Lady Larkspur

the best writing I ever did, and after the vast pains I took with the thing, the only woman I ever saw who could possibly act it is unavailable; worse than that, absolutely undiscoverable! Nobody kn

ings that I'm trying to lead 'em on to the best I can do; something a little

express my sympathy for his predicament. Fate had been kind to Dick Searles. In college he had written a play or two that demonstrated his talent, and after a rigid apprenticeship as scene-shifter and assistant producer he had made a killing with "Let George Do It," a farce that earned enough to put him at ea

ar star?" I suggested. "Seems to me I've read somewhere t

w. A little later she appeared in 'Honourable Women,' a capital play that died early, but there again I felt her peculiar charm-it was just that. Her part was a minor one, but she wore it as she might wear a glove; she was exquisite! No one ever captured my imagination as she did. I watched her night after n

re's more here than appears.

is girl was the visualization of a character I had dreamed of and grop

communication and gave her a hint tha

nt to take the chance of being disillusioned. I have been through that experience, and I prefer not to meet the people

eople of the stage. No girl talented enough to get two engagements, even for small parts, in a first-class London theatre could vanish

provincial theatres-hadn't any of the marks. I wasn't the only person who was interested in her. Dalton said half a dozen managers had their eye on her, but after 'Honourable Women' closed she stepped into the void. I know what you're thinking-that the other members of the two companies she appeared with must have had some inkling of her id

t and playing the mysterious r?le as part of the adventure. Am I to

left one heavily sealed at a small exclusive London hotel where, he foun

I said. "Show m

o find that she has no wit, no charm, no anything but a monstrous appetite for indigestible food and a silly ambition to play r?les the gods never intended her to play. In that pantomime she was a frolic, the clown's daughter, and, though nobody saw it, she was the whole piece, the elusive sprite that could evoke laughter and tears by a gesture, a lifting of the brows, a grimace. By utterly different methods in 'Honourable Women' she proved her wide range of appeal. The chap who produced 'Honourable Women' told me that a

eaded. "You never talk

orget her and take a squint at your affairs

a couple of years spent in star climbing. The doctors tell me to cultivate repose for a few months and maybe they'll pass me into our flying corps, but they don't promise anything.

les; "getting married and then adding to the crime by d

mber the imm

p your de

lman ex

ily tingle

to building a play around him-the perfect uncle, unobtrusive, never blustering at his nephew; translating the avuncular relationship into something remote and chaste like a distant view of Mount Washington in winter. As I recall, there w

most respectable hotel in the world, and his chief recreation was a leisurely walk in the park before going to bed. You could set your clock by him. Pretty thin picking for a dramatist, I should think. He used to take me to the theatre regularly every other Thursday-it was a date-and his favorite entertainment was vaudeville with black-face embellishment preferred. Y

elbow, the marriage might have been averted," sugges

and ceramics. He hated motoring except in taxis up and down town, and when I urged him to set up a machine, he told me to go ahead and buy one and build the garage. He rather

praise his generosity. But the widow, your unknown aunti

lege, the man who never smiles-Torry seemed anxious to learn about her from me, which is certainly droll. He said she acknowledged her last remittance three months ago from Bangkok-wherever that is. Torry couldn

tribe, or human group does t

nouncement of the marriage in the usual advertisement form. The lady was succinctly described as Mrs. Alice Wellington Cornford, widow of the late Archibald Reynolds Cornford, Pepperharrow Road, Hants. All Torrence knows of the subsequent proceedings is what he got in official reports of Uncle Bash's death from the consul-general at Tokyo. He was buried over there and the life-insurance companies were rather fussy about the legal proof, Torry says. Whether the w

clothes. You will be there to meet her, deferential, anxious to please. You will pilot her up the coast to Barton, tip the servants heavily to keep them from murdering her, and twiddle your thumb

me that they are a

of domestic service would certainly enjoy a romp with that crew. I su

place can't be sold till I die, and while I live they're t

he head waiter who amassed a fortune in tips and then toyed with the market once too often and lost his ill-gotten gains. What was the head waiter's name who presided with so much stateliness in the dining

the butler and has charge of the place-a sort of commander-in-chief of the out

and I'll be up in a couple of weeks. I'm going to Ohio to-morrow

ome-folks even in Ohio,

t an aunt, Singleton! Aunts must rank just a little below mothers in the heavenly kingdom. When I was a boy out in Ohio there were two great occasions every year in my life-one when I we

king up my hat. "Send me your copy of 'Lady Geranium

ith a shudder. "You shall have it

efore he dropped business cares and departed for the Japan of his dreams, and as I had been often at the hotel where he spent so many of the years of his life, I knew most of the old retain

that by reason of my two years on the battle-line I was just so much ahead of the friends I met in New York who were answering the call to the colors and had their experience of war all before them. The tranquil life that had been recommended by the doctors was not only p

friends had encouraged the idea, that my uncle would die some day and leave me his money. There was no particular reason w

th the village. Flynn, the big Irishman who had been the doorman at the Tyringham for years and retired be

that had made him a prince among head waiters. As I shook hands with him his lips quivere

runk came this mornin' all right,

that he might the more easily bring me

the years you lived in town," I suggeste

lanced at him quickly. He pretended to be absorbed in the flying landscape at t

a great shock. And he had looked forward for years to a quiet life abroad. It

plained that he was born in England of French parents. His father had been chef and his mother housekeeper for an American banker who lived for many years in London. Antoine's speech was that of a well-trained English upper

"The war is very dreadful. My parents were of Verdun; it gr

ntemptuous nod: "Married Elsie, the German woman who worked in the linen-room at the Tyringham! This has caused some trouble, and there is a pantry gir

ess. That the war should be making itself felt on

erything is peaceful, of course,

I was pondering the recrudescence of race hatreds due to the upheaval

s for the widow; these ha

Whose

s that there are persons anxious to see her. T

us to pay their respects, or some of the nei

who acts very queerly

t was wholly possible that a globe-trotting widow would have friends in many parts of the world, and I could see nothing disturbing in the fact that inquiries had been made for her. I said as much. Antoine's answer was another shrug and a jerk of his head toward Flynn, as though even the employment of an alien to

the house, Mr. Singleton, and not i

red quickly. "We must stick cl

r. Stop at the

re at one end and at the other were a down-stairs living-room, with a broad fireplace, and three chambers above so planned as to afford a charming view of the Sound, whose shore curved in deeply at this point. On the chauffeur's side was a small

ave your meals at the residence, I

ncle had purchased it with all its belongings, had accumulated a remarkable library, rich in the Elizabethan stuff for which I have a weakness, and it occurred to me that it would be pleasant to eat my solitary dinner at the residence and loaf in the library for an hour afterward. Like most slaves of the in

the suggestion that I could summon Zimmerman, a former valet of the Tyringham, for any service

aintively in the French which now see

tions out here, Antoine. Zimmerman is a good old chap, who's pro

replied with emphasis. "There

You've been sticking too close to the farm, and it would do you good to run in

mpous Tyringham manner, but I saw t

ere was anything he could do for me. When I had expl

me that lile, sorr, the American flag floats from the garage every day. And if a hear

't you worry about Antoine and the rest of them; they're just a

e of my legal right to live on the farm, I had no intention of remaining if my uncle's widow turned up. Alone on the estate I could lodge in the garage without any loss of dignity, but with an aunt on the premises my status would be decidedly uncomfortable. She could hardly fail to regard me

the driveway, which followed the shore, veering off for a look at the sunken

ed and caught a ball with languid iteration. I had identified him as an old Tyringham bell-hop, known familiarly as

altered, dropping the imp

utch? You're not expect

the tool-house. An' me born right there in New York an' American clean through. My grandpap came across when he wuz a kid, but it ain't my fault he wuz Goiman. I'd 'a' mad

nguage, Dutch," I answered consol

d I say it ain't no worse'

rtain license, but I was honestly sorry for Dutch. If he was not the oldest living bell-hop, he was at least entitled to honorable

nd at sight of me the commander brought his company to a very ragged "Present arms!" Their uniform was that of the Tyringham bell-hops and waiters, and it dawned upon me that this was an army of protest representing the Allie

to keep Dutch and Gretchen and Elsie-she's t

d of retired waiters and bell-hops, and it was

but we was forced to it.

caught glimpses through the gathering dus

ntoine explained, not without pride.

of women can do anything out here to aid America's enemies! The rest of you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for annoying them. And as for thes

who's motored here three times, and another person who

ners or rival agents for a rug house or something of that sort who

His lips quivered, either from fear or vexat

ith it. But you mustn't get nervous or allow yourself to suspect everybody who turns up here of evil designs against the

he side toward the Sound. The windows were open and the guard was in plain view. I glanced at Antoine, whose attitude toward me was that of one benevolent

de myself comfortable with a book and a cigar, but I had hardly settled myself for a quiet hour before I heard a commotion from the direc

t he ran by the guard at the gate, and our man below the ho

ened into the hall to reassure him as to his welcome. He was wip

my running-board, and after I'd knocked them off a road-agent stopped me rig

r characters about, tramps and that sort of thing, and the pe

r send your friends the password!

p, nothing more

to the butler, who was drawing the curtains at the windows-"if the

ecent, and, knowing Mr. Singleton was

posed. "The employees have been alarmed

d, the wounds to his

the real cause of the servant's apprehensions, knowing his disposition to magnify trifles and fearing he

Mr. Bashford made a mistake in turning the place over to them; it was silly, downright silly. It's a wonder you didn't think of ups

le, and it's bully that Uncle Bash provided a hom

but my last remark caused him t

came for. I have news for you, Singleton; good or ba

d faintly, "where do you g

ut it. Got it just as I was leaving the office this afternoon

y my discomfiture

ld, Mass.

. TOR

Trust Co.

o see the country. Will reach Barton in four or five days. Please wire m

e Bas

you say to that

," I answered savagely. "I've got t

re anyhow till she comes; there's no ducking that. The widow of an uncle who did a lot for you, a stranger to the co

If you hadn't assured me that she was safe at th

arked, glancing about the room. "I've go

smoke-stack. You might add that she's causing serio

mean that?" he i

hunder

mind, and there was no corner of the place from cellar to garret that we didn't explore. It was highly creditable to the old Tyringham servants that the house was thoroughly h

own-stairs the old fell

sir," he whispered, "but him and the trust compan

hat I should tell Torrence about "the parties,"

he conservatory will supply enough. And it occurs to me that the more inconspicuous y

rch of these venerable relics. But I'll warn them to conceal themselves as much as possibl

arrival, but when I get a wire that she's on the way I'll telephone you.

too soon!" I ans