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Show iyj Old Lefcire as Othello V.'-i Dy ADA MAY KRECKHIi. V "1 fCopvr'ti., ii-.. bv Da'lr St.ry I'ub. To.) .) ' ' . i-'i ' ' - . - i r5 " - 1 '. - ',! f i i" - ) ' " '-'.V li ' 'i 3-. T 4 w t' ti j or - t' T 6' o' w' - J' - , is oi en simplicity, and, born of the moments' mo-ments' exigencies. "I see an elf in each of your eyes, Cherie," he remarked. "Perhaps he ia an imp. And on the corner of your mouth is perched a microscopic clown." Burney looked amused. They were rounding a corner find homeward hound and discerned tome one at the house ringing the bell. "Oh, Peter!" cried the girl, only instantly in-stantly to dart away. "That's a man, I know." Drawing nearer, Lefairc recognized in the refined, stately figure which she was effusively hailing, the hero of Miss Lozenby's doorstep episode; his rival, and a veritable Apollo. Ha! Every suspicion became incarnate before him. The denouement, bubbles if !0ti5 Every one in the reception room ;'.i:iled as Burney passed through. She carried one of the letters on which the conversation hnd bppn turning. Behind Be-hind trotted the mountainous figure of dear old Lefaire. whose rosy, brown. ; expansive visage, was conspicuously wrkten witli a consciousness of his , lowly position as her satellite. j Miss Lozenby of third floor, back, j had been recounting the story of her I 'ittle seance the. evening before when j happening upon him alone by the fire- I light. She took the ottoman by his aide, explained she wanted to go over, confidentially, with him. some curious facts which had been noted in connection con-nection with Hurney's recent correspondence, corres-pondence, pointing out the number of envelopes addressed to her in a certain cer-tain fine, vertical handwriting which had been observed on the hall stand, and recalling the stranger of the afternoon after-noon Maude Hughes went away. From behind the palm tree between the two front windows Miss Lozenby spied a tall, graceful, blonde walking at Burney's side as she returned from her farewell to Maude. And he had prattled on like a schoolboy until the early autumn nightfall. With the next morning the daily letters began to appear, ap-pear, one by the early eight o'clock mall, another every evening, although once she had seen a note when coming up from luncheon, which must have been an extra third, since Burney always al-ways took the morning arrival with her, as she left the house after breakfasting. break-fasting. "I told him to be a man." cried Miss Lozenby with martial spirit, "and quoted that from Othello about rather loving as a toad In a dungeon than keeping a corner of the thing one loves for others' use. He ought not let a giddy gid-dy young woman that's ready to work upon any creature in trousers play with his man's affections all for another fickle flirtation." As the lady went on a pair of lively eyes representing third floor hall, front, agitated her audience by flashing flash-ing the dispatch that the characters of her narrative were present realities. In unobservant ignorance Burney. with Lefaire. ran the gossipers' gauntlet, gaunt-let, but the little hall-boy, always prying pry-ing Into affairs on the other side of the portieres, found his countenance all too narrow for his smiles, as the pair stepped out of the vestibule for their twilight stroll. "Why, Peter, Peter," exclaimed the "His rival and a veritable Apollo, ha!" bursted, treachery laid bare. The dallying dal-lying displeasure which had been unsettling un-settling his placid calm of mind now rose in tempests. Wilder and wilder within, he slowly stepped along, reaching reach-ing the battlefield at the door in a beetling passion, determined to measure meas-ure swords. Cheerily graceful, Burney turned to acknowledge his presence. "Mr. Merrill, Mer-rill, this is my friend, Mr. Lefaire," she began. "Maude Hughes' fiance, Peter. And think of It, he says she's coming back to-night. Maude left town, you know, the very day Mr. Merrill Mer-rill came, but neither can stand it, so she's to be here again. And a good joke it is, too. You see, it has been kept a secret from me. Two letters a day from her, imagine, and not a hint of it. But now it will be tit for tat, as Mr. Merrill wishes us to go down to the station with him to meet her.-So her.-So come, Peter, only ten minutes until train time." The result of Lefaire's first appearance appear-ance as Othello did not warrant a second sec-ond engagement. thing like you? On, well, an Amazon, perhaps you could do that. Only personally. per-sonally. I would find you quite charming, charm-ing, 1 believe, if in your native role of wise-acre bachelor you would go on with that very enlivening dissertation of a few moments ago on the Nature and Destiny of Flirting; a Plea for Eternal Affinities. That is what you were talking about, isn't it?" "Do you know, Peter, it convinced me that you're a horn orator on that topic. 1 mean, of course; a most worthy cause to champion! I fairly thrilled at your exordium on the high calling of adorable woman. One's whole body feels different (as, of course, you understand) un-derstand) when one is thrilled by an orator's impassioned use of the queen's English. The blood runs racily rac-ily and travels such unbeaten tracks of one's anatomy. Well, that's the way I felt, Peter, when you were descanting upon 'Nature's angels of loveliness' 'glorious eyes' 'cheeks like pearls and rubies' 'hearts and sympathies divine, di-vine, etcetera, etcetera.' "And you said the attraction between be-tween people was like the chemical affinities of atom to atom, didn't you? Which was an exceedingly apt figure. Some of us, for instance, are so like nitrogen, aren't we? We can combine with so many different atoms and can break away from them again so lightly. light-ly. Now, do go on, Peter, and tell me all about it. You would not have considered con-sidered that an exhaustive treatment of the subject." But unhappy Lefaire was silent. In the light of Miss Lozenby's words Burney's jocularity looked ominous. He sighed at the scattered leaves along the avenue as at his own radiant hopes fading at his feet. This little pet of his had been child, girl and woman, bud and blossom, all in one fair miracle of winning femininity. In his holy of holies he had ensconced her, regaling his dry old hermits' mental men-tal palate with the artful expressions of her busy young mind, and feeding a fathomless yearning upon the warm girl affections which had seemed too blithe and simple to be experienced with lovers. Such satisfied trust had been his that no past or present of the precious sweetheart had ever been arraigned for a trial. Burney's face and ways seemed to tell him all he needed to know of her family or outside interests, inter-ests, while the only incident out of his own troublous chronicles which had beeen given her was the chapter on the fascinating lady who had turned him away, but was always still remembered. remem-bered. Everything else had been sublimely sub-limely , personal and immediate. They had disdained practical things. Yet, rash the wooing certainly appeared. ap-peared. Several tripping weeks with a tiny stranger girl and his marriage day was already set. What If she were, after all, a gay little deceiver and he everybody's laughing stock, her Simple Simon and both? Those letters let-ters for these many weeks without a word to her true love nor any whisper of the elegant blonde beau. Maybe her charms were the finished flowers of much practice on others his predecessors prede-cessors or, contemporaries? Probably he was the innocent and not she. It was folly, anyway, to expect a queer old original like himself to engage the heart of such a darling siren as Burney. Bur-ney. Ah, but she must not make a toy of him. He must show himself a person of mettle a man, as Miss Loe-enby Loe-enby had advised. Burney's chatter purled on, now ana then arresting its frolicsome flow just long enough to invite a remark from her companion as her eyes glanced upward up-ward in quest of a reason for his taciturnity. taci-turnity. Finally she exclaimed: "Peter, you are so unsociable!" He was too sad and distressed to be able to explain himself, so evaded her with badinage very unusual for his op- i . i Burney was gently and very seductively seduc-tively sportive, girl, softly laying hold of the large arm by her side, "how amusing that all of a sudden you should care to know all about my correspondents! Aren't you getting too Inquisitive?" Burney was gently and very seductively seduc-tively sportive. "You don't want to : becoms effeminate, do you? Do you i j think It's your style, dear, a burly |