Bert. “He '! says he’s going to the theater with you tonight. Is that correct?” Molly gleefully nodded her head. | “Did you forget that you were going ! to the club dance with me?” he indig- nantly went on, feeling like shaking , her. This time Molly shook her head, her eyes gleaming with devilment, and from Fern, still on the stairway, there arose a wild peal. : Bert closed the library doors. «1 forbid it,” he commanded. The change in Molly was 80 abrupt that it startled him into barking his other shin. First of all she threw open the library doors, knowing, however, that Fern by this time was back in the enthusiasm. “Here is a nice little three carat stone which is flawless and perfectly cut.” “Is this the best you got?” inquired Sledge. looking into the case. “We have some larger ones unset, but they are not usually mounted in ladies’ rings,” responded the jeweler, struggling between his artistic con- science and his commercialism. | by & $5,000 extravagance of that sort.” At her father’s suggestion Molly, accom- “Let's see 'em.” Reverently the jeweler produced from his safe a covered and locked tray, in which on white velvet reposed a dozen sparkling white stones. Sledge poked a stuffy forefinger at the largest one. “Is this one right?” know. “It’s a very good stone.’ the jeweler told him. “The next one to'it, however, though a trifle smaller, is of much finer qual- | ity. In fact. we have not one in the shop of any size which I consider so perfect, as this one. It's worth $500 more than the large one.” “That'll do.” Sledge decided. in a ring.” “Very well,” agreed the jeweler, try- ing to be nonchalant as he consulted a slip of paper in the edge of the tray. «This one weighs six and three-eighths carats, plus a sixteenth, Mr. Sledge. Have you the size of the ring?” «Naw!” he returned in disgust at his own thoughtlessness. “I'll take {it loose.” And he slipped the stone in his waistcoat pocket. he wanted to “Put it CHAPTER XIV. Molly Insists on Protecting Bert. mT GLIDER strode through the Marley gate and trod on the Marley porch and punched the Marley doorbell in a fine rondition of manly indignation, and he demanded of the emaciated butlér with the intellectual brow that Molly Mar- | Jey be brought into his presence at | once. He waited in the library while the butler went upstairs with that hasty message, and it was no comfort to his soul whatsoever to hear the girls devoting painstaking attention to an apparently endless job of giggling. With scant consideration for the im- portance of the occasion, Molly, her face flushed and her eyes glistening with moisture from her recent earnest efforts. came down when she was ready. and she was still tittering, while Fern. upstairs. could be heard in the throes of frantic laughter. ; “Hello, Bert." laughed Molly. holding her hand to her jaw. and she sat down weakly. “What's the mad rush?’ | “What did you say to Sledge?’ he $ pa WE * z Ey Her most immediate reply toithat was another half hysterical outburst. “I'm not quite sure,” she giggled. «Pern and I have just been trying to recall it all, but we can only remember the funniest things.” “You've made a fool of him and of me!” charged Bert notly. «We don't deserve any credit for that,” snickered Molly. “It’s so easy.” «The man has taken too much for granted,” went on Bert, unsoftened by all this hilarity and, indeed, made only more indignant by it. “From what your father says, Sledge seems to be- lieve that our engagement is off and that he has been practically accepted.” Molly put her hand over her mouth to suppress a shriek and, running out into the hall, called Fern. The girls met ha¥®way up the stairway, where Molly explained the glad news, and Bert, stalking stolidly out there, found them holding to the balustrade in order that their enjoyment of Sledge’s ob- tuse understanding might not tumble them down the steps. He strode back WR sternly demanded. 3 & fa a > 57 &@vscte #} forbid it,” he confmanded. into the library and barked his shin on a rocker. Molly returned to him pres- ently for more. | “Pve been missing my red roses,” | ghe confessed, “Now I suppose Tll ———— i whisper, “I'll bet you that Sledge’ — “Certainly not!” interrupted Molly. | boudoir. “You*may do your forbidding to Mr. Sledge,” *she told him, with blazing eyes. “You were thoughtful enough to consider seriously sending me to him, and now whatever follows is up nt the up state syndicate. “1 thought not,” returned Bert, with a very near approach to profanity. “I didn’t think you'd weaken our capital «] don’t understand you,” puzzled Marley. “Two small inclosed cars came out here about fifteen minutes ago, and tne man in charge of them said that you sent them. Personally I think Sledge has been getting fresh.” “It’s barely possible,” agreed Marley, feeling a dangerous indignation rising within him. “Leave that to me, Bert. As Molly’s father it is my affair. I'll investigate it at once.” Palpitating with all a righteous fa- ther’s jealous care, Frank Marley kept the telephone busy until he located Sledge. “1 say, Sledge,” he blurted. “Did you send out a couple of automobiles to my house?” “Naw. Marley,” chuckled Sledge. “They're toys. You sent ’em. Do they like em?” to me. I am going to the theater to- night with Mr. Sledge.” “Molly, Molly, Molly!” shrieked Fern, half running and half bumping down | the stairs. ‘Run to the window, quick, and see the parade! 0-0-0-oh! It's coming here!” Molly laid aside her just indignation for a moment, feeling intuitively that a Sledge miracle was some place in the neighborhood, and glanced out of the’ window, as Fern, gurgling inco- herently, flashed by on her way to the door. Up the winding driveway, one fol- lowing the other, were two of the most beautiful little colonial coupes in the world, such cars as would make any girl go stark howling mad with ecstasy. They were exactly alike, ex- cept that the one in front was hung : ley, still standing by his father's dig- “I haven’t inquired.” returned Mar- nity. “Really, Mr. Sledge, you know I can’t allow my daughter to receive extravagant presents of that sort from any one other than myself.” “Aw, cut it,” advised Sledge. "1 get you. If they don’t like ‘em, I'm the goat. If they do, close your trap. You sent 'em.” “Well, but”’— “I say you sent em,” insisted Sledge, with a gruff loss of his cordiality, which had been apparent in his former tones, and Marley heard the click of disconnection. Nearly an hour later two shining lit- tle. colonial coupes, the red curtained one in front, drove up to the Marley porch, where Bert Glider gloomed in the doorway. They were driven by a with lace and filmy red silk curtains, and the other had blue with its fluffy white. Both the cars were empty. ex- cept for the hard featured men who were driving them, looking as much out of place as a coal heaver in a lin gerie bonnet. ' «phe blue one’s mine!” exclaimed Fern, dancing up and down in a de- lirium of joy as Molly joined her at the door. through the hangings of which the girls now peered out in frantic impatience. «1 wonder what brings them here?” speculated Molly. dreading the worst. «1 don’t care!” returned Fern. “That. blue car's mine, and I know it. Molly. ! do you really suppose it could be a present?” “Certainly not.’ degided quisite?” ; «Exquisite? They're the dearest. saw!’ cried Fern. here she sank her voice to a giggling almost fiercely, anc gled, and the two 3: from the door as the chauffeur of the red car who was the gentlemanly sales- man in disguise, dismounted and came slowly up to the door. They waited in the library with the frowning and bewildered Bert while the thin butler with the tall brow an- swered the bell, and they distinctly heard the chauffeur ask for Miss Mar- ley and Miss Burbank. They waited in half frightened decorum while the thin butler solemnly brought that message, and then, with no more trace of excite- | ment than if they had been dragged away from a tiresome French lesson, they walked sedately into the hall. «Miss Marley?’ observed that person, nodding to the right girl. “I have the pleasure of bringing out a very beauti- ful little gift to yourself and Miss Bur- pank,” and here he nodded to the other young lady, who was holding her toes to the floor by gripping them. ‘The red lined one is for Miss Marley and the blue one for Miss Burbank.” «I said the blue one was mine!” half shrieked Fern, unable to contain her- self any longer. “I want to ride in it— now!” . Molly looked longingly past the per- son’s shoulder out at the red curtained car, and she felt that sick, sick sensa- tion of self abnegation clamoring within. “Who sent them?’ she asked faintly. «your father,” replied the conscience- less salesman, looking her more clearly in the eye than nny honest man could have done. “If you have the time we shall be pleased to give you a lesson in running them.” Fern was halfway upstajrs. “Do you want your gray coat or your furs, Molly?” she called as she went. “Something light,” replied Molly, equally excited, running out to inspect the car, with the gentlemanly salesman right at her elbow and highly pleased with his job. The chauffeur in the blue car waited with bright eyes. Fern, followed by Mina and another maid, both of them too slow to be of any service, came clattering on the porch with two afternoon coats and two bonnets selected with less diserim- ination than she had ever used and tossed any of them to Molly. “I'll bet it was Sledge,” she whispered as she ran and popped into the blue car. Her coupe was the first to whirl down the driveway, but the red one followed in close order. Bert stood on the edge of the porch, with his hands rammed in his pockets, and watched the end of the world. Being a young man of keen thought, however, after | fifteen minutes of numbness he curled his mustache, took up the telephone and called Frank Marley. “Did you make a present of two au- tomobiles to the girls?” he inquired. «Did I what?” gasped Marley out of the midst of his plans for making the proposed street car consolidation worth twenty points’ advance on his stock to | Perms happy girl each and had no other oc- cupants. : “Come and take a ride with me. Bert.” hailed Molly, so full of delight that she had absolutely forgotten her a Jae RN C2 CASTORIA For Infants and Children. CASTOR) Mothers Know That : Genuine Castoria Always ‘Bears the "ALCOHOL 3 PER GEND. | Swge le Ppardion forAs- similating te Food 113: ling the Stomachs at ES YW SA RF TR OTN ETAY 157] | Promotes Digestion Cheerfid ‘| ness and Rest.Contains neither | Opium Morphine nor Mineral INOT NARCOTIC. v8 & E— I Pee of Od IeSIMUELPITCIER iil: Cds ait! Aperfect edy for Consfipe " | pe Stomach Diarion jd h. Worms Convulsions Feverish: ‘ ness and LOSS OF SLEEP. e——— Tue CENTAUR COMPAKY, NEW YORK. 3 Exact Copy of Wrapper. quarrel with him. which was a blow indeed. “You can't drive, though.” Fern had emerged from her car. “I'm going to have my dinner here,” she laughingly announced. “I think 1 shall go to the theater tonight in mine. Jump in Molly's car, Bert. and try it. It rides like a rocking chair.” “No, thank you!” returned Bert cold- ly. “Those cars are going back to the salesroom. [I felt sure that your fa- ther had not given them to you. after our business arrangement of this morn- ing. They are a present from Sledge.” “Oh, pledse. no!” pleaded Molly. with Molly sartsiclk h tain- promptly. “Oh. but aren’t they ex- | R ck glance at ber red curtain She had loved it at sight. but | now, since she had learned to know it. 4 4 g "ik she adored it. “How do you know that sweetest, darlingest little things I ever; they are from Sledge?” “The only thing | that's missing is that there should be a : 4 2 d hs ; lle ! va d leading them. Say. Molly," and he sternly informed her So 1 called «f suspected it from the beginning.” up your father.” 4] said they were from Sledge!” cried Molly. it was awfully crude of 1 love him for it—don’t you?" did father say?” demanded “He is investigating.” Molly marched straight to the tele- phone and called up her father. He | talked to her kindly, wisely and with deliberation, also like a man who had g%en himself plenty of time for thought. Bert stood at her elbow, lis- tening to one side of the conversation and piecing out the other with painful- ly knotted intellect. Molly turned to him with calm satisfaction. «Father says that I am to consider the cars as a gift from him,” she pride- ! fully announced. Fern executed the full figures of a minuet and sang a merry tra-la-la all ' the way through. Molly helped her sing and dance the last figure. «Three cheers!’ she exulted. “Now we may keep our cars.” «I never intended to Fern affirmed. Bert walked Molly back into her father’s den. «I have nothing to say about what Fern does,” he firmly announced, “but | 1 have something to say about your conduct. You can’t shut your eyes to the fact that Sledge has given you this | car, and he has no right to do so.” “My father says that I am to con- sider the car as a gift from him,” re- peated Molly primly, but with a snap in her eyes. «That is only an evasion,” Bert in- gisted. “You have willfully misled Sledge into the belief that you intend to put yourself in the position of re- ceiving presents from him, and either this thing must be stopped or there will be unpleasantness between you and give mine up.” «There is one way we can head that “off,” Molly quietly assured him. “We | can break our engagement.” } “Impossible!” immediately declared | Bert, frightened. “I didn’t mean any- thing like that, Molly,” and he attempt- led to take her hands and perform a little of the lovemaking which he had rather neglected. «I mean it, though,” she insisted, | drawing her hands away from him. | «Qur engagement has only brought | trouble to everybody concerned and ' has subjected me te more than one in- ' gult which I had no right to expect. 1f we declare it off both you and fa- | ther can go right back to where you were in a business way.” «It's too late for that,” he assured her, sitting down to reason it out with her on the commercial plane since she seemed to insist upon it. “I could never regain the political friendship | which is necessary to my style of busi- | ness. My commercial career in this | city is at an end, and my social stand- | ing would be also. Knowing this, 1 | have been in correspondence with my people in Baltimore. magnificent business opening me, but it takes $100,000 to obtain con- trol of it. gour father, and he investigated it. | pect to have | They have al there for Our conclusion is this—if we can close up our business satisfactorily here and he can sell this place we shall have in the neighborhood of $150.000 clear be- tween us. You and I are to marry, go to Maryland with your father, enter into business and take up the social position to which we are entitled When I take you there as my bride. Molly. everybody's going to be very proud of you, and I am quite sure that you will like the social atmosphere there much better than here. I've dwelt on this so often to you that it must seem like an old story, and yet this is the first time that it has seemed very near to us.” Molly felt herself wondering why ee Lo NEU Se : Cl ~ AtH months PILE ie — GERMAN GAINS her as it had used to do. «I'll be the proudest Glider that was ever in the family when I can take you home as my wife.” he went on. “It's all cut and dried, Molly, and we ex- pe everything closed up be- fore our wedding day if we can hold: Sledge off that long.” “And yet you scold me for helping you hold Sledge off when you couldn’t do it yourselves.” she retorted. “Why. you actually suggested to me that 1 should see what I could do with him.” «I don’t like the way you're going about it,” he confessed. “You should be proud of me,” shere proved him. “I think that Fern and I have done a beautiful job of it,” and she began laughing. “We're going to put on our very best frocks tonight and be a credit to you. You're ungrateful,” and she began to look indignant again. “Tet’s forget it.’ offered Bert, laugh- ing, and took ber in his arms. “You're the girl for me, Molly, and there won't be any more envied couple in Maryland than we.” He kissed ker and held her while he talked to her of the social triumphs as awaited them, the topic which had always pleased her most in their plans for the future. After all, they would make a splendidly matched cou- | ple. Moreover, she did owe it to her | father and Bert to give them another business start. (To be continued.) | MILK FED TO HOGS Illinois Producers Fight Prices Of- fered by Distributing Companies. Dairymen of McHenry, Kane and Will counties, Illinois, are more than half a million quarts of milk a day to the pigs on thelr farms since the strike of the milk producers was declared, according to George H. Keller of Batavia, the secretary of the Kane County Milk Producers’ associa- tion. The cream is being separated from | the milk and shipped to Chicago and | rather than sell the milk at the price | offered by the various milk distrib- | uters the dairymen are feeding it to the swine. | : ENGINEER BLAMED New York Central Discharges Pllot of Wrecked Train. Engineer Herman Hess has been | dismissed by the New York Central : railroad, it was learned, as a result of | the wreck at Amherst, O. He is held repsonsible for the dis- aster by the railroad. Towerman Albert Ernst, one of the chief wit- nesses at the federal and state imquiry into the accident, will be retained, as will Flagman Perry Beach, ated by General Superintendent A. S. Ingalls from the charge that he did not properly flag Hess’ train. | i laid the matter before | FOLE A iIDN i PILL: “.\¢ BLADDEF | | BOR RHEUMA | ISM’ KIDNEYS feeding | exoner- | Signature 4 = [7] ce For Over Thirty Years THE CENTAUS COMPANY, LEW YORK CITY. LOST BY COUNTER French Regain Part of Vaux and Gailisita Wood ee. 'HRWEN RAID GERMAN LINES this glittering promise failed to thrill | Berlin Claims Air Raids on Scotland Damaged Shipyards—Russians Ac- tive on Whole of Austrian Front. The battiae for the village of Vaux, in the crown prince's drive against Verdun east of the Meuse, is still raging furiously, but the French have been victorious in a violent counter dttack, the first one on a large scale thus far attempted and the most suc- cessful counter movement undertaken by the defenders as regards results. In fighting of the most savage char- acter the French counter attack gained steadily until they had recap- tured the western part of the village and besides thrown the Germans back to the northern edge of the Caillette wood and to the pond north of Vaux. All of these positions have been firm- ly held by the crown prince's infantry after their latest drive on this sector. Thus a vital part of the two-mile gain by the Germans was wrested from them by the French in the counter attack. The report tells about a vain and costly attack west of the Meuse, when German infantry was sent forth to e.i- gage the French on the northern bank of the Forges, a small stream in tke Haucourt-Bethincourt sector. It de- velops from the French statement that the French had secretly evacuat- ed the positions which formed the German objective and when the Teu~ ton troops dashed forward they were met by a hail of fire from the south- . ern bank of the rivulet to which the French had withdrawn two nights be- bore. French flanking fire from Beth- incourt also met the attackers who found no infantry to attack. Four German aeroplanes were brought down by the French in the Verdun region. Thirty-one allied ma- chines raided four German points in the German line In which eighty-three , big caliber shells were thrown. “Russian artillery displayed in- creased activity on nearly the whole of our northeast front,” says the Aus- trian official statement.. A big drive is believed to be in progress, the statement adds. There is strong suspicion in official circles in Russia that the sinking in daylight of the hospital ship Portugal was a deliberate act undertaken by a German officer for no other purpose than to embitter Russia and to render Purkish defection impossible. Attempts have actually been made in this direction and it is an open secret that conversations or negotia- tions have been proposed to both Rus- sia and the western powers. The torpedcing of the ship has caused a storm of indignation through- out Russia. For baby’s croup, Willie's daily cuts and bruises, mamma's Sore throat, Grandma's lameness—DF. Thomas’ Electric Oil—the household a 25 and 60c. RST TRY OUR FINE JOB WORK
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