Show MY LADY OF THE ROSES by richard king bewitching yes that was the word which best expressed her ue witching absolutely waving masses of nut brown hair held together grecian fashion in banda of gold and apanged becomingly with all that apparent carelessness which bespoke a first rate coiffeur coiffe ur piquant somewhat indefinite features set la a face whose contour was a per feet oval the dearest little rosebud mouth all pouts and infectious haugli ter As it so happened the table where she and her companion were seated stood in close proximity to our own though from where I 1 was sitting I 1 bad an absolutely uninterrupted view of them both while chlela who was with me was placed with her back turned towards them which after all was just as it should be seeing women never can understand these things so you see I 1 was wise in not tell ing chlela anything about tho lovely creature sitting opposite me for one thing because she would not have understood and for another thing the fair stranger and myself bad carried on our language of the eye love affair so well that in spite of the distance between us and a huge bowl ot calm son and white roses placed upon her table nearly hiding her from my sight when she raised her glass of champagne to her lips she looked at me lovingly over the brim and deliberately smiled the note I 1 scribbled to my lovely vis a vis was the absurd est thing in the world yet now as I 1 look back upon the incident it strikes me as being wonderfully discreet for a man whose friends imagine bis whole life to be made up of blunden in the dead of night I 1 wrote tho world Is full of ghosts restless beings seeking happiness and repose should there be hope for one of these tonight to night take from the bowl of roses in front of you a crimson rose it however there Is no hope then take a white one I 1 saw the waiter slip the note into her lap I 1 saw her untold it under shadow of the table and I 1 saw her read it and double it up slipping it quickly into the jeweled satchel at hr h r side and then all on the tiptoe of excitement I 1 waited impatiently tor to act as I 1 desired yet for a long time she did absolutely nothing at all but look about her and I 1 was tn despair lest some wording of my letter should have given offense then suddenly in a supremely quiet way as it the most natural thing in the world she stretched out her hand towards the roses in front of her she must have known that my eyes were upon he devouring her every movement she must have heard too the beating of my heart for she played first with a white rose and then with a red one until I 1 could have almost cried out in the agony of suspense at last just as the ten slon was becoming well nigh able sha suddenly broke off the red dest among the red roses and fast ened it carelessly to the front of her corsage over her heart then indeed I 1 was happy then indeed I 1 felt at last that life was worth living and that if this world was not exactly as happy as heaven it at least had that all the pleasures ot paradise could not sur pass in the middle of my perplexity I 1 saw my lady of the roses and her companion rise from their seats I 1 observed too the covert looks of admiration that she among the onlookers by all the graceful sup of her superb figure As she moved forward gathering her beautiful wraps around her our eyes tor one brief delirious moment mot in perfect understanding I 1 saw tho beautifully molded arm and the pearl tipped fingers that I 1 so longed to grasp and I 1 saw to my utter aston ashment and dismay that as she passed my table sho unpinned the rose fastened to her corsage and crumpled it up disdainfully scat terr ing its crimson petals at my feet I 1 had hardly recovered from my mortification when on looking up with the greatest effort at complete indof ference I 1 have ever striven after in my life I 1 found to my dismay that the lovely lady ot the roses and her corn canlon had suddenly disappeared the only thing that anyone was able to tell me waa that they had both casually entered the hotel taken dinner in the restaurant and disappeared i directly afterward beyond that all wag enveloped in In penetrable mys fery in tact I 1 never saw either of them again though it as true abit a i few days afterward I 1 learned she had i returned the next day asked come leading questions concerning myself from the manager of the hotel and had gone away again immediately i the only definite information they could falve mo was that had driven up in a magnificent motor car up on which a coronet was em blazoned I 1 that she had every appearance of be ing a lady of the greatest fashion and that her evident embarrassment had caused a certain amount of curiosity as to the object of her visit among 1 tho personnel of the hotel and this circumstance somewhat the odd telegram that I 1 ed pome weeks later it was dispatched from I 1 a fashionable european watering place and ran as follows if you were here with me tonight you and I 1 alone I 1 should not scatter crimson roses at your feet but we would gath or and cherish them together itji ta |