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Show pie, and no more there wasn't the slightest us In Armstrong's loitering disconsolately In the neighborhood ; It had a maximum capacity of two. Furthermore, Fur-thermore, It was removed by several feet from the nearest listening post. He was so close to her that their sleeves touched; he looked Into the beautiful eyes which were so clear, so unsuspecting; and his will swayed perilously. Had he prepared so long and savagely for his requital, only to lose his impetus at almost the first glance of those brown eyes? He reflected re-flected that there was nothing to prevent pre-vent hira from being a good salesman, and from renewing his predilection for Carol at the same time. The idea of courting her again, In his false character, char-acter, was highly dramatic. . . . "I know you won't misunderstand me," he said, his heart stinking, "and I hone that vou won't consider it as NOBODY KW iioi;woiniY I 1ALL You've got more Influence over him than I have, anyhow. And don't yon dare to let him get away without a promise understand?" He passed on, and left them together. "l'ou walk along with me, sir!" said Angela. Imperially. "And you'd better behave yourself I'm fierce !" At the same moment that he looked yearningly toward Carol, who up ahead by the doorway was already captive to the wily Armstrong, young Rufus Waring was glaring belligerently belligerent-ly toward Milliard. I The masquerader smiled In defeat, then smiled with sudden realization of the woman-child clinging to him. He squeezed her arm out of sheer affection. affec-tion. "Your gallant cnvalier'U cover me with horrid welts and bruises for this!" he said warningly. "Don't make him jealous, now!" They were now bringing up the rear of the procession pro-cession in the hallway. "I'll make 'em well again," said Angela. An-gela. "I am a good nurse, aren't I?" He was convulsed by her air of conquest. con-quest. "Ry the old-fashioned method?" He could hardly believe that this was the girl he had taught to climb trees, and make slingshots. "I'll " She stopped and blushed. The others were all on the steps ; these two were in the dusky vestibule. Waring War-ing was fretting Impatiently outside. "Would you?" asked Hilliard. He intended only to tease her; but all at once her head came up, and he could "You've earned my permanent thank But I am growing old. How do I know? Didn't you evar read Leigh Hunt?" Just a little.- There was traof of warmth creeping Into her volca Hilliard held his breath: Say I'm weary, ujr I'm sad; Say that health and wealth have mled me; Say I'm growing old, but add Angela kissed me! He had spoken the lines magnificently, magnifi-cently, with the precise humor and pathos which go to make them Immortal. Im-mortal. "I'm glad she fits Into the meter," he said thoughtfully, "because I can understand just how Leigh Hunt felt about Jennie." "And how do you think that was?" "Very sensitive," said Hilliard, "and perhaps a little repressed and decrepit." de-crepit." He smiled reniiniscently. "I suppose there are very few things In life that make a man feel more mindful mind-ful of his own crudity and general worthlessness than to have a child's spontaneous affection." It was tho testing venture. She looked at hin sidewise. "More than If If It weren't a child?" "I think so." His tone was faultless. fault-less. "A woman can make a man fee! like Romeo, but it takas a very younfc girl to make him feel like Launcelot at my age." "She Is adorable, isu't she?" HU heart jumped at her cordial acceptance accept-ance of his statement. "Only she's seventeen, Mr. Hilliard." I a time, he amused himself by watching watch-ing Angela and Waring playing their world-old game across the table; after that, he paid a little polite attention to Mrs. Durant, and to the clergyman ; and then snatching an opportunity un-lookod un-lookod for, he gave his kindest smile to Carol, and for an Instant took the monopoly from Armstrong. And he had hardly looked down once into her October-brown eyes before the mystery of his restlessness was as clear as crystal, and Hilliard was thoroughly dumfoundod, and confused. It had come upon him, a quarter of an hour ago, ns they exchanged their first superficial sentences, that he was lonelier than he had ever Imagined, but he hadn't realized, until this immediate im-mediate contingency, that this sensation sensa-tion had carried over until now. He was prevented, by the very limits of the project which had brought him here, from releasing any of his sincere thoughts; he hadn't comprehended, until un-til he had learned the truth Just now by actual experience, that loneliness is nothing but an aggravated state of self-repression. Never In all his life, not even when he had lain for months In hospital in France, had he been as lonely as today, and at this moment, when he was surrounded by people he knew Intimately, and when he was enjoined en-joined from sharing In their community communi-ty of mind. too presumptuous but the other day you spoke of Dicky Morgan as a very dear friend of yours. Miss Durant, I want to do everything in the world I can for you, and he was my dear friend as well as yours. I'm not disloyal dis-loyal to him, or to you, or to myself but I should like more than I can ever tell you to feel that I had done my utmost ut-most to take his place. No one can do that literally I am not so vain but I feel, and I have felt from the time we met each other, Dicky would have wanted us to be friends." "That's that's wonderfully thoughtful thought-ful of you," said Carol, softly. "And . . . and I think he would have wanted that ... if he'd known. . . ." Her eyes were suspiciously dim and Hll-llard's Hll-llard's loneliness . dissolved Into a great spasm of longing which held him and shook him and left him weak with impotence "Then I'll stay in Syracuse," he said abruptly. "Provided provided you won't be offended if I do have to want to know you for yourself just a little selfishly. I'm afraid that isn't very clear It's difficult to separate It but you see " "Don't try to explain," she said, subdued. sub-dued. "I know how hard all this must be for you and I think perhaps you need my friendship as much as I need yours." Before he could reply, there was a flutter of indescribable gracefulness i inns1 He Had Been Observed. "I know," he said gravely. "And that's why I'm so conscious of my own senility. Because all that -beautiful Innocence and Ignorance ts doomed, Miss Durant who knows that I'm not the very last person to see It? Today, I'm only a much older man, some one she likes ; tomorrow, I may be a man without the 'only,' and the more she liked me, the less she'd show It. But there's been mighty little of that sort of thing for me in the last few years from anybody, any-body, and I do appreciate It, and I'm not ashamed of It, either." "No," she said, "you couldn't be. You're too human." She smiled at him, and he was transported at the proof of her sympathy. "If I were In your place, I'd want to feel the same way about It." He thanked her in his heart. He had saved both Angela and himself, and held his pristine advantage. But there was no disputing the fact that he had made an active enemy of Waring, andean alert rival out of Armstrong. He smiled grimly as he looked at the man ahead. "Mr. Armstrong seems to be very nervous," he said. "Not that I can blame him for wanting to be in my before them. Angela was courtesying in mock obeisance to the floor. Behind her, AVaring was watching her possessively. pos-sessively. "If your majesties will wake up half a second," she said, "everybody's going to walk up around the Sedgwick farm tract to get some fresh air. Coming?" As they stood together, drenched with regret for the confidences that might forever remain unsaid, a maid appeared In the doorway. "Please, ma'am," she said breath- Carol, looking up at him with what wasn't exactly a smile, but was at least a cousin to it that well-remembered flash of sympathetic interest-Carol interest-Carol spoke to him under cover of the general conversation. "A penny for your thoughts !" . she proffered. "They aren't worth It," said Hilliard. Hil-liard. "I was thinking about myself." He continued to regard her steadily, and he was alarmed to discover that he was losing one of the abilities which had made him so sure of himself. him-self. He continued to hold that she had treated him shabbily, mercilessly; but notwithstanding that, as he gazed at her, and perceived the sweet naturalness nat-uralness which was developing out of last week's shock, he was secretly perturbed. per-turbed. In spite of himself, he began be-gan to see, as though by camera ob-scura, ob-scura, dim visions of the past ; he was righteously annoyed that they should rise to torment him, and still the visions vi-sions came. "But after all that you've been through," she said, "I should think your thoughts about yourself would be extremely Interesting!" "I'm afraid they're rather gloomy. Miss Durant, whenever they touch on what I've been through. And when anything like this gathering here today to-day builds up a comparison. . . . I'm sorry, but I can't always master It." "You mean the difference between a family over here and a family over there?" "Exactly," he said. "Down to the last detail what we eat, and where we live, and what we talk about, and what we think about everything." "I've thought of that, too," she said soberly. "But I'll have to confess that It wasn't until you, came it wasn't until after that fitst night at Angela's that the great difference came home to me. It's made me feel that it's al ar ;i, "ANGELA KISSED ME!" .Synopsis. Dick Morgan of .Syracuse, .Syra-cuse, N. V., a failure In life, enlisted enlist-ed In the Koreign I.elon (if the l-'rench army under the name of Henry Hilliard, la dlsllgured by shrapnel. The French surgeons UHk fur a photograph to guide them In restoring his face. In his rage ugalriHl Hie he offers In derision a picture postcard hearing the radiant radi-ant face of Christ. The surgeons do a good Job. On his waygack to America he meets Martin Harmon, Har-mon, a New York broker. The result Is that Morgan, under the name of HtlUard and unrecognized as Morgan, goes back to Syracuse to selling a mining stock. He Is determined de-termined to make good. He tells people of the death of Morgan. Ho llndH In Angela Cullen a loyal defender de-fender of Ijlck Morgan. He meets Carol Uurunt, who had refused to marry him. She does not hesitate to tell him that she had loved Morgan. Mor-gan. Hilliard tlnds lie still loves her and la tempted to confess. Hilliard Hil-liard tempts Cullen, his former employer, em-ployer, with his mining scheme. tel i a CHAPTER VI. Continued. "A good principle, too, but " Mr. Cullen glanced at his watch. "It's dinner din-ner time, and more too. We'd better get along up to the house, or the first thing you know, we'll have servant troubles In our midst. And you didn't bring up that subject anyway I brought it .up." He took Angela's arm paternally. "Just ns a matter of fact," be said, clearing his throat. "As a matter of fact, Mr. Hilliard whereabouts where-abouts did you say this property Is located?" Shortly .after dinner Angela, who had lied to the telephone in answer to a tHMvmptory summons, came back complacent. "Dinner at the Durant's on Sunday," she announced. "All three of us. Very quiet, Carol said. So I accepted and that means you've got to stay with us two days more anyway, .Mr. Hilliard. Do you mind very much?" "Mind!" Hilliard had risen half out of his chair. His tremendous yearning to see Carol again, and his violent reaction at the prospect, had greatly influenced his voice, which was strident, explosive. The Cullens were laughing aloud at his confusion. "He's blushing!" crowed Angela. "Look at him! Look at him!" Indeed, he was crimson to the temples. tem-ples. Sunday forty-eight hours ! How he had spurned her ! and how he had suffered from that moment until now ! To see her again . . . merely to see her! Business was business, and the farce must go on ; no matter what else happened, he must hew out his success ; he had ceased to love her, and he had come prepared for guerilla warfare . . . but to see her again ! To hear her voice ! To watch that smile of hers, and remember the tears she had shed for Dicky Morgan ! Sunday forty-eight hours ! The Cullens were still laughing at him, and in Angela's soprano there was a note of feminine resentment, but Hilliard's ears were suddenly stone deaf. CHAPTER VII. Since Friday night, Hilliard had lived only for Sunday ; his whole exls-. exls-. tence had been turned to Sunday, and when at last the morning dawned, his greatest fear was that he might not live until dinner-time. On- reaching Carol's side, he was both awkward and incoherent ; and he failed to derive encouragement from the realization which gradually stole over him, that the Durants had asked a number of other guests to dinner. Armstrong was waiting patiently In the aisle, and keeping closer to Carol than Hilliard liked, and there was also a bright-faced boy of nineteen or twenty twen-ty who had promptly attached himself to Angela his name was Waring, and he was the grandson of the patriarchal patriarch-al clergyman, with the head of Moses and the spirit of youth, who presently jBtne down to join the little group, and Complete it So that altogether there were nine people who finally sat down to table; und Hilliard's dream of quiet progress and harbored conversation was shattered in a twinkling. It was all very homelike, and all very friendly, but to Hilliard, sitting there between Carol and her mother, the occasion was peculiarly acute. He had long since discarded any residue of his active fears ; he was confident con-fident In his disguise to the point of recklessness, for he had covered the windings of the trail by an Infinite variety of methods; and yet without having any tangible facts to jrnsp, he was subtly warned to re-aialn re-aialn on sentry duty over his poise. He was gratified that the conversation, conversa-tion, after one natural enough eddy, was whirled n'.vny from tiie vicissitudes Of !i''.;y Morgan, for he hod talked 1 r !t:i,i nr.n icnlar sn'Moct. For place. On the contrary, I'm sorry for him.1'. "That shows a very good disposition," disposi-tion," she said demurely. "Perhaps it does, and perhaps It doesn't. I believe every man owes It to himself to get what he wants. If he does, he's a success ; if he doesn't it's his own fault." As he said this, they came abreast of the others, and Armstrong, who had heard the final sentence, whirled toward Hilliard. "Regardless of methods?" he , demanded. de-manded. "Why to some extent," laughed Hilliard. "Why not?" Armstrong delayed, so that the two men were a few paces behind the rest of the group. "Is that your regular creed, Mr. Hilliard?" "My creed isn't composed of words, Mr. Armstrong, but of actions." They had spoken so quietly that uo one perceiving them w'ould have remotely re-motely suspected that a challenge hod been offered and accepted. "Actions do speak louder, of course." "Mine," said Hilliard, "will' give you no offense. But I generally get what I want." "So do I Shall we shake hands on it?" Armstrong was very affable, but tremendously in earnest. "With pleasure. I can count On your generosity, I see." "And I on your courtesy." "Thank you." He went complacently complacent-ly forward; but inwardly he was steeped in perturbation. The man was so deadly sure of himself. Could it be that he was tacitly engaged to Carol, in spite of what Angela bad surmised, or so nearly on the road to an understanding with her that Hilliard Hil-liard was only making a fool of himself? him-self? Armstrong laughed gently. It was like a dagger thrust In Hilliard's heart. . "One chance in a thousand!" thou-sand!" (TO BE CONTINUED.) see that her eyes were big and soft and frightened. She was hardly seventeen, seven-teen, and to Hilliard she had never ceased to be the child of two years ago. He bent and kissed her; her lips were trembling, expressive. "Now we've got to hurry," he said. "Come, dear!" It was the tone he would naturally use to a child, but he had an uneasy feeling that he had used it to a woman. wom-an. Children's lips aren't expressive. And he had another intuition still more upsetting to him which was that he had been observed. For on the threshold of the outer door Carol and Armstrong and Rufus Waring, as though turned back to inquire into the cause of Hilliard's and Angela's delay, were standing. ... He could not tell, of course, whether they had actually seen him. It was possible that in the dusk of the hallway hall-way he had escaped ; certainly there was nothing in the manner of any one of the three, when Hilliard joined them, to convince him one way or the other. But he knew that he was In a critical situation ; he knew that to any reasonable person who had seen him at that spontaneous little outburst of sentiment, his motives wouldn't appear to be very opaque. No, the manner of those three who had stood on the threshold was astonishingly aston-ishingly casual. Perhaps too casual. . . . Hilliard frowrned, and tried to glimpse their various expressions. Ah ! Waring, striding stiltedly ahead, had thunderclouds on his forehead, and as for Carol ... She turned to speak to Armstrong, and Hilliard knew. For the remainder of the first stage of that walk, he spoke not a word to Angela, who trudged along by his side with God knows what tumults In her bosom. He thought not of Angela, nor concerned himself with the storm he had stirred within her. He was absorbed ab-sorbed solely with the puzzle which lay before him, which was to detach' Carol as soon as possible, and to explain ex-plain himself. Otherwise, his reputation reputa-tion was ashes even now. And, to his unbounded joy, the opportunity op-portunity came soon at the end of the road, where the party halted for a moment, to take a referendum as to the route. Armstrong strayed a yard or two too far, and on the instant Hilliard Hil-liard was at Carol's elbow. She said nothing, nor did he; but when the march was resumed, he was beside her and beating his brains for an Introductory Intro-ductory remark. He had to convince her he had been trifling with neither herself nor Angela, and he walked a good furlong before he could devise sc much as an opening sentence. At length he cleared his throat. "I've just decided," he said, "that I'm growing old." "Yes?" She was Immeasurably swee' and distant, and Hilliard's courage faltered. "I have Indeed. I've made a most touching discovery. . . . Do 1 look . randfatherly, Miss Durant?" '"No; I'd hardly say that." He mad t gesture of gratl'inte Mr. Hilliard." "Right In my study," called the doctor, doc-tor, hurrying. "Just across the hall. There you are !" and ushered him into the sanctum and considerately closed the door. Despite the urgent summons which the average person feels under such circumstances Hilliard was astonishingly astonish-ingly tardy in sitting down to the receiver. re-ceiver. For one thing he was still vibrating from his recent stress of passion ; for another he knew pretty certainly what the message was going to be, and for a third, he was somewhat some-what emotionally under the spell of the doctor's room. Hilliard had spent a hundred hours in it pleasant hours, so that Involuntarily yielding to its kindly atmosphere, and all that the atmosphere at-mosphere Implied, he took time, to survey sur-vey all four walls before he took up the receiver. And after he had listened lis-tened to the telegram, and ordered n copy mailed to him in care of Mr. Cullen, Cul-len, he took time to survey those walls again, more closely ; and this was partly for their intrinsic significance, and partly because his feelings were so fresh and tender that he dreaded to return at once to the gathering which, as a whole, couldn't be expected to defer de-fer to them. His eyes fell upon the doctor's desk, wandered and suddenly focussed hard and piercingly. He went over to the desk and slowly put out his hand and lifted up a small photograph pho-tograph In a metal frame. "Well, I'll be darned !" said Hilliard, just above a whisper. The turning of the doorknob roused him ; he wheeled with the photograph still in his hand. "Hello !" said Doctor Durant, cheerfully. cheer-fully. "Get your message all right? What's that you've found? Oh, yes Dick's picture." Hilliard swallowed hard, and found that his voice was querly out of control. con-trol. "It's it's the same one " "Yes it's the same as the one you brought back. I've had It there ever since he gave it to me." He took it gently from Hilliard's hand ; replaced it on the desk. "How that boy would have made good If he had lived !" said the doctor, In an undertone. un-dertone. "Well they're waiting for us." Hilliard, following him outside, encountered en-countered the two Cullens in the hall, and at sight of his florid host, he collected col-lected his wits, and resumed his part in the play. "Oh !" he said. "I I that was from one that was a telegram from the manager of the syndicate, Mr. Cullen ; he said It's decided not to try to re-syndicate re-syndicate any stock, but to hold it ourselves for the long pull everything's every-thing's put off for three or four weeks anyway. IVn having a copy mailed to the house there's some news In it I thought you might like to see." "Good ! That leaves you free, doesn't it? You'll stay on with us then? Don't sny no. I insist on it!'' "No, I couldn't do that! It's awful kincl of you. but " "You talk to him. Angela !" laughed .Mr. Cullen. "You make him stay. ' ft Hi M m JO He Was So Close to Her That Their Sleeves Touched. most wrong almost unendurable that we should be so warm and comfortable, com-fortable, and well-fed, wher, over on the continent . . . well, I wonder whether we won't have to pay for this some time?" It was at this juncture that Mrs. Durant rose; and Hilliard, with keen foresight, cannily guided Oarol after her mother into the living room, made for a familiar piece of furniture and pre-emuted It; it would scut two "- |