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Show T ' T 7 n; I BY UPTON SINCLAIR -JL w luii'iw AUTHOR OF .-THE JUNGLE?. V : ' ' : ' : : . ;-' "' '-" - v.- ". - ' . ... Copyright. .- , . . . ; v ; . There was Jost an Inatanfi meeting of their looka, and then the girl was whirled on. ing, and her aunt gazed at the girl aig nincantly, to remind her of how little time there was. 'Helen felt her heart give a sudden leapt, and felt a disagreeable dis-agreeable trembling seize upon her; her animation became more fertrish yet in consequence. After the luncheon, when she ran up for her hat and gloves, her aunt followed fol-lowed her, and Helen shook her off with a laughing assurance that everything would be all right, and then , ran out into the hallway; she did not go on, however, for something that she saw caused her to shrink quickly back, and turn pale. . "what is it!" whispered her aunt, as Helen put her finger to her lips. "It's he!" replied the girl, shuddering: shudder-ing: "wait! " ''He" was the unfortunate invalid, .who was passing down the hallway upon the arm of Lieut.. Maynard. Helen Hel-en shook her head at all her aunt's laughing protests, and could not be in-, duced to leave the room until the two bad passed on; then she ran down, and leaving the. "house by another door, sprang into the carriage with Mr. Harrison Har-rison and was whirled away, waving a laughing good -by to her aunt.. The fresh air and the swift motion soon completed the reaction from Helen Hel-en 's morning unhappiness; and, as generally gen-erally happened when she was much excited, tier imagination carried her away in one of her wild flights of joy, so that her companion was as much lost as ever in admiration and delight, i Helen told him countless stories, and I made countless half comprehended witti-eisms, witti-eisms, and darted a great many mischievous mis-chievous glances which were comprehended compre-hended much better; when they bad passed within the gates of Fairview, being on private lauds, she felt even less need of restraint, and pang "Dich , theure Hajle, gnus' ich wieder!" and laughed at her own cleverness quite as i much as if her companion had under- stood it all. But I should think the very terror of what you have suffered would serve as a motive, and make you quite desperate. Can you not see that your very safety depends -upon your taking this resolution resolu-tion and keeping it, and not letting go of it, no matter what happens? from what I've seen of you, Helen, I know that if you do not summon all vour energies en-ergies together, and fling aside ever-purpose ever-purpose but this, and act upon it now. while vou feel it so keenly, you will surely fail. For anybody can .withstand a temptation for a while', when his mind is made up; all the trouble is in keeping it made up for a long time. 1 tell you if I found I was losing, sooner than surrender I would do any thine, absolutely abso-lutely anything." Mrs. Roberts had many more words of that heroic kind; she was a vigorous little body, and she-was quite on fire with . enthusiasm just then,' and with zeal for the consummation of the great triumph. Perhaps .there is no occupation occupa-tion of mep quite without its poetry, and even a sorwty leader may attain to the sublime in her devotion to life as she sees it. Besides that, the over-zealous over-zealous woman was exalted to eloquence just then - by a feeling . that she was nearer her", goal, than ever before, be-fore, and that she had only to srur Helen on and keep her in her present glow to clinch the matter; for the girl was very much excited indeed, and showed both by what she said and by the change in her behavior that she was determined to have an end to her own wretchedness and to conquer her ahrinking from her future husband at any cost. During all the time that she was dressing, her aunt was stirring her resolution with the same appeal, so that Helen felt that she bad never seen her course so clearly before, or had so much resolution to follow it. She spread out her arms and drank deep breaths of relief because she was free from her misery, and knew bow to keep-so; and at the same time, because she still felt tremblings of fear, she clenched her hands in grim earnestness. When she was readv to descend she was flushed Tv - CHAPTER VIII. r .v . . (Continued.) K,t'WeIL let me tell you one thing," v .-lid Mrs. Roberts, "if I found that I -y"touldn't cure myself of such weakness ' at this, sooner than let it ruin my life and make every one about me wretched, .' I'd settle the matter right now and '-' forever; I'd marry him within a week, . Helen!"- And the resolute little woman clenched her hands grimly. "Yes, I would," she exclaimed, "and if I found ;l hadn't strength enough to hold my : resolution, I 'd marry hira tomorrow, and there 'd be an end to it! . V- ."You don't realize, Helen, how you : " treat Mr. Harrison," she went on, as l the girl shuddered, "and how patient he is. .You'd not find many men like ' :? him in that respect, my dear. For he's " madly in love with you, and you treat him as coldly as if he were a stranger, r I can eee that, for I watch you, and I ii can see -how it offends him. You have . & promised -to be hia wife, Helen.' and yet vou bebavesin- this ridiculous way. on are making yourself ill, and you look years older .efv day", yet you make not the least attempt to conquer your- self." So she went on, and Helen.be-?i Helen.be-?i gan to feel more and more that she was - ' -doing a very great wrong indeed. Mrs. " ' Roberts barp questioning finally drew . .from her the story of her reception of "Mr. Harrison's one kiss, and Helen was - "made to seem quite ridiculous and even rude in her own eyes; her aunt lectured her. with such unaccustomed sternness .that she was completely frightened, and - - canfe to look upon her action as the . cause of all the rest of her misery. "It's precisely on that account that voW still regard him as a stranger," -Mrs. Roberts vowed; '.'of . course, he ' mske no more advances, and you ro "'on forever in that war." Helen prom-'ised prom-'ised that the next time she. was alone . ' wih Mr. Harrison she would apologize foi her rudeness, and treat him in a different manner. - "I wish," Mrs. Roberts went on, "that I could onlv make vou see as -'plainly as I see, Helen, how very absurd " your conduct is. - Dsy br day yon are filling vour mind with the thought of .the triumph that is to be yours, so that it takes hold of 'you and becomes all your life to you; and all the time you ?know that to possess it there is one y thing" which vou have got to do. Ane1 "i jn stead of realizing the fact and recon-A recon-A riling vourself to it, vou sit down aad ..t torment yourself as if vou were a erea- After that it was a new delight to discover that work was progressing upon up-on .the trimming of the forest and the turning of the grass-grown road into a broad avenue; likewise the "hav crop" was in. and the lawn plowed and raked and rcadv for grass seed, and the undesirable part of the old furniture carted away all of which things Helen knew had been done according ac-cording to her commands. And scarcely scarce-ly had all this been appreciated properly prop-erly before the architect arrived. Helen Hel-en was pleased with hira, because for one thing he was evidentlv verv much impressed by her beautvand "for another an-other because he entered so under-standingly under-standingly into all her ideas. He and the girl spent a couple of the happiest hours m discussing the details of the wonderful music-room, a thing which seemed to her more -full of delightful possibilities than ,anr other in all her radiant future; it was a sort of child 's dream to her, with a fairy godmother to make it real, and her imagination ran not in a vision of banks of flowers, and of paintings of all things that em- -body the jovs of music, the "shapes that haunt thought's wilderness." At night the whole was to be illumined in such a war as to give these verisimilitude, verisimili-tude, and in the daytime it would be no less beautiful, because it was to b almost, all glass upon two sides. Helen was rejoiced that the architect realized ' the importance of the fact that "a miiPic-room ought to be out of doors;" and then as she made the further welcome wel-come discovery that the . moon would shine nto it. she vowed eagerly that there would be no lights at all in her music-room at those times. Afterward she. told afunny story of how Schumann Schu-mann had been wont to improvise under un-der such circumstances, until his next- ' door neighbor was so struck by the f romance of it that he proceeded to imi- tate it. and to play- somebody or other s technical studies whenever the moon rose; nt which narrative Helen I and the architect laughed very heart- k ilv, and Mr. Harrison with them, though he would not have known the difference between a technical study and the "Moonlight Sonata." 1 (To Be, Continued. ' I and trembling with excitement, and quite full of her resolution. 'She won't have to go very far," Mrs. Roberts Rob-erts mused, "for the man is madly in Jove with her." "I want you to look as besutiful as vou can. dear." she said aloud, by wsy f changing the subject; "besides Mr. Hsrrison, there'll be another visitor at lunch todav." A strangert" echoed Helen. "You remember, dear, when I told you of Mr. Howard I spoke of a third person who was coming Lieut. May-nard?" May-nard?" . "Oh, yes," said the girl; "is he heref' "Just until the late train this evening." even-ing." answered the other. "He got his leave as he expected, but of course he didn't want to come while Mr. Howard How-ard was so ill." Helen remembered with a start having hav-ing heard some one sav that Mr. Howard How-ard was better. "Auntie," he-cried, "he won't be at lunch, will het I don't want to see him." "He won't, dear," was the reply; the doctor said he could leave his room today, but it will be afterward, when, you have gone driving with Mr. Har-1 rison." "And will he leave soon!" asked Helen, shuddering; the mention of the invalid's name had instantly brought to her mind the thonght of -Arthur. . "He will lave tomorrow, I presume; pre-sume; he probably knows he has caused us trouble enough," answered Mrs. Roberts; and then reading Helen's thought, and seeing a sign upon her face of the old worrv, she made haste to lead her down atafrs. Hele'n found Mr. Harrison in conversation conver-sation with a tall, distinguished looking man in naval uniform, to whom she wan introduced by her aunt: the girl saw that the officer admired her, which was only another stimulant to her energies, so that she was at her cleverest during the meal that followed. She accepted the invitation of Mr. Harrison to go with him to Fairview during the after- tnxe without reason or will. - Can yon '.not see you must be wretched? " . - "Yes, I see." ssid Helen, weaklv. ."You see it, but you make no effort ,to do anything else! You make me almost al-most give you up in despair. You will not see that this weakness has only to be conquered once, and that then your -life can be happy! " -." But, auntie, dear," exclaimed Helen, Hel-en, -"it is so hardl " . ' "Any thing in life would be hard for ' a person who bad no more resolution' . than you,"-responded the other. "Be- cause you know, nothing about the ,world, you fancy you are doing some- thing very unusual and dreadful; but I .-assure you it's what every girl has to . do when she marries in society. And - there no one of them but would laugh at your behavior; vou just give Mr. - Harrison up, and see how long it would ,-bo before somebody else would take him! Oh, child, how T wish I could ' .' give yon a little of mv ener; you would go to the life thst is before you in a very different ray, I promise -ou! For really the only way that you can hate any happiness in the' world is to be .. strong and take it, and if you oneo had a purpose and some determination, you would feci like" a different person. Make u- yonr mind what you wish to do. , Helen, and go and do it. and take hold ' .'of yourself and master yourself, and , show what you are made of! " Aunt Pol fv was quite sublime as she delivered that little exordium; aud to tho cirL anxious as she was for her old strength and linprincss, the words were like music. They made her blood flow again, and thero was a lipbt in her J"6h, auntie," she said, "I'll try to."-.. - . noon, and after having been in her room all the morning, she was looking forward to the drive with no little pleasure, as also to the meeting with the architect whom Mr. Harrison said would be there. It seemed once as if the plan were to be interrupted, and as if her excitement excite-ment and resolution were to come to naught, for a telegram arrived for Mr. Harrison, and he announced that . he was called away to New York upon some business. But as it proved, this was only. another circumstance to-urge hef on in carrying out her defiant resolution, resolu-tion, for Sir. Harrison added that he ' would aot have to leave -until the even- ;-.-'Trv!'v echoed -the other. ."What comes of all your trying f Tou have been reveling for a week, in visions of yyhat is to bo yours; and that ought ) isurely to have been onoueh time for you ' tOjiimake :up your mind; and yet every i aime that I find you alone, all -oor reso-'j- lution is onc;. vou simply; have no strength. Helen! 'Oh, I will havo it!" cried the girl; don t mean to do this way any more; I never saw it so plainly." . " 3fou see it now. because I'm talking to you, and you always do see it then. |