Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1919 — Page 2

The Thirteenth Commandment

FOREWORD.

“The Thirteenth Commandment” is an American story written by an American for Americans. It is, according to a famous English critic, “American to the bone And to the marrow of the bone.” It deals with that eternal conflict between finance and romance. It tells the story of what one lovable, modern American girl did when she discovered how often the checkbook’s groan drowns the lovfe song. In this story Rupert Hughes is at his best, and that best cannot be surpassed by any American author of the present day. If you start “The Thirteenth Commandment” you will finish it, and when you have finished it you will he glad that you started it

CHAPTER I. " As usual nowadays, instead "Us knocking at the door Fate called up on the telephone. Though the bell shrilled almost in Mrs. Kip's ear she would not answer it. She winced, shook her head, agitated her rocking ehalr with petulance, embroidered vindictively, and hardly so much called out as sighed very loudly toward the hallway: “Daphne ! O-oh, Daphne I the telephone again'!” -, On the stairs there sounded a muffled scurry like the rush of an April shower chased down a hillside by the sun. An allegory of April darted across the room and raised the telephone to her lips as if it were a beaker of good cheer. Her mother was used to this humor of Daphne’s and paid no heed till a sudden frost chilled the warm tone of the girl’s voice. The, smile of hospitality wasted on the telephone had given place to a look of embarrassment. Mrs. Kip whispered anxiously, “Who is itF Daphne motioned her not to interrupt, and her voice grew deep and important. It became what her brother Bayard called her “reception voice,” In her grandest contralto she said: “This is Miss Kip. Yes, I have. Yes, he does. I beg pardon? Oh! —Oh ! OhJ How do you do, Mr. Wmbwm.” “Mr. Who?” her mother keened. Daphne whispered to quiet her, “A young man from New York—friend of Bayard’s—same office. I haven’t got his name yet.” • Into the telephone she was saying, and bowing and nodding the while with her politest face. “Indeed Til try to be. Of course Cleveland’s not New York, but— By the way, do you dance? That’s good. That’s right; might as well be deaf if you don’t! How long will you be in Cleveland? Oh, is that all? Well, then, you must come out here and have tea with us this vfiry afternoon. I’ll call for you at the hotel in my little car. No; it’s not one of those; it’s an electric. -1 run it myself. Afraid to risk it? Brave man! TH be there in fifteen minutes, and you might be on the steps. Goodby, Mr. Wmbwm.” This last was said in the fond tone of ancient friendship, and she hung up the receiver with a gesture like shaking hands. She turned to find her mother thinning her lips in a long, tight line; her cheeks bulged explosively. Daphne forestalled her: _ “He’s a young fellow in the .same firm as Bayard. Says he’s here on business for ten days. Bayard told idm to call me up and tell me to-,, be nice tql him. That sounds like By. Also said he hadn’t time to write. That sounds liker still. Bayard told him to kiss you for turn, sp he must be all right,—l was going to take him to the hotel to a tea-dance, but I thought Td better give him a look-over first So I’ll roll him out here. Get out the nice china and the napkins I monogrammed, and —” Z 2 • r “But, Daphne! Wait! I can’t—” “I haven’t time to argue with you, mamma. Please do as I tell you for once, and don’t fuss. Mr. Wmbwm will probably have a “lot of news to teH you abouKyour prodigal son. G’by!” §be popped a kiss on the forehead that anxiety had turned to corduroy and ran upstairs like another April shower chasing the sun uphill. She dashed down- again with hat and gloves, and, with nose repowdered, slammed the front door gayly, thrummed the steps, and, strode across the long liiWfi to the little eleclHc’caF

standing under the porte cochere. The car was very large for a beetle but pretty small for an automobile.

CHAPTER tl. .. > ■ ■ / - The night train from New York had deposited Clay Wimburn In the grimy cavern of the station at an early* hour.’ He had dawdled over his breakfast, feeling lost without his New York morning papers. When at last it grew late enough! o telephone for an appointment with the tnnn he had come to see he was disgusts to learn that the wretch would not be visible till the next day. It was then that Bayard Kip s parting behest to call up his sister recurred to Wimburn. He planned to compose a formal note of self-intro-duction, but Bayard had forgotten to tell him his sister’s name or his father’s initials. There were several Kips In the telephone book, and he could not tell which would be which. He decided to call up each number and ask a maid or somebody if Mr. Bayard Kip’s people lived there. The very first number he called brought Daphne herself suddenly voice to voice with him. Voices are characters, and it was a case of love at first hearing with him. She had him smiling and cooing at the second phrase. He felt that she was going to make his stay in Cleveland pleasant. He formed all sorts of pictures of her w’hile he waited on the hotel steps; but when she stepped out of her car and looked about she was none of the Misses Kip he had planned. She was a round, pretty little thing, amiable of eye and humorous about the lips.” and cunningly dressed. She looked as if she would be a plucky, tireless sportswoman; yet she had a wistful, tender huggableness that a girl ought not to lose, however well she plays tennis. “Is this Mr. —” she began. He was too nervous to notice her pause. He retorted, “is this Miss Kip?” He noted that she shook hands well, with a boyish clench accompanied by an odd little drfck of the head. "Mighty nice of you to take me off this, desert island,” he beamed. _ ~ ~ “Mighty glad to have the privilege,” she said as she verified the fraternity pin on his overcoat. “Mother is dying to hear how Bayard is.” Mothers have little power left as guardians, but the children find that the title has a certain value at times in keeping order. “Won’t you get in?” said Daphne, pointing to her ear. She made him crowd in first, then followed and closed the door and pulled the throttle. He meditated aloud: “How wonderful it really is that you should talk to me over the telephone fend Invite me to your home and come and get me like this.” “What’s so wonderful about that?” said Daphne. “Everybody does it.” “Everything that everybody does is wonderful,”’ said Wimburn. “But how especially wonderful it is to live in a city where there are no walls about 4he -Xqpkl thereJaren'V even fences. The lawns are all joined to-

Already Wimourn Was a Member of the Household.

gether and the houses are mostly windows. Everything is so open and free, full of sunlight and frankness. You’re taking me home in this charming little, glass showcase 'to introduce me to your mother. I tell you the world do move! A woman of today has'a lot to be thankful for, You ought to be mighty happy." “Ought-to-be hasn’t much to do with Is,” Daphne sighed. got a lot to get yet—and a lot to get rid of.” He sank 'back discouraged. The sex was still insatiable. After a short ride they turned into a driveway leading-through a spacious expanse of grass dotted with trees and shrubs, to a homelike house without beauty" 0 r ugliness—-a bouse that - had

EVENING REPUBLICAN/BBNSEBLAEB, IND.

By RUPERT HUGHES

grown with the personalities of the occupants. The only ustehtations about the place were the cupola of an earlier day and the porte cochere stuck out like a broken wing. She led him into the house and waved him toward the hall tree. When he had set down his hat and stick she Ted him into the drawing room. ’’Mother, we’re home.” “Yes, dear,” said Mrs, Kip, who called Daphne “dear” before company. “Mother,” said Daphne, “I want to present Mr. —” (mumble—-gulp). She had not yet achieved his fiitme. Her mother shocked her by saying, “Delighted to meet you, Mr. — I didn’t quite catch the name.” Daphne blushed for her mother’s query, but was glad to overhear the stranger’s answer: “I am Mr. Wimburn, Mrs. Kip—Clay Wimburn.” - At this moment a tall, shambling man walked in. He looked as if he looked older than he was. His spectacles overwhelmed a rather unsuccessful nose. Daphne hardly needed to introduce him as her father. She gave Wimburn a name now, and he felt called upon to explain his incursion. “I know your son Bayard very well. I’m in his office; —We belong to the same fraternity—different chapters of course. We struck up a great friendship. When he knew I was coming to -Cleveland he said, ‘Tell my sister to be nice to-you,’ and —and —” Wimburn paused in some embarrassment before the ballroom manner of Mrs. Kip, but the pompous disguises of timidity fell from her as she murmured —and blushed in a motherly way: “Daphne told me. He said for you to kiss his mother for him.” “Ye-es.” “Well, I am his mother.” “Oh! May'T?\ '"Will youT’ ’ He pressed his lips respectfully on her cheek, but she, closing her eyes to imagine him her son, flung her fat arms about him and held him a moment. He kissed her again .with a kind of vicarious devotion. " “I’d want Bayard to deliver such a message to your mother,” . she explained. Already Wimburn was a member of the household; he had been kissed and sympathized with. He turned to Daphne with an apologetic look and saw that she was staring at him with softer eyes than he had thought slfe had. Definite anxieties engaged Mrs. Kip, for tea had come in tottering on a tray carried by a panic-smitten cook, as agile as a hippopotamus and as shy as a violet. Daphne and her mother and father went ‘through the tea ceremony with the anxiety of people in an earthquake,’ and the “Swedish dromedary” stared at the unaccustomed sight as if the tea bibbers were drinking poison and she watching for the convuli sions to begin. Clay Wimburn talked altogether I about Bayard and Jiis ! ress in business in spite nl the -hard times. Bayard, he said, was lo his desk like a demon, and he let nothing distract him. “It must be glorious living in New York,” Daphne sighed. “Why don’t you come and pay Bayard a visit?” Wimburn suggested. “He wouldn’t have time to take me anywherq, and I don’t know anybody else there.” -

“You know me. And I’d be only too glad to try to repay your hospitality to me.” Mrs. Kip looked on and listened with the fond alarm of one who has seen fatal courtships begun with just such fencing. When at length Daphne suggested, that there was still time to rush down to the Hotel Statler for a dance or two Mrs Kip smiled at her. Wimburn did not know that he had been brought home on approval. Mrs. Rip realized that he was not to be returned as impossible. Her fancy gambled in futures. Wimburp-was the yietiin of an onset of that delirium amans known as love at first sight. Ete was at the right age, and he found... something exotically captivating in this strange, girl in the strange, city. He was poisoned with love, and his opinion of Daphne was lunaticalljr fantastic. No one in the world equaled her. No one ever had equaled her or could equal her in any future ever. Spring and love are the perennial miracles, always new, always amazing. It was springtime in Wimbprn’s years and,in the calendar of the world; and countless other youth of mankind, animaF kind, bird and fish kind, flowers and fruit trees, and perhaps of .chemicals in the ground were feeling tije same mania. < Daphne’s cordiality was at first merely the hospitable warmth' of her unusually cordial community. But she caught the fever from -Wimburn and decided that he was the final word in human evolution. ' They began to dread the, society oj others, to resent the existence of a

squatter population, on their private planet. The world was too much with them. The little car was transparent. Even at night etiquette required them to light It-up -within. Wimburn did not return to New York so soon as he expected. It seemed impossible to uproot himself from that pleasant soil. One afternoon when he had already overstayed his furlough Daphne and he were riding in the little car through the outer suburb known as Shaker Heights—a section rapidly evolving from a sleepy! religious community to A swarm of city residences. > The late afternoon moon had risen in a sky still rosy with the afterglow of sunset The. air was murmurous with pleading. Suddenly Wimburn cried aloud, to his own surprise and hers, “Daphne! Miss Kip! I can’t stand everything, you know! ' I’m only human, after all.” “What’s the matter?” she asked In prosaic phrase but with a poetic flutter of breath. “I love you, d ■ n it!—pardon me, but I’m infernally in love with you. I’m tormented. I came here on business, and instead of my finishing it you’ve finished me. I’m two days overdue in New York and I’ve had to lie to the office to explain why. And all I can think of now is that I’d rather resign and starve to death than go back and leave you here.’” “Honestly?” she barely breathed. “Desperately !” he moaned. “What’s to become of me?” “You’d better go back, I suppose. You’ll soon get over it and find somebody else to love.” -T “There’s nobody else in the world worth loving. I’d die if I gave you up! I’d simply die.” He went on with aching anxiety: “Could you care for me just a little? If you could love me or just promise to try to, I could face my exile for a while. Do you think you could love me. ever?” She 'dropped her chin on her breast and Sighed. “I guess I do now.” The miraculous felicity of this situation overwhelmed them both. He dipt her in his arms and she flung hers about- him, forgetting entirely the steering wheel. The neglected little car promptly scattered off the road, crossed a gutter into a vacant lot, scooped up a “For Sale” sign, and was about to tip over into an excavation when Daphne looked up long enough to shut off the power. Then in a blind rapture she returned to where she belonged—his embrace. Soon she was assailed with fears for the credibility of this wonder work, and when he said: “When shall we announce our engagement?” she protested: “Oh, not till we are sure.” “I’m sure now.” “But we must be terribly sure. It’s such a dangerous thing, getting married. So many people who think they love each other find out their mistake too iate. You don’t know me very well.” “You mean you don’t know me very Well.” ' ' ■ ■■ “I’m not afraid of you, but for you. I’d hate to disappoint you, and I don’t really amount to much. I can’t do anything except gad around; and you’d tire of me.” “Not in this world—nor tn the next.” “It’s darling of you to say it, and you think you mean it—now. But —” “I know it, Daphne, honey, now and forever. I don’t want anybody but you. Life won’t be life without you. You’ve promised to b£%my tvife. I hold you to your premise?’ “All rfght.” It was exceedingly satisfying to surrender her soul into his keeping. She had reached harbor already after so brief and placid a voyage. He ended a long, cozy silence with the surprising remark, “I suppose I ought to ask your parents’ consent?” The daughter of the twentieth century laughed: “Parents’ consent! You do read a lot of ancient literature, don’t you?” “Still I imagine we’d better break it to ’em.” “You leave it to me to break it to ’em. They’ll be glad enough to get me off their hands.” •‘l’ll never believe that.” When they reached her home it was late ami his hotel was so far that, since he would be spending his last >• '«ning with her, anyway, she asked bin. ». . tay to dinner. , i She broke that news to het parents, and it caused them acute distress. Her father and heA mother were deep in the battle thatXalways broke out between them when the monthly billsiarrived. Daphne was So used to this that she hardly noticed it. ! After dinner the parents retirqd to the living room tp read and sew and mumble over their mutual while Daphne and. Wimburn sat and the piazza which the moon turned into a blue portico of mystic spell. . ' *

CHAPTER 111 The next morning Wimburn woke frtfen dreams ot bfiß to the realization

Copyright by Harper * Brothers

that his hotel bill would require all of his funds except enough for the porter’s tip and a few odd dollars. Hecould not buy Daphne an engagement ring with a few odd dollars, and he was afraid to leave her without the brand of possession on her finger. But how was he to come at the necessary sura? He could not decently ask the firm he was dealing with to lend him money. He might have asked it to cash a check on his bank, but his account was at the irreducible inininium. After an hour or two of meditation he determined to beard a jeweler in his lair and try to coax him into the extension of credit. He loitered in front of'several windows, staring at the glittering pebbles on the velvet beaches till he found a tiny gem that he thoughVmight feebly represent his exquisite adoration. He went in and asked the price. An eager salesman peered at the very small tag and announced the very large price—slßs. It was not much for a solitaire, but it was too much for that bachelor. He clung to the counter for support and in a husky tone asked for the credit man. ~H® was escorted to a barred window where a very sane oh)

“I Have the Honor to Be Engaged to Miss Daphne Kip.”

person gazed out at people insane enough to buy jewelry. Mr. Gassett had a look of hospitality toward cash and of shyness toward credit. __ Wimburn hemmed and blushed and swallowed hard. With the plausibility of a pickpocket he mumbled as he pushed a card across the glass sill: “I am Mr. Clay Wimburn of New York city. I have been out here closing up an important deal for my firm with one of your big mills. I happened to see a little ring in your window—rather pretty little thing, dfook a fancy to it. Had half a mind to buy it. But rather short of cash and —errand —” Mr. Gassett waited with patience. Clay went on: “I have no right to ask you to give me credit. But I’m very anxious to leave the ring here.” “Leave it here! I thought you wanted to buy it!” “Of course! I want to leave it on the finger of a young lady.” “Oh,” said Mr. Gassett, to' whom ladies’ fingers were an important market. Finally he said: “I don’t suppose you would care to tell me who your fiancee is. That might make a difference.” '■ “Why shouldn’t I tell you? I’m certainly not ashamed to. I have the honor to be engaged to Miss Daphne Kip.”. ' ~

Daphne, accompanied by her mother, goes to New York for the purpose of buying her trous- 1 seau. There the first shadow is cast upon Daphne's romantic dreams by the discovery that the •money which her father has been able to raise for the purpose will not buy much of a trousseau. Don't miss the, next installment.

(TO BB CONTINUED.)

Real Riches.

He who has fortune in love and truth and beauty is entitled to be called rich. Time and change and adversity have’ no power upon them. They are Qie only- things a man san. take with 'him when he goes. In the process of acquiring they become part of him inseparably. He who has them “wears bis commendation in his face,” for it may be read as he passes that his converse is with the higher and finer things and his daily walk is on the plane where, the noblest meet and greet familiarly.— ThTiadeiphia Tnbiicledger.

HOME TOWN HELPS

BUILD WITH EYE TO BEAUTY i. ■■ nihmiaw—‘ ■- ■/ Duty of All Who Plan Home to Consider Well How Structure Will" Appear to Beholder. The beauty that may be had out of the common things of the earth Is well illustrated by the homes that one sometimes sees, a beauty that is all the more emphasized by the contrast in the hideous result of the use of the same common things by others. , You will see in the country places, as you go about, how one man will take the things that are to his hand and build from them a beautiful house. He took the rock and stone, the wood, the sand and. the earth that were under his feet. Out of these he framed a rooftree that is a kindness to the eye. Another man with the same materials threw them together crudely, making a thing that had to go by the name of a house, but which offends the eye that beholds it. The one house cost no more in either labor or money than the other, yet the results are as different as day and night. The most striking, as well as the most historic instance of what can be done with the common things of the earth, is furnished by the old Franciscan missions of California. They are architectural gems. Yet all that the padres had for material was what they found at hand and under their feet. They had only Indian labor to call on. While we are at it we might as well put a touch of beauty to what we do, whether it be that we are building a house or a chicken coop.

HAVE WINTER “WAR GARDEN”

Astonishing Variety x>f Vegetables May Be Grown in a Few Window and Porch Boxes. —— Window boxes and porch boxes that have done an artistic and highly appreciated service for the home now have an opportunity to serve garnishes and salad for the table if only you call them to serve. The sunny kitcheir window or space by the attic that is glorified by sun and air will be the very place for boxes planted to lettuce or parsley. Select a quick-growing variety, plant shallow as in cold frames, cover with glass the first two weeks if convenient (they grow nicely without that coaxing, however), and you will have lettuce very soon. Young onions may be grown in the same way. In England the dandelion is planted in flower pots and window boxes and used all winter as a salad. This was a government recommendation. Fresh vegetables and salads are great disease preventives. A letter from London says: “Fof thpse.who like bleached salad dandelions grown in the cellars and flower pots are as white and tender as endive and cost nothing at all. People have got to have some sort of fresh food. The scarcity of vegetables and the prohibitive prices kept many people from eating them last winter and children especially suffered. The government doctors say that those mysterious vltamlnes are to be found in greater-abundance in a dish of salad than anywhere else.” -

Decreed War on Weeds.

For the best example of destroying the enemy, root and branch, we have to turn to Ferndale, says the Detroit News. Weeds, say the authorities in that town, destroy war gardens and give hay fever to war workers. Rainsoaked weeds, overhanging the long cement walks stretching through vacant subdivisions, cause colds and illness among the children and families of war workers. Therefore, Ferndale declared a weedless day, on which these “allies of the kaiser” were struck down.

Director of Town Planning.

With the appointment of M. B. Weeks, director of surveys of the provincial' government of Saskatchewan, as director of town planning and rural development, the new townplanning act will be more available, and more attention will be paid in the future to insure that new town sites are laid out from their inception oh lines which will lend themselves to modern conditions of town building. An important provision is the prohibition of 25-foot lots either for business or residential purposes.'

Chronometer and Longitude.

Longitude baffled all navigators until the came into use in 1735. The ancients and later navigators, Including aU the great discoverers, could find their latitude by observations of the sun’s height, but they could determine their longitudte only by “dead reckoning,” or estimating their ship’s progress from day to day. This system was uncertain .and caused a great many shipwrecks.

A Puzzler.

A map walking along a country road, canie to a small pond. On a tree at the water’s edge was. nailed a board bearing the followinguddly scrawled warning:. "Don’t Fish Hear.” The man pondered over ft for a moment Or two. then resumed his journey with the comment: - "Biarued if J. know.’*'—Eveiy-