Show Fd Kf 27 1 i r c Y fJ f j 1 r i. i V v W r. r r I I r H. H ss i aJ 1 j l Hussey U. U eyl HEN Howard Meehan entered the room a glance dance at nt the bed persuaded him that Julia was sleeping The curtains of all an th the windows were drawn save savo one and through this one entered the unimpeded moonlight Quietly drawing a rocker close to the window Median Meehan seated himself In spite spit of his weariness he told himself that now lit at t last he line must resolve his tormenting problem eyelids Through the slit of raised half eyelids Julia watched him She was vas not asleep as he supposed nor had she slept at It all 1 since going to bed She retired early only that she might be alone and to escape a possible betra betrayal al of her emotions to her husband and the girl That evening at dinner the restraint she Put upon herself had bad been agonizing To smile smil and to show no sign of her inner distress was to achieve an almost heroic U suppression for like on one in n dire physical pain her impulse was to cry out to yield to some vocal expression p smon of her anguish The moonlight wanly illumined her hus bus bands band's face Although his expression was not clearly discernible she saw his features feature With frith enough definition to inform her that he be was perplexed and that he l pondered deeply Julia understood Through her perpetual ual want of faith she had always foreseen this hour JJ Fatefully and inevitably ine it had come He was making the decision whose necessity she had long In short ho he was weighing his duty to her against his bis newly aroused hope hone of happi happi- ness mess As if his face were the accurate mirror mirror mirror mir mir- of his thoughts she watched it with a terrible avidity r At last softly but abruptly he be rose glanced toward the bed again an and d then moving mo out of the moonlight he be stepped the door She heard his soft footfalls footfalls footfalls foot foot- falls in the hall and his cautious descent of the stairs She got out of bed and hurried hurried hur hur- ried tied to the window Meehan fully revealed in the moonlight was standing on the lawn and he was alone Her own face was WitS now visible in the faint luminosity of the open open window It was a deceptive light however for all the little lines Iines on her forehead and about her eyes were ere effaced so that she seemed to achieve a r recrudescence of her youth Yet even the the deceit of the moonlight could not cover those two bleached splotches on her cheeks nor the smaller one between her eyes They were constantly in her thoughts her thoughts her scars Unconsciously she touched them with her fingers Her touch was th th th- gesture of one who refuses to forget It wa was another affirmation affirmation affirmation tion of her perpetual fear No words of Howard Meehan had ever persuaded her that these disfigurements disfigurements' were negligible e things All through the years they had bad been an impregnable bulwark raised against her happiness She looked down into the garden again and saw that her husband was still alone although he be had seated himself on one of the tIle rustic benches Obviously he had gone there not to meet with any anyone one but to pursue pur- pur sue Bue his cogitations JJ For or an instant she wished it might be otherwise Perversely she sh desired that Alice might appear keeping a a secret rendezvous rendezvous rendezvous ren ren- Then she could reveal herself they would understand that she knew and this long travail of tormenting pretense would come to its conclusion IT TT T WAS singular that at this moment Julia and Meehan an evolved a parallel course of thought for the recollections of both reverted re to the days dars of their first intimacy intimacy inti macy and thereafter followed sequentially the events of their marriage Julia had hild seated herself in the chair lately lately occupied by her husband In a moment there came to her one of those curious convictions convictions con cou- that she was repeating some act out of the past that past that she had sat thus before and in in a a similar mood Then she remembered how a decade before she had seated herself near the open window of her room in a summer hotel botel to ponder young Mee Ipe hans bans avowal of his ardor Even then she had bad foreseen unhappiness but she lacked the strength to deny himI himI him I wanted him too much I she murmured murmured mur mur- Inured to herself Below in the garden Howard Meehan was as recalling his first meeting with witt his wife He had gone up to the Poconos after a difficult difficult difficult dif dif- winter wirter of illness after illness after in fact a protracted protracted protracted pro pro- attack of bronchial pneumonia After dinner he le strolled out to the lobby Through the arched door he could see card ard tables being ranged along the wall in the drawing room He sighed again and lighted a cigarette Men llen and women stood about in the lobby conversing In ope one corner a group of children children chil chit dren formed a circle on the floor where they played t jacks None of the young girls was visible Probably they had already already already al al- ready gone outdoors where they might be the found seated on one or another of hemlocks wooden benches benches beneath the Medians Median's impulse was to Disregard his obligations The windows dusky rectangles yielding j glimpses of the night were strangely seductive However er etiquette prevailed and he remained seated delivered to the disposition disposition disposition dis dis- position of the card players Then his eyes chanced chancell upon the figure of ofa a woman oman who stood with a n child at her side ide reading rending the announcements on a j ye el- el elnear low board near the theM clerks clerk's desk Her lIer back M was turned and he be could not see her ber face but he lie was arrested by the uncommon grace of her figure Her He small head whose coils of chestnut hair glinted in the yellowish lights was neck uniquely poised on a slender white that flowed into the slope elope of her narrow shoulders by an imperceptible transition tall enough and slender enough tall taU She was tall to suggest a willow wand yand or an exquisite lily WI nodding a Jl stately blossom I J The child a girl of 9 3 or 10 was wa similarly gracile Meehan concluded ed that the chest chest- nut-haired nut woman was her mother He sat watching the womans woman's coiled hair in order tint it he ha might see her face as soon as she turned tinned toward him He assured himself himself himself him him- self immediately that her face gas nas a beautiful ful ful-a ful a cO conviction that increased his desire to see se it but since she did no not turn at once he was vouchsafed a few moments for speculation Sh She was alone Where was washer he her husband Meehan experienced a a. a sharp pang of ot disappointment disappointment disappointment when he thought of that obviously fortunate man Then in the plenitude plenitude plenitude pleni pleni- tude of his youthful self esteem he smiled a small cynical smile thi thinking that perhaps perhaps per per- haps the husband might not prove piove in the end so fortunate L S SHE OHE HE turned and Medians Median's s 's eyes yes fa fastened themselves upon her features with a shocked fascination There was astonishment and sudden pity in his eyes as he he gazed gazed at atthe atthe atthe the countenance revealed re All the fundamental loveliness lie he had bad presumed presumed presumed pre pre- were there therl but it was strangely blotched and marred It was as if a vandal or a madman having come upon a beautiful portrait just finished by the artist had dipped clipped the masters master's brush into the whites of the abandoned palette to to daub them on the painted face Beneath the womans woman's eyes on her cheeks the delicate and living texture of her skin was displaced by flat of bleached and parchment like tissue e while on on her ber forehead a similar disfigurement disfigurement dis dis- dis- dis interrupted the smooth modeling of her brow In the strange fascination of this face Meehan forgot his regrets and aud ceased to sought its elucidation in all her physical aspe aspects the aspects the ts-the the r recondite c sadness of her pye the listless fleetion tion of of her head an an instant of bitter rigidity in the curve cur of her lips a habitual al moment of hesitation that ca cams came cameto n nto to her slender hands when they gestured as if she weighed her smallest movement Julia Worth orth was older ohler than Meehan Meehan- four or five years jears older He lIe felt the shyness shyness shy shy- ness that a young Joung man instinctively feels in the presence of a woman not too distant from his his' own age age age- but but older than himself She seldom talked of personal persona concerns Nevertheless e Meehan f ehan felt that their intimacy intimacy intimacy inti inti- macy was steadily increasing Sometimes Sometime they followed the mountain paths alone Again cho choosing sing easier routes loutes they ther were accompanied accompanied accompanied ac ac- companied by th the child little Alice The first evening I saw yo you he told tod her ller I I took Alice for your jour our daughter Julia smiled faintly There was was' an un unceasing unceasing ceasing enigma on her lips but Meehan al already already aI ready knew that Julia frequently extended an affectionate hospitality to Alice who was the daughter of a dead friend But nut you could not have seen saen any resemblance resemblance re re- semblance between us she saidI saidI said I imagined one After all aU theres there's a suggestion of jou you in little Alice the Alice the same slenderness a similar grace grace It was the first time Meehan had llad spoken so bo b boldly It was in the third week of their cum companionship companionship com com- I IOne that she told him her story One afternoon they had descended into j l n. n f fJ t r j I i f 1 1 f r t N q 1 j M R m eE eER it R f a. a F re i h S I I c o oI kl T. T t r Z 5 I fr J g a ty t I sigh for possible adventure ad out of doors but his avid curiosity had no more than an lip instants instant's satisfaction for the woman crossed the lobby and entered the drawing roo room in The child followed her Later when the young Joung young man took his place at the card table he found that she was one of the players One fact surprised him him him-a a refutation of his first surmise She was not married She had llad been introduced to him as Miss Worth During the ensuing play Median Meehan experienced experienced experienced a succession of of unusual emotions a series of or small shocks that were were derived from the incongruity of Miss Worth's disfigurement disfigure disfigure- ment Again and again as he watched the table his eyes encountered mer gracile white hands gathering up the cards and sorting them As by an involuntary compulsion his gaze passed upward along the seductive curves cUr of her arms her shoulders and her throat to her face here it remained fora for fora a startled instant in fixed scrutiny of the lifeless scars These livid patches were like portions portion of ofa a mask mak adhering to her delicately textured face Median Meehan had had to restrain a fantastic impulse to reach across th the table that he might mig pluck them off with his fingers When the game was over the young man gazed after Miss liss Worth as she Bite passed through the lobb lobby leading the child by the hand They ascended the time broad road flight of If stairs and were gone but presently the woman appealed appeared alone Time The lobby was nearly des deserted All save savea a few had drifted outdoors and Meehan grasped the time opportunity to sl speak cak with Miss liss Worth orth They chatted for a moment about the card game and then he said Shall we go outside Time The moon is coming up found her reticent She was not ready with confidences confidences' but she accepted his lis companionship and he discovered Bred ered a peculiar and inexplicable excitement I in her het company Iq In the succeeding days for this romantic and imaginative c young man to to be with her ber was to be perpetually of some brooding mystery tery He lIe on ou the verge t oine my r. r 4 A J With t the the h e first stinging pains I fainted Ithe i ithe the valley vaHey through fields of blossoming wild car ro t whose pollen clung to their clothing like a white dust Julia plucked a tiger lily and amid fastened it in her hair They rested near the creek and the time hornets sang above their hea heads s in pursuit of flies Median Meehan was looking at the flower in her hair lIe He reflected that this dappled somber somber som som- ber her blossom was appropriate to the woman who wore it Was she not as mysterious as the drooping lily In her slow gestures and strange lethargies was she not equally suggestive of a smoldering flame She misinterpreted eted his glances and suddenly suddenly sud sud- denly she said You are looking at my face I With the tips of her fingers she touched the whit white scars Youve wondered about these Then Ill I'll tell jou you THE beginning of l her er recital Meehan AT in his embarrassments embarrassment sat with downcast downcast downcast down down- cast eyes but he forgot his em embarrassment in the interest aroused by her confidence Before she had concluded his eyes yes w were re raised watching her lips as if to anticipate her ber words lIe He was not unlike you she said Over O the Hie card table that first evening I watched you Jou because of the faint blance You didn't notice it She shrugged her shoulders smiling a little I didn't intend you to notice it he replied Then she described more fully this man th the tragic figure in her romance of five years past st st. How bitterly I blamed him at first she cried During those terrible weeks Inthe in ill inthe the hospital J l I used to press my hands helplessly helplessly helplessly help help- lessly against the bandages and ask God to punish him for deceiving me She paused I I 1 hadn't been told then she added that t he was dead The The young joung man listened with aa an l au all augmenting aug- aug excitement She became more mysterious with this revelation tion of herself There were iap gaps gaps' in her story hiatuses hiatuses I of f. f r t j romantic incident that Meehan was well able to supply from his own imagination From her recitation recitation the young man constructed constructed con con- strutted a sequence e of vivid images He perceived as if he had witnessed them with his o own eyes ejes her first idyllic days with h her r lover lo She must have bave been happy then t T T. THEN Julia described the catastrophe I We e were co coming ing out of the theatre she said I had taken Herberts Herbert's arm We were both laughing I called his Ilia attention attention attention at at- to a disreputable old man standing at the curb with a dirt dirty hat hat in fn his hand begging It was just at the moment when I spoke that I felt Herberts Herbert's arm stiffen I glanced up at his face in surprise surp Then I saw that he wasn't looking at me We Ve both stopped The woman woman was standing right in front of us She closed closed her eyes for an instant as if to veil he beg sight to her recollections Then she continued I want wasn't quick enough to to understand You see I was so innocent I I had never nevera a R r N. N k C j dreamed of suspecting Herbert I I stood there stupidly looking at nt that dark face all twisted with passionate Hate It never came to me at all that I was the one she hat hated d. d I had never seen her before It was like a sudden bewildering nightmare I think Herbert spoke I think he said something to her but I didn't hear the words Nevertheless he must have spohn Im I'm Im I'm sure he did If she had been bren hesitating hesitating hesitating hesi hesi- tating if she had been at all uncertain the sound of his voice must have |