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But I went just the same. You know how hard it is to step out of the rouâ€" tine business of your life just because some disaster has befallen you. .Your When I returned to my bachelor rooms in town I. had only time to change to some dry clothing and ‘hurry over to the rehearsal without getting anything to eat. Food _did not appeal to me anyway. Neither did anything else least of all rehearsâ€" ing a lot of fool loveâ€"talk. My own romance had suffered such a disheartâ€" ening setâ€"back that I was in no mood to enact the role of a handâ€"hammered Romeo of mythology. _ We started out to rehearse it that way, but ran into difficulties when the â€"matter of costumes came up for disâ€" ~ cussion. It seemed advisable that the statue should wear white tights and white greaseâ€"paint on the face .in order to carry out the illusion. All . _the ladies of the elub were quite conâ€" tent that it should_ be so, but when it ‘came to assigning the parts. each ~ and every one refused to be Galatea. _ Tonight was to be the dress reâ€" hearsal and on the following evening we were scheduled to give avtrial perâ€" formance in the barn at the _Old Solâ€" diers‘ honie.~ The trial performance was for the double purpose of getting easy in our parts and of making the old soldiers realize that war is not so terrible after all. : For a time it looked as if we should have to fall back on some little sketch of Shakespeare‘s until Maryella made the practical suggestion that _ we change the story. Her idea was to make Galatea a sculptorine who hamâ€" mers a hunk of stone into a beautiful male statue by the name of Pygmaâ€" lion. s Th3 ‘¢iÂ¥: CHAPTER II * . NCO OC O _ ABmmmneat" _ [_ Our version of "Pygmalion and Galatea" would doubtless surprise you i# you are at al familiar with the original, in which Pygmalion isâ€"the artist and carves the lady in the sketch out of a block of marble. F4 Tom Bilbeck is the narrator. He is ‘a fat newspaper writer who drives a tumbledown car he calls Grandmother Page. He is in love with Maryella, his rival being Jim Cooper. . The three are members of an amateur dramatic group. Plans for a play at the Old Soldiers‘ home are under way. Grandâ€" mother Page has engine trouble while Maryella is out driving with Bilbeck, and Cooper, passing in a big roadster, taunts him.. After Maryella has left Bilbeck is able to start his car again. *SECOND INSTALLMENT wWHAT HAS HAPPENED 50 FAR 34 appol pivoma t innnmationinintiien us ssilcatrerthsiman coametn pnnonnstente io nimenanmn stt " Pm en eeenneeanened en o EoT Oe in P ernee * The part of a young sculptor‘s apâ€" prentice was taken by Mrs. Hemmingâ€" way, a dazzling blond who was worth going miles to behold in a short tunic and ~sandals. She wouldn‘t have fooled any one but a blind man into thinking she was a boy, nobody He was even thinner than I had suspected. As a Highlander he would never be a conspicuous success. Any one could tell that at a glance.: supposed toâ€" take the place of the statue in the same pose so that a little later I could come to life in response to Galatea‘s wish. _ $ <f .. When I came in they were rehearsâ€" ing with the dummy. Everything apâ€" peared to be going very well. Maryâ€" ella looked absolutely ravishing in the Greek drapery, and Jim Cooper was doing the best he could to impersonâ€" ate a skinny Greed varrior. ~__I was late, but it didn‘t make much difference, as all during the first act the statue of Pygmalion was a papierâ€" mache figure. Between the acts I was "Business as usual" is not the motto of an exceptional nation. It is the underlying principle of the progâ€" ress of the human race. . The Sheridan Dramatic club had borrowed for rehearsals the stage of the local operaâ€"house, which was vaâ€" cant that week. It was there that I wended my disconsolate way. ( perceptions become numbed and you wonder vaguely why the sun is shinâ€" ing, but ygil:' go on doing the things that are expected of you just as you have always done. gf omcs ie The Statue With Bow Legs! ENEpESEAREL SAE iA HeGn n ie Pen Rrsarmmiinindsrnmin nemens n on iirnanmmsinisnes TH E P KR E §:i __I stood motionless during the introâ€" ductory music. There was a flutter of surprise among the members of the club who were not on the â€"stage at that moment and had stepped out into the auditorium toâ€"steal a look from the other side of the footâ€" Jights. It must have been beautiful. I know I was conscious of looking well in that pose and lighting. °I The curtain was down between the acts. I took my place on the pedestal, slightly nervous but determined to get through somehow if the seams of the tights did their part. The stage was dimly illumined with blue moonâ€" lightâ€" Just before the curtain rose I dropped the overcoat behind me.: . on a white wig which was provided for me. I slipped on my overcoat over the costume to step up on the stage. â€" â€" s s t . __Off stage, doing a piece of emâ€" broidery while she waited for her cue, was Mrs. George P. Lillielove, the wife of ‘the most popular undertaker in town. In Greek robes Mrs. Lillieâ€" lpve looked almost exactly like a hayâ€" stack with a tarpauliit over it. §A 1nere were a aozen other parts played ‘with intent to kill in the good: old amateur. way. I ‘discovered forâ€" mer male friends hidden behind bushy"® beards that dropped off occasionally at a critical moment, leaving the acâ€" ‘tor ~baldâ€"faced and speechless; and ladies ~I used to know disguised as Hellenic maidens by doing their hair into a Physche knot and trimming theirâ€"best nighties with a Greek keyâ€" design and an occasional swastika. minded that. Sne nad talents enough 10 get Into a alegfeld chorus any day. "No, I don‘t wear them myself," she assured them in response to the unâ€" spoken question, "but I‘ve heard that there are such things." "I know what to do." â€" _ Mrs. Hemmingway came to the rescue with a practical suggestion. ~_"You can buy a pair of those things that chorus girls wear sometimes â€" symmetricals, I think they are callâ€" ed.u.â€"l, "Why not try standing sideways to the audience all the time," suggested Jim Cooper, who. with .his noseâ€" glasses on and cigarette in his mouth was the beau ideal of a Greek warâ€" rior. "Don‘t be silly," she replied. "No one else could learn the part in time." "Come,. people," interrupted the coach pleasantly. "We mustn‘t waste time. Remember there is a lot to do before we leave here this evening." .__"The.play is ruined," she declared. "Not at all," I said with as much injured dignity as I could command in white tights. "You can easily get some one else to play this part. If you look around the club you can doubtless find someone with legs like beanâ€"poles." i She knew whom I meant without my ‘explaining more. particularly. _ "*Well," _I â€" temporized,. "IL didn‘t think I knew . you well enough for that." o & "But no one ever saw a bowâ€"legged statute before,"â€"she argued petulant ly. "I â€"don‘t care personally. I supâ€" pose that lots of really estimable men have personal peculiarities; but can you imagine a sculptor creating a statute â€" intentionally ~ bowâ€"legged ? Why didn‘t you tell me?" she wailed "Why didft‘t ~youâ€" tell me?" â€" "I didn‘t know â€"thereâ€"was anything criminal in being slightly curved. It really comes from skrength. ‘Lots of men are." °C BR > ¢ : "No," she stopped him impatiently. "I know my lines. It‘s the statue." â€"_Her tone was full of vexation. "What‘s the matter?" â€" I inquired, without â€"abandoning â€" my â€" attitude. "This is the same pose I‘ve been takâ€" ing every night at rehearsal ever since we began." os "It isn‘t that. You are bowâ€"legged." She .spoke accusingly, as if I had madeâ€"~a blunder of some sort on purâ€" pose. "What‘s the trouble?" inquired the coach, who stood,. book in ‘hand, just over the footâ€"lights. > "Miss Waite, your line is, ‘My dearest. wishâ€"‘" I would‘come to life.. Maryella was wordless. § She held her pose for a long time without saying a wordâ€"without ex= pressing even a whispered wish that Galatea‘s eyes were on the floor, pensive. She came slowly to the pedâ€" estal on which I stood. She knelt. She looked up. A¢~~ ‘flexed my muscles to make them stanid ut better. _~ Piri ce Galatéa entered; She was dressed in a goldâ€"trimmed robe. On her neck was a single : strand of beautiful pearls. I recognized them . as Mrs. Hemmingway‘s. Maryella had borâ€" rowed > them because their owner couldn‘t wear them for the perforâ€" mance, as she was playing the part of a boy. “Oh‘!” That was a sensitive subject with MBR IERW n cumus Thursday, April 25, 1929 a | “YOU _ repeated 3 ‘Yes. O until I~ _ know yo 8 She P 4 _ I supj _ hersclf S Mrs. He _â€" and her _ been cw Here I j _ beautifu _ and she _ and tho: 9 ... j» _ The de ing to m promptec one wom flicted by to gwceept which it "I real about yo Then she had praise! "Than preciatio were a r I realiy your. pra _1 m g of bluet I decide "The } cently e where y there in than Ch And t wrote it I got pathizin the aud care to my actin persona my legs "I th play; do hind me . I look Mrs. He the half appare} made r from th soon as lion and not leas I might formanc be cons; nity and taok too Maryell: pect me of befor Thursd The c any ent was su Cooper rior. ~E because I bump ella hov chicken: while th the thir _ The t through eral lov was so cism ‘th "AHl 1 with th