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§®?VALIANTSsf VIIXjINIA SI l HALLE ERMINE RIVES Jiff? '■ ILLUSTRATIONS LAUREN STOUT - (s cowwvr OY ao&ao-/ff/r/9M.t corr&nyy V SYNOPSIS. John Valiant, a rich society favorite, •uddenly discovers that the Valiant cor poration. which his father founded and which was the principal source of his wealth, has failed. He voluntarily turns over his private fortune to the receiver for the corporation. Hla entire remaining possession* conalat of an old motor car. a white bull dog and Pamory court, a neg lected estate Tn Virginia. ~ On the way to Datnory court he meela Bhlrley Dand rtdff. an auburn-haired beauty, and dl cldea that he Is Rolna to like Vlrrtnla Im mensely. An old nearo tella Shirley's for tune and predicts great trouble for her on account of a man. CHAPTER VIII. What Happened Thirty Years Ago. When Shirley came across the lawn at Rosewood, Major Montague Bristow •at under the arbor talking to her mother. The major waa massive-framed, with a strong Jaw and a rubicund oomplexion*-the sort that might be supposed to have attained the utmost benefit to be conferred by a consist ent Indulgence in mint-Juleps. His blue eyes were piercing and arched with brows like sable rainbows, at variance with his heavy iron-gray hair and Imperial. His head was leonine and he looked like a king who has humbled his enemy. It may be added that his linen was fine and immacu late, his black string-tie precisely tied smd a pair of gold-rimmed eye-glasses swung by a flat black oord against his white waistcoat. "Bhlrley," said her mother, "the ma jor's brutal, and he shan't have his mint-Julep." "What has he been doing?" asked the other, her brows wrinkling in a delightful way she had. "He has reminded me that I'm grow ing old." Shirley looked at the major skep tically, for his chivalry was un doubted. During a long career in law and legislature It had been said of him that he could neither speak on the tariff question nor defend a man for murder, without first paying a tribute to "the women of the South, •ah." "Nothing of the sort." he rumbled. Mrs. Dandridge's face softened to wlstfulness. "Shirley, am 1?" she •sked, with a quizzical, almost a droll uneasiness. "Why, I've got every emo tion I've ever had. I read all the new French novels, and I'm even thinking of going in for the militant suffragette movement." * The girl had tossed her hat and crop on the table and seated herself by her mother's chair. "What waa It —be said, dear—tt" — "He thinks I ought to wear a wor sted shawl and arctics." Her mother thrust out one little thin-slippered foot, with Its slender ankle gleaming through Its open-work stocking like mother-of-pearl. "Imagine! In May. And he knows I'm vain of my feet! Major, if you had eVter had a wife, .you would have learned wisdom. But you mean well, and I'll take back what I said about the Julep. You mix It, Shirley. Yours is even better than Ranston'B." "She makes me one every day, Mon ty," she continued, as Shirley went Into the house. "And when she isn't looking. I pour It into the bush there." Major Rrlstow- laughed as he bit the end off a cigar. "All the same." he said in his big rumbling voice, "you need 'em, I reckon. You need more than mint-Juleps, too You leave «Bhlrtey, H Said Hsr Mother, Tha Major's Brutal." the whiskey to me and the doctor, and you take Shirley and pull out for ItaJy. Why not? A year there would do you a heap of good." She shook her head. "No, Monty. It lan't what you think. It's—here." She lifted her hand and touched her heart.' "It's been so for a long time. But It may—lt can't go on forever, you see. Nothing can." Tha major had leaned® forward In his chair, "Judith!" he said, and his hand twitched, "it isn't true!" And the*. "How do you know?" She smiled at him. "You remember when that big surgeon from Vienna came tn see the doctor last year? Well, the doctor brought him to me. Td known it before in a way, but it had gone farther than I thought. No one can tell just how long It may be. It may be years, of course, but I'm not taking any sea trips. Monty." He cleared hit throat and hla voice waa husky when he spoke. "Shirley doesn't know?" "Certainly not. She mostnt" And then. In sudden sharpness: "You shan't tell her, Monty. Tou wouldn't dare!" "No, Indeed." he assured her quick ly. "Of course not" "It's Just among as three. Doctor Southa 11 and you and me. We three have had our secrets before, eh, Mon ty?" "Yes, Judith, we have." She bent toward him, her hands tightening on the cane. "After all. It's true. Today I am getting old. 1 may look only fifty, but I feel sixty and I'll admit to seventy-five. It's Joy thst keeps us young, and I didn't get my fatr share of that. Monty. For Just one little week my heart had it all—all—and then —well, then it was finished. It was r.nlshed long be fore I married Tom Dandridge. It isn't that I'm empty-headed It's that I've been an empty-hearted woman. Monty—as empty and dusty and deso late as the old house over yonder on the ridge." "I know, Judith. I know " "You've been empty in a way, too," she said. "But It's been a different way. You were never in love—really In love. I mean. Certainly not with me. Monty, though you tried to make me think so once upon a time, before Sassoon came along, and—Beauty Va liant." The major blinked, suddenly startled. It was out, the one name neither had apoken to the other for thirty years! He looked at her a lit tle guiltily; but her eyes had turned away. "Everything changed then," she continued dreamily, "everything." The major's fingers strayed across his waistcoat, fumbling uncertainly for his eye-glasses. For an Instant he, too. was back in the long-ago past, when he and Valiant had been comrades. It had been a curious three sided afTalr—he. and Valiant and Sassoon Sassoon with his dissipated flair and' ungovernable temper and strange fits of recklessness; clean, hlgh-ldealed, straightaway Valiant; and he —a Bristow, neither better nor worse than the rest of his name. He remembered that mad strained season when he had grimly recognized his own cause as hopeless, and with burn ing eyes had watched Bassoon and Valiant racing abreast. He remem bered that glittering prodigal dance when he had come upon Valiant and Judith standing In the shrubbery, the candle-light from some open door en goldenlng their faces: hers smiling, a little flippant perhaps, and conscious of her spell; his grave and earnest, yet wistful. "You promise, John?" "I give my sacred word. What ever the provocation, I will not lift my hand against him. Never, never!" Then the same voice, vibrant, appeal ing. "Judith! It Isn't because—be cause—you care for him?" He had plunged away in the dark ness before her answer came. What had It mattered then to him what she had replied? And that very night had befallen the fatal quarrel! The major started. How that name bad blown away the dust! "That's a long tline ago, Judith." years ago tomorrow they fought," she aald softly, "Valiant and Sassoon. Every woman has her one anniversary, I suppose, and tomor row's mine. Do you know what I do, every fourteenth of May, Monty? I keep my room and spend the day always the same way. There's a little book I read. And there's an old halr oloth trunk that I've had since I waa a girl. Down in the bottom of It are some—things, that I take out and set round the room • • • and there ia a handful of old letters I go over from first to last. They're almost worn out now, but I could repeat them all with my eyes shut. Then there's a tiny old straw basket with a yellow wisp in It that once waa a bunch of cape Jessamines I wore them to that last ball—the night before It hap pened. The fourteenth of May used to be sad, but now, do you know, I look forward to it! I always have a lot of Jessamines that particular day—l'll have Shlrleur get me some tomorrow —and in the evening, when I go down stairs, the bouse Is full of tAe scent of them. AH summer long ICs roses, but on the fourteenth of May it has to be Jesaamlnes. Shirley must think me a whimsical old woman, bat I In sist on being humored." He smiled, a little bleakly, and cleared his throat. ' L "Isn't It strange for me to be talk ing this way now!" she said present ly. "Another proof that I'm getting old. Bat the date brings It very close; it seems, somehow, closer than ever thla year.—Monty, weren't you tre mendously Surprised' when I married Tom Dandridge T' "I certainly was." "I'll tell you a secret. I was, too. I suppose I did It because of a sneak ing feeling that some people were feel ing sorry for me, Which I never could stand. Well, he was a man any one might honor. I've always thought a woman ought to have two husbands: one to love and cherish, and the other to honor'Ttnd obey. I had the latter, at any rate." "And you've lived. Judith," he said. THE ENTERPRISE, WILLIAMSTON, NORTfc CAROLINA. "Yes." she agreed, with a little sigh, "I've lived. I've had Shirley, and she's twenty and adorable. And I've had people enough, and books to read, and plenty of pretty things to look at, and old lace to wear, and I've kept my figure and my vanity—l'm not too old yet to thank the Lord for that! So dont talk to me about worsted shawls snd horrible arctics. For I won't wear 'em. Not If I know my self! Here comes Shirley. She's made two Juleps, and if you're a gen tleman. you'll distract her attention ,tlll I've got rid of mine In my usual way." • ••••• e e The major, at the foot of the cherry*" bordered lane, looked back across the box-hedge to where the two figures sat under the rose-arbor, the mother's face turned lovingly down to Shirley's at her knee. He stood a moment Hs Inserted the Key In ths Rusted Lock. watching . them from under his slouched hat-brim. "You never looked at me that way, Judith, did you!" he sighed to hlm flelf. "It's been a long time, too, since I began to want you to —'most forty years. Whon It came to the show down, I wasn't even as fit as Tom Dandridge!" CHAPTER IX. Dsmory Court. "Dar's Dam'ry Co'ot smack-dab ahaid, suh." John Valiant looked up. Facing tbem at an elbow of the broad road, was an old gateway of time-nicked stone, clasping an Iron gate that was quaint and heavy and red with rust. He put out his hand. "Walt a moment," he said In a low voice, and as the creaking conveyance stopped, he turned and looked about hi in. Facing the entrance the land fell away sharply to a miniature valley through which rambled a willow bor dered brook, In whose shallows short horned cows stood lazily. Beyond, whither wound the Red Road, ha could see a drowsy village, with a sp're and a cupolaed court-house; and farther yet a yellow gorge with a wUp of white smoke curling above It marked the course of a crawling faraway railway. ' Et's er moughty fine ol' place, sub, mKI dat big revenue ob trees," said Uncle Jefferson. "But Ah reck'n et aln' got nons ob de modern conniv ances." . —i—:—— Am Valiant Jumped down he was posiessed'by an odd sensation of old acquaintance—as If he had seen those tall white columns before —an Illu sory half-vision Into some shadowy, fourth-dimensional landscape that be lonred to bis subconscious self, or that glimpsed in some immaterial dream-picture, had left a faint-etched meirory. Then, on a sudden, the vista vlbrf.ted and widened, the white col umn* expanded and shot up Into the clou&, and from every bush seemed to pnr a friendly black savage with woolly white hair-! ~ "Wishlng-House!" he whispered. Toe hidden country which his father's thoughts, sadly recurring, had painted to the little child that once he was, In the guise of an endless wonder tale! His eyes misted over, and It seemed to him that moment that his father was very near. Leaving the negro to unload his be longings, he traversed an overgrown path of mossed gravel, between box rows frowsled like the manes of Hons gone mad and smothered In an ac cumulation H matted roots and debris of rotting foliage, and presently, the bulldog at his heels, found himself in the rear of the house. "Mine!'' he said aloud with a rueful pride. "And for general run-down ness, It's up to the advet-tisement." He looked musingly at the piteous wreck and ruin, his gaze sweeping down across the bared fields and un kempt forest. "Mine!" he repeated. "All that, I suppose, for It has the same earmarks of neglect. Between those cultivated stretches'lt looks like a wedge of Sahara gone astray." His gaze returned to the house. "Yet what a place It must have been in its time!" He went slowly back to where his con : ductor sat on the llchened horse block. "We's heah," called Uncle Jofferson cheerfully. "Whut we gwlnter do nex', suh? Reck'n Ah better go ovah ter Miss Dandridge's place fer er crowbah. Lawd!" he added, "ef he aln' got de key! Whut yo' think ob dat now?" ' i John Valiant was looking closely at the big key; for there were words, which he had uot noted before en graved In the massive flange. "Friends all hours." He smiled. The sentiment sent a warm current of pleasure to his Anger-tips. Here was the very text of hospitality! A Lilliputian uplder-web WBB stretched Over the preempted keyhole, ami he fetched a grass-stem and poked out Its tiny gray-striped denizen be fore he Inserted the key In the rusted lock lie turned It with a curious sense of timidity. All the strength of his fingers was necessary before the massive door Bwung open and the lev eling sun sent its late red rays into the gloomy Interior. He stood In a spacious hull, his nos trils tilled with a curious but not un pleasant aromatic odpr with which the place was strongly impregnated. The h«ll ran the full length of the build ing, and in its center a wide, balus trnded double staircase led to upper darkness. The floor, where his foot prints had disturbed the even gray film of dust, was of tine cloao par quetry and hal been generously strewn everywhere with a mica-like powder, He stooped and took up a pinch In his Angers, noting that It gave forth the curious spicy scent. Dim paintings In tarnished frames hung on the walls. From a niche on the break of the stairway looked down the face of a tall Dulch clock, and on one side protruded a huge bulging something draped with a yellowed linen shout. From Its shape he guessed this to be an elk's head. Dust, undisturbed, lay thickly on everything, ghostly Aoatlng cobwebs crawled across his face, and a bat flitted out of a Areplace and vanished squeak ing over his head. With Undo Jef ferson's help he opened the rear doors and windows, knocked up the rusted belts of the shutters and flung them wide. Hut for the dust and cobwebs and the strange odor, mingled with the faint musty smell that pervades a sun less Interior, the former owner of the house might have deserted it a week ago. On a wall-rack lay two walking sticks and a gold-mounted hunting crop, and on a great carved chest below It had been Aung an opened book bound In tooled leather. John Valiant picked this up curiously. It was "Luclle." He noted that here and there passages were marked with penciled linos —some light and femi ninely delicate, some heavier, as though two had been reading It to gether, noting their Individual prefer ences. He laid It back musingly, and open ing a door, entered the large room It disclosed This had been the dining room. At one end stood a crystal knobbed mahogany sideboard, holding glass candlesticks In the shape of lonic columns —above It a quaint por trait of a lady In hoops and love curls —and at the other end was a huge fireplace with rust-red fire-dogs and tarnished braßs fender. All these, with the round centipede table and the Chippendale chairs set In order against the walls, were dimmed and grayed with a thick powdering of dust. WOOD OF IMMENSE VALUE Greenheart, South American Product, Has Most Wonderful Qualities for the Shipbuilder. Greenheart, the wood which the Isthmian canal commission 1» desirous of securing for use in.-t.he construction of docks and similar works in the Panama canal, beoauße it is said by experts to resist more than any other wood the attacks of marine _ borers which rapidly destroy piles and other submarine structures, is one of the most valuable of timbers. It Is native of South America and the Weßt In dies, and from its bark tnd fruits is obtained blbirine, which Is often used as a febrifuge instead of quinine. The wood is of a dark green color, sap wocd and heart wood being so much alike that they can with diffi culty be distinguished from each oth er. The heart wood Is one of the most desirable of ell timbers, particu larly In the shipbuilding industry... In disputable records show that the best grades surpass iron and steel in last ing qualities In Bait water, submerged logs having remained intact for one hundred years. In the Kelvlngrove museum, Glas gow, there are two pieces of planking The next room that he entered was big and wide, a place of dark colors, nobly smutched of time. It had been at once library and living-room. A great leather settee was drawn near the desk and beside this stood a road lng-starKl with a small china dog and a squat bronre lamp upon It. In con trast to the orderly dining-room there wan about this chamber a sense of untouched disorder —a desk-drawer Jerked half-open, a yellowed news paper torn across and flung Into a cor ner. books tossed on desk and lounge, and In the fireplace a little heap of whitened ashes In which charred frag ments told of luU*"" and pnpera burned In haste, Suddenly ho lifted hir. eyes. Abovo the desk hung a life-size portrait of a man, in the high soft stock and vel vet collar of half a century before. The right eye, strangely, had been cut from the canvas. He stood straight and tall, one hand holding an eager hound In leash, 1118 face proud and florid, hlB single, cold, steel-blue eyo staring down through Its dußty curtain with a certain malicious arrogance, and ills Hps set In a sardonic curve that seemed about to sneer. It was for an Instant as If the pictured flgure confronted the young man who stood there, mutely challenging Ills entrance Into that tomb-like and secret-keeping quiet; and he gazed back as fixedly, repelled by the craft of the face, yet subtly attracted. "1 wonder who you were." he said. "You were cruel. Perhaps you were wicked. Hut you w*re strong, too." He returned to the outer hall to find that the negro had carried In his trunk, and he bade him place It, with the portmanteau, lis the room he had Just left. Dusk was falling. "Uncle Jefferson," said Valiant ab- "have you a Tathlly?"-. "No, suh. Jes' me en rnah ol' 'ooman." "Can she cook?" "Cook!" The genial titter again captured his dusky escort. "When she got de flxens. Ah reck'n she de beaten'Eß cook In Ills heah county." "How would you both like to live here with me for a while? She could cook and you could take care of me." uncle Jefferson's eyes seemed to turn Inward with mingled juratlse and Introspection. He shlftwl from one foot to fhe other, swallowed difficultly several times, and Bald, "Ah" ain' neb bah seed yo' befo', BUII." "Well, I haven't seen you either, have 1?" "Dat's de trufe. suh, 'deed et Is! Hyuh. hyuh! Whut All means ter say Is dat de ol' 'ooman kaln' cook no fancy didoes like what dey eats up Norf. She kin Jes' cook de Ferglney Btyle." "That Boundß good to me," quoth Valiant. "I'll risk It. Now as to wages—" "Ah aln' spectlculous as ter de wages," said Uncle Jefferson. "Ah knows er gemman when All sees one." "Then It's a bargain," responded Va liant with alacrity. "Can you come at once?" "Yns, suh, me en I>aph gwlneter come ovah fun' thing In de mawnln*. Whut yo'-all gwlneter do fo" yo' sup pah?" » "I'll get along," Valiant assured him cheerfully. "Here Is five dollars. You can buy some food and things to cook with, and bring them with you I>o you think there's a stove In the kitchen?" "Ah reck'n," replied Uncle Jefferson. "En ef dar aln' I>aph kin cook er Chrls'mus dlnnah wld fo' stones eD ®r tin skillet. Yas, suh!" (TO BE CONTINUED.) i which illustrate better than anything else this durable quality. They are both from a wreck which was Bub merged eighteen years of? the west coast of Scotland. The one specimen —greenheart—is mere*y slightly pit ted on the surface, th>> body of th» wood being perfectly BOi'.nd and un touched, while- the other —teak—la al moßt entirely eaten away. It la extensively used In shipbuild ing for keelsons, beams, engine bear ings and planking, and It is also used In the general arts, but Its excessive weight unfits It for many purposes for which its other properties would ren der It eminently suitable. —Below th« Rio Grande. Legend of Acorfite. Aconite is classed by homeopatblo authorities as the patriarch of drug*, as far as literature is concerned. It is told how Hercules went , down to the lower regions and casrrled the three-headed hound Cerberus to the upper world. That ferocious beast was raging at this treatment, and the froth that fell to the ground -.vac the, origin of aconite, for It grew up from th« froth as from seeds. It was on a bleak,' windswept hill or mountain, an 4 it is in such regions that the plant grows today. This hill, In Bontlca, 'tM known In olden days tm 'Aconite** GAS, DYSPEPSH m INDIGESnOH "Pape's Diapepsin" settles sour, gassy stomachs in five minutes—Time It! Tou don't want a slow remedy when your stomach is bad—or an uncertain one—or a harmful one —your stomach is too valuable; you mustn't injur* it Pape's Diapepsin Is noted for its speed in giving relief; its harmleM ness; its certain unfailing action la regulating sick, sour, gassy stomachs. Its millions of cures in indigestion, dyspepsia, gastritis and other stomach trouble has made it famous the world over. Keep this perfect stomach doctor la your home —keep it handy—get a large fifty-cent case from any dealer and then if anyone should eat something which doesn't agree with them; if what they eat lays like lead, fermenta and Hours and forms gas; causes head ache, dizziness and nausea; eructar tions of acid and undigested food — remember as soon as Pape's Diapepsin comes in contact with the stomach all such distress vanishes. Its prompt ness, certainty and ease In overcoming the worst stomach disorders is a reve lation to those who tfty It. —Adv. Then the Apparatus Is In Demand. A visitor was being shown through a lid lifting "athletic" club'. The chief attraction seamed to be the liquid gymnastic department. However, there } was a cheaply equipped gymnasium I which showed evidences of disuse. There was dust on the Indian clubs and cobwebs on the dumbbells. "Don't the members ever use this | equipment?" the visitor asked. "Oh, yes, occasionally—when a fight ! startß," was the reply. PLEASE PUBLISH JHIS LETTER Writes L«4j Who can Now Walk Foor Miles a Day Without Feel ing Tired. Boydton, Va. —Mrs. Fannie Boyd, of j tbis town, says: "I am sure I would ! have been in my grave, had it not j been for Cardui, the woman's tonic, and I certainly cannot praise it ; enough, for it IB worth Its weight in i gold. I am, today, a walking adver j tlsement for Cardui. Hefore taking Cardui, I could hardly ! walk across the floor, I was so weak, i I underwent an operation last spring I for womanly trouble, but felt no better, j After using 8 bottles of Cardui, the I woman's tonic, my ulcers were all | gone, I can eat hearty without suffer- I lng any pain, feel fine in every way, j v/ork all day, and can walk four miles a day without feeling tired. Please publish this letter, as I would j like for every woman to know what . Cardui did for me." Many letters, similar to the above, j como to ÜB. unsolicited, every day. ■ This one should Burely convince you of the merit of Cardui, as it expresses | the earned sentiment of a lady who has tried It. If you suffer from any of the numer? OUB ailments BO common to women, | Buch as headache, backache, nervous | neaß, weakness, pains in hides and limbs, sleeplessness, etc., begin taking Cardui today. It will help you, as it has helped so many others, in the past hal f century. 1 H. B.- Wr*. tot Ladies' Adrlsorr Dept.. Ch*tt»- noogk Medicine Co., Chattanooga, Teaa, for Special Intlrvcticnm, and W-page book. Home T»rat mrnt for Women," sent m plain wrapt**. on request. Adv. Talking Machines. "Papa, did Edison make the first | talking machine?" "No. son, the Lord made the first talking machine, but Edison made the one that could be shut off at will GRANDMA USED SAGE TEA _TO DARKEN HER GRAY HAIR Bhe Made Up a Mixture of Sage Tea and Bulphur to Bring Back Color, Gloss, Thickness. Almost everyone knowß that Sage Tea and Sulphur, properly compound ed, brings back the natural color and lustre to the hair when faded, streaked or gray; also ends dandruff, itching scalp and Btops falling hair. Years i ago the only way to get this mixture was to make It at home,. which is mussy and troublesome. Nowadays, by asking at any sfbre for "Wyeth's ! Sage and Sulphur Hair Remedy," you j will get a large bottle of this famous old recipe for about 50 cents. " Don't stay gray! Try It! No one can poßslbly tell that you darkened your hair, as it does it BO naturally and evenly. You dampen a sponge or soft brush with it and draw this through your hair, taking one small strand at a time; by morning the gray hair disappears, and after another ap plication or two, your hair becomes beautifully dark, thick and glossy. Adv. . Mean. "I have a very thick head of hair.'^ "I gueßS It's the result of environ ment." Constipation causes many fcerious die eases. It is thoroughly cured by Doctor Pierce's Pleasant Pellets.- One a laxative, three for cathartjc. Adv. But the average man would have no use for mirrors If he sould see him self in them as others see him. ' *4 Standing on one's merits Is good but moving on them is better, v
The Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.)
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March 13, 1914, edition 1
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