Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Aug 1919)

c iiin>e, she'>. a mere child yei." I'Jeasior shrugged. "1 hui>e roll wont get tlie wrong itni)re^-''ion of .\merican girl^, Air. Wentworth! If so, I feel that's its mv jiatriotic duty to give you another one.” She lifted her eyes to him meltingly. lileanor had large, limpid eyes and u.sed them to their best advantage. ‘‘So I’m going to steal you for an hour or so on the lake all by my owny self!” ‘‘Charmed!” .said the Honorable Hugh, gallantly. “But I o'ly now, was that little fellow your sister, really? No sjioofhig? Spunky, I call that, my word!” In the stable loft Peggy cuddled her knees to her Norfolk breast and reviewed the situation impartially. The long young man was undoubtedly the son of the English diamond broker, who had come to bring her father a large purchase of stones. The household had been in a stir over his expected arrival for days and Eleanor had bought an expensive new complexion and several ravishing gowns in preparation for him. ‘‘Why, he looked — nice !” discovered Peggy, wonderingly ; ‘‘as nice as the policeman at the corner, and the iceman, who lets me drive his cart, and Tito — like a regular person instead of a Young Man!” Peggy'^ disap])roved of Young Men on principle. They all had slicked-back hair and creased trouser-legs and a silly way of talking to girls. But this one was dififerent. She liked the way he smiled with his eyes instead of his mouth, and the way his jaw showed under the dark, clean-shaven skin. She liked ” ‘‘But w’hat’s the use ?’’ Peggy sighed, disconsolately. ‘‘Eleanor’s vamping him already.” There was a bit of cracked mirror on the wall, where Thomas, the coachman, occasionally underwent rei)airs. Peggy went over to it and regarded the smooched and disheveled young person reflected therein candidly. ‘‘Beauty,” she decided aloud, cheerfully, ‘‘is not my strong point ! But then, look at Cleopatra ! She was no coldcream ad. Just the same, you have to hand it to her for getting what she wanted ! 2\nd I’m going to. ,\fter dinner, with a glint of malice in her brow'ii eyes she followed her sister and the Honorable Hugh t o the vine-covered veranda r Fifty-six) Harri>(m l .nsloe came home tu dinner in no \cry ])lea>ant frame of miml. The headlines in three of the afternoon papers had screamed the news of the Honorable Hugh Wentworth’s arrival in America to an interested world, not omitting to state in detail his reasons for coming. By now every crook ip town knew that ‘‘The Light of the World,” the most famous diamond in e.xistence, was somewEere in his possession. ‘‘Alight just as well have given the combination of the safe and had done with it!” grumbled the discomfited diamond merchant aloud, in the seclusion of his library. ‘‘It’s lucky I had that new safe-deposit drawer put in before he got here. But even then, there’s no telling ! They may have an accomplice in my own household ” He paused, staring at the incredible evidence of his own eyes. Peering over the top of a high-backed chair, a face, shadowed by a huge cap visor and almost concealed behind a ferocious black mustache, was gazing at him menacingly. But even as he stared the impressive hirsute adornment became unmanageable. It slewed to the left, toppled and slid to the floor, as the upper-lip to which it was fastened crinkled in a wide smile. ‘‘Peggy ! W’hat on earths ” her father began helplessly. ‘‘You frightened me out of a year’s growth. What’s the idea of the whiskers ?” Peggy slid out of the chair and proudly displayed a large tin disk fastened to her chest. ‘‘Read it !” she or