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Show looked deeply Into her eyes; Lolita felt as though he were looking Into her very soul, and gomehow she was almost proud of what he might find there. It was the first time in her life that she bad ever felt that way, half of her was in chaos at the thought of Warrill's defection, but another half of her was singing a brave little song that was particularly sweet and new. Evidently, whatever Gray Eyes saw deep In her eyes satisfied him Intensely. He let go of ber shoulders and held out his right hand. Involuntarily Involun-tarily she put forth her own. He gave her hand an almost cruel wringing shake, and, without another word, turned to the table, picked up his hat. opened the door and was gone. Surprised, Sur-prised, Lolita went over to the door to open It and follow him, remembering remember-ing that he had answered none of the questions she had come to ask ; but the door was locked. A little dismayed at this, she stood thinking for a moment. mo-ment. Almost immediately the door was open, and the man who had led her through the underground passageway passage-way stood In it. "Come on," he said gruffly. Automatically Lolita followed him down through the house, out the front door, and to a touring car which stood in the graveled roadway at the side of 1 -K3?5f5?fl m mm wafflle shop where she often dropped In for supper. As she took her seat and gave her order a sudden wave of j lunesomeiiess swept over her. but she managed to detach herself from It completely and view It almost objectively, objec-tively, as though it were some one else who was feeling lonesome. When she left ,the restaurant she started back the way that she had come; and, when she had nearly readied her home a huge sign several sev-eral blocks south beckoned enticingly toward one of the largest dance hallu in Chicago. For just a moment lone-soineness lone-soineness again tugged at her. One could go to the big dance hall and almost al-most instantly lonesomeness would be dissolved In companionship. Firmly she continued on toward her room. When she reached it and opened the door, she was surprised to find the light on. Entering she came face to face with Mr. Warrill, who stood in the middle of the floor, In a waiting attitude. "I took the liberty of reading your story, and indicating a few changes on the border of the manuscript that will help you to soli it. It's by far the best thing you've done yet you have real power. You will some day be a great writer 1 think." She listened lis-tened to his words with mixed emo- tious and finally said: I "Don't you think it Is rather In- formal of you to come here and enter j my room like this?" He grinned in a way that shook her firm resolutions to their foundations and replied boyishly: boy-ishly: "Yes, I do." CHAPTER VIII Without further words Warrill stepped forward and took her into his arms. Desperately Lolita fought off the desire to remain there. His arms were big and strong, and he was Just tall enough so that her head lay nicely nice-ly upon his s'houlder; after a second she pushed him away with a mighty shove and stood back, her face flaming, flam-ing, trembling from head to foot Warrill War-rill looked at her In surprise. "Why, what's ther matter with you?" he asked in astonishment. For a moment mo-ment she did not reply. His eyes ' were filled with frank desire. Lolita j a little vainly reflected that If she bad ever seen her fresh young beauty reflected re-flected in a man's eyes she saw it so reflected now. That there was color in her cheeks after her brisk walk she knew ; and that the last few weeks had taken the anxious, pinched look from her face she also knew. For a moment she was glad of the beauty that was hers, and then again 1 it came to her that it was, after all, hardly more than a curse, for It was forever making life hard for her to live. She walked over and sat down in a chair, motioned for him to be seated. He Flumped down Into a chair and lit a cigarette. After a moment she said directly : "I understand that you are engaged to marry Miss I'riugle." He started, and before he could think a second time ejaculated : "How did you know? Why, It was only last night that I " "Only last night that you became engaged ; yet you come here, to' my room, tonight. What sort of a man are you?'' Under this biting question he remained re-mained lor a moment silent. "Lolita," he began slowly, "surely you, of all persons, can afford to exhibit ex-hibit a little patient understanding when it comes to the vagaries of others. Surely your own experiences with life have been nothing to entitle you to condemn airily without trying to understand motives. I love you, and I do not love Miss Cringle and yet I am going to marry tier. Although Al-though she works on a newspaper. It is only as a sort of lark. She Is tremendously tre-mendously wealthy; or-at least net parents are; Hie will inherit It all some day." "1 think." ' pasped Lolita. "that you're despicable. Kven If you do nut consider con-sider me in the matter at all. much as 1 personally dislike Miss I'ringle, 1 should certainly not wish to see you break tier heart by marrying bet foi her money. I wish that y.u woulo please go." "How can you lake such a post tlon?" Warrill objected angrily. "Look at the things you've been Involved in vou " "I did make one terrible mistake it Is true; hut my whole life since then bus been and shall always he. an effort to wipe that out mid roike up for It in even way pnssih'e I Oioii'd think that you ot i.ll . rsons would be big enough and broad enough to help and nut hindet me in tnj effort to crime hack " (TO BE CONTINUED. : The GirS : Who Came G Q Q j Dy Jack Voodford i e a a Copyright W. N. U. Servlc CHAPTER VII Continued 12 "It was nothing no trouble at all. You toolt it all a little too seriously, anyway that is, the death of that chap. You couldn't help that, and there is no reason why you should condemn con-demn yourself for It Of course, the thing which led up to it cannot he so lightly disposed of still, it would he foolish to condemn yourself for that. It was a lesson, a rather hard and advanced one, to he sure, and one that is to be regretted, and yet, there Is only one thing to do put it behind you, forget about it, and be different in the future." "Believe me, i shall," asserted l-ollta confidently, "have, already. That is one ot the things which I wanted to ' see you about You see, I can't allow you to go on paying my expenses. I owe you enough as it is. and I want to pay you back just as soon as possible. pos-sible. In the meantime, though 1 liope you won't thiuk that I'm ungrateful, ungrate-ful, I am going to ask you not to, er look after me any more." "If," began Gray Eyes slowly, "you got into another bad scrape, who would you turn to to get you out of It?" Lolita thought a long time; she had not expected a question like this. "But 1 do not intend to get into any more scrapes. It was the first one I ever got Into In my life, and I am sure that It was the last one." He shot his next remark at her like a bullet. "Yet you let a good-for-nothing sheik-pick sheik-pick you up the other night and bring you out here, nearly getting you into a second scrape as bad as the first one." Lolita hung her head. She had nothing to leply to tills. He went on in a soothing tone. "Never mind. I know what prompt ed you to do that. I don't at all agree that you should so have given in to life as to want to throw yourself away because of a petty discouragment ; still, I have done so many fool things in my own lifetime, I can hardly condemn con-demn anyone else for being foolish." He was silent for a long time, eyeing lier speculatively. His next- remark a little disconcerted Lollet. "You are very pretty. I sometimes have occasion to hire beautiful women to sing or dance in various places. I may not be a competent Judge of feminine beauty; still, I know the type of. woman that appeals to most men You are particularly appealing, and you are dellclously young. It Is un fortunntt that nature does not equip girls as beautiful as yourself with character equivalent to their beauty, but yon are going to develop strength of ihnracter and I am going to help "'v. you." "Why are you so Interested in nie?' tie did not ut once r?ply, but sat moodily thinking; his eyes held a faraway far-away look as he gazed out ot the win dow. deliberately avoiding her gaze. To hei amazement, instead of replying to her question, he suddenly turned upon her. shifting the subject coin pletely. "Do you happen to know that Mr. Warrill Is practically engaged to marry mar-ry a Miss I'ringle?" Lolita felt something within herselt give way. Almost before she knew II the tears were rolling down tier checks. Somehow the uiet, firm way In which he hud said it was convincing convinc-ing she felt that It was true beyond a doubt He rose from his chair picked her up bodily and reseated him f self, holding her in tils lap. Some in stlnct within her hiinished nil thoughts of anything but the need for a com forter. She buried her face on his shouldei and cried so that it shook her whole body. His hand patted her shoulder, and he bent over and kissed her upon the temple. For one moment the terrified thought came to her thai lie. too. was attempting to cv.ke love to her; yet. also, some other deeper feeling told her with decidedly more conviction that he was not intent upon anything of the kind. Presently she struggled to her feet, walked over lo the window, looked out. seeing noth Ing of the scene without, seeing ntilv the devastating scene within her own consciousness She bit her lip and swung about to find (Jray Eyes lust behind her. wfllehing tier curiously "I don't cue," she told him firmly hands clenched. "Kven if what you say about Mr Warrill is true. I don't care I'm not going lo let it lueiik my heart or ruin my life I do love It t lit. and I iroh:ihly always shall and if he Is Indeed Interested In Miss I'i'iliL'le and has been all ot Hie time v that lie has been making love to me It Is the most awful thing lh;il has hap pitied to me yet. but somehow I know I'll hear It. I'm not going to let every lilile thing in life knock me over without halt a struggle any more. I in goln- to s'udv and he somebody, and not be l''.(e most women dependent v.l.on the ivnini ot some man for my happiness." lie stepped closer to her. tonic her shonluers In a firm grusD. She Walked Over and Sat Down in a Chair. the house. He opened the door of the car and stood respectfully while she entered, whereupon he mounted to the driver's seat and started at a dizzying speed toward town. In an Incredibly short space of time Lolita found herself her-self back before the building where she roomed. Without a word the driver opened the car door for her. and she dismounted. He climbed back into the driver's seat. Jerked the oar around in the street, and set off back toward the direction from which he had come. Entering the house, Lolita went directly di-rectly to her room, her mind a turmoil tur-moil of conflicting emotions. Half of her was despondent, the other half was still singing that new. strange little song. Vaguely the sense of It all came"to her. The brave little song within was undoubtedly the beginning of definite character. Her very ears seemed to ring with new capacity to hear, and she seemed to see the whole of life In a new light, Full to the brim of this new something she sat down before her typewriter. The man who had driven her home, (ra.v Kjes. the dark .gloomy day, her own strange, buoyant, brave feeling all of it began be-gan to weld together around the outline out-line of a plot. Presently she was pounding ambitiously upon the type writer. Page after page practically wrote itself as an excellent story plot unfolded, filled with very real characterizations, charac-terizations, compounded of the people with whom she had come In contuct that day. It had grown dark outside by Hie time she had filled the last sheet of paper, which contained the end of the story Itlsing. a little weary, mentally pushing away the gloom which descended de-scended upon her Immediately she had finished the story, she decided to gn to a restaurant and get something to eat As she approached the brilliantly lighted district, the very eleeiric lights seemed lo dance with new In tensity; she was still obsessed by the dual feeling of sadness and brave gnyety, the strangest feeling that she tiad ever experienced In tier entire lifetime the feeling thai she had worked into every line of the story She continued on half a block m so until she reached the pleasant little |