Show fi MY LADY OF THE ROSES by richard king bewitching yee yes that was the word which beet best expressed her bewitching absolutely be bewitching twitchIng VV abing masses nt nf nut brown hair held together grecian marhlon in banda of gold and arran arranged geil becomingly kith all that apparent carelessness which bespoke a arat rate coiffeur ur cletty piquant somewhat indefinite features set iet in face whose contour was a per feet oval the dearest little rosebud mouth all pouts and infectious laugh ter As it so the table where she aad d her companion were seated stood in close proximity to our own though from where I 1 waa was sitting I 1 had an absolutely uninterrupted view of them both while shiela who was with me was placed with her back turned towards them which after all waa was just as it should be seeing women reyer never can understand these things so you see I 1 was wise in not tell ing shiela anything about the lovely creature sitting opposite me for ona thing because she would not have understood and for another thing the fair stranger and myself had carried on our language odthe of the eye love affair so well that th in n spite of the distance between us and a huge bowl of crim son and white roses placed upon her table nearly hiding her from my night sight when she raised her gluss of cham to her lips she looked at me lovingly over the brim and deliberately smiled the note I 1 scribbled to roy my lovely vis a vis was the absurd est thing in la the world yet now as I 1 look back upon u pon the incident it strikes me as being wonderfully discreet tor for a man whose friends imagine his whole life to be mado up of at blunders blunde ts in the dead of night I 1 wrote the world Is full of ghosts restle i 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 if 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 df the table and I 1 saw her read it and double it up slipping it quickly into the jeweled satchel at her side and then all on the tiptoe of excitement I 1 waited impatiently for her to act as I 1 desired yet for a long time tame she did absolutely nothing at all but look about her and I 1 was as in despair lest some wording of my letter should have given offense then suddenly in a supremely quiet way as if 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 wera were upon hero he devouring her every movement she must have heard beard too the beating of my heart for she played first with a white rose and then with a ci red one until I 1 could have almost cried out in the agony of suspense at last just as the ten elon slon was becoming well nigh able she suddenly broke off tho the red dost 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 it if this world was not exactly as happy as heaven it at least had moments that all the pleasures of paradise could not surpass in ili the middle of my perplexity I 1 saw in my V lady ady of the rosee roses and her companion rise from their seau I 1 observed too the co covert vert look looks of admiration that she excited among the onlookers by all the graco graceful ful suppleness of 0 her superb figure As she moved forward gathering her beautiful wraps around her our eyes tor for one brief delirious moment met in perfect understanding I 1 saw the 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 she the jose rose fastened to her cors cars ige and crumpled it up lip disdainfully scattering its crimson petals at my feet I 1 had hardly recovered from my mortification when on looking up wl with th the greatest effort at complete indifference I 1 have ever striven after in my life I 1 found to my ray dismay that the lovely lady of the roses and her corn com parlon par ion had bad suddenly disappeared the only thin thing that anyone was able to tell mo me was that they had both casually ente entered the hotel taken dinner n er in the restaurant and disappeared directly afterward beyond that ajl all wae was enveloped in In penetrable mystery in tact fact I 1 never saw either of henr again though it la 13 true talt a few low days afterward I 1 learned she had returned the next day asked some leading questions concerning myself from the manager of at the hotel oud and had gone away again immediately the only definite information they could give me was that she had daiv en ell up in a motor car upon which a coronet was em blazoned 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 an to the object of her visit among tho the personnel of tho the hotel and this explains somewhat the odd telegram fat tat I 1 received pome weeks later it was dispatch from a burodean bur Lur watering place and dad ran as follows it you were here with me toni to glit you and I 1 alone 1 I should n not ot a scatter cat to r crimson rosee roses at your feet but bit we would gather gathor and cherish ibm toge together ther |