Texhoma Argus. (Texhoma, Okla.), Vol. 4, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 13, 1911 Page: 2 of 10
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The Texhoma Argus.
Joe L. Buckley, Pub.
TEXHOMA. I
OKL.%
G)hen
a JMan
Jtfarries
By
MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
Jluthor of Tht QrculafSlalrcatt,
Tht SKan In Lower
Ttn, Etc.
Copyright 1#0#, by th« Bobb* Merrill Co.
II
8YNOP8I8.
James Wilson or Jimmy as h« Is called
by his friends. Jimmy was rotund and
looked shorter than he really was. His
ambition In life was to be taken seriously,
but people steadily refused to do so. his
art is considered a hugo joke, except to
himself. If he asked people to dinner ev-
eryone expected a frolic. Jimmy marries
Bella Knowles; they live together a year
and are divorced. Jimmy's friends ar-
range to celebrate the first anniversary
of his divorce. The party Is In full sw'"B
when Jimmy receives a telegram from his
Aunt Seilna, who will arrive In four hours
to visit him and his wife. He neglects to
tell her of his divorce. Jimmy takes Kit
Into his confidence, he tries to devise
some way so that his aunt will not learn
that he has no longer a wife. He sug-
gests that Kit play the hostess for one
night, be Mrs. Wilson pro tem. Aunt Se-
ilna arrives and the deception works out
as planned. Jim's Jap servant Is taken
111. Bella, Jimmy's divorced wife, enters
♦ he house and asks Kit who Is being ta-
ken away In the ambulance? Bella Insists
It 1 Jim. Kit tells her Jim Is wolJ and Is
In tjao house. Harbison steps ouf on the
porch and discovers a man tacking a
card on the door. He demands an ex-
planation. The man points to the placard
and Harbison sees the word "Smallpox
printed on It. He tells him the guests
cannot leave the house until the quaran-
tine Is lifted. The guests suddenly real-
ise their predicament, the women shed
tears, the men consider It a good Joke.
The all Important question arises as to
who Is to prepare the meals and perform
the other household duties. Harbison fin-
ally solves the matter. After the lifting
of the quarantine several letters are found
1n the mall box undelivered, one is ad-
dressed to Henry I.lewellyn. Iquique.
Chile, which was written by Harbison.
He describes minutely of their Incarcera-
tion, also of his infatuation for Mrs. Wil-
son. Aunt Sellna to taken 111 with la
grippe. Betty acts as nurse. Harbison
finds Kit sulking on the roof. She tells
him that Jim has been treating her out-
rageously. Harbison fully believing that
she Is Mrs. Wilson, tells her that she
doesn't mean the things she Is saying
about her husband. Kit starts down-
stairs. when suddenly she is grasped in
the arms of a man who kisses her sev-
eral times. She believes that Harbison
did It and is humiliated. Aunt Sellna tells
Jimmy that her cameo breastpin and
other articles of Jewelry have b°en stolen.
She accuses Betty of the theft. The fol-
lowing morning Jimmy was in a rasre.
The papers printed a story about the in-
carceration of the party, and that one of
the guests had attempted to escape by
means of laying a board across the roof
to the adjoining house, but was frus-
trated by a detective who fired a revolver
at him.
CHAPTER XII. (Continued.)
"I wish you would all go out," I said
wearily. "If every man In the house
says he didn't try to get over to the
next roof last night, well and good.
But you might look and see if the
board is still lying where it fell."
There was an Instantaneous rush
for the window, and a second's pause.
Then Jimmy's voice, incredulous,
awed:
"Well, I'll be—blessed 1 There's the
bonrd!"
I stayed in my room all that day
My head really ached and then, too, I
did not care to meet Mr. Harbison. If
would have to come; I realized that
a meeting was inevitable, but I want-
ed time to think how I would meet
him. It would be impossible to cut
him, without rousing the curiosity of
the others to fever pitch; and it was
equally impossible to ignore the dis-
graceful episode on the stairs. Ab It
happened, however, I need not have
worried. I went down to dinner, lan-
guidly, when every one was seated,
and found Max at my right, and Mr.
Harbison moved over beside Bella.
Every one was talking at once, for
Flpnnigan, ambling around the table
as airily as he walked his beat, bad
presented Bella with her bracelet on
a salad plate, garnished with romalne.
He had found it in the furnace room,
he said, where she must have dropped
it. And he looked at me- stealthily, to
approve hlB mendacity!
Every one was famished, and as
they ate they discussed the board in
the area-way, and pretended to deride
it as a clever bit of press work, to re-
vive a dying sensation. No one was
deceived: Anne's pearls and the at-
tempt at escape, coming Just after,
pointed only to one thing. I looked
around the table, dazed. Flannigan,
almost the only unknown quantity,
might have tried to escape the night
before, but he would not have been
in dress clothes. Besides, he must
be eliminated as far as the pearls
were concerned, having been locked
In the furnace room the night they
were stolen. There was no one among
the girls to suspect The Mercer girls
had stunning pearls, and could secure
all they wanted legitimately; and
Bella disliked them. Oh, there was no
question about it, I decided: Dallas
and Anne had taken a wolf to their
bosom—or is It a viper?—and the
Harbison man was the creatufe. Al-
though I must say that, looking over
the table, at Jimmy's breadth and not
very imposing personality, at Max's
lean length, sallow skin and bold
dark eyes, at Dallas, blond, growing
bald and florid, and then at the Harbi-
son boy, tall, muscular, clear-eyed and
sunburned, one would have taken Max
at first choice as the villain, with Dal
next, Jim third, and the Harbison boy
not in the running.
It was Just after dinner that the
surprise was sprung on me. Mr. Har-
bison came around to me gravely,
and asked me lr I felt able to go up on
the roof. On the roof, after last
night! I had to gather myself togeth-
er; luckily, the others were pushing
back their chairs, showing Flannigan
the liqueur glasses to take up, and
lighting cigars.
"I do not care to go," I said icily.
"The others are coming," he per-
sisted, "and I—I could give you an
arm up the stajrs."
"I believe you are good at that," I
said, looking at him steadily. "Max,
will you help me to the roof?"
Mr. Harbison really turned rather
white. Then he bowed ceremoniously
and left me.
Max got me a wrap, and every one
except Mr. Harbison and Bella, who
was taking a mass of indigestibles to
Aunt Sellna, went to the roof.
"Where is Tom?" Anne asked, as
we reached the foot of the stairs.
"Gone ahead to fix things," was the
answer. But he was not there. At
the top of the last flight I stopped,
dumb with amazement; the roof had
been transformed, enchanted. It was
a fairy-land of lights and foliage and
colors. I had to stop and rub my
eyes. From the bleakness of a tin
roof In February to the brightness
and greenery of a July roof garden!
"You were the Immediate inspira-
tion, " Dallas said. "Harbison thought
your headache might come from lack
of exercise and fresh air, and he has
worked us like nailers all day. I've
a blister on my right palm, and Har-
bison got shocked while he was wiring
the place, and nearly fell over the
parapet We bought out two full-
sized florists by telephone."
Max raised a glass of benedlctine
and posed for a moment, melodra-
matically.
"To the Wilson roof garden!" he
said. "To Kit, who Inspired; to the
creators, who perspired; and to Taka-
hiro—may he not have expired."
Every one was very gay; I think
the knowledge that .tomorrow Aunt
Sellna might be with them urged them
to make the most of this last night of
freedom. I tried to be jolly, and suc-
ceeded in being feverish. Mr. Harbi-
son did not come up to enjoy what he
had wrought. Jim brought up his
guitar and sang love songs In a beau-
tiful tenor, looking at Bella all the
time. And Bella eat In a steamer
chair, with a rug over her and a
spangled veil on her head, looking at
the boats on the river—about as soft
and as chastened as an acetylene
head light.
And after Max had told the most
improbable tale, which Leila advised
him to sprinkle salt on, and Dallas
had done a clog dance, Bella said it
was time for her complexion sleep
and went downstairs, and broke up
the party.
"If she only gave half as much care
to her Immortal soul," Anne said when
she had gone, "as she does to her
skin, she would let that nice Harbi-
son boy alone. She must have been
brutal to him tonight, for he went to
bed at nine o'clock. At least, I sup-
pose he went to bed, for he shut him-
self In the etudio, and when I
knocked he advised me not to come
In."
I had pleaded my headache as an
excuse for avoiding Aunt Sellna all
day, and she had not sent for me.
Bella was really quite extraordinary.
She was never In the habit of putting
herself out for any one, and she al-
ways declared that the very odor of a
sick-room drove her to Scotch and
soda. But here she was, rubbing Aunt
Selina'g back with chloroform lini-
ment—and you know how that smells
—getting her up in a chair, dressed
0
J
r
"Lord I the cook next door—"
in one of Bella's wadded silk robes,
with pillows under her feet, and then
doing her hair in elaborate puffs-
braiding her gray switch and bringing
it, coronet-fashion, around the top of
her head. She even put rice powder
on Aunt Sellna's nose and dabbed vio-
let water behind her ears, and said
she couldn't understand why she
(Aunt Sellna) had never married, but,
of course, she probably would some
day!
The result was, naturally, that the
old lady wouldn't let Bella out of her
sight, except to go to the kitchen for
something to eat for her. That very
day Bella got the doctor to order ale
for Aunt Selina (oh, yes; the- doctor
could come in; Dal said "it was all a-
comlng in, and nothing going out")
and she had three pints of Bass, and
learned to eat anchovies and caviare
—all In one dfcy.
Bella's conduct to Jim was disgrace-
ful. She snubbed him, ignored him,
tramped on him, and Jim was growing
positively flabby. He spent most of
his time writing letters to the board
of health and playing solitaire. He
was a pathetic figure.
Some time during the early part of
the night I wakened, and, after turn-
ing and twisting uneasily, I realized
that I was cold. The couch In Bella's
dressing room was comfortable
enough, but narrow and low. I re-
member distinctly (that was what was
so maddening: Everybody thought I
dreamed it)—I remembei retting an
eiderdown comfort that was folded at
my feet, and pulling it up around me.
in the luxury of its warmth I snug-
gled down and went to ileep almost
Instantly. It seemed to me I had slept
for hours, but it was probably an hour
or less, when something roused me.
The room was perfectly dark, and
there waa not a sound save tht faint
ticking of the doc!, but 1 was wide
awake.
And then came the Incident tbat in
its ghastly, horrible absurdity made
the rest of the people shout with
laughter the next day. It was not
funny then. For suddenly the eider-
down comfort began to slip. I heard
no footstep, not th slightest sound
approaching me, but the comfort
moved; from my chin, inch by inch, it
slipped to my shoulders; awfully, in-
evitably, halr-raisingly it moved. I
could feel my blood gather around my
heart, leaving me cold and nerveless.
As it passed my hands I gave an in-
voluntary clutch for it, to feel It slip
away from my fingers. Then the full
horror of the situation took hold of
me; as the comfort slid past my feet
I sat up and screamed.
Of course, people came running in
in all sorts of things. I was still sit-
ting up, declaring I had seen a ghost
and that the house was haunted. Dal-
las was struggling for the second arm-
hole of his dressing gown, and Bdlla
had already turned on the lights. They
said I had had a nightmare, and not to
sleep on my back, and perhaps I wag
taking grippe.
And just then we heard Jimmy run
down the stairs, and fall over some-
thing, almost breaking his wrist. It
was the eiderdown comfort, half-way
up the studio staircase!
CHAPTER XIII.
He Does Not Deny It.
Aunt Selina got up the next morn-
ing and Jim told her all the strange
things that had been happening. She
fixed on Flannigan, of course, al-
though she still suspected Betty of
her watch and other valuables. The
Incident of the comfort she called
nervous indigestion and bad hours.
She spent the entire day going
through the storeroom and linen
closets, and running her fingers over
things for dust. Whenever she found
any she looked at me, drew a long
breath, and said, "Poor James!" It
was maddening. And when she went
through his clothes and found some
buttons off (Jim didn't keep a man,
and Takahiro had stopped at his
boots) she looked at me quite awfully.
"His mother was a perfect house-
keeper," she said. "James was brought
up in clothes with the buttons on, put
on clean shelves."
"Didn't they put them on him?" I
asked, almost hysterically. It had
been a bad morning, after a worse
night. Every one had found fault
with the breakfast, and they Btraggled
down one at a time until I was fran-
tic. Then Flannigan had talked at
me about the pearls, and, Mr. Harbi-
son had said, "Good morning," very
stiffly, and nearly rattled the inside of
the furnace out
Early In the morning, too, I over-
heard a scrap of conversation be-
tween the policeman and our gentle-
man adventurer from South America.
Something had gone wrong with the
telephone and Mr. Harbison was fuss-
ing over it with a screw driver and a
pair of scissors—all the tools he
could find. Flannigan was lifting rugs
to shake them on the roof—Bella's or-
der.
"Wash the table linen!" he wag
grumbling. "I'll do what I can that's
necessary. Grub has to be cooked,
and dishes has to be washed—I'll ad-
mit that. If you re particular, make
up your bed every day; I don't object.
But don't tell me we have to use 33
table napkins a day. What did folks
do before napkins was invented? Tell
me that!"—triumphantly.
"What's the answer?" Mr. Harbison
inquired absently, evidently with the
screw-driver in his mouth.
"Used their pocket handkerchiefs I
Wash clothes I will not"
"Well, don't worry Mrs. Wilson
about It" the other voice said. Flan-
nigan straightened himself with a
grunt
"Mrs. Wilson!" he said. "A lot she
would worry. She's been a disappoint-
ment to me, Mr. Harbison, me think-
ing that now she'd come back to him,
after leavln' him the way she did,
they'd be like two turtle doves. Lord I
the cook next door—"
G
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Buckley, Joe L. Texhoma Argus. (Texhoma, Okla.), Vol. 4, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 13, 1911, newspaper, April 13, 1911; Texhoma, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metapth352322/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.