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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1934-03-29, Page 2THURSDAY, MARCH 29th, 1934 THE EXETER TIMES-ADVOCATE SHINING PALACE by Christine Whiting Parmenter this ? At his tone, Nora threw a convert glance in Don’s direction. On edge, she decided; and answered tactfully “Of course you may. Toss it in the back. You can take your necktie off too, for all of me.” His face softened. Save tor that one wan smile it had been grim be­ fore. “You’re a good scout, Nora, I’ll take advantage of that offer after it gets dark.” The girl smiled as they started, a sonile of understanding blent with amusement. “You are so formally correct! ‘Oh, may I?” Did you by any ciiance mistake me for Emily Post, dear?” Don really smiled. “I’m afraid I don’ know what the lady looks like. My formality was the result of an ugly disposition, I suppose. You looked SO' cool and comfortably and sleeveless, darling, it made me resentful.” I‘ve been so damnably hot all day Will you forgive me?” One soft hand left the wheel, touching his a moment. Then she said briskly: “Remove that tie and unfasten your collar too, Don. Now slump down comfortably and forget your manners. Who cares for ap­ pearances after a day like Once we get far enough from these hot pavements you’ll revive. Don’t try to talk if your head has gone on strike. Just rest. I’m sorry, dear.” Don obeyed, grateful for silence, the healing cool of evening, and Nora’s nearness. The city was left behind after a while. The silence deepened. Dusk driftes into dark while somewhere high, high above them a star was born—another—and still more until at last myriads of tiny lights spangled the sky. Don thought: “If I could get the feeling that I’m only a part or this iraens- ity—that my own small troubles don’t really matter ... Or if my head would stop this confounded throbbing ...” He said,, after more miles had slippec away, speak­ ing so suddenly that the girl startl­ ed: “Nora, what makes me different from other people?” .She stopped the car, and turning, faced him in the starlight. “Are the rest of us. all cut from the same pattern, Don?” “Not you,” he answered. “God never made your double; yet even you can accept a way of living that suffocates me. Tell me the truth. Am I a sort of savage?” .She answered soberly; “You’re just yourself, darling. I don’t want you different. Oh, Don, don’t fret about it any more! Do you imagine there aren't others who possess the craving to break away—escape—do something'that no one else has done before? How far would science be without your kind, my dear? If you’d take things more calmly!—not let yourself get Quick angry eyes. “Relax! Can ten thousand imps are pounding on his brain? If I could sleep for a week— Look here,” he broke off, contrite all of a sudden. “I’ve no business talking to you like this. I’m ashamed of myself. I used to be­ lieve that I amounted to something, Nora; but now I feel so inefficient. Perhaps I can’t judge things in their true proportions, for even a trifling error in my work appears a crime! I, actually wonder if my morale is • slipping. I can’t help seeing my­ self as I look to your brother, Nora and—and that hurts. A fellow can’t go on scorning himself like that and get nowhere, can he?” She answered, her low voice very gentle: “I think you exaggerate your failures, Don. Only today my father told me that you were doing well. He’s not discouraged with your progress, dear; but Ned makes you nervous. And why shouldn’t he? I’ve felt his scorn too, Don. I know now it hurts. For a long time I’ve suspected that he despises me a little, because of my birth. Ned’s so conventional. He can’t help feel­ ing a bit uncomfortable, I suppose, tense—relax a llittle sprang into his blue a man relax when pounding the top of his head with tiny hammers. Where, he was ask­ ing himself frantically, had he been on Friday? /Of course there was no girl; but he must produce an alibi! and he couldn’t seem to thinki. No­ ra’s brother was accusing him of be­ ing untrue to her ... It was beast­ ly, horrible and . . • Then he heard Ned say, a triumphant ring in his usually livel voice: “You don’t deny it? Then perhaps you’ll admit what Corinne suspected at the time: You were giving her money?” To the man’s 'Complete surprise, instant relief sprang into Don’s har­ assed face. Money! That girl on the bridge, of course! The kid he had talked with! Those blinding head­ lights that had lingered on him. So Ned Lambert and his wife had been behind them. Gosh! what a situation Perhaps, under the Circumstances, it wasn’t so .strange—the thing they thought about him. He said, almost laughing in relief: “Yes, I gave her money, ‘She set me back, a whole month’s board—poor kid! You see . . . ." , / He told the story, eagerly, excit­ edly. He told it well, It had seem­ ed a colorful experience—a bit out of the ordinary run of life, to Don. He did not realize how it would seem to Ned, until at its close the man said dryly: “And you really ex­ pect to put that over on me, Ma­ son?” Don stared at him, amazement in his eyes. “Put it over on you! Doi—do mean not to mention eating.” “1’11 say it is! We had ours sent ■ in. But we’re likely to get it hot-, ter come July. Fathers says they’re moving to the country on Monday. 1 You can't wobki without food, Ma-1 son. Better skip out and get a bite. I . . . ” His voice trailed off as he came nearer, Now pausing beside the desk he lifted the newspaper and stared down a while, utterly uncon­ scious of Don’s tense attitude. With maddening accuracy his lean white finger fround the elusive error. “You’ve a mistake there, Mason,” He might have been correcting some small boy. “That .six should have been a sixty. See?” He sauntered to the window, gazing down at below while Don suppressed a murderous impulse to throw him out, but Ned had turned again—was speaking. “See here, Don. There’s something I feel I ought to say to you.” The young man braced himself. “If it’s about my work, 1 can save you the trouble,” he replied brus­ quely. “I know I’m a dumbbell at this sort of thing—always will be. Suppose you keep those comments for a day when the mercury’s some­ where below one hundred. There are limits, you know, t-o what eyen a cog in this machine can endure without exploding; and for your sis­ ter’s sake I prefer to keep my tem­ per.” Ned sat down slowly on the win­ dow ledge. He didn’t speak for a moment, and regaring him closely Don wondered how many times that morning the man had changed his collar. The thought made him con­ scious of his own much wrinkled linen trousers, and he slid his long leg under the desk to hide them. 'You happen to be on the wrong track,” Ned began. “My comments have nothing whatever to do with your work here. You do as well as most beginners, I suppose. What I PILE REMEDIES^j^ run (SINTMt Be Sure to Order by Humber * I FOR INTERNAL NEED *2 FOR EXTERNAL NEED MECCA" I was should Was anything worth this terrible I inertia? Was anything worth tak- Don ! ing the joy from life? i before that, Nora, I that anybody born as be his sister.” There was a silence grimly: “If I believed —I think I’d kill him with my bare hands!" “Thanks, dear; but that wouldn't help matters.” Nora spoke lightly, and the tension of the moment broke as she wished it to. “Besides, Ned has his own good points, you know. He's devoted to Dad, unselfishly de­ voted I am sure; and his morals are —impeccable. There are even mo­ ments when he’s lovable)—when I could love him myself, if he’d let me. But you mustn’t look for un­ derstanding in a man of Ned’s type, darling. It may not be his fault that he sees only one side of life. He was probably born that way, and nothing has happened since to change him. Gee! isn’t that breeze delicious? Perhaps tomorrow will be more bearable. I’m going to take you home this minute, Don. You need sleep more than conversation. How’s the head now?” “Better, beloved, thanks to your ministrations.” This was a lie told cheerfully in her behalf; but Nora, here eyes on a spasmodically twitching eyebrow was not deceived. Despite a refreshing coolness in the air as they Tode toward home, the mercury soared next day. Prom­ ising though the breeze had seemed, it came to a discouraged end before Don got to sleep, and after a few short hours of restless slumber he awakened to a sense of suffocation. The only window of his small room faced east, and already the sun, streaming across his bed, felt scorching. The day before on seeing a woman walking the hot pavement with “summer shoulder, imbecile” his own across a i needed pressing least they would than serge. A showed him. that a fur” thrown over her Don had judged her “an Now with a glance at dark suit hanging neatly chair, he called himself something even stronger, and rising delved into his trunk in search of some long-packed linen trousers, the work of a native tailor in Jamaica. The fact that they was immaterial. At be more bearable glance into the hall miracle of boarding houses; an em­ pty bathroom; and after indulging in a shower and donning the mini­ mum of garments, he left the house, unable to contemplate the inevitable dish of sloppy oatmeal that awaited him in the dining rc-om below. A roll and glass of milk at the nearest restaurant made life look brighter for the moment; and out of sympathy for the waitress (wilted at this early hour) Don’jS tip was twice the cost of his simple meal. Her surprised question: “Isn’t this a mistake, mister?” brought a glimpse of the engaging smile that had been absent from his counten­ ance for many a day. “It’s a feeble attempt to counter­ act the weather,” he responded, ris­ ing: “Blow it on ice cream sodas if you survive,” and the girl’s spon­ taneous smile of amazed gratitude stayed with him for awhile, the one bright spot in the hectic, subway jam So the day began, a day that was to be of vast importance to Don, to Nora and to her father also. By 10 o’clock the streets swarmed with short-sleeved people. By noon the the ambulanco gong was sounding with alarming frequency. When one of the stenographers collapsed and was sent home in a taxicab, Don en­ vied the girl. He found it well nigh impossibde to get down to work—to concentrate. Yet there was an er­ ror somewhere, which, he thought nervously must be located before I Ned Lambert came in. And to make | things worse his head had begun to ■ hammering again. Perhaps when the others were out to lunch and things were quieter, it would clear up. They were gone at last. The noisy typewriters were silent; for the rumble of traffic far below, the room was still. Don stood at a window in an effort to fill his lungs with better air; but it was too hot to be refreshing, and back at his desiki again discouragement engulf­ ed him, thick and impenetrable as a London fog. Four month more! He could never stick it—even for Nora. He was no good—absolutely. That wise old man had certainly shown him up. Well, he mused bitterly, was she? and save Was So Short of Breath Could Not Lie Down to Sleep J k Mrs. P. J. Chernoff, Shoreacres, B.C., writes:— “I had been so troubled with shortness of breath I could not lie down to sleep. I could not do any hard work, or climb the stairs, and had such nervous and smothering feelings I became very weak. I tried all kinds of medicine, but got no relief until I had taken three boxes of Milburn’s IL & N. Pills, and since then I have felt bettor in every way.” drug and general stornS; put up only by Tho T. Milburn Co., Limited, Toronto, Ont. Joy? Don started, raised his head as if wakened rudely from a bad dream. He was a fool—a damn fool not to see things clearer. What joy would he find anywhere—with­ out Nora? What sacrifice was too great for her? He had been right last evening when he said that his morale was slipping. Why else should he have such thoughts? The must buck up. It came to him then with a sense of healing, that the opinions of others didn’t matter, if Nora under­ stood. And she did*—'bless her loyal heart! His girl knew that he wasn't a weakling. She didn’t scorn him because his nerves were jumpy and he couldn’t sleep. She realized the truth, if no one else did; that noth­ ing in life had fitted him for a job of this sort, and that damnable year was over got away from everything Don turned, nerves again; and with a gesture appear casual, covered his ger with the morning paper. Ned Lambert, apparently cool, ob­ viously unruffled, stood on the threshold. Something about his smug immaculate appearance maddened Don, though the older man said pleasantly enough: “Have you had lunch?” Don answered, a curious dryness in his throat: “Too hot to go out, refer to is a different matter alto­ gether. I’ve no desire to meddle with your private life, Mason, Get that straight. But father says Nora sends you home early; and twice I’ve caught you nodding by three o’clock It stands to reason that a man who gets to bed before midnight, ought to be able to keep awake through the next day. I can only surmise . . I “Well?” Don prodded, ominous quiet in his voice. only surmise,” repeated .—well to speaki plainly, go home after you when and' til e he quivering meant to open led- C2 | “I can i ' Ned. “that- that you don’t leave Nora.” “I see,” said perately angry, attempt to hold his temper. I ask where your active imagination' sees me passing the night hours?” Ned flushed, looking hot, thought Don, for the first time that stifling day, though he answered calmly: “Sarcasm won’t help, Mason, be­ cause as it happens, I’ve got the goods on you. Do you understand?” “Most certainly I do not! Make yourself clear, please”. “I’ll only be too glad to.” Ned spoke briskly, as if concluding some successful business deal. “I don’t like beating about the bush myself; and yon can’t deny that you with another girl late Friday ing, because I saw you.” “The hell you did!” Don’s eyes were blazing, seven housand imps 'seemed Don. He was des- but making a brave “May were even- while to be NEW to imply . . .” (To be continued) RESTAURANT A new restaurant known as Star Cafe & 'Chop Suey House, been opened up in Seaforth, Chong is the proprietor. yoh the has Thom aoi FACTS ABOUT HYDRO — No. 2 of a series of official announcements by the Ontario Municipal Electric Association, representing the Municipalities who own the Hydro-Electric System of Ontario. M UNICIPALGELE CT RIC •V ASS QIC I ATION i What Hydro Has Saved Domestic Consumers In 1932, the last year for which comparative figures are available, all the domestic consumers served by Hydro municipalities used an aggregate of 740,000,000 kilowatt-hours, for which they paid the aggregate sum of $11,676,000, or an average cost, inclusive of all charges, of only 1.57 cents per kilowatt-hour. According to United States census figures for 1932, the domestic consumers served by privately-owned utilities in that country paid an average of 5.60 cents per kilowatt-hour. It is a simple matter to compute that, if Ontario Hydro domestic consumers had had to pay, for the 740,000,000 kilowatt-hours they used in 1932, as much per kilowatt-hour as United States consumers paid, their bills would have aggregated the vast sum of $41,490,000, or nearly $30,000,000 more than the amount their electricity actually cost them under Hydro service. Comparative Cost of Domestic Lighting Service in Typical Canadian and United States Cities Quantity of Electricity Under Private Ownership Monthly Net Bill for the Same Under Hydro System Toronto ...............$1.44 Montreal..............$3.15 London................. 1.74 Detroit................. 4.35 Hamilton............ 1.74 Buffalo................. 4.14 Brantford ............ 1.74 New York.......... 6.60 Ottawa................. 1.74 Boston..................... 5.30 Note—Hydro serves 56,000 rural consumers at an average cost, inclusive of all charges, of 4.57 cents per kilowatt-hour. Hydro has saved the citizens of the associated Hydro municipalities tens of millions of dollars for electric service. And in addition, it has made possible * the enjoyment of comfort-giving and labor-saving appliances on a scale that, but for low Hydro rates, would have been beyond the means of the average citizen. The facts about Hydro speak for themselves; Municipal Electric Association PUBLICITY COMMITTEE: Chairman, Controller James Simpson, Toronto Frank L. Mason, Oshawa T. W. McFarland, London * Keep this informative statement and watch for further statements by the Publicity Committee.