Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1917 — WEEK-END PARTY [ARTICLE]

WEEK-END PARTY

By JANE OSBORN.

“There is simply one rule and regulation for this party,” Mrs. Torrey told her guests when they arrived for the week-end house party in her ramshackle old country house that was set back several hundred feet from the road in a veritable forest of pine trees. “You simply must-lock your doors when you are not in your rooms. Nowadays no one knows absolutely that her servants aren’t thieves and pickpockets. But I can’t give up enjoying my friends on that account, so I’ve simply had keys fitted for all the doors and the one thing that 1 must insist on is that everyone's door is locked.” She had been especially emphatic in stating this requirement when Lida Vinton and her cousin, Abby Stone, arrived late Friday evening. “I have given you two girls the large room in the leftwing. Do, for mercy 's sake, remember there are two doors. Now, I’ve warned you and I shall really be very cross if you don't remember.” And then as she left the girls on the threshold of room she added: “We have dinner in half an hour. Everyone here knows everyone else and we are going to have just a simple country time of it —a little dancing tonight and a picnic at the seashore tomorrow. I have only one car, so the men will have to walk and the girls can ride.” And then she hurried off to greet her other guests who were arriving, calling back as she went: “Don’t forget to lock your door and bring the key when you come to dinner.” “Wasn't it perfectly dreadful?” wailed Lida after she and her cousin had come back to their room as early as they could properly leave the improniptu little dance downstairs. “Did I show it very much? I’m sure I turned pale and I actually thought I’d faint. I haven’t even seen Tom for a month; not since we broke our engagement and had that dreadful quarrel. And of course I didn’t know Mrs. Torrey had invited him. How did she dare?”

"She probably didn’t know. But you didn’t look half so upset as Tom did. Everyone must have noticed the way he behaved. And he hardly ate a mouthful. At least you were well-bred enough not to lose your appetite about it. I must confess, however,” Abby said, as she undid the hooks that fastened her pretty cousin’s beflowered dancing frock, “that it was rather awkward. I hope you noticed that I almost cut Tom. I was barely polite to him and later when he asked me for a dance I said I couldn’t fox-trot, although I’d just been fox-trotting with Jim Hale and I know Tom knew I had. I think my meaning was plain enough.” “There is no reason why you should be exactly nasty' to him, Abby. He is a perfectly splendid fellow.” “I’d be horrid to any man that had treated you the way he has.” “How dare you say that?” Lida brought the brush* down emphatically oq the dressing table. “How can you think that he did? It was my fault. 1 insist that it was and I wouldn’t have anyone feel sorry for me for anything in the world. Abby, you don’t imagine for a minute that the girls are sorry for me, to you?” “Oh, dear, no! Didn’t I just tell you that you were a trump to go on eating just as if nothing had happened. You couldn’t have looked more heartless if you had tried, and you were certainly looking very pretty. That dress is so becoming. I was proud of you, Lida. You were splendid.” ■ Then when the two girls had tucked themselves into their twin beds and had said good night for the tenth time Abby whispered, “Really, Lida, you were perfectly great.” “Did you lock both doors, Abby?”

“Yes, ajid I put chairs against them besides.” A minute passed in silence, and thee: “Ahby, let’s push the beds next to>aeh other. I’m not afraid. Still this is a very big room.” Ten minutes, later the cousins were again op the -yay to slumber with their twin beds touching. “What are you going to do about tomorrow ? You won’t want to go to the picnic will you?" Abby asked sleepily. , “Indeed, I won’t, and I have thought it all out. You must go, for if you didn’t it would rather spoil the whole party and you must say nothing about my not going. I’ll just stay here, and when you get started you may say that I have just had word from home to return at once. That's quite simple, isn't it?" Tom, in the meantime, had been assigned to a room in the other wing of the house with his old friend, Burton Jackson. It was not till they had retired that Burton broached the subject. “Devilish pickle you’re in,” he said laconically. Toaj merely grunted his assent. “Going to the picnic tomorrow?’* “I am not,” was Tom’s answer. And, manlike, that was the end of the conversation. Just after breakfast they broached the subject for the second time. “Tell her —Mrs. Torrey—that I had a toothache or something of that sort, Burt. I’ll stay in my room.” “All right, old chap, and don’t forget to lock that door when you leave. You know she is nuts about having the doors locked. Just leave the key under the rug in the hall in front of the door if you decide to leave. So long and good luck.” Lida was, meantime, in a fever of excitement. She had decided to leave and still she was determined that noth-

ing should be said to the hostess till after the party had started. And Abby had lingered in the big room to add her last touch of encouragement. “Please be nice to him, Abby,” Lida was telling her, and then the subject of the conversation was. quickly changed as Mrs. Torrey pounced into the room by the side door. • “Do hurry, girls. The car is wait- ' ing for you. I’m going to motor over in the little roadster with the provisions and there’ll be just room for you girls in the big car.” And then she flounced away, taking the key of the side door with her. She must have : called back telling the girls that she had this key, but they did not hear her. It took at least five minutes more for the cousins to bid each other farewell apd then Abby started. “I’ll take this key,” she said, “and you can leave ; by the. side door. Yes, you had better lock it. Mrs. Torrey was sor particular. No, I wouldn’t leave the key with the cook, for she might be the very ! one who steals things. No, you’d better take it and mail it back. I can just use this one door all the time. The other one on the back stairs might just as wqll be locked, anyway. Mrs. Torrey might have known we wouldn’t ever use it.” And then Abby left her cousin and for a half hour or more I Lida spent her time packing her belongings. Then she wrote a letter to her hostess explaining her regret that she had hastily been summoned home. She thought for full five minutes of writing a letter to Tom, too. Without the slightest idea of the pretext on which to write it, she wanted him to know that she was leaving for his sake. But she thought better of it, and after spoiling half a dozen sheets of paper gave Up the attempt. It was about eleven o’clock when she decided to make her exit. Thera was a train at a quarter of noon, and thus she had ample time to walk to the station, buy her ticket and catch that train. But the side door of the. room was locked. Of course it was, because Mrs. Torrey had locked it. The front door was locked, too. This Lida knew, for Abby had locked it and had the key with her. For the first few minutes Lida simply sat down and wept, and then she decided to use her wits. There were no transoms over the doors and there •wasn’t a sign of a balcony or vine anywhere near the windows. To escape that way, Lida would simply have to leap, and that was out of the question. There was no use trying to attract the attention of the neighbors, fqr the house was surrounded by pine trees that cut off a view of the road and neighboring houses, and the cook’s quarters were in the opposite wing. The man of all work had gone to the picnic, so there would be no chance of summoning him to her aid. The only thing, obviously, to do was to break down the door or pick the lock. What if she did ruin a perfectly good door? It was surely not her fault if her hostess had locked her in her room. A few minutes after that Tom, nursing his grievance and feigning a toothache in the opposite wing of the house, heard strange tappings, a persistent scraping and scratching that, as he listened intently, he convinced himself could not be caused simply by the wind. He followed the' sound to its source and listened at the keyhole whence the sounds came. -- “Sugar!” he heard in a very much, irritated feminine voice, and then “Ouch!” followed by sobs. “Who’s there?” he asked, and then, in Lida Vinton’s voice came back distinctly: “Tom, you dear, you angel! How good of you!” “It’s all right, dearie,” he was soothing, and then as he heard the sobs again: “Don’t worry, dear. I’ll get you out somehow if I have to smash the door in. Just slip a hairpin through the crack under the door. Now keep a stiff upper lip, Lida, dear, and I’ll get you out all right.” “How dare you call me that?” Lida asked, with an attempt at indignation. “Why shouldn’t I if I want to? If you knew that I had come down to this house party especially to see you, that the house party was given just because I asked Mrs. Torrey to give it and if you knew that I had fixed it up with her especially to have the picnic on the beach so that I would have a chance to see you alone —if you knew that I knew that you wouldn’t go on that account, and if you knew that I can unlock the door, not with the hairpin, but with the key that Mrs. Torrey took out and gave to me before she went, what would you say? You are really my prisoner, now, and unless you promise to come out and kiss and make up I am not going to let you out at all. lam not traveling under false colors. I am not making you think that I am rescuing you. That was Mrs. Torrey’s idea. I like my own method better.” Tom listened eagerly through the keyhole. -First there was a low sob and then: “Tom, I can’t stay in here any longer. I want to come out and make up. I’m sorry.” And Tom opened the door. (Copyright, 1916. by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)