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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1919-11-20, Page 2THE PLOTTERS To begin with, they quarrelled. Being thorough in all things, they quarrelled as thoroughly as they had loved. Then, with equal thoroughness they •swept up the pieces—returned the presents, burned the letters, and • tried to persuade themselves and,their friends that the whole affair was • washed out as utterly as if it had never happened. She •stayed where' she was, and he went to live in a different town. That's the prologue. The story commences when Doris, I corning out of a theatre with her aunt,' met Billy for the first time •in two years. Billy was not the man with whom she had quarrelled. Billy was merely; an old and devoted chum. He and she had grown up together, and their friendship was of the quarrel -proof brand which neither absence nor, proximity, letters nor the lack of them, can ever chill into indifference or warm into love. Billy had known; all about the dead -and -gone episode,! and Doris had listened with sisterly affection and unfailing interest , to most of Billy's love affairs. Love, in the old days, had been wont to attack Billy much as hay fever does its vic- tims—nothing serious, but bad while it lasts. Two years in the East had altered Billy very little indeed, to outward seeming. In the wide, carpeted pas- sage between stalls and exit he bore down upon Doris and her aunt with all his old exuberance. "Spotted you just at the end of the show," he explained, after the first rush of greetings. "I was upstairs, and, of course, when I saw you I dash- ed down right away, before you could give me the slip. And how are things going with. you, old girl?" Doris gave him a resume, which he punctuated with questions, even as of yore. Then, by chance, he mentioned a forbidden name, and her pretty face hardened, and she stopped him with an imperious gesture. "Please don't speak of him, Billy," she said firmly. "I never want to think about him or remember him again." "Oh, I say!" exclaimed Billy, his eyebrows almost vanishing into his hair. "Is it as bad as that still?" "So far as I am concerned," said Doris implacably, "Derek has ceased to exist; and, above all things, I don't wish to be reminded of him. Nothing could possibly restore matters to their old footing, or make amends for his behavior. That incident is quite— quite closed!" "But I say, Doris—"Billy began protestingly. I "Please, Billy!" Billy subsided. The aunt, who neve. cared whose toes she trod on, put in her contribution. "Sinful pride—that what it was!" she said. "Pride on both sides! You were a trifle worse than he, but not much. Great pity, as I've always said. He was a good boy. Nothing but ridiculous pride!" "And you—what about you, Billy?" asked Doris hurriedly. At the bottom of her heart she knew perfectly well that her aunt was right. "Oh, top -hole!" said Billy en- thusiastically, and shuffled and looked down his nose, very pink and pleased. "The fact is, I—well, I met the dearest girl in the world when I was in hos- pital down South, and we got en- gaged." "Really ? Oh, Billy, how glad I am!" exclaimed Doris sincerely. Billy grew pinker and his •:mile broader. The aunt, scenting immin- ent rhapsodies, cut in with more alacrity than consideration. "Do you think you can rind us a taxi, Willie?" she asked. "We shah never get one if we wait much longer." "Right you are, Miss Anne," said B,ilty cheerfully, and piloted the old lady to a seat. '`Just sit down here until I come back." It was at that moment Doris saw Derek. He was coming down the passage, his tall head well in view above the few late -comers who straggled out in front of him. Before she could recover herself, his eyes had met hers and she knew that an encounter was inevitable. And he. was accompanied by a girl. That did it. A11 the old pride, strengthened by repression, flew up ready for battle. She gave one quick, glance round, as if for help; then turn ed and followed Billy, overtaking hon; half way down the steps outside. -. In all his Iife he had never failed her yet. "Billy," she said desperately, "I want you to be a pal to me. I'm going to compromise you dreadfully." "Pleasure's mine!" said Billy with -i !rout hesitation. 1 READY TO SERVE ANI G D T LAR C RAN OILE MN ER W,CLARK, sevossa oughly miserable, with red eyes and al `"And I .houl•dn't have done it ,it I€ remorseful conscience, the sole midge- : hadn't seen you with a girl," she said. tion of her wretchedness being the re..."Then you're riot --you're ntft•----- •" flection that she had saved her pride, I Derek came across the room. This cold comfort upheld her until the,. "There's never been, anyone else in afternoon, when the maid announced' my life except you," he said. "On my! Derek. ! honor, I've never cared for another She faced !tiro from the window; he' woman --never tried to. Oh, Doris, stood unsmiling at the other end of ; kid, is it too late to pick up the broken the room. i threads and mend them?. Is it too "What was the idea, Doris?" he' late?" asked, l• Doris, suddenly beyond speech, "`I'm afraid I fail to understand," ehoal: her head and turned away. SShe' sa"d Doris coldly, her eyes hostile felt his arm round her—felt both her "Saying you were engaged to . hands caught in one of his. Whyte." 1 "There's nobody else?" he whisper - "I -don't see how my engagement ed. concerns you." "No:' "Considering that it doesn't exist,) "Doris! Doris! Oh, my dearest, I I think I have a night to inquire," • ! don't deserve this. Can you ever for-; "You forfeited all rights long ago. give me • for the past three years?" 1 My affairs are nothing t6 you now.", "Don't! It was my fault—mine all "On the contrary, they are every-, along. I spoilt those three years for: thief; to nee." - i you," Doris was white, and quivering with1 "There wasn't a minute in them that anger. could malt h with last night far: Y'I refuse to be insulted like this,"1 wretchedness. When youtd gone home she said. "I knew you were capable ••I made Billy tell me what you'd said of a good deal, but I.didn't dream that about nue, and I thought then that I: you could sink to such depths. You couldn't possibly stand a chance. 11 come to me straight iron • your ; only came over because I was still: wife—" : hoping against hope," "Oh, Doris, we've been a pair- of • "Did Billy tell you that he and I fools, yea and I!" said Derek. "She weren't engaged?" isn't my wife." "Not your wife?" "No; any more than Billy Whyte's your fiance." "There was no need. I'd been with him and his wife all the evening," "His wife?" "The one I borrowed. They've only "Then what made you tell me she just finished their honeymoon. He was?" says Miss Anne didn't give him a "The same mad reason that pos- chance to tell you the whole story." --sessed you to say that you were en- "Derek, what an idiot I've been! gaged to Billy. Pride—sinful pride, What you must have thought of me— as Miss Anne used to call it." He all three of you!" laughed a little bitterly. "Madge rose "Not a patch on what I think of to the occasion well, I must say, see- myself. We've both been pretty fool- ing that I sprang it on her without a ish all this while, it seems to me. moment's warning. But I shouldn't Don't you think it's about time we have done it if I hadn't thought you reformed?" really were engaged." 1 Doris agreed that it was. Doris' sense of humor—always one I (The End.) of her saving graces—began to get the better of her. 1 aMinarS's Liniment Cures Diphtheria. You could never take Billy at a loss. He was a pearl beyond price in: emergencies. i "Then we're engaged!" said Doris, finger on lips as in their schooldays', pranks. She transferred her diamond ring a recent birthday present from her, father—to the third finger of her left; hand, and went back—to run clean into Derek, rendering escape impos-, sible. There was nothing for it but to, make the best of a bad job. His coin-' panion had halted to straighten her hair before a chance mirror. "Well?" said Derek. He looked down at her with a queer,! almost tender expresslbn in his eyes.' "You here!" Doris said foolishly. I She ignored his proffered hand, and saw him flush at the slight. "Only for a day or two," he said. "You're looking very well." He caught' sight of her left hand, and took it up quickly and examined the ring. "So you're engaged ?" he said. "Yes," said Doris, and contrived a little smile and a lift of the eyebrows that tacitly inquired what he had ex- pected. "I have been for some time. Are you surprised?" "I hadn't heard," said Derek. "Well, you have my good wishes, both of you. I'm married now, you know!" "Married!" said Doris. "'Sure. Quite a hoary Benedict by this time." He turned to the girl at the mirror. She tucked a handkerchief into her vanity -bag, and came up to them. The Light gleamed on her wedding ring. • "I've met an old friend, Madge. This is my wife, Miss Hamer." He slipped his arm through the girl's with a surreptitious squeeze, and the girl looked from Doris' face to his with keen, sweet blue eyes. Before she could speak, Billy reappeared. "I've found a taxi--" he began; and stopped. Derek was regarding him with dil- ated eyes. "Ah, here's my fiance!" Doris said coolly. "Billy, you and Derek used to know each other, d,i,dn't you?" "Yes, in the old days," said Billy, playing up nobly. Derek smiled. "I must congratulate you, Whyte," he said. "You've met my wife, too, I think?" "Yes, I rather. fancy I have," said Billy. "Quite a reunion—what?" Here considerate Providence took a hand in the person of the aunt, whom they had forgotten. She pottered pur- posefully round the corner, inquiring after her taxi. The group broke up. Dilly accompanied- Doris and her aunt to the bottom of the steps. "You're a brick, and I can never thank you," Doris whispered as the aunt bundled herself in. "You're sure —sure you didn't mind?" "Not a bit," said Dilly. Quite illogically, Doris cried herself to sleep that night. She awoke thor- fl ard . vogpo An Eight -Hour Day for Babies. .An eight-hour day for babies. Why not? Everybody else has 'em. This as an age of uplift and organization. There are societies of every sort for preventions, benefits and rights; laws governing , the time and conditions under which men and women may work; laws insisting upon a proper treatmento of bow wows. horses, don- keys, pigs, and even lobsters. Com- placently the old world rubs its hands and inquires, "Everybody happy?" Decidedly not! What about that unclassified morsel of humanity, neith- er man, woman, minor nor animal? What about the baby? This is, I ae- peat, an age of uplift, but the only uplift he gets is a playful toss in the air. What of his rights, benefits and preventions? He has about as many at the present time as a Chinese gold- fish—the right to live, be fed and to be displayed to the greatest ad - yenta He has raised his voice in his own behalf many times, but the trouble is he speaks a foreign language various- ly interpreted and but indifferently understood. If he cries, according to parent parlance, he is either hungry, uncomfortable or in a temper, more supposedly the latter. It is no use. He has raised his voice —now I raise mine- An eight-hour day for babies, shorter hours, longer naps; away with social duties and visitings. Gaze upon h' -m. Theemre he lies, crumpled down in an exhai sted heap upon a hard and corset -proof lap, or dangling in head -rolling impotence over a rough -coated shoulder with a mouthful of fur fora pacifier, a spec- tacle of speechless infelicity. I have often caught these little trav- elers regarding me with an expression of morose resentment. Peering out of their lace bonnets, always askew, the accusation in their eyes is unmistak- able. "Give us our right," they signal gloomily. "Down with train rides,: sleigh rides, shopping, movies and visits. An eight-hour day." Uneasily' I avert my eyes and reflect anew upon "man's inhumanity to—babies." 'Added to the late -hour habit is the. exhibition evil, largely the outgrowth of parental pride. At all hours of the day and night the baby is rudely; awakened and/brought out like a new; hat or bonnet for inapectl"on, made to' laugh and look at pretty pretties and be jostled up and down. Just what is a baby, anyway? A' side show or an ornament? Frankly,: it is hard to tell. From the manner of handling they get from grown-ups one would think they were labeled like certain 'bottles of medicine: "Shake' before taking." That is another thing. to be considered along with the eight -I hour day, a .society for the prevention of shaking. No wonder so mane babies look rattled. They are. And while we are cn this M.ibject,i I may as well suggest another uplift, namely, the elimination a isiear'keting from the .baby coach. In inane- meshes, the visibility of the baby is nil. The! coach itself might be aa It„lien push -I tart and the moth 'r a vegetable vend -1 or, for all the passerby may know.' Moreover, ,!t is a sacred invasion upon infant right. Igne at inn usly the ruer1 baby is ,randier] along with the family, dinner on top of him• --forced to view;• the scenery through c c',; ry tops and salad leave:!• --to a, r-oth:i•; of the. weight of potatoes and other sundries' d',on his sin's!] toes. If, truly, this is an age of uplift, 1 let it include our littlest citizen. Let the right of the baby be looked into and his voice be heard.aand understood. Away with grown-up excuses . and reasons. His first two years should be ' of uninterrupted tranquillity; his place, in the home. 'An eight-hour day for babies. Who -will join their voices to his and to mine? To Launder Collars and Cuffs. Since I live on a farm and am quite far removed from a laundry, I always; do up the stiff collars and .ruffs at' home. By using starch jelly I am able to secure just as high a gloss as that obtained at the laundry. The follow- ing are the proportions which I use: two tablespoons starch, one-quarter' cup cold water, one cup boiling Water., I add the cold Water to the starch and make a thin mixture without lumps. Then I add/the boiling water ' slowly, stirring constantly, and allow it to boil up. After1 have my jelly prepared I lay out the collars and cuffs which have been washed and dried and apply the jelly with a soft cloth, rubbing in thor- oughly on both sides. If they are to be very stiff I allow them to dry, repeat the 'process, and roll them up in a towel while still wet. ' In twenty or thirty minutes I iron then first on ene side and then on the other with a iron rubbed with paraffin, until perfectly dry and glossy. If a very high gloss is desired I rub a damp cloth over them and again press until perfectly dry. When washing articles which I do not care to have especially stiff I '' The Creamy Latth.cr of 1 DAL -11,7'S OWN SOAP cofteee r and wbitens, refreshes acd deli. catoly aroinatizes the skin. 4 laws. s=1,. x.istragi. Hem., Mortreai nets r.. A generally use the 'sold -+starch method, which is somewhat simpler: two. tablespoons •starch, one-half teaspoon borax, •ttt'o cups cold water. Add'thekcold water gradually to the starch. Mix well and add the dissolv- ed borax. Dip the article in the solu- tion and rub well, repeating the pro- cess several times. With a cloth •remove Ma,,ll sur,£aee "Under the magnetism of friendship the modest man becomes held; the shy, confident; the lazy, active; or the irn- Ipetuous, prudent and peaceful,"--- Thackeray. All grade. Write for prltsorr. TORONTO $ALT WORKS 4. J. CUFF - TORONTO starch, roil up in a clout, and -allow to stand over „night. Irbil according to the directions given for .starch' jelly. wearies miniment Curie Clolas, ua • bili 6 The clothes you were so proud of when new—can be made to appear new again. Fabrics that are dirty, shabby or spotted will be . restord to their former beauty by sending them to Parker's. Cleaning Dyein Is properly ,clone at PARKER'S Parcels may be sent Post or Express. We pay carriage one way on all orders. Advice upon cle.rling or dyeing any article will be promptly given upon request. PA 9S DYE Vi d( , ,? unite Cleaners and Iiyers, 791 Yonge St. Toronto • L 1st.' Bovril gives richners and flavour to sours, gravies, and all rnad.;-di: hes. b a you are cooking, keep the bottle where you can see it, Bovril. not only makes the d•sh more enjoyable, but also gives it additional food value. • The body-building power of Bovril has been proved by independent scientific investigation to be from io to 20 times the amount taken. Use ovril in your cookery C YRTIP The Syrup for Pancakes A golden stream of Crown Brand -Corn Syrup is the most delicious touch you can give to Pancakes! In the Kitchen, there is a constant call for Crown Brand Corn Syrup for making puddings, candies, cakes, etc. Sad the day when you are too big to enjoy a slice of bread spread thick with Crown Brand! Could that day ever come? ? Ward it off! Grace your table daily with a .generous lug of Crown Brand Corn Syrup, ready for the dozen -desserts and dishes it will truly "crown”. •'-*sem Sola by Grocers everywhere—in 2, 5, 10, and 20 pound tins. The Canada Starch Co. Limited L'ao-11 eeaa 195 4 MILLIONS LOST YEARLY BY WEAR AND TEAR. Enormous ,A mount of Gold is, oe+x Used i ,lewv llelry increase in Wealth. In 184 the whole .world produced less than thirty million, dollars worth of gold. Then the California gotid- fields were discovered, and .In four years production had leaped to ninny millions a year. - In 1860 !tires one hundred twenty millions;. by the end of 'the .century it was throe hundred millions, while to -day the 'gold mines of the world are turning out very neary five hundred million dollars worth of gold every year. Within about seventy years the out- put of gold has been multiplied by seventeen, yet in 'the same period 'of time the population of the world has increased ' by only ninety per cent. This being so, it might. well be imag- ined that there would now be more than enough gold for the world's pur- poses, ' and that the precious metal would have consequently depreciated in value, Asa matter of fact, nothing of the kind has happened. On the first place, while the population of the world at large has only increased by about ninety per cent. during the period mentioned, that of civilized countries has doubled, and 'more than doubled. It is the civilized countries that use gold as a medium of exchange and as their basis of currency. Next, the indAvidual wealth of these countries has increased enormously, and therefore their people require .a great deal more gold for purposes of coin. Several countries which in 1850 were working on a silver or paper cur- rency have come up to the gold stand- ard, the latest of these being Spain, Swallowed Up by Jewellery. The third and perhaps most iinpor• tent point of all is the enormous amount of gold now used in industry. For the arts such as jewellery, gold plate, gold leaf, for purposes of orna- ment and decoration, the world is now using three times as much gold isle. year as the whole amount prodzAk in 1846 ---that is, about ninety million dollars worth. The iv'este of gold is another factor whiCit keeps down the supply. Few people consider how great is the waste of gold by wear and tear. Pack two thousand half-soveriegns in a bag and send them on a journey of a thousand miles:. at the end of that journey one half -sovereign's weight of the gold is clean gone. It is in the shape of dust adhering to the inside of the bag. In the course of one year's ordinary use a sovereign loses one and a -half per cent. of its weight. Careful calcu- lations go to show that the annual loss which actually takes place by wear and tear of gold coin can be no less than twenty millions of dollars. All this prodigious sum is dissipated into fine dust, and utterly lost. Every ship that goes to the bottom takes With her a certain amount of gold. It may be only a few dollars worth, or—as in the case of the famous Lutiue—a million may be lost in a minute. Every fire that occurs means a des- truction of gold, and there is never a minute, day or night, when scores of human habitations are not burning. London alone has 2,400 fires yearly. Besides all this, there is, the matter of hoarding. In countries where banks are not found in -every town, the people who have gold hide or bury it. ` In many cases they die without reveal- ing the secret of the hiding -place. In this way India alone swallows up more than two and a half million dollars worth of gold yearly. China more than this, while Africa is at present absorb- ing gold in this way at the rate of more than five million dollars a year. The money Is paid as wages to the Kaffir laborers at tlio mines, and by them carried away to their kraals, whence it never returns. A New Use For the • Aeroplane. Tho Department of Agriculture V.7-4 Ottawa has discovered a new .use for the aeroplane. The Entomological Branch is investigating the mosquito in the Lower Fraser Valley in British Columbia. Ay using the aeroplane the country can be surveyed in order to map out the swampy areas and other breeding places that are readily lo- cated in photographs taken from over- head, according to a statement by Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, Dominion Entomo- logist, that apnoeas in the October Agricultural Gazette. The aeroplane was used in. making' a comprehensive "NI" survey of the complicated water sys- tem of the Frazer I:iver end the ad- jacent bodies of permanent and tem- porary water in that district. A flight reported 1»r Dr. Hewitt has demon- strated tho possibility of using this machine also for making surveys of timber that is being killed or has al- ready been destroyed by various in- sects. Its use, it is believed, will help very greatly in the entomological work with various insects being carried an by the Fedo':al I)epartnient of Agricul- tura, French authorities estimate that 1 in every 80 of the albied soldiers who t eountry married a French bride. i