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poet and dream- cott, pretty a the whom she is mow getting a di- vores. Link's father threatens to him if he marries her. INSTALMENT 16 One day, a cloudy Christmas eve, Link turned his horse's nose in at the collapsed old gate of the Du Spain ranch and stopped outside of the patio wall with a call for Bar- bara, There was no answer; there was no stir of life on the place, Link jumped down and pushed open the patio door, : A slender woman, inside the court, was pinning baby linen to an im- provised clothesline that crossed a corner at a slant. A tall woman, with her copper head bare and her cotton dress spattered and spotted with wa- ter, Barbara, : She looked a little pale; her hair was brushed carelessly off her fore- head and her hands were wet from washing. And for a few seconds she seemed bewilderéd. ; Then pleasure lighted her tired face and her color came back. She caught at Link's hands eagerly and clung to them. : "Well, Link 'Mackenziel" said her pleasant, rich voice welcomingly, "what a wonderful thing for you to do!" : "Happy birthday, Barbara!" "Happy--:" She had obviously for- gotten it. Then her face lighted. "Link--you're wonderful! You never forget it!" she said. "Happy birth- day to you, too! I'm so sorry Bar- ry's not here. I expect him home today. He went up to San Francisco and he intended to get back today. But he won't be here until tomorrow now--he would have come out wit Tonias at noon if he'd been coming. Well, Link! How good it is to see you! But, come in and see my darter Kate. She's grand." : Link, bending his head a little at the low lintel, followed her into the warm kitchen, where a fire was crackling hospitality and where, in 2 washing basket set on the floor not far away irom it, a tiny baby lay sound asleep in a nest of white blank- ets and snowy pillow. | Slender and exquisite in her young motherhood, Barbara went on her knees beside the basket and turned her radiant smile from his face to "the tiny face on the pillow. There was something in her aspect then al- most too sweet to be borne by the man, who felt himself rough, crude and ignorant beside her chiseled fineness and sensitiveness, "Barbara, eyelashes!" "Imagine your noticing them! But, fook!" She put the transparent scarlet tip of a finger ball beneath them, against the infinitely soft little pulpy cheek, and glanced up again proudly. "Her eyes are bl as night," v something of night's own mysterious darkness in it." "And how old is she mow?" ; "Kate--was 5 weeks old yesterday, the mother said, computing. from the next ranch here. Maria was at home, and also her mother, Engracia Rivas. Old Mrs. Rivas came waddling over here in- stantly and enjoyed the whole affair ly. "Barbara, what luck! Su you had been quite alone! Where was arry as roundings ] "Barry hates suffering and he hates fuss," Barbara r 08- edly, after a moment. Everything went beautifully and Dr. Bonner, who arrived here at about 6 o'clock, found Kate in the best of health and spirits, about an hour old." ~ She would not let her thoughts stop here, she would not let herself remember the kitchen, rocking with agonies for some woman--not Bar- para Atherton. but somebodr else "| exhausted peace, added Barbara in a tone with | THE OSHAWA DAILY [IMES, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1928 PAGE FORTY-ONE a screaming, writhin girl on the couch there, with a frightened old Latin woman trying to hold her down, And then twilight and firelight and No voice--it ha been screamed away---no' strength eyen to move languid eyes to the faces that bent over her, But peace. Her wet hair sticking fo her fore- head and her head aching. But no more pr, *"Hello, baby. Hello, Kate, = Sto that yelling, you've made enou fuss. "Go to sleep, Kate! This in a whisper, That purple little pugi- list was the baby.: And then pro- fessional skillful fingers at wrist, "Dr. Bonner"--one could still smile--"is she? Is she really a beau- ty? I thought she was." Hot tea. Delicious, heartening. And then Barry's whisper at the patio door, Poor Barry, he had been crying, He came creeping like a do; to the side of the couch, he kisse the languid hand that hung there and broke into sobbing. Five weeks ago yesterday. But Barbara could not quite happily re- member it yet, It was shut in that new mysterious light in her eyes, it was a part of her now, with school days -and measles and. her first sweethearts. Link saw what it had given her, the steady sweet flaming shine of it in voice and eyes an manner; he told himself that this was the young motherhood of the paint- ers and the poets, the great miracle in a gray, tired world. "And what took Barry to San Francisco?" he asked. "Well, it seems there is some queer old rich woman in San Francisco," she explained, "who sometimes sends struggling geniuses to Paris or New York to study art or literature, And a man Barry knows up there has been talking about Barry to her and she wanted to see him. So he went up on--let's see, this is Thursday-- he went up on Monday, and I ex- pected him back today." "And you've been here all alone since Monday?" "With Kate, the Bettancourts right on the next ranch, and the chickens," Barbara would not play the martyr. "Now talk about yourself Link," she said. "You don't know how lovely one's d | principally it is to see you, Have you and Mari- anne setayour date?" oy Te father feel "And "does your father feel an happier about on y er face, lighted by the fire, was filled with sisterly anxiety and sweet- ness, "No," he said briefly, seriously. "Too bad!" She made no further comment, and for a few minutes they sat silent, looking at the fire, "I suppose," she said presently, "that, with your father the stumb- Ying hock is the divorce?" "The circumstance of it," Link answered. "He thinks Marianne is interested in well," he went on a little awkwardly, "You mean because of the money-- you mean because you are rich?" "He means that, = anyway." Barbara was silent, glancing down at the baby's head looking into the fire, Suddenly she said unexpectedly: "Link, money is important, I did- n't think so before I was married, But I see it a little differently now." "I don't see you marrying for itl" Link smiled, "No," she agreed quickly, "I never could do that. And I don't believe Marianne would. But it is nice to feel that one's children will have a comfortable home--schooling--{riends Her voice stopped abruptly, and he saw the shine of quick tears on her lashes. She was biting her lip, swal- lowing hard, smiling, and it wrung Link's heart to see her put her thin hand tightly over her eyes and drop her bronze head over the baby's head. For a long minute or two the tears had to have their way, "The maddening part of a sharp sickness," she presently said with an apologetic laugh, in a voice that steadied on the words, "especially when it is one's first sickness, is that it makes one such a crybaby. Nerves, perhaps, These creatures," she add- ed, drawing a long restorative breath and smiling down at the baby, "these creatures are great responsi- bilities." s She put the baby carefully back into the basket and moved about the 1 kitchen with the ease of long famili- arty, Quite simply and deftly she lighted two candles on the mantel and smiled. "Glass of milk, Link?" "I'd love it!" "And would you have a piece of bread. and butter?" Barbara asked her guest- simply, "We have sweet butter today." Link thought of the girls in Cot- tonwood, of Inez's teatable, all silyer and glitter, all damp little oozing sandwiches, ranged pastel-colored peppermint tablets and rich walnut cookies; of Inez lounging in lace and ribbons, and Marianne smoking cig- arette after cigarette, and reddening her lips after every sip of tea. This L was very different hospitality ; he was hungry after his ride and he felt its charm poignantly and surprisingly. Barbara cut home-made whole- wheat bread; the big loaf was clum- sy and amateurish in shape, but the crusty slice was delicious and the feast had all the elements of perfec- tion--good company, firelight and ap- petite. "How engaged, Barbara : She smiled, glanced at him wide- long were you and Barry ?" eyed. ; "Why, but we weren't engaged at all, of course! That is, except from 11 o'clock on a Saturday morning un- til exactly noon, when we were mar- i 4 . "But you had had an understand- ing?" "No, Barry and I fell in love with each other after we were married-- we've often talked of it," Barbara said. "Suddenly, that morning, there didn't seem to be any reasom why marrying |' DODD'S KIDNEY we shouldn't be married--it was ra- ther like the line of least resistance!" she confessed cheerfully, "Of course," Barbara © went on, laughing, "there was every reason in the world against it, but we didn't know that then!" . "How do you mean every reason in the world?" Link asked, with his puzzled, honest frown, "Why, financial reasons first, fore- most and always," Barbara answer- ed, "And then professionally, too, Barry shouldn't ever have been bur- dened with. a wife and child! And temperamentally lie is the sort of man who worries frightfully when the woman he loves needs anything, and yet who is too much of a little boy to go out and battle for her! But, however," she finished: sensibly and contentedly, "married he is, and like- ly to remain so, and there you are! I don't think most persons think much about marriage before they're in it," Barbara added conversation- ally, finishing her milk with great satisfaction, "I don't think they can Things are bound to turn out en- tirely different from what one ex- pects, and the main thing is--the main thing is," she finished philis- ophically and in a whimsical light tone that did not entirely déceive him, "that there's nothing so happy in the world as marriage, and nothing at all like having a bold girl like Kate here on the premises." "Suppose any one, you and Barry, for instance, had been engaged a long time," Link began, with a quite trans- parent' attempt at generalities, "and suppose you felt that you would ra- ther pull out of it. Would that be ri + iu that be--a decent thing to o "It would be the decent thing to do" Barbara answered promptly, "But if you're asking me," she add- ed, "I would never have had the courage for it. I hate to face issues and take stands, And I should im- agine that a lot of other persons-- you for instance, Link" she added, smiling, "would be worse than I am about it! It takes character to man- age, not only your own will--but your own vacillations!" she finished, "Barbara," Link said suddenly out of a silence during which each had been staring thoughtfully into the fire, lost in the train of his own thoughts, "I'll tell you. I don't think Marianne and I care for each other --as we did--as we ought to, It seems to me that it would have been a terrible mistake to marry a year ago, when we first talked about it, before I knew about her first mar- riage." : "Well, if you had married then," Barbara suggested thoughtfully and a little hesitatingly, "so many other emotions and experiences would have taken the places of all the--the love making and engagement feelings, that you would be--" she groped for words-- "that you can't say you wouldn't have been happy," she said, "But long engagements are terrible, That first--that first wild excitement of discovery isn't intended to last in- definitely," she submitted, "We quarrel," Link confessed mis- erably. "And then the minute we've parted she writes me these frantic notes begging me to forgive her," He paused, "My sister Margaret and my father--as I was telling you--think," he added frowningly and a little ash- amedly, "that it's partly because Ma~ rianne cares about money that she is glad to be marrying where there is plenty of it--" "And don't you think there may be some truth in that, Link?" Bar- bara asked, studying his face thought- fully as he stopped short. "Well, if there is," he said, almost a little defiantly, "I don't blame her, I'm not so stuck on myself that I expect a girl to go crazy over the idea of cooking and washing for me for the next forty years! And that makes it all the harder to break it off," he ended, scowling. "You mean you really would like to break it off, Link?" Barbara asked straightforwardly. Es a = Office DESIRABLE TO RENT About 1,200 Square Feet Heat, Light andJanitor Centrally Located Apply Box "NN" Oshawa Dally Times "I think so, now--for awhile. Even if after-a while it all began again," he admitted, distressed. "A' man sounds like an awful cad talking like this, But she sprang the news of her first marriage on me only after we were actually talking of being married immediately," he went on, "I don't blame her--she's a nervous little thing and she was all worked up and so distressed and worried she didn't know what to do. But from then on--I've felt I was an awful rotter, engaged to a woman who real- ly was tied to another man, "That's part of the trouble," added Link, as Barbara, studying his face intently, was silent, "She loathes this bounder of a Scott so, she's detested the thought of him for so long, that actually she feels free. I don't feel she's free. I can't. And--Marianne's different from other women," he argued, interrupting one troubled line of thought to follow another; "she has no mother, her father is married to a woman she hates; She's affec- tionate. And for a whole year now," Link finished, with an apologeti®* grin for his hearer, "I've felt that I was getting in wrong--more and more wrong--and yet I'm not the one 'to make the break." (Copyright, 192% b ne, (To be continued.) WOMEN ACTIVE IN U.S. CONGRESS Toronto, Ont.,, Dee, 13,--Dr, William Snow, president of the Na- States and chairman of the special tional Health Council of the United body of experts of the League of Nations which deals with the prob- lems of the "white slave' traffic in womn and children, speaking re- cently nuder the auspices of the League of Nations Society here The Syndicate Many people have special savings accounts for spe- cial purposes. Why not start a vacation account! When holidays come a- round, the money saved will make your vacationa Pleasant, carefree relaxa- on. ; THE DOMINION BANK T. W, JOYCE, Mgr. Oshawa Branch gave specific facts on what had heen accomplished in various countries to prevent the traffic. He discussed the necessity of abolish- ing licensed houses ard commend- ed the introduction of women po- lice which was working out suc- lem, he said, and the Japanese gov- ernment had asked that the inves- tigations be carried further by the commission appointed to look into the matter. Tighter Laws Immigration and migration laws cessfully in England. Italy and France were both waking up to the necessity of coping with the prob- were being tightened up to prevent the importation of women from one country to another Attorney General, The Hon. Price, K.C., M.P.P., Toronto THS will be a rare treat for the citizens of Oshawa and this commun- ity to hear one of the outstanding public men of the province on a _ question of such vital importance.--Every citizen is most cordially in- vited--The business session of the Society will be held in the 8. 8. par- lors from 7 to 8 o'clock. Public Meeting at 8 o'clock. Attorney-General The Hon. W. H. Price K.C., M.P.P., Toronto Will address a public meeting in Simcoe St. United Church, Oshawa, under the auspices of The Children's Aid Society of the County of Ontario and the City of Oshawa, on Thursday Evening, Dec. 13th at 8 p.m. Ww. H. CIGARS indivi- J and creator of Birdseye Centre, the comic feature of the Toronto Star Weekly, endorses Buckingham Cigarettes. "I smoke them always because theyare so throat-easy" _ by ésasiog Sut this list 20d goleg to. TOBACCOS se