The

Real Adventure By Henry KitcheU Webster

Copyright 1916. Bobh. MerrtU Co.

COMES THE GREAT EVENT IN ROSE ALDRICH’S LIFE, THE PROSPECT OF A BABY, AND SHE REAUZES THAT WOMAN’S FINEST PROFESSION IS MOTHERHOOD-BUT PLANS GO SADLY AWRY

'portion to talk bamorooslr - oH time* with her old friends. '■Indln* her brother and slater, and a "'Tt of dismayed arquieaeenee In the v,l, iky •erioi.sneaa. the Inadequate rMUratlon. of the city of her birth. Toward Boa* herself, the tonteaaa on# might aa.r. atudloualy tffectl'»nate. She aenlded being either dlaarr.vshle or patronltlng. Rose could •*». Indeed, how ahe arolded it. About thla tln»e the question where Bov and Rodney were going to lire after their leas# on the McCrea houae ended, had begun to press for an an■wer. October first was when the lea.* expired, and It wasn’t far from the date at which they expected the haby. They spent some lovely afteiti'icn* daring the dayi of the emerging spring, cruising about looking at

posdhle places.

This was the rttuation when liarrlet took a hand In It. It was a situation made to order for Harriet to take a hand In. She’d sited It up at u clrne*. mad# up her mind In three I minute# what was the sensible thing ! f,,r them lo do. written a note to Florence UeOrea In Paris, and then bided her opportunity to put her Idea i Into effect To her Rose wms simply n | well-meaning, aomewhut Inadequately

l-DONT-CARE GIRL By EARL REEO SILVERS.

''Better cable Fiorwc-t aa

you can." ahe advised.

Rose protested when the plan for living six months more In Florenc# McCrea s houae was broached to her. She made the beat fight ahe could. But Harriet's arguments, re-stated now by Rodney with full conviction.

were too much for her. When ahe i ln , virhnUs stnnd nn r- . i. broke down and cried, as she couldn't th J .•„an^^| n ^hls *.« fSedhSf “ d C ° m ' thr Margaret ILodL^TS

forted her. assured her fker tM• nn. ..I , ,

Olck U uiever as they merged Into the darkni-^s of what was known as Lovers’ lane. He watched them until they dWpimired Into the shadows, aud then, with a sigh, he turned and made his way to thi- swinging couch. The porch was d.nerted. From within th club came the sound of soft music. The orchestra was playing "Keep Tour Eyes on the Girlie You Live." “Well." Jim thought to himself rather bitterly, “that's Ju« what I have been doing, but when the girl yon love

forted her. assured her that thla notion of hers about the expenslveneas of It all. was just a notion, which she must struggle against as best she could. She'd see thing* in a truer

proportion afterward.

Very One and small and weak. Bos# Stanton, lying In a bed with people about her. let her eyes fall heavily abut lest they should want her to speak or think. . . . Then, for a long time, nothing. Then presently, a hand, a

CHAPTER XJ—Continued. i lying »!„(* ^ her Up M ^ “® liadu’t heard. The long silence Irked But she went steadily on. “Ton ( liim. He polled out his watch* looked

were always .o dear about 1L But .t II and began winding It. He mend- ^ l:t,t- ^ R0<l0eT - ’ r Her I ^ Are so that It would be safe ailly. r»Ked voice choked there and for the night; bolted a window. Evstopped, and the lean brimmed up ery mlnnte or two he stole a look at

down her cheeks,

ahe kept bqj face steadfastly turned

to his.

“That’s what I said about being married and not towing wild oats. I suppose." be aald glumly. “It was a Joke. Do you suppose I’d have said It If I meant It?"

ber. bet she was always Just the same. Except for the faint rise and fall of her bosom, ahe might have

been a picture, not a woman. At last he said again. “Come along.

Rosa- dear."

’TfU he too late In October." she said. “That's why I wanted to de-

“It wasn’t only that." ahe managed; ‘ide things tonight. Becaose we most

to go on. “It was the way they looked at the honse; the way you apo.oglxed for my dress; the wgy yon looked when you tried to get out of answering Barry Lake's questions about what you were doing. Oh, how 1 despised myself! And bow I knew you and they must be despising me!" ‘The one thing I felt shoot you all the evening." be aald. with the patience that marks the last stage of exasperation, “was pride. I was rather era ally proud of you." "As my lover you were proud of me." she aald. “But the other mao— the man that's more truly you—was ashamed, as I was ashamed. Oh. It doesn't matter: Being ashamed won't accomplish anything. But what we'll do Is going to accomplish something " “What do yon mean to dor he

asked.

T want yon to tell me first." she said, 'how much money we hate, and how much we've been spending.' “I don't know." he aald stubbornly. *T don't know exactly." Too're got enough, haven't yon. of your own ... I mean, there's enough that ccraes In every year, to live on. If you didn't earn a cent by practicing law? Well, what I want to do, 1* to live on thaL I want to live, however and wherever we have to—to lire on that—out In the suburbs

begin right away." Then ahe looked up into his face. “It will be too late *n October." she repeated, “unless we be-

gin now.”

The deep, tense seriousness of her voice nnd her look arrested his full

attention.

"Why?" he nsked. And then. "Bow, what do you meenr "We're going to have a baby in October." she said. CHAPTER XII. The Door That Was to Open.

exception was the Junior League show la Easter week, for which she put In quite a lot of work. She was to have

danced In 1L

This Is an annual entertainment by which Chicago set* great store. All the smartest and best-looking of the younger set take part In 1L In costumes that would do credit to a chorus dresser, and as much of Chicago as Is willing and able to pay five dollars a seat for the privilege is welcome to come and look. Delirious weeks ■re spent In rehearsal, under a flratclass professional director; audience and performers hare an equally good time, and Charity, as residuary legatee. profits by thousands. Bose dropped In at a rehearsal one day at the end of a solid two hours of committee work, found It unexpectedly amusing, and made a point, thereafter. of attending when she could. Her Interest was heightened. If not wholly actuated, by some things Jlmray Wallace had been telling her lately about how such things were done

on the real stage.

He had written a musical comedy once, lived through the production of 1L and had spent a Lard-earned two

" k* 1 * * u * 3r 1,tUe l<Uot “fcFd been I weeks' vacation trouping with It It to have seen the thin* fnr h..». ... . i

not to have seen the thing for herself! She'd been, all the while, beating her hfad against blind walls when there was ■ door there waiting to open of Itself when the time came.

■ k ■ j ... _ .

Motherhood: There'd be a doctor | table.

the ro.-d. so he could speak with an ihorlty. It was a wonderful Odyssey when you could get him to tell 1L and as Rose made a good audience, she got the whole thing nt her dinner

and a nurse at first, of course, but presently they'd go away and she'd be left with a baby. Her own baby! She could care for him with her own hands, feed him—her joy reached an ecstasy at this—from her own breast. That life which Rodney led aiiart from her. the life into which she had tried with such ludicrous unsuccess to effect an entrance, was nothing to this new Ufc which was to open Iwfore her In a few short months now. Meanwhile. she not only must wait—

she could well afford to.

That was why she could listen with that untroubled smile of hers to the temMe things thst Rodney and

The thing got a sociological twist eventually, of course, when Jsne wanted to know if It were true that the choros girls received Inadequate pay. Jimmy demolished thla with more wrath than be often showed. He didn't know any other sort of job thst paid a total); untrained girt aa well. It took a really a<’compU*hed stenographer. for Instance, to ec.ro as much a week as was paid the nrerage chorus girl. The trouble was that the indls(•ensable assets In the business were nut character and Intelligence aud ambition. but Just persouai charms. "But a girl who's serious about IL who doesn't have to be told the

firm, powerful hand, that picked up takes a moonlight walk with another her heavy, limp wriat and two sens! fellow. IF# better not to have eyes." Uv# finger-tips that rested lightly on only the day before he had told Martbe upper aurfao# of IL After that, caret that life without her would be

nn even, measured voice—o voice of hardly worth the living,

authority, whose words no doubt made “Margaret." be had aald suddenly,

sense, only Rose was too tired to think “I—I love you."

what the sense was: She had looked at him for a moment That's a splendid pulse. She's do- with startled eyes and then the peal of Ing the best thing ahe can. aleeplng her hearty laughter had sounded dislike that." i-ordanl with the sllenc,* of the evening. And then another voice, utterly un- "Jim." she had said, “yon don't mean

like Rodney's and yet unmistakably IL *ur.-ly? Not you?"

bis—a ragged voice that tried to talk “Why not me?” hr had answered re!n e whisper but couldn't manage It sentfully and ungrammatically. —broke queerly. "But. Jim. why do you love me?” Mi*

'That's all right" It aald. “But Til bad questioned. •

find It easier to believe when—" “Because I do." he ban answered sulShe must see him—must know 1 “Don't yon care at all?" what It meant that he should talk “ rni known as the 1-don't-care like that. With a strong physical ef- «drl.'" she had replied; “and. to tell fort, ahe opened her eyes and tried truth. Jim. I don't know now

to speak his name. She couldn't; but whether I care or nob"

someone must have been watching and ** because ef someone riser he

have seen, because a woman's vole# h * d Pasted.

said quickly and quietly "Mr. Aldrich." “Perhaps It Is." she had answered. And the next moment, vast and tow- Two years ago. when Dick Wlllever ertog and very blurred In outline, hut to Ncw Tork 10 ^b srl like his voice, unmistakably, waa fn:,loa * be asked me If I would wait Rodney—her own big, strong Rodney '" r hlm * nd 1 ,<,,d biro that I would. She tried to hold her arms up to him. U ' nm ‘ t exar,,T “ Promise, hut It

She Stared, Bewildered.

civilised young peraon. the beneficiary, through her merrimge with Rodney, of a piece of unmerited good fortune. When she got Florence McCrea "a answer to her letter, she took the first occasion to get Rodney off by himself and talk a little common

sense Into him.

"Whet about where to live, Rod-

ney r aho asked. "Made np your

mind about It yet? It is time

James Randolph and Barry I^ke and thin* more than once, and catches on. Jane got Into the way of hurling sometimes, without being told at all.

why. she can always have a Job and ►he can be as independent as anybody. She can get twenty-five dollars a week or even as high as thirty. The latter part of thla conversation was what ahe was to remember after-

ward. but the thing that Impressed (lf September.”

Rose at the time, and that h< for hours looking on at the Leagui show rehearsals, was what Jimmy had told her about the technical side of ihe work of production, the labors of

the director, and so

across her dmnrr table, and to the more mildly ex pressed but equally alkaline cynicisms of Jimmy Wallace.

Jimmy was dramatic critic of the evening papers as well

of a playwright. He was a slim. cool, smiling, highly sophisticated young man. who renounced all nrivllcges a* an Interpreter of life In favor of remaining an unbiased observer of IL He never bothered to sj»-culate about what you ought to do—he waited to

see what you did.

Well. In thr light of the miraculous tranxlonuation that lay before her. Rose could listen undaunted to the tough philosophizings ber husband and Barry Lake delighted la as well as to the mordant merciless realities with vthlch Doctor Randolph and Jimmy Wallace confirmed them. She wasn't

Indifferent to It all.

“Jim's pretty weird when he gets

going." Eleanor Randolph said to Fred- i her away,

ericu. on the celt day after they had I And then came Harriet. Rodney's ' what been dialog at the Aid riches', "but that | other sister, and the pressure behind ! fir * t I' Barry Lake has a sort of surgical way the dam rose higher. I Harriet

half a promise—and tomorrow night Dick Is coming to the dance at the

Country rtuh." 'And yon thl

• him?"

"Maybe I do; but tomorrow III know, nnd then Fll give you your answer." Jim had gone home directly aftethat. He had somehow managed to live through a day of mingled doubt and mystery, but In the evening when !■- had called at Margaret’s home In hU rnnabont the girl had met him with n smile In her eye*. She hrd acted aa If then- waa not a rare or a trouble In •he world. Jim had danced the find waltz with h-r. and after that Dick Wlllever had made hl« appearance and had led her off through the shadows of Livers' lane. It seemed to Jim a* If they would never return. Suddenly he espied them walking slowly up the lane. He noticed, with a sigh of relief, that they were walking farther apart than the occasion de-

manded.

Jim arose as they approached the I-cch and offered his arm to MargareL With a brief nod at Dick, she accepted the proffered arm and accompanied her escort Into the club. Jim led the way to the swinging seat on the porch. “Well?" he said questionlngly.

“Well, what?"

’$"*“»■ r-r:rI

laity of yours, sis." he said at un ? ^ af:ala5t ,be whiteness of the j Ida, You're seen him. haven't your -nd straightening oul Ton «“**> ^ ^ ! "Yes. he's rather good-WWng. Were always pretty good at IL" Then 1 J aMU ' masses leading away , p ar ri,««i. .. cloud «f hi* own smoke. »hem. twitching, squirming. She: „. rr ^vi-iooklng” he an-

m I stared, bewildered. I -

but of course she cooldn'L And then he shortened suddenly. He bsd knelt down beside her bed. j that waa IL And she felt upon ber palm the pressure of hit Ups. and his unshaven cheek, and on her wrist a warm wetness that must be—tears. Aud then she knew. The urgency of a sudden terror gave her her voice. "Roddy." ahe aald. “there was going to be a—baby. Isn't therer Something queerly like - a laugh broke his voice when he answered. “Oh. you darling 1 Yes. It's all right. That ian't why I'm crying. It's Just because I'm so happy." "But the baby 1" she persisted.

"Why Isn't it here?"

Rodney tnraed and spoke to someone else. "She wants to see." he

said. "May she?"

And then a woman's voice (why, it was the nurse, of course: Miss Harris, who had come last night) said in an Indulgent, soothing tone: "Why, surely she may. Walt Just a minute." But the wait seemed hours. Why didn't they bring the baby—her baby?

with n little common sense straight- There! Miss Harris was coming at

lasL with a queer, bulky, shapeless bundle. Rodney stepped In between and cut off the view, but oniy to slide an arm under mattress and pillow and raise her a little so that she could

ened you out about this.' Harrl.-t couldn't be sure from the length of time he took seeing that tils pip# was properly lighted, whether he altogether liked this method of

appAoach or noL

"Common sense always waa a sort

of fp

•Fire away."

“Well, la th# first place." she aald.

j swered honestly. “A ,-!»me sight more

There were twins. Hose." she heard *, fhaa j am -

“If you had your bouse today you'd be triumphantly, but "Well." Margaret remarked noncom- • •' •• - — , ‘ , “ l witb •““rthiug that wasn't quite j mlttlngly. 'There are looks, and then

laugh, “a boy and a girl. They'r# | there arc looks."

lucky If tl..- |>alnt was dry and the thing wa« fit to move Into bj the first

jterfectly splendid pounds and the other

Her eye* widened and ahe looked \

up Into his face so that the pitiful j putting

got to get out Aif here, i October. And that means

T,' ■""" T 1 U, ter. ... rr.ratal .0

to get Into. It Is an awkward OmA-. j j. im

. * "But the baby." she said. Her wide

As the weeks aud months wore away. I - -'.yea navt-.’ t. vie sal .. »on-eyes filled with tears and her voice and as the season of violent alter- caa rl * h 1 t i . bor '' *** broke weakly. T wanted a baby." nation* between summer and winter. ®“ nth< ’ l - J?® ,lk *- 1 v, ‘ b '' ,irJ _ ,ro,lJ "You’ve gut a baby." he insisted, which the Chicagoan calls spring. ,°‘"V n . ,V ' h*® 1 r, ‘ UI! ' J butt i J h ' a “' , ‘: and now laughed outright. "There are gave place t* summer Itself. Rose ro ' 1 wrote 8 " d “’ kod b ' r a iw.. of them. Don't you under*land,

was driven to Intrench herself morei^U^ ^ * f : J-T

and more deeply behind this -‘ b ''S<*« ^ ^e wrote back „,. r ryrt droo|H .j ^ bul thi .

I land simply grabbed at IL tears came welling out along ber

Ing back water, that otherwise would j Ki smoked half way through lux!-. - Tlease take them away." she

have rushed down

weigh* seven Jim Jnnc.-d at her quizzically, bat

her face was Impassive. t think It's quite fair to be •If like this," be said.

"Surely my question d.-serves an aa-

For a

I the

upon her and swept hl * , " ;v ** bt u ‘~ w aD * i begged. And then, with a little sol., on this suggcttlocL "This house isn't | *he whispered: “I wanted a baby.!

i *—. —- • want." he said. "In the I not those." I expensive." Rodney started to speak, but some

ohrugg.-l her shoulder*. ' sort of admonitory signal from the ]

of discussing Just anythin*, and his J Ruse had tried, rather unsuccess- i I'b'kcd up one of Flore

wife's as bad. 'fully, to realize that there was artu books and eyed theh.-av I ly tooled bind “We never got off women all the ally in existence another woman who ’ ius wi:t * ■ Ur leal *«n:le before she

evening. Barry Lak# had their hi*- .-eeupled, by blood anyway, the same replied.

That's Why I Wanted to Decide :or - down from the early Egyptians,! t-ositioi. toward Rodney and herself "I'd un idea there was that in It."

nnd Jim got off a string of patbolog- that Frederica <lld. Sh* felt alma-', said la *t- "Freddy said *omeica! freaks. And then Rodney came , like a real sister toward Frederica thing. . . Rose had lava talking

Things TcnighL"

nurse silenced him.

The nurse went nway with ber bun- ! die. and Rodney stayed stroking :

Rose's limp hand.

In the ilark. ever so much later, she a *oke. stirred a little restlessly, J the nurse, from her ami. came

udden accei want to go hing. Roddy.

away. Rodney and Frederica spoke ! You're grtLng on perfectly op'.endldof her affecti matriy. to be sure, but *?• But If you poi: up and go to lire in their references made a picture of a ; baru somewhere and stop seeing unyrather formidably oorect. seriously : '■ •ody —people that count. I tsraa—"

Rodney grunted. "You're beyond your depth, sia." he said. “Come back

•oroewhere, or in a fiat, so that you , ‘"jt strong for economic independence. | Rut without quite putting the notion i !o b- - ' Then, after another little I 'juickly and stood b.-*lde her bed. She *111 be free; and 1 can work—be some [ only with his own queer angle on ib into words, she had always felt It i alienee and with a —••a-'-— •■■‘A i- • •- « - '• -

wrt of help." of course. Ho thought It would be t j was Just as well that Harriet was an veheroenca: "You ■ “You con waah the ill she* and scrub ! bn- thing, but It wouldn't happen un- i Italian coutessa. four thousand miles ■ '1° 8 regular P

■b* floors," he supplemented, "and I i til the men Insisted on IL When a " ' ■«n carry my lunch to the office with klr! wasn't n-garded a* marriageable »e In a little Un box." He looked at | unless ahe had been truiuid to a trade

watch. "And now that the thing's , or a profession, then thing* would be-

"educed to an absurdity, let's go to gin to happ.-u. I think he meant IL aristocratic sort of person. »ed. It's getUng along toward two; too- j She'd discovered, along In the wlnI'riock." "Well, and alt the while there sat j ter sometime, that Harr ,et‘s affairs “You don't bav# to get to the office I Rose, taking It all In with those big were going rather badly. It was along Rl nine tomorrow morning.'' said eye# of ners. smiling to herself now ] in May that the cable came to Frede*ose. "And I want to talk it out! and then; saying things, too. some-1 rica announcing that Harriet was con:»«w. And I don't think 1 said any- tiroes, that were pretty good, though | ing back for a lung Malt. “That's all bing that was absurd." . notmdy but Jimmy seemed to under- 1 «he aald." Rodney explained to Rose. "I shouldn’t have called It absurd." | stend. always. Just what she meant. "But I supikwc It means the finish, admitted after a rather long si-i The)'vc talked before, those two. But She said she didn't want any fuss cnee. “But it's cxsggvruled and un-! she waa no more i-mbarnissed thnn made, but she hinti-d she’d like to have Next October, when the n* If we’d beva talking embroidery j Kredily meet her In New York, i

itch**." I Freddy's going. Boor old Harriet! So fur as externals went, her life. I must try to cheer her up." -us Immensely simplified, j She didn't seem rnu- h la need

had some! hing In her hand* for to drink and Rose drank it dutifully. | "1* there anything else?" the nurse

asked.

T just want to know." Bose said; j “have 1 been dreaming, or 1* it true? ; lu* 11 H Is there a baby, or are there twins?” • “ ,, h "Twins, to be sure." said the nurse '•are.'' cheerfully. The loreliesL liveliest j s? "’ little pair you * *er saw." J •uild • Thank you." said Rose. T Just ! I 130 ’ 1 *

• silent;

rh.-n she turned Impulsively toward her companion. T*o you know what Dick and I were falklng about during our romantic "Of course noL" "We wen- <11 *cuusing anothe” girl." “What other girl?" "The .me he is going to marry." “What!" Jim's heart broke th# rorld's r.-eord for a bing-dDtan-e leap, "Yes." Msragrvt concnued esimly. Tie lob] me that Uleowood had grown >r<’v1n<1al to him sue--- his experieona n New York, and *hat !hl« town and

Ft a ro unent Jim was sileni: iheu v.i"ar»d u glan- e at the girl beside lira The old I-don't-care look was In “What do joa think ab-ut It?" he

«ked.

Margaret tossed her head oontempt- • ’Udy In the irresistible moaner which

ail first attracted Jim. wwervd evroly. “I dont

don't have to swim. The

expea** isn't a capital consideration.

IH admit thaL Now go on from wanted t<> know, there.” | She shut her eye* and pretead<-d Thst's like old limes." she oh- ^ ,0 ideep. But she dldn'L It wi

•w*e on thl* house runs

Gaimge. perhaps, to change the scaA little. There you are! Now do stop ■"trrying about It and let's g«- to bed," Bui She aat there Just a* she was. taring •*. -Ac dying ffrw, ber hands

demands upon he:

•i-d ulmt-si auto

served with a not ill humored grimbah-. “I wonder if you talk to Hose 1 *-uii.-h. like thaL Oh. 1 know the house is rather solemn and absurd. It's Florid [ enoe herself all over, that's the size e of It. But wha! does that matter for

I six niuo'.hs more?"

poA-keted his pipe and got up

then

Her

. bad

cheering up. Rose thought, when they out of bis chair,

winter. 111.-st met. All that showed on the con-! “There's something a It Th#! U-ssa's highly pvUshud surface was a I min.d. TH think It over."

he ad-

tn.-d to glance away, hut Jim. sudd -nly Isdd. took her cheeks In his hands iiml faced her about until she

!fs>k>si fairiy at him.

"l*o .'ou know. Margaret." be said.

”1 think III kis* you."

Ttf ir.rl morel just a fraction of an

Inch nearer to him.

"I ’lon't care If you do." she ao-

sv'- red happily.

(Copy-right. !»::. by the Mct'hir* Now«pa-

per 8yadl.-«te >

Riddled

“How did that treaty N*o*me a mere *•••'» P of r*a(wT?" "*Jot mnssml up « th.- rough eilgs# of the mailed fist that wrote It."