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Show J ' "" - TIIE BINGHAM NEWS c THE BRANDING IRON , CHAPTER IV Continued. 18 "Of course there'8 a performance tonight. I'll dine with Jasper. I'll have to see Betty first . . ." Ms thoughts trailed off and be fell Into that hot-col- d confusion, that uncom-fortable scorching fog of mood. The cub turned Into Fifth avenue and be-came a scale lu the creeping serpent of vehicles that glided, paused, and glided aguin past the thronged pave-ments. Prosper contrasted everything with the grim courage and high-pitche- d tragedy of France. He could not but wonder at the detached frivol-ity of these money-spender- s, these spinners In the sun. ' How soon would the shadow fall upon them, too, and with what change of countenance would they look up! To him the ss seemed almost childish and yet he bathed hla fagged spirit in it. How high the white clouds sailed, how blue was the midwinter sky I How the buildings towered, how quickly the people stepped! Here were the pretty, painted faces, the absurd silk stockings, the tripping, exquisitely booted feet, the swinging Avalk, the By 1 Katharine Newlin Burt Copyright by Katharine N. Burt "I'll tell you In a moment. Did you destroy my letter?" He shook hia head. "Oh, Prosper, please 1" He took It out, tore It up, and walk-ing over to the open fire, burned the papers. He came back to hla tea. "Well, Betty?" "The girl," snld Betty, "Is the star In your plHy, The Leopardess,' the girl that Jasper picked up two Sep-tembers ago out west. He haa writ-ten to you about her. She was a cook, If you please, a hideous creature, but Jasper saw at once what there was In her. She haa made the play. You'll have to acknowledge that yourself when you see her. She Is wonderful. And, partly owing to the trouble I've taken with her, the girl Is beautiful. One wouldn't have thought It possible. She Is not charming to me, she's not In the least subtle. It's odd that she should have had such an effect upon Jasper, of all men . . ." ful for an Instant. "How won:4 X da for nie to leave it with Melton, tha business manager? Eh? Suppose 1 phone him and talk it over a little. He'll want to wait till toward the end of the run. He's keen; has Just tha commercial sense of the born adver-tiser. Let him choose the moment. Then we can feel sure of getting tha right one. Will you, Luck?" "If you advise It. You ought to know." "You see. I'm so confoundedly busy, ao many Irons in the fire, I might just miss the psychic moment. I think Melton's the man I'll call him up to night before we leave. Then I won't forget It and I'll be aura to catch him, too." Again Prosper vaguely agreed and promptly forgot that he had given his permission. Later, there came an agonizing moment when he would have given the world to recall hla absent, careless words. With an effort Prosper kept hla poise, with an effort, always Increas-ing, he talked to Jasper while Betty dressed, and kept up his end at din-- tall, upsprlnging bodies of the women he remembered. He regarded them with impersonal delight, untlnged by any of his usuol cynicism. It was late afternoon when Prosper, obedient to a telephone call from Betty, presented himself at the door of Morena'a houoe, Just east of the Park, off Fifth avenue; a very beauti-ful house where tha wealthy Jew find Indulged his passion for exquisite tilings. Prosper entered Its rich dim-ness with a feeling of oppression that uuanalyzed mood of hot and cold feeling Intensified to an nlmost degree. In the large carved and curtained drawing-roo- he waited for Betty. The tea-thin- were pre-pared; there would be no further need of service until Betty should ring. Everything was arranged for an unin-terrupted tete-a-tet- Prosper stood near an ebony tuble, his shoulder brushed by tall, red roses, and felt his nerves tighten and his pulses hasten In their heat. "The tall child . . . Prosper sipped his tea and listened. He looked at her and was bitterly con-scious thnt the excitement which had pleased and surprised him was dying out. That faintness again assailed his spirit. He was feeling stifled, ashamed, bored. Yes, that was It, bored. That life of service and battle-d-anger In France had changed him more thon he had realized till now. He wus more simple, more serious, more moral. In a certain sense. He was like a man who, having denied the existence of Apollyon, has come upon hlra face to face and hu been burnt by tils breath. Such a man Is moral. All this long, intricate Intrigue with the wife of a man who called him friend, seemed to him hor-ribly unworthy. If Betty had been a great lover, If she had not lost courage at the eleventh hour and left him to face that terrible winter In Wyoming, then their passion might have Justified Itself; hut now there was a stateness In their relationship. He hated the Utrr, X HC UIUBCIVB rouiiu IlllMlUI felt tight and drawn, his throat was dry. He was glad when they got Into the limousine and atarted theater-war- It had been a long time since he had been put through this partic-ular ordeal and he was out of prac-tice. They reached the house Just as the lights went out. Prosper was amused at his own Intense excitement. "I didn't know I was still such a kid," he said, flashing a smile, the first spon-taneous one he had given her, upon Betty who sat beside him la the pro-scenium box. The success of his novel had had no such effect upon him as this. It was entrancing to think that In a few moments the words he had written would come to him clothed In various voices, the people his brain had pic-tured would move before him In flesh and blood, doing what he had ordained that they should do. When the cur-tain rose, he bad forgotten his per-- ili sonal problem, had forgotten Betty. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his chin In his hand. The scene was of a tropical Island, palms, a strip of turquoise sea. A girl pushed aside the great fronds of ferns and stepped down to the beach. At her appearance the audience broke Into applause. She was a tall girl, her stained legs and arms bare below her ragged dress, her black hair hung wild and free about her face and neck. As the daughter of a native mother and an English father, her beauty had been made to seem both Saxon and savage. Stained and painted, dark-ened below the great gray eyes, Joan with her brows and her classic chin and throat, Joan with her secret, dan-gerous eyes and lithe, long body, made an arresting picture enough against the setting of vivid green and blue. She moved slowly, deliberately, nat-urally, and stood, hands on hips, to watch a ship sail Into the turquoise harbor. It w'as not like acting, she seemed really to look, fhe threw back her head and gave a call. It was the name of her stage brother, hut it came from her deep chest and through her long column of a throat like music. Prosper brought down his hands on the railing before him, half pushed himself up, turned a blind look upon Betty, who laid a restraining hand the tall child ..." he had called her by that name so often and never without a swift and stabbing memory of Joan, and of Joun's laughter which he had silenced. He took out the letter he had lately received from Betty and d It and, as he read, a deep line cut be-tween his eyes. "You say you will not come back unless I can give you more than I have ever given you in the past. You say you Intend to cut your-self free, that I have failed you too often, that you are starved on hope. I'm not going to ask much more pa-tience of you. I failed you thnt first time because I lost courage; the sec-ond time, fate foiled us. How could I think that Jasper would get well when the doctors told me that I mustn't al-low myself even a shadow of hope! Now, I think that Jasper, himself, is preparing my release. .This all sounds like something In a book. That's be-cause you've hurt me. I feel frozen up. I couldn't bear It if now, Just when the door Is opening, you failed me. Prosper, you are my lover for always, areu't you? I have to believe that to go on living. You are the one thing in my wretched life that hasn't lost Its value. Now, read tills care-fully; I am goinr to be brutul. Jasper has been unfaithful to nie. I know it. I have sufficient evidence to prove it In a law court and I shall not hesitate And Gave Herself to His Armg thought of the long divorce proceed-ings, of the decent Interval, of the wedding, of the married life. He had never really wanted that. He would have to take tier, to spend his days and nights with her, to travel with her. She would want to visit that gay, little forsaken bouse In a Wyoming canyon. With vividness he saw a girl lying prone on a black rug before a dunclng fire, her hair all fallen about upon his arm. He whispered a name, which Bet-ty could not make out, then he sat down, moistened his lips with his tongue, and sat through the entire first act und neither moved nor spoke. As the curtain went down he stood tip. "I must go out," he said, find hesi-tated In the bock of the box till Jas-per came over to him with an anxious question. Then he began to stammer nervously. "Don't tell her, Jasper, don't tell her." to get a divorce. Tear this up, please. Now, of all times, we must be ex-traordinarily careful. There has never been a whisper against us and there mustn't be. Jasper must not suspect. A counter-sui- t would ruin my life. I must talk it over with you. I'll see you once alone Just once before I leave Jasper and begin the suit. We must have patience for Just this last bit. It will seem very long . . Prosper folded the letter. He was "Tell her what, man? Tell whom?" Jasper gave him a shake. "Don't you like .Tone? Isn't she wonderful?" "Yes, yes. extraordinary !" "Made for the port?" "No." Prosper's face twisted Into a smile. "No. The part ronie sec-ond, she wus there first, Morena, prom-ise me you won't tell her who wrote the play." "Look here, Prosper, suppose yon tell me what's wrong. Hove you seen a ghost?" Prosper laughed; then, seeing Bet-ty, her face a rigid question, he strug-gled to lay hands upon his l. "Something very astonishing lias happened, Morena one of those 'things not dreunit of In a man's phil-osophy.' I can't tell yon. Have you arranged for me to meet June West?" "After the show, yes. at surper." "But not as the author?" "No. I was wolfing f you to tell her that." "She tnnsn't know. And ntid I can't meet her that way, at supper." Again he made vlsitile efforts at l. "Koti't tell Betty what a fool I am. I'll go out a minute. I'll he all rlht." Betty was coming toward them. He gave a painful smile and fled. (TO RE CONTlNt'ED.) her face, her secret eyes lifted im-patiently from the hook "You had ought to be wrltlr', Mr. Oael . . ." "Whot are you smiling for, Pros-per?" Betty asked shandy. He looked up, startled and confused. "Sorry. I've got Into bastly absent-minde- d habits. Is that Morena?" Jasper opened the curtains and came In, greeting Prosper In his stately, charming fashion. "Tonight," he said, "we'll show you a leopardess worth looking at, won't we, Betty? But first you must tell us about your own ex-perience. You look wonderfully tit, doesn't he, Betty? And changed. They say the life out there stomps a man, and they're right. It's taken some of thot winged-demo- look out of your face, Prosper, put some soul Into it." Be talked and Betty laughed, show-ing not the slightest evidence of ef-fort, though the soul Jasper hod seen In Prosper's face felt shriveled for her treachery. Prosper wondered If she could be right In her surmise about Jasper. The Jew was infinitely capable of dissimulation, bnt there was a clar-ity of look and smile that filled Pros-per with doubts. And the eyes he turned upon bis wife were rpiHe as apparently as ever the eyes of a dis-appointed man. So absorbed was he In such obser-vations that be found It Intolerably difficult to fix his attention on the talk. Jasper's fluency seemed to rip-ple senselessly about his bruin. "You must consent to one thing. Luck ; you must allow me to choose my own time for announcing the au-thorship." This found Its wny partial-ly to his Intelligence and he gave care-less assent. "Oh, whenever you like, as soon as I've hnd my fun." "Of course " Morena was thought-- , conscious of a faint feeling of sick-ness, of fear. Then he beard Betty's step across the marble pavement of the hall. She parted the heavy cur-tains, drew them together behind her, and stood, pale with Joy, opening and shutting her big eyes. Then she cume to meet him, held him back, listening for any sound that might predict In-terruption, and gave herself to his arms. She was no longer pale when he lot her go. She went a few steps uway and stood with her bands before her face, then she went to sit by the tea-tubl- e. They were both flushed. Betty's eyes were shining under their flutter-ing lids. Prosper rejoiced In his own emotion. The mental fog bod lifted and the feeling of faintness was gone. "You've decided not to break away altogether then?" she asked, giving him a nmVk glance. He shook Ids hend. "Not If what you hove written me is true. I've had such letters from you before und I've grown very suspicious. Are you sure this time?" He laid stress upon bis bitterness. It was his one weapon SKalnst her and he had been sharpen-ing it with 8 vogue purpose. "Oh," said Betty, speaking low and furtively, "Jasper is fairly enught. I have a rellohle witness in tlie girl's maid. There is no doubt of his guilt, prosper, none. Everyone Is talking of It. He has been perfectly open in his attentions." Every minute Betty looked younger snd prettier, more pr'W'Vlng. Her child mouth with Its clever smile was bright as though his kiss bad pointed it. "Who Is the girl?" asked Prosper, lie was deeply flushed. 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