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Show I TEMPTRESS BY H. M. EGBERT (Copyright, 1915, by W. G. Chapman.) The little Welshman and Van Trevor looked at each other in the rich man's I library. The little Welshman was obviously ob-viously in need of a job. Van Trevor thought. A sense of compassion rose up In him as he inspected the shabby figure. "Well, Mr. Evans?" he inquired blandly. "I have come with reference to that advertisement for a man to catalogue your books," said Evans. His heart was thumping madly; he was desperately desper-ately afraid Van Trevor would see his need and cut down the salary. "You are acquainted with the classics, class-ics, I believe?" inquired Van Trevor. "Yes, sir. I studied Greek and Latin at Cardiff university. I know French and German, a little Hebrew, some Spanish " Van Trevor extended his hand cordially. cor-dially. "My dear fellow, that is sat-isfactn-" he said. "The work should last about three months. You understand under-stand it is not permanent, of course?" he added. "I only need It for the summer, sir," replied the little Welshman. "I am studying at the Theological seminary. I have a means of working off our board after the term begins." He hesitated. The use of the plural form had betrayed what he had not been anxious to reveal. "My wife and myself," he explained, hesitating. Van Trevor nodded. "Well, my dear fellow, about the salary," he said. "Would er forty dollars a week be satisfactory?" The little Welshman could not restrain re-strain a gasp. He had expected twenty, twen-ty, he had hoped daringly for twenty-five. twenty-five. "That's settled, then," said Van Trevor. "And now, Mr. Evans, you "She's Too Good for That ' Little Shrimp." must lunch with me and meet Mrs. Van Trevor." Mrs. Van Trevor proved to be a little, lit-tle, vivacious brunette. She shook hands with Evans cordially, and they sat down to lunch in a magnificently furnished room, while a butler served them. Evans was conscious of a painful diffidence. A gentleman by birth, a long period of hardship had made him self-conscious. He wondered whether he was using his knife and fork correctly. cor-rectly. The Van Trevors seemed sticklers for etiquette. In Wales one met all classes upon a free and easy basis; here there seemed to be a conventionalized con-ventionalized ritual, a little different, and puzzling. The Van Trevors drew him out about his wife. "You must bring her to see us," said the rich man's wife, as they parted. II. Leila Evans' beauty and copper hair was the sensation of Mrs. Van Trevor's Tre-vor's afternoon. The girl had been married six months. She had run away from a wealthy home in Cardiff to go to America with the little Welshman. Welsh-man. Those six months had been of unmitigated hardship. Her illusions of happiness in the New World were shattered. She loved her husband, but she hated the sordid barrenness Df life in furnished lodgings. The visit 'o the Van Trevors had opened up a new vista of life for her. She clung to Evans' arm as they left the house together. "Dear," she said, "Mrs. Van Trevor has asked me to come to the house every day to act as her secretary. What do you think of it? She is going go-ing to pay me twenty-five dollars a week!" Evans was overcome by emotion. '"They are splendid people, Leila.'' he sain. "Who would have tnought that wo should find such good friends in New York? It looks like a prosperous future tor us, doesn't it, dear?" Elsie Van Trevor and her nusband sat together in their drawing-room af'er the gu'ists nad gone. "What do you think or them? "asked Van Trevor. "She's dear," Raid Elule. "She's too good for that little shrimp. Too good altogether." "Poor little devil!" said Van Trevor. "He told me he's saving up for an operation op-eration on his ear. He says It's likely like-ly to prove serious some day if he doesn't have It done." "She's too good for him," his wife repeated, following her train of thought. "I don't see how she came to marry him. If I have any chance I'm going to open her eyes. Why, he Isn't even a gentleman, dear." III. Elsie Van Trevor had gone to their bungalow at the seashore and taken her secretary with her. The little Welshman was cataloguing the books in the library alone. He missed his wife greatly. It was their first separation. Somehow he felt that Mrs. Van Trevor's sudden friendship for Leila boded 111 for them both. But Leila had been crazy to go; there were to be house parties and all sorts of gayety, and later Evans was to be Invited for a day or two. Somewhere a bell had been ringing furiously all the morning. The little Welshman" wondered where it' could be. He threw up the window and looked out. Suddenly a violent pain shot through his head, as if a knife had pierced him. The bell was in hia own head. And the pain was stabbing stab-bing without cessation. He screamed with the agony of It He tried to stagger across the room, collapsed, and moaned upon the floor. He saw Van Trevor standing over him, a look of fear in his eyes. Then through a period of unconsciousness he grew to a dim realization of the jolting ambulance, the hospital, the white-capped nurses, and the sickening sicken-ing stench of the ether cone. He opened his eyes to find himself in a bed in the hospital. His head was swathed in bandages. "You'll do finely now," the nurse said, and he opened his eyes a second time to see Van Trevor at his side. "How are you, my dear chap?" he asked. "By George, that was touch and go, but the surgeon says you're all right now." "You haven't told my wife?" asked Evans weakly. "No. I thought It best not to alarm her," answered the other. Van Trevor never came again through the slow days of convalescence. conva-lescence. Evans' letters to Leila were unanswered. Gradually a sickening sick-ening fear began to come over the little lit-tle Welshman, a sense of some un-deflnable un-deflnable tragedy. At last, when two weeks had passed, he was permitted to leave the hospital. He hurried to the Van Trevor house. The butler, who opened the door, stood in his way. "Mr. Van Trevor left a letter for you, sir," he said, handing him a missive. mis-sive. The little Welshmen opened it. It stated briefly that the work had come to an end, and Included a check for five hundred dollars. Evans tore the check to pieces and turned away from the house in blind agony and rage. IV. The bungalows stood side by side In their trim plots at tho edge of the shore. Near by, at the huge hotel, were music and dancing, and the mirth of holiday-makers. Many couples, strolling along the road, looked askance at the seedy little man, with the bandage about his head, who walked hurriedly toward the bungalow at the end of the row. In the shadow of a pine tree Evans halted. The bungalow was ablaze with lights. He heard the voices of Van Trevor and his friends, and the tittering laughter of his wife. Then came a laugh that made him clutch at his heart Leila's. Then suddenly the little Welshman seemed to become inspired with a strong personality that had never been his. He strode through the open door into the living-room, and stood there at the door. He saw a look of fear in Van Trevor's Trev-or's eyes, astonishment in the guests', wonder in Leila's. The little, shabby man suddenly dominated the situation. "Hugh!" exclaimed Leila, leaping to her feet. "You are ill! What is the matter?" "I have come to take you home, dear," said Evans. Mrs. Van Trevor advanced with mincing steps. "This is Leila's husband," hus-band," she explained to the group. "He has been unwell, you know. Mr. Evans, it would really have been more seemly to have written." "Come, dear," said Evans, taking his wife's arm in his. In that moment he saw all the struggle In the girl's soul; the old love and the new pleasures. It was a hard test for her, beaten by the storms of uncertainty. "Leila is certainly not going away with you, ' exclaimed Elsie Van Trevor Trev-or angrily. "This is an outrage! Leila, dear, we will protect you." With a swift, passionate gesture Evans tore the bracelets from Leila's arms, the pendant from her neck, and cast them down. And, wnile they still stared at them, they were gone, and Leila clung to her husband's neck in the darkness. "Hugh, dearest!" she wept. "What was it? Why didn't you write? I didn't know you had been ill. They wanted me to get a divorce O, Hugh, if you hadn't come they would have made me do anytmng anything. Keep "ne! Guard me; Never leave me again! ' And in her husband's clasp she felt at last a safeguard against tne dangers dan-gers that naa Beset her and knew that thenceforward their real life I would be together. |