Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 174, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 December 1928 — Page 13

DEO. 11, 1923

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T ” as happened HOLLIS HART, rich and handsome, Has Just told his new stenographer a startling tale. The new ste/.iographer (known as ORCHID) Is an extremely beautiful girl, and Hart appears rather interested in her. Her re'al rame is ASHTORETH ASHE. She was named In honor of the mon goddess of old Egypt and, though she h.s loathed her name for years, she considers it suddenly beautifuj when she learn/, that Mr. Hart is a student of Egyptology, and vastly intrigued by her unusual name He becomes confiden/.ial and tells her of an amazing affair with a little exfiling clerk. MAE DB MARR, to whom he had given slo,foo. Now Mae is threatening him wit h breach of promise- Throughout their strange relations. Hart has been so, generous and chivalrous that he i& honestly surprised at As he outllrve/; the astonishing situation to Ashtrny.th, the door is thrown suddenly open, on the threshold stands a diminutive creature, dressed in black and white. Rugging a snowy fur against her velvet vrrap. NOW ttO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER lll—(Continued) “I should like so much to meet yotir mother,” said Mr. Hart politely. 1 And Ashtoreth felt suddenly and acutely ill. “7. know,” she murmured, ‘‘that yon would think her quite delightful. She is very charming.” And all the while her craven little heart was vowing, "Oh, never—never!” And her soul was weeping . . . “Mother! Mother, forgive me dear.” And she was consumed with absurd desires, such as to buy her mother whole bottles of perfumes, and boxes of scented soap, and purple wrappers, and silk underwear, and to put feather pillows at her back, and birds of paradise on her shingled head, and present her with chocolate creams and all the simple, awful things poor Maizie loved. So that she might make amends for having denied her. Mr. Hart interrupted her charitable musings. "Well,” he said, ‘‘back, to the little de Marr. I said, to her—‘Miss de Marr,’ I said. ‘l’m going to give you a present, \vithout any strings at all. Ten thousand dollars, to spend exactly as you chose.’” Ash tore th’s eyes widened. "You. did!” she cried. “You really did?” “7 did,” he affirmed gravely. “It took several minutes to convince the 1/tmng lady of the purity and authenticity of my offer. She cried some more. It was most embarrassing, really. But, finally she stuck my check in her bag and promised to keep in touch with me until she got straightened ouo. "The next day she telephoned, and that evening I went to see the apartment she’d taken. One of those new ones on Commonwealth avenue. She’d been shopping all day, and had the things sent directly out. My God, Miss Ashe, it was horrible. "Over-stuffed things, covered in purple taffeta. And lamps, drapping all sorts of fringe. Shiny things with spindle legs. And rugs with blue snakes writhing all over them.” n u a THAT, reflected Ashtoreth, was exactly the sort of room that Maizie loved to vision. Darling Maizie, who made the most awful lamp shades and pillows, and was buying an imitation Chinese rug on the installment plan. “And clothes!” Mr. Hart was saying: "The place was full of them. There was a fur scarf and a hat that simply smothered the child. Big as a cart wheel. "She tried it on and flung the scarf across her shoulders and strutted about like Peggy Joyce on the boardwalk. Then she got into some pink thing with a lot of feathers on, and made a welsh rabbit. “It was fun, don’t you know, and I took to dropping in pretty regularly. I suppose I was rather a chump, for I brought her little surprises. Inexpensive jewelry and a frock or two. “And a .few weeks later I helped her get a tryout, singing over the radio. It had been her great ambition for a long time, and when they engaged her regularly she was proud as Punch. “After that I didn’t see her so often. I telephoned occasionally, and several times a man’s voice answered. I assumed Mae had

THE NEW SainpSinner ByjJmwJlustin c iy stfivia, it*c

“That confounded operator keeps trilling at me: “The Darrow line is busy! I”ll call you,’ ” Bob reported disgustedly to the terrified girls who waited in the Hathaway living room. Crystal’s abandoned room had yielded no further clews to her strange disappearance. At 10 o’clock, after an hour and a half of agonized waiting, long distance summoned Bob shrilly. “Please page Mrs. Nils Jonson,” he told the hotel’s switchboard operator curtly. “Jonson —J-o-n-s-o-n. No, no H in it. Nils—N-i-l-s! Mrs. Jonson who was formerly Cherry Lane,” he added, in an almost frenzied effort to enlist the girl’s languid interest. He turned to Faith: “That woke her up! Cherry’s still famous. The girl said. “Oh, Cherry Lane Jonson! Sure I know her 1 ’ If you want to become front page stuff, Tony, just get yourself tried for murdering one of your fiances.” “So far lve only had to jilt one to make the front page,” Tony grinned. “Lord! I hope poor Crystal hasn’t found an easier way than either Cherry or I to make front page! Are you going to notify the police, Bob?” Faith’s already pale face became so white at that that Bob frowned significantly at Tony. Then: “Oh, hello! Not there? You say she and Mr. Beardsley have just left? “Listen, if they return have Mrs. Jonson call Stanton —Serenity 4500, please. Yes—Mr. Hathaway. It’s important. Thank you.” “They dined there and left soon after the dancing started,” Bob explained. “I’ll call Rhoda again, on the chance that Cherry may be going home early. Fat chance!” he added. A few seconds later. “Hello, Rhoda! This is Bob Hathaway again. When Cherry comes in—she’s already left Darrow —tell her to call me. It’6 vitally important. ;No, Faith and Robin are all right.

taken up with a boy friend as she’d say. And that was about all there was to it. “Then this mornding I received this letter—and there’s the whole story in a nutshell. Someone, apparently, has taken Miss de Marr in hand. And now there’s going to be the devil of a row.” Hollis Hart concluded his narrative and looked to Ashtoreth for comment. “Well,” he demanded, "what do you think of that for a modern, selfrespecting working girl?” But before Ashtoreth could answer, the door flung unceremoniously open. On the threshold stood a diminutive / creature, dressed in black and white. Hugging a snowy fur against her velvet wrap, her eyes were blazing and her cheeks were flushed She stood there, breathing quickly, her gaze fastened, in a frightened way. on Hart’s face. Then she moved inside the room and closed the door. CHAPTER IV HART had risen. And Ashtoreth, with her hand on the back of her chair, moved a step toward the intruder. “Sadie Morton!” she j'ied. Then the girl’s ey 1 left Hollis Hart’s face, and she aimed to Ashtoreth. "Ash!” she screamed. And all the color faded from her cheeks, so that she was as white as the fur that billowed, like a snow drift, about her pretty, vapid little face. "My God, Ash, what are you doing here?” Hollis Hart looked from one girl to the other. "There appears,” he remarked suavely, "to be a slight discrepancy in names.’ And, turning to Ashtoreth, bowed stiffly from the waist. . . . “Miss Ashe, may I present Miss De Marr. You are not, it seems, entire strangers. Our little triangle assumes the proportions of a comedy. Please ladies, be seated.” The girl in the door slumped into the nearest chair. Her feet, in crepe de chine pumps, swung inches from the floor, so that she seemed very small and childish. “Ash! Who’d have thought to And you here! Honest to God, Ash, I never would of made a break like that if I’d known who was in here.” “It doesn’t make any difference, Sadie.” "Honest, Mr. Hart. I didn’t know my friend worked here.” The girl’s big blue eyes turned again to the man. “I do not understand,” he said curtly. “You and Miss Ashe are friends, are you? And your name is Sadie Morton? A smart little adventuress you are! And now you’re trying your hand at blackmail? So that’s the big idea? Well, Miss Ashe has both sides of the story now. Perhaps she can advise you as to future tactics.” “But, Mr. Hart—honest, Mr. Hart ’’ The girl approached him timidly, with outstretched hands. “Ash didn’t even know I’d changed my name. She doesn’t know anything about the apartment, or anything. And I don’t see anything so wrong about changing my name anyhow. I did it ” She tossed her head defiantly. "For professional reasons. Sadie Morton’s and awful dumb-sounding name, and Mae de Marr’s got a lot more class. Anyhow, Ash didn’t know a thing about it. “We used to be friends when ” She hesitated, and her round blue eyes sought Ashtoreth^s. tt a a ASHTORETH stdod with her head high and her heart heavy. All her little pretensions tumbling about her. Waiting for Sadie Morton to tell. To tell the wretched, hateful truth. “Well, Ash and I used to live together.” “Indeed?”

Nothing for you to worry about, honey.” He hung up the receiver. “Well, that’s that! What do we do next?” The three returned in silence to the living room. It was Tony who spoke at last: “I think in all fairness, that we shouldn’t notify the police just yet. “Os course, we could try to find out if a marriage license was issued to them, but it’s pretty late, the county clerks, or whoever issues the things, would be hard to locate.” “Right you are,” Bob agreed gloomily. “I might try calling up every farmer in the neighborhood of the Jonson farm to see if any of them has been entertaining a foreign artist, but, Lord, I’d feel an awful fool—” “We’d better wait for Cherry,” Faith decided, white-lipped, but suddenly courageous. “In the meantime, I think we’d better play threehanded bridge. “We’ll go crazy if we just sit around. But I’d like to wring Lincoln Pruitt’s leathery old neck for having fired her! You’ve ridden her so hard, Bob, that she was ashamed to come home and face the music.” Bob made a wry face, then shrugged and winked at Tony. “I assure you Tony, that ‘the little woman’ and I don’t usually tear into each other like this. A pair of turtle doves Is In the habit of roosting on the ‘God Bless Our Home’ motto, but tonight—” “Oh. don’t mind me!” Tony grinned with a sorry attempt at her usual flippancy. “I’ve already got a husky anti-marriage complex. “Nothing a mairied couple could do would surprise me. But say, speaking of my well-known antimarriage complex, do you suppose Crystal adopted it and—and—?*’ (To Be Continued)

Hollis Hart compressed his lips in the manner of a man who has made a fool of himself and would, without effort, preserve his dignity. “It was after her father died,” said Sadie. “We lived right next house then. And ma and Mrs. Ashe were real friendly.” Ashtoreth bit her lip. "So when Mr. Ashe died sudden like he did, Ash and her mother moved in our place,” concluded Sadie with astonishing simplicity. "Then when Mrs. Ashe got something to do they took a flat of their own somewhere. I was working in the five-and-ten last time I saw Ash, and I don’t believe she knew I came here at all. Did you, Ash?” Ashtoreth shook her head. "We haven’t seen each other for several years,” she said, and hated herself for the aloofness her reply implied. Ashtoreth felt as though she were chained hand and foot. She wanted to be away from the unpleasant scene. But she could not leave Sadie to tell Mr. Hart more of that which he must never ’’now. She could think of no excuse for staying. And none, either, for leaving. Let sadie go. Sadie was the intruder. . . . Mute voices were shrieking in her ears. She tried to speak. To say something easily, and with composure. But her lips were hard and tight. She hated Sadie for a stupid little fool. A common, ignorant thing. And she hated Mr. Hart because now he would think of her and Sadie Morton as friends. And he would believe her a hypocrite and a sham. NOW Sadie was crying . . . She would. Sadie always cried when things went w r ong. Ashtoreth wished she could cry. Or move. Or talk. Or do something. Instead of simply standing there, frozen. “Perhaps.” She essayed speech with an effort. “Perhaps, Sadie, you’d like to come out to the washroom with me? And—and see Mr. Hart later.” That was good. Wonderful. She would take Sadie away from him. How had she happened to think of it? Such a clever thing to say. “If you would, Miss Ashe.” Mr. Hart moved to open the door. “And when she is herself again, perhaps you would be good enough to call a taxi for your friend. My lawyer will see her later, And that will be all, thank you, Miss Ashe.” In the hall Ashtoreth slipped her arm through Sadie’s. “Listen, Sadie,” she said. “I’m going home with you—to your place, I mean. I want to te.lk to you. Wait for me downstairs. I’ll ask Mrs. Mason if I may go out. “Then I’ll get my things and meet you at the door. Don’t say anything if you see anybody you know down there. And for heaven’s sake don’t let anybody see you crying.” “I’m not crying!” contradicted Sadie. “All right—see that you dont. I’ll be with you in a minute.” Ashtoreth approached Mrs. Mason’s desk. “I should like,” she said serenely, “to go out for a little while, Mrs. Mason.” And Mrs. Mason, who had witnessed the amazing advance and ignominous retreat of Sadie, nodded silently.” Downstairs Sadie waited at the magazine stand. “I’ve got a taxi, Ash,” she announced, and took Ashtoreth’s arm confidingly. “.My dear,” she said, “you’ll just simply die. You’ll never believe the things that have happened to me.” And she preened like a gaudy little peacock and wrapped her white fur closer about her throat; “Well,” Ashtoreth demanded, “what’s it all about?” Sadie Morton backed into her corner and considered Ashtoreth suspiciously. “The same to you!” she retorted. “How do you get that way, Ash? Private secretary to Hollis Hart, and putting on airs to beat the devil.” ‘‘l’m not private secretary,” explained Ashtoreth. “I’m one of forty stenographers. And I’m not putting on airs. I never spoke to Mr. Hart in my life until yesterday, and it was the most curious coincidence in the world that he spoke of you this morning.” “Yeah—and what did he say?” demanded Sadie. tt tt tt ASHTORETH slipped her arm around the other girl. “Oh, please,” she wheedled, “let’s not quarrel. I didn’t mean to offend you. And I don’t mean to be curious either. ‘But, you see, Sadie, Mr. Hart was talking about you just as you came in. That is, he was talking about some girl who used to work in the' office, in whom he was interested. And suddenly the door opened—and you walked in. “I didn’t have an idea what it was all about. Now let’s be perfectly frank with each other, Sadie. I’ll tell you all I know. And you tell me the truth. We may be able to do each other a lot of good. Will you be absolutely honest with me Sadie?” Sadie Morton laughed. “Why, sure,” she agreed good humoredly, “and I didn’t mean to be nasty, either, Ash. I only thought you was trying to high hat me, dear. Walt till we get out to the apartment—it’fr only a minute more. Then we’ll have a good long talk .... Look, Ash—how do you like my fur? Isn’t It the grandest thing! And soft—say, try that on your chest!’” She slipped the thing off and tossed it aside. “I got a fox, too,” she boasted. “A real silver one. Oh, gee, Ash, pickings were good—while they lasted.” She sighed profoundly and lit a cigaret. “A girl’s got to come across these days,” she lamented. “And I’m too dam pure for my own good.” She inhaled luxuriously. “Here we are, Ash. Throw that fur around your neck. Got any change, dearie?” Ashtoreth counted the fare from a handful of meager silver. The tip took her last dime. (To Be Continued)

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

OUR BOARDING HOUSE

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FRECKLES AND TTTS FRIENDS

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WASHINGTON TUBBS 11

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SALESMAN SAM

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MON ’N POP

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THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE

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OUT OUR WAY

* By Ahern

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SKETCHES BY BESSEY. SYNOPSIS BY BRA LICHEE

PAGE 13

—By Williams

—Bv Martin

By Blosser

By Cram:

By Small

By Cowar