Show PA A I 1 BY evelyn campbell service j Copy copyright richt by evelyn compbell MM CHAPTER VII continued 13 so it Is IB the boy he said bald showing his yellowed teeth youve token taken to playing about with the lads A bad sign in a woman I 1 youre not old enough for or that ue admires you youl I 1 linda cried icorn tally ile he does eh ehl well then held hed bet ter let you alone there was some som thing half threatening yaul in his voice that left a scratch upon her soul now and then he had let her bet feel the tightening of a bond that did not I 1 actually exist and she always resisted like a desperate fly caught en light in a web you cannot choose my friends I 1 she cried furiously but I 1 shall hove have a word to say about your lovers he smiled smile delight ed by her impotent anger but bill he decided that brian ansley must be sent out of the way one day da lie he had a talk with ath simon and found the financier strangely reluctant to tall fall in with ills his plan the boy has been keen about a 8 career sold said fentress but I 1 dont don t know I 1 dont know politics hus has ruined many a man and hell be a nn institution some borne day if something money or vanity or women dont put on an oar in and spot spoil what Is well be 10 gun eun youve changed your tune considerably I 1 converse sold said rudely he could afford to be rude to almost almo st any one well perhaps I 1 have but second thoughts are sometimes a lot better than the first my bly daughter thinks ills his daugh daughter terl 1 converse nearly laughed aloud what a fellow this anstey waal insl one women woman holding him back and another sending him on lie if was bitterly envious of the others othera youth and at the silme time con why should women care tor for a figurine pushed about here and there at the will of others there are dangerous dung erous women at home as well he said significantly lie ile told linda of this conversation why the fellows a d d sawdust doll he cried ile he t enough backbone to choose for himself but she knowing what she kne knew v smiled what a game of buff life can be she thought cross purposed 1 brian ansley was so far from weak that he wits was ready to glie give up his am because they came to him from rum simon fentress hands pentress fentress who was his friend 1 yet he would blindly accept tle tie same gift from converse who lio tossed ills his name about like ii a childs bubble and would set hla his heel upon it when it pleased h hi ml she tried to worn warn brian against converses Coni erses seeming friendship but she discovered at once an un looked tor for opposition you are all woman in your jud merit ment he told tier her ile he Is rather an lovely lolly ill admit it you consider ex tern bernnis nis but us as a man hes hlat think of the ohp things ties lies done to he be spon bored by him Is a of ones sincerity unda lowered her eyes were men blind to tn one ii nother she won dered could they kiev never see with a comons eyes eves site she baught tier with a sensation of arend ing ina nick to the time thile when she had first known converse i inverse find it been she who led the wity nv zing him with glimpses of rl ollre lre flint ncr come to tn frisi tion slie she was hv by the hie fleeting vision of what she saw bove op wits juri velling her eyes eves am I 1 ilka alint she asked herself with sharp emi cn tempt the me appointment ans H mettlea thing brian wits going to brian lind find ste plied tivi r ahe hemia oi me men 11 who had hail years in the file ice fee it t wits a fur far enough away from froin flit s sats ats of the hie mighty to veil tits his cinexi artence 6 se enough for him to benefit hv by the flip alli ml takes and fal failures lures lothers of daisy fentress the one objector w tans ni bee niang Fil falther ther says lint flint if brian makes no mistakes no raise moves he will be made in a few years the young girl said auld wistfully lier her soviet secret ans there in tier her eyen foi till nil to rand she hp war ii little hero worshiper in spite of tier her millions and her charm she would have been quite content to ne be a for the man she loved if lie he had wanted to tn walk upon her it if he makes no false moves she rep repented anted ns as it if words lad had some bal fal charm linda stirred restlessly alint possible ail stake could he maka the stage Is nil all set for him lilar dalsy chanted father says ilire ili re are so on man ninna y pit fill 1 for a stat e ani it ii ext r avage nee the wrong the wrong woman I 1 their eyes triet met balsys were as aa innocent as her name she had bad meant nothing something melted in lindas heart A flood of 0 sorrow that she could never offer the gifts that this young girl possessed without knowing that they were hers from the years one event leaped out at her which seemed to r remove en love her for all time from the aura 0 of f youth and happy innocence the blow across her face from courtney hand seared as if it had been struck yesterday let us believe it if we can that the woman he loves will be the right woman she said gently CHAPTER VIII call to action from washington brian wrote in a way that revealed his heart with at al most cruel clarity linda could find no doubt there only the humility and reverence with which some men approach the women they love this attitude touched her profoundly tenderness was new to her but what was to come of it rill alii when that question persistently arose to torment her she tried to put it aside the easy excuses that are the habit of the procrastinator brian would go awny circumstances would separate them they would both forget nut but in these reflections there was no solace instead for far from forgetting she found the need for him growing day hy by day there were other troubles money the delayed check arrived from the brouer broker with a still of the hie deduction that was credited to senator converse ner her cheeks burned when chesaw she saw that and recalled her humiliation for a moment she felt a stinging desire to lo look the truth in the face to he honest with herself she was not deceived with this elaborate pretense hilt but unless slip accepted it nothing remained but butchios chaos the check w was a s comparatively small hilt but it came nt at a moment which exaggerated ag its importance As if f warned hy by telepathy poor lindas creditors seemed to have chosen that morning for a united foray she was facing a pile of bills and letters some of them even threatening in a deadly polite sort of way when the dove ot pence peace dropped the blue slip sill bearing the signature of steven s in into I 1 0 her lap the money vanished low did it 1 I happen linda who thought she had learned the lesson of prudence discovered her purse almost empty once more some new pride within her rebelled against subterfuge with these people who had trusted tier her and she paid it freel freely out to dressmakers and milliners while it lasted they were placated and urged by her to buy again but bill site she w would not although spring peeped temptingly through the new little leaves of the gruy gray trees in the park paik the shops were fit full of lovely things but she bought nothing the hut hilt she had chosen choson on walk with brian hod had been the last purchase A feeling that in some milliner nn an invisible n was closing around bar persisted and there was nothing in the immediate outlook to raise her spirits time crept by and brought binsch site she was still in the city alone so fur far as tier her circle of if friends was waa concerned for the frightful weather had driven every one away but she did not in miss iss them she wits was marking time until brian would be gone then she believed she would be safe it would he be pw isible ble then to come to some con duson to look things in the face return to her old way of living and thinking or to find that other channel chi innel her soul was dimly striving tor for but not while brinn brian was there with his pedestals that would make it much too hard better to be silent far better belte r to let idin think of tier her cold indifferent while he was near converse wrote her a hi brief let note from washington where he had gone into session why not run ran down here for a few weeks theres lots going on and you yoo might amuse yourself playing chaperon to your friend anstey and tittle little miss bliss fentress she was astonished at the surge sune of 0 feeling g those thos e few sentences brou aroused sp d in her she had coupled brian and daisy in her own thon tits hut hilt this wits different wits seeing them tigh the lie eyes this made possibility of conjecture TO BE CONTINUED CONTINUE Dt |