1936-12-09 — Page 40

Klismas ··

· Continued from Page 101

little arms when I held the bear in front of you. You just said. 'Nismas, mummy." and with it tucked tightly in your arms. turned over and went to sleep. Oh, the relief of it. Donald! The nurses and I just gazed at the toy and I worshipped it! I still do!"

From under her eiderdown she drew the tattered Klismas, and there were tears in the eyes of bath mother and son as they stroked its rough head and torn feet.

"And what aid darling?"

Vot

r...

"Well, after days and days of trying to be brave enough. I went to see the manager of the mill-not his wife this time. 1 had difficulty in making them let me see him, but at last I did. was so. servous that I don't re- member just what I said to him. but I told him all about it how I had tried to see his wife and failed, and then had stolen Klismas. I had brought Klismas with me in a big paper parcel. I away from hated taking him

you, but I felt the only thing I could do was to give it back now 'hat you were better." "

He

"He was 31 Sine man. listened to everything I told him without interrupting me at all You men do listen better than sometimes," she smiled women

"And then be up at her son. quietly took the bear out of the parcel and walked across to, the hands. window with it in his He came back to me in a minute, still stroking Klismas' back, and

Honeymoon

sented a bottle of champagne. "with the compliments and res- pects of Mr. Ferris." So they drank to Mr. Ferris and his re- covery: but to Chloe the bub- tasted brackish. bling liquid Champagne from the bridegroom the was nice; the company of bridegroom himself would have been nicer. For the bride, at any rate.

Later there was dancing: and for the first time Mrs. Ferris joined in it. "Jack was very insistent that I dance to-night." she said. (And Chloe thought: "Heaven protect me from a too- Her broad-minded husband.") gown gleaming white against the men's dinner-jackets, she circled. the ballroom again and again: but anyone could tell that they were her partners by proxy only. and that her heart and mind. and even, in a sense. her body. were with the omnipresent Jack And when the last number was reached, a waltz, she declined all offers on the grounds that she was very tired,, thongh to the Greshams she admitted, with a grave earnestness. that her real reason was "because I told Jack I would save it for him.”

From the floor they could see her sitting alone at the table. smiling and nodding her head to. the slow rhythm of the music.

"Well," said Chloe bitterly. "she's had a good time to-night " at least."

"Why “Sure," said Walter. shouldn't she? She knows that other men like to be with her. anyway."

Only afterward, in their cabin.

is

said:

CHINA MAIL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT

Donald.

Very

Take him back to

1 feel Mrs. Edwards. happy that my child's toy should have helped to make your boy better."

"But your little girl will want him back," I said.

**He smiled: I'm afraid my little girl has so many toys that none of them means as much to her as this one of them does to Donald.' Then he asked about myself, and said he would like me to bring you in to him when you were better.

ter a secret between you and me. Mrs. Edwards."

rest of the "You know the story, Donald. How, when I took you to see him, he told me he had arranged for me to do light work in the mill. And as the years went on he took an inter- sor of est in you. He had no his own. And now here you are

mill in his

manager of the place."

for a The

man was silent moment, his head resting in his

see As

hands. Then:

old

always Boss, I "Dea knew I had a lot to thank him for. but not as much as

this,"

I turned to go. he said: 'And we'll always keep this little mat-

«Continined from Page:6)

did he tell her that during his, final dance with Mrs. Ferris, the one just before the waltz, she had been crying. She had thought he hadn't noticed it, but, she had he had. And even as

talking, she kept smiling and had been crying.

"I," he said, "could cheerfully kill Mr. Jack Ferris."

"And I," she said. would gladly assist you." -

had

The ship was to dock at eight: by seven-thirty they were stand- ing at the railing in the smoky, sun-glinted morning light, while the huge prow nosed awkwardly toward

They its slip. sought Mrs. Ferris in the moh and found her nowhere, and now Chloe announced that she in- tended to go down to say good- by.

want to

catch a "You also glimpse of the famous Jack." corrected Walter. "And so do I. if only to see if he's as inhuman, as he seems to be. Come on: we'll both go."

Together they found the right deck, the right corridor. The door, with its neat card reading "Mr. and Mrs. John Ferris," stood open; but when they en- tered, in response to a faint "Come!" the only person in the room was a stewardess, middle. aged and pinkly plump, who was stripping the beds.

·

Ferris

"Have Mr. and Mrs. gone up on deck?" asked Chloe. "Yah," said the stewardess. "Missus Ferris, she gone."

"Mr. Ferris too?" said Walter. The pleasant face suddenly wrinkled into a reproving frown.

"It is not a yoke." she said. “It iss very sad."

“Your mean;” enquired Chloe, "that he's really ill?"

The frown' disappeared. "Ach, you do not know? You are not friends of Missus Ferris?"

they were

course

Yes, of friends; but--

Shaking her head, the woman bureau. leaned against the "Ach." she repeated, "you also." Then

there was pride in her voice. "Such a nice lady, and so brave; but only I know, because she say: 'I don't vant pity." . All -day she lies there, never crying. makes up and sometimes she liddle conversations. and says. 'Yack this, and Yack that," and her all the time knowing that he ras" Her somber eyes regard ed the floor.

Abruptly Chloe groped for Walter's hand and clutched hard. "But Mr. Ferris, she began. "Mr. Ferris-".

The stewardess suffered no interruption. “And every night,

"every .she W*EX continuing.

night she dresses in one of her pretty dresses and has a flower sent down for her. She asks me to turn down the other bed, and so I do, and sometimes the pillow iss damp in the morn- ints."

even

Chloe's eyes were damp now arm linked too, and with her tightly through Walter's, she was edging toward the door. But that relentless, sorrowing voice followed after.

"And last night for the first time she oreak down a liddle, because she say it iss two veeks

I

Looking over the head of the them the teddy-bezir between

mother said:

"And so you see, dear. why it is I understand about this poor the stolen from girl who has mill? I'm quite sure she need- ed those materials for her children. This is Christmas Day. Shall we drive round to her lodgings and take her some of those things we have so much of that they mean little to us?" The tall son only stooped and kissed her in agreement, but her faded blue eyes were radiant as she thanked him.

THE END).

agy last night he get killed. Yah." run over by a automobile and killed dead, the poor man!" She sighed. "And the poor lady: too! But then she smile and say: It iss my honeymoon. He vould not have vanted me to be Tould sad on my honeymoon, he?" And I say: "No. I am sure. he would not.***

They did not speak until they had landed, until they stood beneath their Customs letter. and through the seà of bobbing saw Mrs. Ferris. shoulders. dressed in black, gazing expert- tantly up at one of the ship's freight exits. A man was with with a her, an elderly mourning band around his sleeve, and he was apparently urging her to leave. But she shook her stare head and continued to upward.

дап

And as Chloe was about to

turn her eyes away, she saw that at a little distance heyond' wait- ed the long black ornately carved car, its plate-glass sides gleam- ing in a shaft of sunlight that somehow had penetrated through the vault high- a crevice in above.

It was then that Walter spoke. "My God," he said, in hesitant wonder. "How could she do it! Why would she do it?"

For a moment she

answer,

did not. and at last she bent down toward the open trunk tray before her. “I don't know.” she said.

But she did know, just as the A stewardess had known.

dream is better than, nothing.

(THE END)