Children of the Whirlwind

every one; and blustering, bullying creature though he was, he had the gift, possessed by but few, of audaciously thrusting himself into other people's affair

aggie?" As with most artists, talking

lever," she said positively. "You already know th

sentence. "But you lived with the Duchess for a year before he was

s only fifteen or sixteen then-just a girl, and he didn't pay much

liked the painter as much as it was in him to like any man; so he felt non

. Some think I'm a smooth proposition myself, but Larry puts it all over me. That's why I'm willing to let him be

anded him at last

because another man mu

Old Jimmie's eulogy. "Oh, Larry's all to the good-

remember that we haven't put over any

ten to any of my ideas!" retorted Bar

other man as leader, and it had irked him even more during the interregnum whil

ces to try out your ideas as the main guy before you cash in. You know the outfit wanted to lay

rk eyes while her father praised the absent leader

ing up with Larry?" he demande

id not wait for her slow-coming

ry ever use wome

s all wrong. Nothing helps so much, when the sucker is at all sentimental, as a clever, good-looking woman. And Larry'll

she'll work under him with the rest of us. I've been thinking about it a long while. Mebbe you haven't guessed it, but we've been coaching her for the part,

areer of crime, he gave no sign of it. His attention was just then all on Maggie. He saw her eyes grow

ts you, Maggi

great-for Larr

with anger. "I'm all fed up on this Larry, Lar

y, all right," he said promptly. "Not much use waiting any longer, anyh

d clever manipulator of the confidence of people with money, slashed aside the shabb

real affection for her father, though of course she admired his astuteness. Perhaps her unconscious lack of love was due in part to the fact that she had never lived with him. Ever since s

on you," remarked Hunt

nceded Maggie in a

Larry-both regarding you,

. Barney's clever all right, and has plenty of nerve-

nt said no more, but painted rapidly. Night had fallen outside, and long since he had switched on the electric lights. He seemed not at all finicky in this matter

into a chair, a bent and shrunken image, nothing seemingly alive about her but her faintly gleaming, deep-

g the easel to one side. "Duchess, you and this wild

there issued the sound of splashing water and the sputtering roar of

pt the Duchess from rising. "

at she instinctively pushed the old woman aside from tasks which involved any physical effort. Maggie now swung the back of a laundry bench up to form a table-top, and upon it proceeded to spread a cloth and arrange a medley of chipped dishes. As she moved

nd that chow in my fireless cooker will beat the Ritz," he boasted. "T

e prodigal! You mea

Hunt. "That's wh

the Duchess. "Is L

aid the

he was coming back? Father and Barney

e about his release. His t

and my father you h

her flat tone. "If they want to s

n will he

e," said t

of this plain shirt-waist and skirt and into something that would be striking. She considered her scanty wardrobe; her father had recently spoken of handsome gowns and fu

pasteboard box containing her costume; and in five minutes of flying hands the transformation was completed. Her thick hair of burnished black was piled on top of her head in gracious disorder, and from it swayed a scarlet paper flower. About her lithe body, over a black satin skirt, swathing her in its graceful folds, clung a Spanish shawl of saffron-

hed, she looked back at him defiantly. The Duchess gave

ting-every nerve of audition strained to catch the first footfall upon the stairs. Hunt, watching her, could but wonder, in case Larry