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Show THE EL UE CIR CLE i . VERITY cTNOPSIS. Incapacitated, rtally, by shock, as a result Experiences during the World ,r Renshaw makes fc proposl-Tinn'to proposl-Tinn'to David Campbell, wealthy, 'jny man of leisure, that for he assume responsibility for him (Renshaw) practically 'w him. Doctor Stanley, llfe-,; llfe-,; friend of Campbell a. in-ia, in-ia, the proposition, which rlmpbell, with some natural Savings, accepts. The arrangement ar-rangement Is that the younir man becomes an inmate of the Campbell Camp-bell household, with the nominal juty of secretary. CHAPTER I Continued 3 The voice and manner of the visitor pere as unresponsive as before. "Vlien do you want to begin?" ,.N-0Wthls minute." "Oh! Tnen yu carae prepared to ray'" "Yes, sir." "Very well." Campbell held out his hand. "Now, If you have no deep-rooted deep-rooted objections to tea, we will drink gome," he added as he slowly settled I back into the big clmlr. "And I, for I one, am ready for It ! Buying a man, H you will permit me to say so, Is I rather an exhausting business." He rang the hell as he spoke, and the complacent personality of the servant ser-vant who had admitted Renshaw promptly Injected Itself Into the room. ".Tenks." said his rnnster; "bring tea, and tell Miss Campbell when It Is here'. And by the way, Jenks " He stopped the man on his way to the door, and tamed to Renshaw. "Did you bring any luggage?" "A bag. It Is In the hall." Campbell spoke to the butler: "Take It up to the north room. Mr. Renshaw, who Is my new secretary, will use that room unless, after he has tried it, he prefers another." Jenks left the room. He had not spoken, and he did not glance at Renshaw; Ren-shaw; but to the young man every line of his erect figure conveyed an august- disapproval. In a few minutes he was back In stately association with a tea-n-ason, which he rolled up to the fire. Simultaneously the door from the hall reopened and a girl came In. She was young, not much more than twenty-two, he decided, at a glance, and very lovply. Her hair and her eyes were darker than his own. but soft and holding an unexpected expression ex-pression of melancholy. Yet every line of her face and figure showed pride and spirit, and she walked with the pilt of a young empress. She came directly to the side of the old man, kissed the top of his head with precision, pre-cision, and turned her unsmiling eyes on the visitor as he was presented. "Verity, my dear," Campbell was saying, "this is Mr. Renshaw, who is going to look after my correspondence, and see that I get to bed at ten, and rule me generally with a rod of Iron. But I warn you. Renshaw. that my Rrnnddaughter will hardly tolerate another an-other tyrant in the house. To order ! me about is her pet privilege." j Kenshaw. bowing silently before the pirl. met for an instant the direct regard re-gard of her proud eyes, and in that i instant realized that she did not like j him. He accepted the discovery with Indifference. The liking or disliking i of others was unimportant. But, as he ! took the cup of tea she poured for him, he unexpectedly met the "aze of an-! an-! other pair of eyes and the expression of these he could not so casually dis-i dis-i miss from his mind. They were the j eyes of Jenks, the butler, and they held a message that was as clear as it j was unpleasant a message of Intense I and open antagonism. While Campbell chatted with his J granddaughter, tossing an occasional ' sentence to his new property. John Renshaw stared into the tea he was absently stirring. In his normal past many human beings liked him and a j few had disliked him. But as far as 1 he knew none had repudiated him at the first encounter so warmly and so obviously as Miss Verity Campbell and her butler had Just done. Why had they repudiated himl Chapter II Along Comes Verity. "Mr. Renshaw !" Tea was over and Jenks. again Im-perturbahle. Im-perturbahle. had trundled away the tiMiwagon as tenderly as if it held the family's heir. As it was going, Campbell Camp-bell struggled' out of his deep chair and. standing with his straight old "ark to the fire, addressed his new property with suave directness. Ren-5,111,1 Ren-5,111,1 shied like u frightened horse, and none of the three pairs of eyes wjiti-h-'"C him missed the movement. Cnmi-bell Cnmi-bell experienced a sense of revolt, slu,t through with Irritation against his old friend and physician. "Confound it, how can this fellow be of any use to me. when he's nervous as a put?" he reflected. "It's going to ' an infernal nuisance to have to confer con-fer him nS If he were a high-strung prima dotmn." Hut. even as the thought went "'rough his mind, the new secretary had recovered his poise and was on nis feet, obviously ready fur instructions. instruc-tions. "I'rohnbly you would like to go up to your room now," Campbell went on, ! the suave voice that was so much jounger than his years, "to unpack ;nd rest after your journey. Jenks '"II show yon the way. We dine at '-Sht." be added, as the young man By Elizabeth Jordan ( by The Century Co.) followed the butler, who had stopped at the sound of his name. When the door closed upon the two, Campbell drew a long breath of relief. re-lief. "My dear," he fervently ejaculated, "I am beginning to think it will be almost al-most worth while to have that fellow around for the sake of the frequent rapture of getting rid of him." Verity's black eyebrows rose a trifle. "Why did you engage him, if you didn't want him?" she asked. "Stanley wished him on me. The whole episode Is an amazing piece of folly, and I am afraid I don't show up In it any better than Stanley and Renshaw," her grandfather confessed, with growing Irritation. He described his Interview with Renshaw, while Verity's expression, Incredulous at first, changed to one of deepening interest in-terest and perplexity. "You don't Imagine there Is something some-thing back of It?" she slowly suggested. suggest-ed. "An effort to get into the house and" "No, no 1" her grandfather testily interrupted. in-terrupted. "The last two years of the " man's time are fully accounted for. He has been In sanatoriums, poor chap. Besides. Stanley knows all about him." "I wonder what happened to him?" Verity spoke almost under her breath, her imagination circling among various vari-ous dark possibilities of which she had heard and read. The old man shook his head. "I haven't an Idea. What I want to know Is, what's going to happen to me under this absurd arrangement? I can't imagine why I let myself In for It. For a second or two I thought I saw a way of making him useful, but I don't believe it will work ; il " He broke off. "I suppose the fe'ow has some magnetism," he ended. "Not a particle." Verity spoke with conviction. "In fact. It's the other way around. There's something almost repellent re-pellent in him, something a little oh, what Is the word? Well, something some-thing unhuman. He Is unusually handsome, of course ; there's even a certain nobility about his head and face. And yet, he's like a ghost. Yes, that's what I am trying to get at," she added, with quiet satisfaction. "He looks at us as the dead might look If they came back as if he had passed through existences and experiences we could never understand and could not even dream of." "No doubt he has," the old man conceded. con-ceded. "He affects me like a human draft. But we must not let our imaginations run away with us. If he is too depressing, we will get rid of him; I'll ship him off and make him useful somewhere else. He's got to do what I tell him and go where I sen'd him." "And now let's forget the fellow fel-low and go on with that book you were reading." Upstairs, in the chamber to which Campbell had sent him, Renshaw was doing some thinking of his own. His first impression was that it was oddly remote from other rooms. Only one additional ad-ditional door opened from the narrow corridor he had traversed. The second reflection, as Jenks turned a knob and stood back to let him enter his new n,,Driarc wns that the room was very large and extremely comfortable. Jenks touched an electric button and the shadowy room flashed Into soft light which brought out the details of a mahogany bed In a far corner, facing the door, a high-boy, a low-boy, and a large built-in wardrobe. The room's north wall contained two windows, and through two additional windows, very wide and with built-in cushioned seats, he could look out on the front grounds of Tawno Ker and follow the maple-lined maple-lined avenue leading to the highway. He was to have plenty of light and air. he reflected with content. He went to a north window and. glancing out. found this first impression impres-sion changing. There would he air. without doubt. But numerous oaks and maples crowded close to the house so close, Indeed, that an athlete such as Kenshaw had once neen com,., from a window into the wide-spreading branches of at least one venerable venera-ble tree. The trees were rather unexpectedly un-expectedly thick in front, too. he discovered, dis-covered, and he was surprisingly far from the ground. He would he almost among the tree-tops If he leaned far out of the windows on the front side of his room. lenks threw open the door of a second sec-ond room in which could he seen the outline of a shower apparatus and the nickel and porcelain fittings of a bathtub. bath-tub. ' ,, "The bathroom Is very small, sir. the man apologetically explained, and there's no window in it. It was iml(le two years ago. out of a lug closet But you will he quite comfortable comfort-able And vou will always find extra linen in the closet just outside your door, in the corridor. That closet is the mate to this one." Renshaw returned to the bedroom and its hluztng Are. He .lenks had lifted the heavy travelmg-case travelmg-case to a small trunk-stand and was unfasteni'.ig the straps. I'll attend to that, thanks." he said with a gesture of dismissal. Verv well, sir." Jenks turned to go. "Shall 'i come h k at half-past seven and help yon dress?" "No. thanks; I'll get along.'' Jenks hesitated. "Fxcuse me, sir, but Mr. Campbell regards It as a part of my duty to assist as-sist any gentlemen suests of his and . I shall be very glad to do anything I can, sir." "That's all right, but I'm not a gentleman gen-tleman guest. I'm here to stay, and I prefer to look out for myself. So I won't trouble you." ' Renshaw spoke pleasantly, but he was feeling puzzled. Standing by the fireplace with his elbow on the mantel man-tel and his detached glance drifting past the man's face, he wondered, without much Interest, why the creature crea-ture was so suddenly friendly. An hour ago he had been furiously resentful resent-ful of the newcomer's pVesence. Now he seemed all eagerness and deference. defer-ence. "Are you planning to have breakfast break-fast up here, sir?" he respectfully Inquired. In-quired. "Good Lord, no!" Renshaw spoke with sudden Irritation. Irrita-tion. Why the devil was the fellow so persistent? Was It merely because he realized that the open betrayal of his antagonism had been unwise? Or was it the thought stood stolidly at the entrance of the secretary's mind until he finally permitted the unwelcome visitor to enter was it because Jenks knew that this newcomer was so Infernally In-fernally dependent on others that even at this moment every instinct In him was calling for assistance? "What's your name?" "Jenks, sir." "Well, Jenks, there's exactly one thing you can do." "Yes, sir." The man') tone was eager. "Get out, pleass, and be quick about It!" Jenks got out. His surface dignity was unimpaired, but the door closed on his exit with a temperamental snap. Left alone, Renshaw dropped into the easy-chair before the exuberantly blazing fire, and rested his head against its padded back with a sigh of exhaustion. He was tired tired to the soul ; but from the darkness of that soul the hermit-thrush of hope sent out a solitary note. He had put through the Plan. He had won that little contest of wills with Jenks, and had given no outward sign of the effort ef-fort It cost him. Now he would rest. Of course he ought to be unpacking, bathing, dressing for dinner. He would d all those things later. His present duty was to relax to let the atmosphere at-mosphere of the old house- sink into him. How absurd he had been to imagine things about Jenks and Miss Campbell Camp-bell ! Jenks was merely a spoiled servant, serv-ant, Impersonally resenting any newcomer, new-comer, and already contrite over his mistake and anxious to make amends. As to the girl, that lovely girl with the jet-black hair and the proud and perfect mouth, she was afraid that he, Rensnaw, was going to be a nuisance. The human beings in Tawno Ker, thrown together as closely as they were the solitude of the place suddenly sud-denly impressed him; surely it was miles from any neighbor! those humans hu-mans must form a close corporation. It was not to be wondered at that they should resent an intrusion like his. A small log, blazing on the andirons, parted and dropped with a rattle and a shower of sparks. Renshnw did not hear It. The door opened an Inch, and some one peered at him through the crack. He did not hear the sound it made as it opened and closed. He was In a condition of well-being, new found and vastly comforting at peace, relaxed, and at last drifting out on the blessed sea of sleep. He was awakened by the sound of a gong, mellow but extremely penetrating, penetrat-ing, obviously a dinner or dressing gong designed to be heard throughout the big house. He sat up with a spectacular spec-tacular start and glanced at the clock on the mantel above him. It was half-past half-past seven, lie had slept uninterrupted uninterrupt-ed y for more than an hour, an experience experi-ence still novel enough to be gratifying. gratify-ing. He had only thirty minutes in which to unpack, bathe and dress for dinner. As he cast a last glance in the mirror before he went downstairs down-stairs he was mildly surprised by the agreeable normality of the being who looked back at him. The fellow seemed at least reconciled to life. Evidently money does not interest in-terest the hero. Will he find anything in his job that will attract him? (TO BE CONTINUED.) |