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PAGE TWO
j The Promoter’s Wife
j, By J ANE PHELPS
(Copyright, George Mathew Adams.) j
CHAPTER LX.
With an onrush almost staggering,
all my doubts which had so long lain
quiescent came back to me.
“Shady characters, undesirable ac
quaintances,” Lorraine had called
them. I could not very well refute
her when I, his wife, had refused to
receive them. How ignorant f was
of society is apparent in the fact that
1 had never thought that Neil’s pe
culiar business methods might frus
trate my social ambitions. He had
money. That was all that was re
quired of him( so I imagined. I
would do the rest And now this!
‘‘You must know if this is so, Bab,
•even if you do not know much of his
affairs. Does he ever bring such men
home with him?”
“No—not now.”
“Why—‘not now'?”
“Because I refused to receive
•them.”
“I see—then it is true —all of it, I
am afraid.”
“For heaven's sake, Lorraine, say
what you have to say and be done
with it!” I cried in desperation. I
felt as if a hand had clutched my
heart. Yet I would not believe it as
bad as Lorraine had hinted. She
•was a natural gossip—she exaggerated.
“Well Bab, I will! It is the only
way. I am more sorry for you than
1 can say, more than sorry that I en
couraged you to think you could
make a social success. 1 am sure,
however, that it is of no use for you
to go on. You have a lovely home,
-but the people you have planned to
entertain will not visit you—l am
afraid,” she stopped. I waited in si
lence. Finally I could stand it no
longer.
"Don't be afraid of hurting me,
Lorraine. Gon on, tell me all that you
have heard.”
“I want you to know it will make
no slightest difference in me, in our
friendship. You do know that, don't
you, Bab?“
I nodded.
“But it is common rumor. A
friend of my father’s came to him
about it, because I have been with
you so much. This man said that
your husband’s business methods are
‘unsound’ —that’s father's word. This
freind feared your husabnd would
try to get my father interested in
some of his scemes, and came to
warn him. Father is getting old” —
she said apologetically, “and is easily
influenced. We haven't any money
to spare, you know. Then he also
told father that Mr. Forbe's was con
stantly seen with men of no stand
ing; and that Mr. Forbes himself
was suspected of being-—well— not—
strictly honest; that no man could
make money as fast as he made it,
live at the rate you lived, and do it
honestly without misrepresenting
things, and promoting schemes which
would not stand daylight.” She stop
ped a minute. Then: “iflost of what
I have said, Bab is quoted. You
wanted to know, so I told you. The
man who told father is Mr. Powers.”
I almost groaned. Mrs. Powers
had been the woman whom 1 most
desired to know. |
“There is one other thing I am
going to tell you,” she went on:
■“Perhaps I shouldn't —but I think
you ought to know it: Mr. Forbes
makes a redenvous of Blanche Or
ton's home. He takes men there—
perhaps the very ones you have re
fused to receive.. They gamble and
drink and incidentally’ put over
those big deals by which your hus
band makes so much money.
Blanche has been so terribly snub
bed because of it—altho she never
cut any ice socially. I liked her, and
enjoyed her unconventionality. But
since Orton died she has become al
most too unconventional even for
me.”
And you think it is no use to go
on as we had planned?” I spoke now
of an entertainment for charity with
which we had decided to'- make my
first plunge into society. I was to
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“Absolutely no! Y’ou would only
be humiliated. Enjoy your home
with your family- and those whom
you already know, and who are not
, critical. But under the circumstan
ces, do not attempt the impossible.'
! We were interrupted by the butler.
I Me brought me a telegram from
Neil: “Have been called out of town.
' Back Frdiay.” It was Monday.
CHAPTER LXI
For a little after Lorraine left I
sat stunned. Then I began to think
of all she had said, to look things in
the face. If what she said were true
—I was not even yet quite ready to
admit it—why I must give up all
my cherished plans, or—l must get
! Neil to reform his business meth
ods at once. There was one
thing I was not ready to believe,
and that was that my husband was
really dishonest. Why he couldn’t
be! I thought as I recalled his kind
ness to me and our boy. The child
would keep him straight if he need
ed a motive, which I did not at all
believe.
Lorraine had exaggerated. That
was the conclusion at which I ar
rived. She was rather prudish, and
as she had said, they had no money
to lose. Perhaps her father had
wanted to go in with Neil in some
thing and couldn't because he hadn't
the money, and so was a bit sore. I
found all sorts of excuses. The one
thing which made me almost ill was
that Mr. Powers should have such
a mistaken idea of Neil. I should
have to wait awhile to launch my
social war; wait until Neil would
have made them all see he was the
absolutely straightforward man I
knew him to be.
What Lorraine has said anent his
making Blanche Orton’s house a ren
dezvous mortified and hurt me. Had
I done wrong to refuse to receive
these coarse men in my home —men
with the money necessary to Neil
in his business? ‘lf I had received
them, perhaps there would have been
no scandal, no talk about Neil.
Blanche Orton’s servants had prob
ably talked. Lorraine said the men
gambled and drank while there, also
that it was in her house that Neil’s
big deals were put over. I almost
wished I had allowed him to bring
them home, then as I recalled their
uncouth manners, I shuddered with
disgust.
Into my mind flashed the thought
of Mr. Fredericks. He had long ago
warned me. Someway I wished he
were where I could talk to him. I
would see if he were in town. I
went to the telephone and called the
hotel where he usually stopped.
"Is Mr. Fredericks stopping there
at present?” I asked.
“No, but he is apt to come in at
any time. Any message,” I was told
after a moment's waiting.
“No, yes. Tell him to call Plaza
1234 when he comes.”
Perhaps I should decide to say
nothing to him if he did not arrive
in town for several days, but I could
give some excuse for calling him if
I concluded not to tell him anything
of what 1 had heard.
I knew he did not approve of Neil’s
methods, but even so I had taken
Neil's judgment as final when he
had called Mr. Fredericks an 'old
woman’ and not up to date in his
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ideas of business.
I knew I had been frightfully ex
travagant, but Neil had told me to
go ahead, and to be sure and have
the best of everything while I was
about it. He Lad good taste, and
bated anything shoddy. So all the
furnishings of the house were of the
finest woods and materials procur
able. My home was exquisite. eYt
as I looked around I thought of what
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Lorraine had said—to “give up all
iuea of social success and enjoy it
with the friends I now had.” I was
not willing to do so. It was a great
deal of care and hard work to run
such an establishment properly. A
small house and fewer servants were
all we should ever have required had
I not intended this onslaught upon
society.
I had ordered several very expen-
sive gowns, so that they would be in
keeping with my surroundings, eve
ning dresses that would be of no use
if my plans failed. . No, no, they
couldn’t fail! It was just that puri
tanical streak in Lorraine that had
made a mountain out of a mole-hill.
I -would go on just as I had intended.
That is I would after I had a talk with
Neil.
Friday seemed a long way oft. It
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1919.
would be hard to be patient until his
return. ,
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