Those Lucky Pollens

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 227, 25 September 1929, Page 22

Those Lucky Pollens

«—— By MALCOLM DUART —

THE STORY SO FAR. A neighbourhood gossip named Mrs. Hamilton has made life unhappy for Mrs. F/ed Pullen in San.. Francisco. The . Pullens have received' costly gifts (including, a giant diamond)-from 'an unknown friend. Mrs. Hamilton babbles to a young attorney named Parks, who calls upon a certain fat "masher" whom he believes to be the source of the Pullen gifts. A newspaper item has told of 650.000 dollars' reward offered by a Chinese general for the return of seven great diamonds, concealed in a lacquered chest and shipped to America. The Pullens have had such a chest, but have sold it to two Chinamen. As the last chapter ends, the Piillens' pretty daughter Julia comes, home with a mortgage on Mrs. Hamilton's house, sent to them, she says, by her employer,' an elderly lawyer named Murty. Mrs. Pulleu, who is romantic, asks if Murty has proposed to Julia. CHAPTER LID.. Julia opened the legal documents and glanced over the' sheets. "Tell mama," Mrs. - Pullen begged. "Did Mr. Murty propose?" The girl laid the-mortgage in her lap. "Yes, he did," she said. • ■•" Mrs. Pullen started to her feet. "Julia! Then you're to be-Mrs. Julia Murty! My baby!" She threw her arms around her daughter's .peck again, , nearly' smothering her in' the embrace. It was with some difficulty that the girl worked her head away from her mother's bosom far enough to speak. "Why, no," she began, but Mrs. Pullen stopped her before "she could proceed further. t "Do you mean to say you rejected j him, Julia, after all he's done for us? Are you crazy? , Here he's given us this mortgage, and the piano, and the furniture, and— " She stopped to blink uncertainly. "I wonder how it happened that he gave us all -those things and Sam Carlile gave us the big diamond?" Her husband came into the hall at this juncture, and she appealed to him. "Do you think Sam Carlile really found that big diamond for, us or did '! Mr. Murty send it?" The question came while she was kissing him.; j: ■ "Something special's .on hand, I sup- j pose," said he. "What's the particular trouble this evening?" '\; ,: "Why," his wife explained, "Mr Murty asked Julia to. marry him, and : — —" "The heck you say!" He-looked at the girl for confirmation and she nodded, "Really proposed, eh?" he continued. "Got down on his old thin knees and asked you to be his nurse! Well, well!" "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," said his wife.

Julia, however, smiled and offered details. "He didn't do that exactly," she said. "He called me in and gave me this mortgage, and " ' She had to stop the narrative at this point to explain to her father the newest of his possessions. He took the mortgage and looked it over with lively interest. "Okay," he said. "Now go on Avith the. story." • "Well, he.looke&Jat me over the top of his "glasses a. while and then he said: 'Young woman, it looks as' if you'd be an heiress. Yoii need a guardian.'_ I asked him what he meant, and he said: Td better marry you.'" "That's a terrible way to propose," objected Mrs. Pulen. "I think I must have laughed,"; : Julia said. "Anyhow, he- looked -, a minute longer and then he blew his nose. 'You mean you .won't marry me?' he t asked, I said: Tm afraid'l'd better not.' So he said: 'All right! All right! No harm in asking. You go ahead and finish filing those papers.' So lie swun-j around to his desK and I. went out, and that's all there was to it." _ "It's the most unromantic ' thing I ever heard in my life," her mother pronounced. "I don't blame you for not accepting him, Julia. If anybody had proposed to me like that when I was a girl, I'd have slapped him." Pullen had seated himself on the couch,.listening with amusement to his daughter's story." "Never heard of anything funnier,' said he. "Gives you the plaster;on Mrs. Hamilton's house" and asks you to be his!"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean by a 'plaster,' but I'm sitt" we're wronging Mr. Murty," said his wife, suddenly . switching her point of view. "It must be Hard for a mature gentleman to humble himself before a chit of a girl. Maybe you'd better go down and talk it over with him, Fred." .... "What'd I say to him?" her husband inquired. ;. ..•- V'Why,'just say that. we will consider his proposal, and let him know later." "Not by a darn sight!" he, responded, with vigour.-. "It's Julia's proposal—not ours. If she doesn't want; tovmarry him, she shan't." "But he's been so good to us! Giving us all the'furniture, and the mortgage ..-■■-.* » j

"Queer about the mortgage," he said; opening the blue-backed f older.again, and running his eye over it. "I wonder if it's possible that he has given us these things!"' "He said the mortgage was from a client of his," Julia told him. "It has just been, renewed, and Mr. Murty took it in his/own name, and is transferring it to \ you." '-- .-. "L" simply give it up," said •"'Pullen. "There's somebody who "has'loaded us with presents — thousands of dollars worth. There;! never was any" luck like it! Then ; the bigjdiamond comes back, and we getithereward.onvthat!".' Mrs. Pullen, on his arm, her eyes : solemnly earnest; ''■]• "It was Mr. Murty did it all!" she said.

: ''Last I heard it was Sam Carlile," said he. "Before that it was Parks, and before Mm it was the fat man." "Oh, my! I forgot." Mrs. Pullen ignored iher husband's taunt, and proceeded to relate her day's adventures, with special stress upon the moment when.she saw her enemy spying upon her from across the street. "And she positively bored into me with her eyes," she concluded, "when the stout gentleman left me." . ■»'.

Her husband frowned thoughtfully, as he leaned back with his .hands clasped over one knee. , "I thought; we were rid of that porky old masher,"- he said. "And so Parks has hooked , up'with Mrs. Hamilton! And has gone; to see-the fat man!" ' \ Rising, he paced the,hall. His wife, pleased with the attention her' story had gained, went over it once more in full, with many comments. Her husband only grunted. * v . ... .. • , At last he turned, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets. ' "Those three people can: make us trouble,", he said. "There's only one thing—Parks hasnt talked with the fat'man yet. That's pretty evident, because the fat man thought; we'd sent Parks to him." "But we don't want any more trouble, protested Mrs. Pullen.- ■ "We seem .tojget-it,;, wkether-we-want; it : or'not/'.her "husband -saidi , ■■ -'

"Can't we do something? Ask them to let us alone, maybe?" his wife pursued. "Fat lot of good that would do," Pullen said. He laughed briefly, and went on. "There's just one satisfaction. When Mrs. Hamilton finds out we own the mortgage on her place, she'll be madder than she's ever been in her life." Dinner had been forgotten in the press of other affairs, and now, with a little scream, Mrs. Pullen remembered it. She scurried to the kitchen, lighted the gas stove, and scattered commands to her ■husband and daughter whom she had summoned to her aid. [ "We'll have to do with chops and fried | potatoes and bread and jelly," she said, !as she bustled to and fro. "I was so upset this afternoon that dinner never entered my head." While she peeled potatoes, drawn from a big pot on the back of the stove, Julia and Pullen set the table and brought out the skillets, the lard and salt and pepper and arranged them for the housewife's use. "When our new house is done," chattered Mrs. Pullen, "I wish we knew a lot of people—prominent people. I'd give them a big party for a housewarming, and never invite Mrs. Hamilton or any of these women here at all." Her voive grew doleful. "But I don't know anybody, Fred." She dropped the thin slices of potato into her skillet. "Is Sam Carlile still living away from his folks?" she asked. "His mother has told him he can come ! home—if he doesn't come to see us any jmore," said Julia. " ; "What's he going to do?" inquired the mother, stirring with a long fork. i "Says he'll stay away until Mrs. Carlile calls 011 you and says she's sorry," j Julia told her. I "Then he'll never go home," sighed • Mrs. Pullen. "Women never say they're ' sorry. They always let on it's the I jther person's fdult." j A bell rang in the hallway. "Julia, you answer," ordered the 11 other. ; The girl obeyed, and a murmur of con versa tion sounded for a time through the closed door. When Julia returned, her eyes were glistening and her cheek' flushed with excitement. Poising herself diamatically before her mother and father, she announced: | "More news, people! Mr. Parks has seen the fat man!" (To be continued daily.)