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a ote ot
June 14, 1924
“lower: regions freeze ‘over
th
for ail of
wan” what "out you, , Absalom Smith?”
for Sa’ Fu.”
said with a curt laugh.
“on” tn go back to Chicago on the blind
.: baggage of some train, get
where, somehow, and we'll forget it.”
no. never can moarry.
again,” she dec! lared troubledly, “so long
as Sa’ Fu is you’ wife.”
“Sarah Fu,7 he said, “love
. she? askea.
he
He sighed.
works in strange ; wa. I came down
here to New Orleans to’ make you fall
for. mena instead it turns out that to
the most enchanting and
oesirable aitue creature that ever lived.
r care for an American girl
after knowing you and your quaint per-
‘sonality, "For me—well—it’s the single
iife for me from. now on, That's: al. I
‘lguess.
~She looked at’ him. Then she drew
herself proudly up to her full height.
“Then, Absalom Smith, I refuse yeur
~ offer—I go to China where I know no-
jowe—love and happ'n mess and hi
all them things mean joos’ so
.me as to any other girl.
not good enough to live with and: be
sweethearts -with—joos’ because I ‘ave
Chinese blood. Well—I show. If you can-
not. love me, then.I.not care to go into
prop’sition.”
mean that?” he said gravely,
you'll take one little step to save your-
self?”
" “Yes—w’en I \ save. myself joos’. by
marriage with man who have onlee pity
for me.”
"He stood for a second, drinking in
the intoxication of dark “eyes,
studying that delicate oval face with its
thin eyebrows (a: o tiny points
rouge.on the high cheekbones, this
\Gainty little unanalyzea bit of femininity
whom was mix
Orient. and "the charm of the
woman. hen .~ suddenly _ “something
seemed to break within his soul, and he
held out his arms to her.
“Sarah Fu,” he. said huskily,:“I have
fought against ~ it—fought peeinst it
with all my heart and soul. - can't
do 50 any longer. I love you, Sara h Fu,
"I do love you. So fear not, little lower,
e your husband
than’ name—if. you. s0 desire it.
cherish you and be good to you for the
. rest of your days,,liye with you, take
care of you, and you’ will be my wife
exactly as the wives you see all
you.:
wag its head and‘talk. We may. have
to creep within our own little cave.
a strange city end
We
Her face, so sad before, broke into an
enchanting smile of gladness, and‘ she
crept inte the arms that were - held open
to h
“On, “Absalom Smith, how I will ‘love
For I know too well what you have
do tonight—and all it means to you.
Mebdbe world ‘will not onnerstan’, but
you’ papa—him in the chair automobile
he will onnerstan’, and I 8 w you how
you how. real wife suc’
A car o we, for world and
all its thinks that it thinks? We Joos
have happiness and lofe—tots of it?”
“Lots of it,” h hoed fervently. .
stroked the delicate curls of her, black
bobbed hair.. ‘Blood is.a mighty tide,
of two individuals is a
ene, Sarah.” shook | his
‘Sarah Fu—you are a witch.”
SF® @isentangled herself from |
arms. ,“But this—what you. tell me
about Barker and detective, policemen?
What. ”
“Yes,” he said, asa “Little clock in the
adjoining room. tinkled. forth a single
eo.
. “STOP. WHISKEY. |.
an Odorless and Tasteless Treatment.
y tady can give it secretly at home in tea
a. and st costs nothing to try! if
have a bus’ an
iain
sth
é ‘plain wra) oerta
er jertul tre Treatment re today and be thank-
ral a
a job sume-’
about —
But remember, tho, the worl will.
madé in Pais,” ine 2 girl replied. “I wear
one beau’ful. black dress with beads. I
make you enchant, Absalom.. ‘They say
woman can’t dress’ quick. £ go in back
‘oom an’ comé back'fo: you-in ten min-
utes,-so quick do I scoot out from one
clothes into another. And then we hurry
—Joos’ like speed of the wind. “We——
But she got.no further with her sen-
tence, tor with’ a sharp snap the cast-
iron catch that loosely held together one
of the pairs of shutters which led out
upon the balcony broke as tho a shoulder
had been. pressed from ‘without against
the lattice-like ‘casements. A ‘second
later they swung quickly outward and
thru the opening stepped a man, bristly
with several days’ growth of beard, with
trousers frayed at the ends, his. stocky
head carrying a sailor's cap, and with
face tanned almost to a bronze by the
rays of some pitiless gun.- Partially con-
cealed under one flap of his worn coat
was a long blue steel revolver, gripped
steel.
wavering black hole to the man and the
girl who gazed wide-eyed the in-
truder.: Like a flash the sttanger reached
back of him with his free hand and drew
the two shutters “to Bgain. But one
thought whirled thru Smith’s mind. -
holdup!” he told himself.
e words which were spoken al-
most._on top of the’ entrance of. the
anger were: to refute utterly~ that
theory of his incursion upon affairs. For,
with gun-now pointed with deadly ac-
curacy at Smith, be addressed the latter,
“WEEKLY ‘LEDGER
and his voice was full of menace and
anger.
“Now, smith,” he bit out, “I've mop-
keyed long enough with you. Once‘ I
lost you altogether—that day you skipped
me over in the department store on nat
street—but it’s. the las’ time oin’
to lose you, I'll hand you that, my ead.
I ’spose because you've lost your head
over this Httle Chink girl here you've
about forgot the errand you come down
here on, but you're goin’ loco over her
Now out with it—a
quick—the name o’ that father or uncle,
whichever he was, Oo sent you down
here to hinaman’s Block. And be
minded you tell me the truth, for I'm
goin’ with you tonight and check up
every las’ word you hands me. And un-
less you speaks up mighty quick and
free-like an’ gives me the whole truth
to boot, there's goin’ to be one less Smith
in ne world before I'm done. Smith, be-
fore God, I mean business.”
At last we meet again with the grizzled
seaman who entered the New York en-~
graving house at the ope nine of the
story on his strange miss: a
played the part of the blind beggar whe
Smith first entered New Orleags. Smith’
plan to save Sarah Fu seems to be
c the moment, but even tho
temporarily,
things, but being on!
fn one pumber beyond it to conclude the
story.
IIERE were Annie’s tearoom and
Georgie’s' garage—one was about
ood a business proposition as
,the other, and they faced each other
across:a highway. Annie. offered’ tea
and cinnamon toast and raspberry jam;
that kind of thing. There were yellow
curtains at. the window, with green
geese going up purple trees sideways; -
you now the sort of thing it was—
strictly a)
Georgie on his side of the treet, care
ried the best brand of gas
Now Annie was blessed. With beauty
and brains. She could run a tearoom
* with one hand. Consider the history of
isn’t it generally en-.
most tearooms;
‘titled “‘The Decline and Fall?’ ‘May 1,
Open ‘for Business; June 3, Closed for
Repairs; June 23, This Store Will Be
Occupied by, the Scootum Garage. Buy
Soakem Oil.”
Not so the Purple Parrot. Three times
it closed for repairs and opened with
extensions. and improvements.. Annie
herself’ was not above tripping about
with trays, whispering to one customer
while she took cash from another and
handed cake to a third.
It is easily to be understood, then, that
Georgie liked the institution of afternoon
tea. He thought Annie ran her tea-
room well, but he thought it would. be
still_a better proposition to have Annie
tun Georgie’s tearoom well. So he came
around, on an average once a week, to
suggest it; but what he said was, “Annie,
will you marry me?” Annie in reply al-
ways looked deeply touched, an-
swered, Georgie dear, I can’t make up
my mind to it. If I married any one, I'd
marry you. but I can’t see a particular
reason for marrying any
Then, one day, just as Georgie had got
thru his question, quite without hope,
she said calmly, balancing the cake in
one hand and the tea in the other, “All
right, George, I’m yours. I think June 15
would be a good day for it.”
When Georgie came to, later in the
afternoon, he was under the car. He
wiped the grease out of one eye with the
back of his hand.and screamed for his
yours assistant, aged 10, all freckles and
ws. “K e commanded.
Give ‘em gas and hold 'em for. repairs.
Back in ten minutes.”
He chose the ring in seven minutes,
paid down a fat sum and agreed to hand
over the great rest on June 25.
The next time he and Annie were tak-
ing time off in the little car, he said
casually: “I’ve sold the garage, honey.”
‘Annie blinked her eyes twice . and
swallowed once. “But what can we live
on?” she asked, with a voice that. faded
away to almost nothing when it got to
the question mark. +
Georgie said, quiet confidence;
“We can put the capital into the tea-
room; go into it on a partnership basis—
expand it.” He expanded his chest.
“. Annie cogitated, She couldn't seem to
see Georgie as a partner in that |
‘-room; unless & was'as'treanurer,
“O
jh,” she said,
That night she thought hard and wrote
a few eer Then she slept the sleep
of the ju
The ate of July, she said casually, as
she was sitting close to the driver of the
family car. “I've sold the tearoom,
Georgie.” Georgie’s foot came down hard
on the accelerator and for a few minutes
the world swung around like a spinning
top, then it stuck fast, while the nose of
the machine cuddled up to a tree trunk.
The smallest kind of a votce came out
of Georgie's chest. “What—what are we
going to live on?" he asked weakly.
“Ask me what I did with the money,”
she gaia. _armly, and smilingly.
ha bought a Barage—the garage.
10 Ww.”
"Georgie did know.
pensively. “Of course we lost a bit,on
the transaction, but, after ah that was
Fe nate Nec gps Ww a gato
side ninlndin
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Annie went on ~ .
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your fault, and,” she
‘you can make it up easy with your
knack for the business.”
Georgie’s admiration for her rose to
white heat. Annie improved with age,
like a fiddle, He’d rather be her garage-
keeper than the head of any one else's
tearoom.. He sent the car into high,
down the long, white road toward home,
and he sald as the wind rushed by them:
pears: 7B have it a going concern in no
nyast as you say, dear,” said the meek
wife. But to herself she said; “I always
did want to own a garage.”
IND.
112
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