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Show I L We j Have Changed All That ? By Herbert Quick and I t Elena Stepanofi Mac Mahon J l Copyright by ' f The Bobbs-Merrill Co. j WND Sen-ice CHAPTER XI Continued 20 ''Most of Slialcespeare's plnys," the writer xtHted, "are quite uinierslanO able by the people of Japan. Suuli pieces as "King Lear.'' "Julias Caesar" and "Coriolanus." for instance, in-stance, are rather more in the Japanese Jap-anese stage of development than in that of the European of this day. But "Measure for Measure" falls flat. To nidke a heroine of Isabella for refusing refus-ing to ransom her brother by yielding to Angelo. is to the mind of Nippon, mere Insanity. To the Japanese. Isabella Isa-bella would be entitled to praise for thus ransoming Claudio. It would, to his mind, be no sacrifice of virtue. Mo Japnnese could imagine a good Bister refusing this plea of Claudio. Sweet sister, let me the: What sin you do to save a brother's life, Nature dispenses with the deed so far That It becomes a virtue! On this Mrs. Krassln wrote, "This is true. God wills it!" Then she gave the book with the slip in It to Sasha the maid, and commanded her to leave it on Musia's desk, open where the passages were marked, and with the slip displayed. Afterward, she wished she had not done this. It seemed a breach of etiquette. eti-quette. And it might work opposite to her wish ; so she resorted again to prayer. She prayed that she might be forgiven for her unwisdom. She told God that nothing had taken place between be-tween Musia and Loris except what every one might have seen ; she promised prom-ised that if be would grant that Loris might be swayed from violence by the purity and greatness of his love for Musia, she would give him praise for ever and ever. Meanwhile, she watched Musia as a cat watches a mouse, eagerly expectant of the girl's second visit to Loris' car, for which, as she thought of Ilya, she yearningly hoped. Musia, od the other hand, sought companionship. She went again to ber father, and found that be had now-taken now-taken up the writing of his reminiscences reminis-cences of the Musso-Japanese war. She listened to his stories for hours; and It happened that he paid a high tribute to the lofty sense of honor of the Samurai class in Japan. When she returned to her room, she found "Measure for Measure," with its underscoring un-derscoring and markings, the clipping, clip-ping, and the comments in a disguised hand, which she had no difficulty In identifying. She threw the book from her In hot Indignation. She despaired' of her lUture, she doubted the worth of life Itself, when she thought of the degradation of her mother, that former for-mer examplar of all that justified the existence of a cultured and noble class, when plunged Into the spiritual solvent of this time which" tried the souls of human beings beyond their powers of resistance. She remembered v-hat her father had said of the punc;ilious sense of honor of the Japanese nobility, and for a moment she su.-pccled that be had been enrolled In n conspiracy to bring bis daughter to the standard of conduct described in the newspaper clipping: hut only for u moment did she harbor such distrust. Me was too I far gone in mental decay to be cap j able of the pursuit oi any sustained i object and be would, even in his ini bcclle stale, revolt from the sordid i purpose of her mother. Slie could find i no Justification for Mrs. Krassin. The I bitterness of ber heart, when she. thought ot her. frightened ber-the j contamination of ii all ! I She was very h:nel, and tried all j the little dcvb-is to which her life ; had accustomed hoi to pass away the j time. She opened the piano, rested I her ringers on the kcjs. ami withnnt j striking a note, closed it. and wen; I wandering about the ureal high ceil i Inued rooms. The piece she had lie-n ! about to play was one of Ilya's favor i ltes. She had slept for many nights I after their visit to Loris. mid n..w re ! tired early, but not always to sleep. 1 liur'ng the dais site had been in a ri--laxed at;d passive smic; bat now it seemed as If it were I..T Imperative ' duty te rise and do somet hing. j Musia was letting thins drift in ; this awful storm : and the theuglii tor-I tor-I menle l her. She saw nethin clearly. Hut tilell-.'illS. ai'I't-n:' hi up visions. j crowded her brain. Ilya. Vladimir. I mother the Mens were twisting, plaiting plait-ing in chaos. I.eris, to" -she remembered remem-bered him. with his handsome white : bands as soft as ber own. ins pm.i'l : curled up mustache almost hnfliina 1 her lips n distant, incomprehensible. ; persistent f.Liirp. ' "I a:,i sure be can snve Ilia." site : said, sitting np in bed and clasping her knees with her amis. "He is their 1 j,,, 1 he must be; for see his superiority superi-ority o the others! What he s.rd about not having power was s:iid in medcf.y; but he must hae power. ConipMe him to Viiiiwky! I nnM ! save I!.' a. and must see Loris aain; but saving liva will not decide my destiny. No matter how this great matter Is solved, I cannot live In the same house with my mother any more. My life Is spoiled. Where can I go? What can I do?'' How still the house was! It frightened fright-ened her. She was approaching hysteria; hys-teria; and she wondered If her mind were not giving away. She wondered what ber mother was doing. Terhaps she was searching for more passages in books and papers with which to corrupt her daughter's mind. Musia softly slipped out of bed and softly went to her mother's door. It stood a little ajar, and a dim light was shining out along the floor In a broadening zone against the opposite wall of the passage. Musia paused before be-fore this . opening and looked In. There was a faint light iu the room, by which the girl could at first see nothing but a shrine over in the corner; cor-ner; hut presently by the light of the tiny oil lamp burning before the shrine several orthodox ikons were revealed, and under them an indistinct , figure on the floor. It was her mother In her nightgown, night-gown, kneeling in prayer. Musia watched for a long time, but she scarcely stirred. The girl was no philosopher, and this glimpse Into her mother's soul struck ber with astonishment aston-ishment and wonder. She could not fathom the mystery of the female animal ani-mal fighting for her offspring; and blindly endeavoring to use, at the same time, the weapons of the spirit, and of the world, the flesh and the devil against another child. The time may come when Musia will understand this; but then she was too young. But her bate lessened a little, as she got this glimpse of the awful struggle In the soul of another. Slowly straightening her tired body the girl crept back to the loneliness of her room. CHAPTER XII From Master to Slave Sentries seemed stricken with blindness, blind-ness, as Musia walked along the railway rail-way platform, and then down on the cindered ground between the tracks on the occasion of ber second visit to Loris but then, this was the second visit. His car had been moved along the siding nearer to the main line, and, as before, the way seemed to be always kept clear for it to move out of the yards and out of Kazan. A man in uniform pointed it out to her when she had paused In perplexity at its having vanished from the spot where she remembered it to have stood before. When she reached the car, the guard, a different type of man from the one on duty that other day, waved his band for her to enter without with-out any petition on her part It was now growing dark, and as she stepped into the corridor, which was brilliantly brilliant-ly lighted, she found herself alone; and there was no- one in the reception room, which was dark, save for light coming In from the outside about the curtains, and a gheain shining from under the hanging across the doorway Into the inner room. Her heartbeats almost suffocated her. It seemed to her that anyone in the car. might hear them. There was none of the waiting here, either, which had marked the former visit ; for before she had become accustomed ac-customed to the strangeness of waiting wait-ing thus for this myterious man, he threw back the hanging, and leaving the doorway open behind him, stepped lightly Into the room and stood as If waiting for her to explain the object of her call upon him. The Incredibly grotesque situation struck her: she quaked as she thought of her being at the mercy of this stranger clothed with such sinister power, and reputed to be In the habit of making such destructive use of It. She felt a chill and shivered. He walked over to her as If he understood under-stood her thoughts and feelings, and was rather amused Jit them. "So you came?" She thought the words ironical, but there was no Irony in bis voice. "I'lease be seated," said be. with n gesture toward the divan. "I was wondering if you would not come. 1 thought you might. I wanted you to come." Her heart heat high with hope at his words. Why could he have wished In1!' to ce.me save to give her good news of Ilya? "Then you have good news for me?" she exclaimed, "flood news of my brother?" (TO BE CONTINCEP.) |