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Show a CR AITD EES 6) aren iz Tt L Agee a, fingers on her arm was fine, was delicate, as if to say, “I wouldn’t harm you for the world.” She blushed a slow, painful crimern. s She hadn’t meant that. She| ; yh i held iaer at GHP Foag by to go in’ and sk ; stood, the little an since| little atmosphere, fragrant flavor.| faded heads, their room ghost mere the anteroom whose brushed his neste describes the ring. to ©eron, Nora Gilsey, and her chapheathenra Britton, as being like a Set in {with a beautiful sapphire anu Engd. Flora meets Mr. Kerr, cussing’ f, at the club. In dis- where and something Harry takes engagement Acc come to buy an set in a hoop \An exquisite sapphire urges her not\ss, is selected. Harry The. possessionar it until it is reset. beyond the Nottingham table-cloths alike showed a dull 2 Spell over Fhe ring seems to cast | was no one eating at the little tables, Boe box eee anryehe: tnedsy party. Shelora beromies meets Kerr at a | him when oe is Dart ‘of Wo; muieh ey, the re 29 desk Wide. ransacking”, net, Ei daeees: Plone anteroom. Not a stir o. said Kerr the tables What think can you'll & you — - “Oh,” she cried, ror. She stood up repeated of won- +) “Why, don’t you? you love?” you but valiant.|™an much,” he a moment ; do How get agees betray from them them. all. I’m I standing shall never He drew back, away from her, as if to ward off her meaning, but she leaned toward him, her hands flung out, holding herself up to him for all we Oh, she could never tell him it was for him! In her distress and embarrassment she looked all ways. she meant. His quick white finger touched her on the wrist. “For The abrupt tion startled stern her. and note She still for a ae i ore YerY. ry one Fiin hess. I have to. creeping Cressy?” this hisHa of 2 7s tea uncertainty, long I « “then ee he ee Ce SK ae ee i RL i to eecanene P ground. dusky and viobe- ee with ae a geen said, her Then, a: sharp and, toward e. ee turning, the 4 Spranz ie loomin helped whistled : the hates up around and a= I won’t do for her you, the last Wem cee a S&p in. dwart.”.. was never he yY the enied truth swarthy “flora, She| from that gravely fan|to the c the have old little| face and sedate demeanor hardly noticed them. pitch, , houette ss e Te Ae yee came been liv- We Tae apron SA down} and 3 ' ee ; e to ie : &ce oy Boa that he misdou s Hae By I out of him, eer . ee eve they ie to ‘Fis if.” her. | himself. you know.” . The door opened and a little girl with a long black braid and purple almost whistled her down | aS nothing he asked All. I white sails | laughed with a quick relaxing of Pet haq panorama | strained nerves. It might it. This “There’s g. xvi1_\_. __ \ntinued9 the He for Clie ween a he up to high the stool told an that and a faint-voiced| aoe f i o ¥ The admission ce be me when there life, at*her. nothing, he came on the She paled. ‘As her but he it occurred in that same we she how looked at the it she had to be you.” |- errand.” for not,” he said. muffled. He did voice not look Travelers. Sj} tion windeors pine and little houses ereepin by of fresher these , ties and. gliding ragged chee ane chair | church “domed” with blue and yellow, bearing down as if it had fairly determined to make its course straight through this stable center. Then in the very shadow it swerved aside to clatter off in quite another direction along a Wider street with whiter shops, and more glittering windows with gilded letters. flashing foreign names, with ‘more marked and brilliant colors mov- ing in stamp the on crowd, with all of Latin a clearer living. Then suddenly for them the sliding panorama ceased. The car had stopped and they had left it, and were standing upon the corner of a still street that came down from the high hills. behind them and crossed the ear track and. climbed again: a little way to curve over into the sky. Dingy houses two blocks above them stood silhouetted against the blue. They . were a Walking upward toward 3 this ho- HESS. meéred SG BNE kc them, .at ah ee passing, r were the “| blank windows of empty houses. Were they taking this way, this curious roundabout, out-of-the-world -way, of dropping over into the shipping which lay under the hill? For all she knew this might really be his notion, for ginee. they: left..the..garden gate, though they had looked together.at the light and color ‘of' the pictures moving past their eyes, they had not exchanged a word. ‘ Bui all at once intersection ‘his eyes of he two veered stopped dusty down at the streets, and the four per- spectives like a voyageur taking his soundings. Hlegant as ever and odd enough, yet he wasn’t any odder here at the jumping. off place of nowhere that he had appeared in the box at the theater or in the picture gallery. She had the clear impression all at onee that he wasn’t too odd for any- thine. ; “LyLLere cated we with aret”’ he said, his\glittering and stick indi- straight before them a little house. It was low, as if it erduched. against the wind, faded and beaten by the sun to the drah of the rock itself, and made so secret with tight-drawn curtains that it seemed to have shut itself up against the’ world forever. She wavered. She wasn’t afraid of herselt here, out-of-doors under the sky, but she was afraid that those four walis might shut out her new unreasoning joy, might steal away his new tenderness, and bring her back ‘face to face with the same ugly fact tat had confronted her in her draw- ing room. talisman.” at looked him, up _ but he and, with a swing, a little off the ground he her the only| ed been for, idea to that? as ghe he sat} the the jewel more it since? ,| and faltered. “No! warned that it Harry she had return- repudiated ly. the has murmured. he to do with you do champion “I’m a ‘Don’t, He gave of had night I holiday, whatever was to follow. For the glimpse of blue through the dim window might be the Bay of Naples; and, ah! Chianti. Perhaps. the sort one gets down Monte Video way, where France’ fades into Italy—perhaps, at least if her fancy could get the better of the reality. “She wouldn’t care if you jumped up and threw me out of the window,” he affirmed. “That’s why this hole is so harmless. Oh, isn’t that harmless? What’s more harmless than to let one alone? There’s only one thing here,” he grinned take her choice of which. She came “You straight know at dangerous and let her ee command her here. Yet for a The possible; since it isn’t phire it would be. that.’ “But, you extraordinary on earth—” he broke off, at her, looking with a sharp, studying eye, as the most puzzling and, it the stare him it? Haven’t I kept away house? es Have I tried from to it? saw ment. His “Oh, sap- were?” grave He ‘Surprise. would you from me!” He whirled ke her she didn’t graveof his but His words a grim came it her shoul- it! Leave leave on ar her. it!” she me! What A jewel! If it and ‘In go away ; heaven’s as vee A well ta we wondering as CaR ng ae whether me.” to a ouble faintly glimmering thought and it looked set. She determination between soaft he them in the sharp, ab- could ‘see his growing them, both. there in. looming and sald’ at eek ot Sinoly have to take you in spite of it.” turned around to her, and reached down through the dusk. She clasped around a néck, her cheek was a face which she had never LL. faooped to touch. Her reason and her maiccers were stifled and caught away from her lips with her breath. She offers the was giving up to her awful weakness. “Back she wag giving up to the power pense > j5n% Mee you ROC for side trips, than know oR to do it for yeu; any that you" dour Ors met? and there Ane. ao: ars more ways than one that I could get the sapphire from you, if I could face the idea of it—but really, really we care too much for each other. There’s only one way out for you sapphire. Ill take Her clenched and me you hands and the both.” opened and fell at her sides. A great wave of helplessness flowed over her. Her eyes, er throat filled up with a rush of blinding tears. She put out her hands, trying to thrust him off, but he took the wrists and held them apart, and held her a moment helpless before hin. “Oh, no,” she whispered.) “But I love you.” Her head fell back. She looked at him as if he had spoken the incredible. “I love you,” he repeated, “though God knows how it has happened!” The blood rushed to her heart. He was drawing her nearer. She, felt his breath upon her face; she saw the image of herself -in his of love. She started to herself om the} otbhe would roeee sink into deep water. of drowning in this The profound, unfathomable element, of shutting her eyes gnd opening her arms to it, was hie epee she dra ever touched; ali at once the memory. of what was leaving behind her, like @ put she last glimpse of sky, swept her with fear. She made a desperate effort to rescue herself before over She her the waters quite closed head. pulled herself free. Without his arms around her for the first moment she could hardly stand. She took an uncertain step forward; then with a rush she reached the white curtains. They flapped behind her. She heard Kerr laugh, a note, quiet, caressing, almost content. It came from the gloom like a disembodied voice of triumph. Her rush had earried her into the middle of the anteroom. At this last moment was there to be no miracle to save her? There was no rescue among these dumb walls and closed-up windows. The purple child gave her a sharp, bird-like glance, as if the most that this wild “woman could want was “change.” Flora looked behind her and saw Kerr, who had put aside the curtains and was standing looking at her. He was pright and triumphant in that twilight edge of danger, and made a struggle| to release her wrists. He let them! room. He was not her now. He knew Why not?) Why won’t you go me?” she heard him say again, close beside her. She saw him approaching, but though 3 all her mind and spirit strained for flight, something had happened to her will. It tottered like her knees. He stooped and picked up an artificial rose, which had fallen from her hat, and put it into her hand. A moment, with his head bent, he stood looking into her face, but without touching her. Se afraid of losing in that one mo- She sank down into her chair. | ment he had imprisoned her for ever! ceyyy 2 , aces : : : can’t, words, I can’t!” but for She with! still clung the: moment to ‘she “Why not, if you love me?” he insisted. “Are you afraid of those people? - Are you afraid of Cressy? He shall never come near you.” She shook her head. “No, it isn’t that.” He stooped “Sit down over there,” pointed toward a chair wall. She went meekly oner. He spoke to the purple apron, who was he said, and against the like a pris- child still in the sitting behind the desk. He put some money on the cash-desk in front of her. It was gold. It shone gorgeously in the dull surrounding, and the child and looked into face. pounced upon it, incredulous of het “Then what keeps you?” luck. Then he turned, crossed the She looked up slowly. room, soundlessly opened the door, . “My honor.” ; and went out into the violet dark of the street. “Your honor!” For a moment her (TO BE CONTINUED.) ‘answer seemed to have him by surprise. He mused, and again it came dreamily back to her that he was One Trip Nearly Paid for Schooner. looking’ at her across a vast differDealers at T wharf were given a ence no will of hers could ever bridge. surprise when Capt. Horace Hillman “Don’t you see what I am?” she of the 14-ton schooner Eliza Benner murmured. “Can’t you imagine where of Edgartown offered 20,000 pounds of ‘tI stand in this hideous. business? It’s fish to buyers at the exchange. No my trust. I’m on their side; and, oh, one believed that a schooner the size in. spite of everything, I can’t make of the Benner would attempt rounding myself believe in giving it to you!” Cape Cod at this season so deeply He pondered this very gravely. loaded. But the captain had recently “Yes, I can see how you might feel purchased the vessel and thought if that way. But is the feeling, really yours? Are you sure they havyen’t put it on you? Might not my honor do as well for you, if you were mine?” It struck her she had never connected :him with honor, and he read her ‘thought with a flash of humor. ‘Hyidently it hasn’t occurred to you that I have an honor.” o She hid of Cressy ay, : He his against Seenic “Every Route and attractions, that can be seen fromShe was letting herself sink into it as “I sadly, finality, if honor resolution. ‘hands had forgotten her reasons. She had forgotten everything but the wonderful fact that he loved her. He was there within ream, and she had only to stretch out her/hand, only to say one word, and he would cut through the ranks of her perplexities and terrors, and carry her AWaYe 32 - make he it.” hand, first hand a was being drawn up into arms which R Alene Peale Wel nee GEER nde ‘ This go. Lean- quite touch doggedly, with didn’t I couldn’t ‘that gave the gloom mq aes The eyes. “Oh, I can’t tell you,” she despaired. without ‘Why, from it with ae re vel ei the regarded to of name, a fine piece of logic! Leave the sapphire to people who can make no ees Oh, have out your . a } to| you take Superiobyershadowine } beau-| forced think fell take only “Oh, haven’t I tried to? That is why I wrote. Don’t you see your own danger at all?” “No, but I’d like to.” He leaned toward her, brows lifted to a quizzical peak. shali you on arm “Leave you didn’t mean—one thing above all others you couldn’t mean, that you want me to drop out when the game is half done, to slink away and leave it all like this—abandon you and my Idol to each other! My dear, for what do you take me?” x She burst out. “But can’t you see the danger?” He met it quietly. “Certainly. I have been ~ seeing nothing else but the danger—to you. Do you think I’ve been’ idle all these days? Every line I have followed has ended in that. It’s brought me finally to this.” ,The gesture of his hand included their predicament and the dingy little room. “You'll really have to help me, after all.’ I it don’t. | mistrusted his gravity! . “Why, to be sure there were things—things that “But somehow Vole eo. | turned sapphire pleaded. approac how this does it matter so much? He mused. woman, why still looking persistent, if she were came to her I was down in the garden.” “There he 6 at fa stent a . it is fh Po |: him, der. “There’s been only one thing to do from the first,” he said, “and I don’t see my way to it.” he looked. at him through his persiflage wistfully, searchingly. “But there were other things in that. letten.) with “That’s smile. Do the ““Waven’t you, though?” she threw at him accusingly. “Ah,” he deprecated, “you came to me. wish than I can afford.” gave a reluctant know He laughed. “Well, isn’t that why. we're here at last—that you may dictate your terms?” i have. Didn't you get my letter? “Oh indeed I did. Haven’t I obeyed more she — I can’t let you alone.” I besought it as YORCiL. time to know AteATa you were “sorbed eata and the sorry slow- 'hadn’t been—well, for the way I thought of you? I fancied you knew that then.” He made a restless move- “Quite so,” he said. “But I didn’t believe it.” He stared at her with a dull, profound resentment. “Yet it’s most child, she but’—and you deserve, mo ment, leaning forward with: his clenched hands on the table, he looked ready to spring up and force her words back on her. The next he let it go and dropped back in his chair again. but, a shoulder, pe through “I’m not repeated her a look. you, ave to make her stare the window again and spoke to himself—“it nuts an avful. face .on my. elie z "Alt Bee Youve tease oF think for you, and of you, more than you determined glad; don’t!” He was on to «go, 7 don’t.” it?” tiful God! how tle le limp continued Sacre Kerr. What It lay he window at the street. for what*you said,” he “Why should you think he came for| lifted the| ing back, nursing his chin in his hand, he watched her with a gloomy sort of brooding. “You know what it is I’m waiting for. You know I won’t go said, but smile. He looked at iv. rveproachfully, ann be-| for J. ward \sharpl aroha Samet to' you?” upon the wings of his high spirits; He was going too far. He had no mischievously, obstinately, he but “The man I would not show her where the flight| right to that question. Her hot was leading, nor let her listen to any- have promised to marry.” thing but the rustling of those wings. look, her cold manner defied him to “That will be easy,’ he said. “Oh, no,” she said, and put her hands behind her with a determinatien that she wasn’t going to move. “Oh, yes,” no She roup to the table, as if to show how “My There was it efianit Ti AP@RSiD. | a septa was tating her with iim—tiking her eee weaving color and waotion be) hind them. With every step the street! eae Te I have possession. laughed, a Greek’ her alll seechingly aad the so I got him away.| you had maker. She felt the conscious jewel burn in| MOR) up and asked magic 4 Shind ae foreign, hasn’t Phe ce cluttered houses: past loaded carts of vegetables; past - children playing ‘shrilly, bearing down always on the green square of the plaza wide, worn and He i oe erie fancy. Flora took up| “The sapphire?” she The more her instinct banks, green grass shee levelg:~ magic,” He had. drawn out a chair for her. “That depends on you. I’m not the| wooden Stairways straggling naked faces; bast the lower black reoegniSo for 20 living ees with | his “Not ae re their yards. not cor-| long white : + SElCCl |.. him that morning; ‘their ‘ 1LOWUsE only held out his arm in a mute sign ||; all tion. Hadn’t it passed years? Old Heuston ae you ware: dared Goleviienr m tohertocome, She felt it around her, Me nD era ae iia symbdl of protecs|— Dabe h Can’t you trust ple zest had set him all the hotter on g 10 fdisole sound- “I mean I thought it might be safer all around that you should not BOG comfortably ™ l her, me.” He sat for some long moments thoughtfully looking straight before ~olhim, She) glancing at hisv people, told|S- at ail ee ‘this a His Hehie wes out the front door to tak a went “There,” said Kerr, “ends formality. ed and erawled low wee “Sereak- | Now let the real magic begin!” ners bicycle be-|¥ I to ee aa “Mine is the onlyly = He denied her steadily, “Never!” Graduate of a Tech She loved him for that gallant de{ ‘nial, for she knew he had been afraid, Electric power work a specialty. horribly afraid, more afraid than she sae ; Tibiitie ciel Wee How: Wat that stranse wuaiity ot arge or small. .. Hlectric rang uae : J oubiic Sade a ek. B what that ‘you thought |4 up yes, Vou around in the | softly Bitte “Tm ed “You mean—?’ sorry ectric Ah, Dts| tata | be f him. “Don’t might came cena you have to think of. eye begansata h hardily. and decencies She get it ie far to marry a cad : All a traitor. side said, gray, of world should sink before he cost -her I but unabashed. Be : mused upon amd+ now tae gone, of how much she had betrayed herself, swelled and swelled before UR NEL AAR TE Goce oe ce 4 i ae Oi Seas effort. He mounting | me pel. os anything ee ne Never. The child walked | told desk struck ae you ees ac The- knowledge aa rpY1°¢;Bae went ey belong closed on her. eeee et from je | He “You : FRO, walked window. at wondered only Kerr eu i as if merely standing front; ; bon inoral , of her i ee the ‘motion, Cressy didn’ a red, “T didn’t know, I didn’t know,’ he repeated in a low voice. His eyes were Seon busi- “Ah,” he sighed out the satisfaction | 02 fein i of features, darkening his eyes, hung fore her like a banner of shame. then: wretched betrayed He got up slowly and the tide me ' you « ? ‘that I am right? Can’t you see it “Oh, I don’t, I don’t care for that.” through my eyes? Can’t you make She sank back listlessly in her chair yourself all mine?’ His arm was again. She couldn’t explain, but in around her now, holding her fast, but her own mind she knew that if she she turned her face away, and. his lost the sapphire she would so lose in her own esteem; so fail at every point kisses fell only on her cheek and hair. / that counted, that she would never be “Oh,” she cried, “if only I could!” able to see or be seen in the world “Don’t you love me?” again as the same creature. Even to “Oh, yes, but that makes me see, Kerr—even to him to whom she would all the more, the dreadful difference have yielded she would have become between us.” a different thing. She realized now Abs “You silly child, there is no differshe had staked everything on the ence, really.” premise she. avouldwit have © te : : ; lent, rising over, his face, swelling his of his quesheld herself moment, ever Sa to} you?” — I it Flora marry te against them. then?” have give sapphire, wouldn't ‘She couldn't tell how this had but failure; her distress. kept him for what, When I’ve the he come to her, but all at once it was clear, like a sign of her complete with a wail of hortrembling and pale. Pay tt I don’t—I don’t —T don't! sharp-|it vif y gave you the| then! - clean out of his brooding. “In heaven’s stiff better use of it than 1? Leave you to | 80 on with this business and marry ware) said, "ar, name, “No. among me? GUL Ob att |. Great, Gont women “Oh, not for that,” she cried life in all the. placé. “Hello,” on light. sink out of sight. upon which she aieai der: thing fore wins te, make surpects Kerr and) a giant or dwarf?” odour: Enon Beyond rea “I care so very slowly, and after ‘ dubious decides Ey eG aN renoasen ghe RETR IS CRUG oe ara re : : t oe he tells eee fees g to Harry, but | between the curtains, alleet her fascinatee Jee re ee ce oo Ella Buller tells Flo}? & day or two. ed apprehension of what was to fol-| haven't given him away to me. a0! ting her cap for her hat Clara is set: ee “Shall it be | #1 I’m likely to get from the man BPlora believes Harry: Judge Buller. low plain upon her lace... descended alc at sta of the ring,| "Do you cave fon it so very much?” | hideous! 3 most precipitately, as if he meant to 0 through it, but he only leaned against to. it and stood motionless; and from her j, side of the table, trembling, breath- ~ less, she watched his stricken sil- Ce higek the evay. fadine | CHAPTER aniceais stil in the ae discovers | jooking around him, “we’ve caught; at Ee toner te hone asleep.” He rapped on the wall aaa out one! sitting > behind : the high cash: e Puity ihat the stone | puma gee Clara ene came table ceiling all but/ly. “Not for the sapphire!” and in the larger He stared. She had startled and tempered whiteness as if the shadow of time had fallen dim across the whole. The little restaurant seemed left behind in the onward march of the city, and its faded, kindly face was but a shadow of what had been of the vigor and flourish of boureois Spain 30 years before. There | B&O} , z e has me Kerr tells Flora that Place him. \¥ somewhere, but cannot the return reward is offered for Flora that living. Harry admits to on spair row the “Then what are,you doing here] this Cressy?. Even suppose you gave over her. Only the nar- with the ring on you?” he demanded | me the sapphire, I couldn’t let you ;was between them, yet all | so lemniy. “Why are you dealing& with | do oe that!” eo ah at once, with the mention they} lace curtains, prevailed a mild shabbiness, a respectable decay. Curtains €xploits \ppearance of the ring, the and, an English thief,, Farrell that Harilled; Flora has a fancy Flora to a Ckes Kerr. such stale, and of some fuller, more Mystdng, known as the Crew Idol, who \ disappears. Harry Cressy, know breathed faint In Kerr but, ‘The door shot behind her| she flat, i Ghat AG io ne cold ~ autos the | of it; earth. sharply, with a click like a little trap; | she asked him, trembling . : \ SYNOPSIS. about thought gradually, following as something he knew inevitable. The faintness of de- he had, there was nothing for it but| be seemed a long way off. P~ SLESRILL Co } ae if he gave himself up to the course he was was 1 . eeEmeeRe looked at him of-everything I’m I belong to them.” on sadly. the “In spite other side. he could reach Boston at a time of high prices he might be able to nearly pay’ her purchase price. With five young men belonging on Martha’s Vineyard Capt. Hillman took the schooner out on the ocean side of Nantucket and in a short time filled the craft to the hatches. The venture proved so successful that the crew earned about $30 each and th: Benner almost paid for herself.—Boston Herald. — |