Show 0 by MARY BRADLEY 0 copyright by D appleton century co inc service CHAPTER I 1 if I 1 been so angry through nd through wilh tile the blood so hot 11 a 11 my by face that I 1 flung duns open a ian ln bw to cool off in the sharp autumn ir I 1 would never have hare seen thit that th it low anil and I 1 would have it was ray my anger rl luculous to feel that anything an thin these leople might do could hurt me cut but 13 1 l be treated like a plano piano inner like 1 a plumber like one sent for to do d 1 ame e mental menial job about tile bousel bou sel I 1 fella ella seton better born anil and better red than they nut not rood good enoah elou li for heir house party ghen a tray in ly bedroom it was silly to let that yet get ine inc I 1 light to haie hae iau laughed hed it off hat but I 1 hall had been pager eager bout tills this acack end and nil all it il promise anil and I 1 hid had spent silent diore sail ian I 1 could anerd for tile dinner own I 1 was so sure iare I 1 would need ind nd then the sight of all those thoe ile poo ae le downstairs st standing anding about ith le e cocktails that were the fa las end if the tea hour bour laughing and talk bg lg had bad set me tingling with on as I 1 followed the man with my ggs up the stairs 1 I 1 already knew ho some of them ere I 1 knew biota the papers peist alan deck the critic was to be bere biere iere I 1 loed his dry biting sen I 1 had hoped for him beside te ae ft at dinner literature and art night be paired together and id hall had atle dreams of ills his finding me under I anding priding and merry ind and likable in ay jy iy new blue satin and the Haril dens were to be there that amazing couple whose sensa abnal accusations and reconciliation ew york still rolled under its tongue liere here had been an english polo play whom hall turned out of and a suit that he had begun pe lie rooming morning and withdrawn another the explanation being prohibition quor and misunderstanding and m the Harrl Ilar dens had gone for an alyine cruise in their yacht and nora doely caes 03 es had smiled out evry emry piper I 1 picked up fy new england blood might register disapproval Is approval of the goings on of this polled super glided gilded set my en iwate hate soul had been thrilled at the fought ought c e enchantress of meeting nora Ilar riden had wondered on dered passing through the tent at ball whether that slight crea re in gold pajamas rather apart am om the others were ere she or not she ad 1 wd turned to look at me and tier her irk eyes were literally startling 1 1 had said as the man put down a incase on the little folding stand ton fou hill tell mrs keller I 1 an am here sylvely ively I 1 had thought thou glit it odd be me when ben I 1 arrived 0 oh 1 yes e s madjie aae she be ii in 1 lal armed 1 he said 1 d perfunctorily band and what time Is dinner I 1 want ill I 1 to know the man had looked vague oh ie e usual hour I 1 expect at eight Z I 1 at at you can hae your tray sent you bany lany time you wish A little earlier I 1 was afraid I 1 stared I 1 gave away 7 astonishment and was as furious at ysela for it as As quickly as I 1 could I 1 said no eight then and my voice was not either cither in cloaking what I 1 it OR ir for the sake of saying something different sounding I 1 asked quickly alist st where Is the art gallery here id he told me that it BBS as around the broer er from my room on the s same a in e or br across the front of the house 1 then hen he shut the door with probes onal nal quiet and I 1 pretended to be sy about the room putting my coat d hat away in the huge closet un eking my suitcase trying to all adre the spacious comfort the cream brearn ded silk of the walls walla the black lacer ter of the chinese furniture the te e of doely rose in the deep cush led ed chair put but I 1 nas just getting re angry inside A warm bath int nt soothe me nor donning the red ck k I 1 had brought for uve five f cheeks checks were flaming I 1 found myat dwelling on the noble origins of iby ty ancestry and the presumably ig 1 able ble money grubbing strains in these 1 baarts absurd the intensity of child ubi emotion I 1 wasted on that expert ace eel 41 jolof course my disappointment was akong itself felt for it was not only ablow ablow to my pride but to the little illgum ill gue excited hopes I 1 had been cher tiling ing ever since I 1 had bad been gien ghen the to go over the keller col tion and the keller secretary ough whom ahorn the arrangements had in n ninde ninale lind asked me to conic come wn n friday afternoon why friday ernson if I 1 was not to be part or of house party that hint the papers hadj sat kellers were assembling mon f morning would have been a prop time tor for mere workaday arrival why by I 1 was an artist art lt not a paint r 1 only painted to please hilt but an authority on old masters asters in studying abroad I 1 lid bad worked under berensen fascinated by his science of detecting Im postures and hall had given myself to study of the past I 1 knew canvas threads pigment I 1 might have known then them unrecognized for long years but by luck my discovery of the lorenzo substitution just as the detroit millionaire was completing the purchase lashed flashed me into publicity anil and mien ft lien I 1 backed w myself y self against to experts from paris in the matter of the da vinci basin my belief on the evidence of the analysis of tile the pigment of the fie blue stars in the saints robe and won ion and the alleged finder confessed confess cl iby why then I 1 was nn an authority in ray my own narrow but far reaching field I 1 had been sent for now tu to go through the famous keller collection and offer my judgment on the masterpieces that the great grandfather of the present owner had believed he bought for four generations now th that at collect collection lon that result of tile the he buying of nn an old coal turned cultural had been first the automatic admiration and gradually hie file slyly incredulous wonder onder of the public and the lie present ortner oner had suddenly decided to have the lot gone oer and either credited or dici edited I 1 flung open ca the lono iong endow and iu ii self to the night it binl ill been six hen I 1 lt it was about seen lhorty now it nas Octo october berand and already dusk lie landscaped ground below oi me lie as in shadow sli adow the lie sound fur far beaw a lighter flieth of gray I 1 ie leally illy seen the place in dibin in I 1 had ball hall only an in impression of ailigh mails and inc loed acres and a tall mil house houe adiong trees now I 1 tool took a 1 more careful note of the llie aliouse louse the en entrance trane opened into a ion long hall that ran across acro s tile die front of the building with adith a drawing draing room it at one end and what hat I 1 had presumed to be the dining room at the lie other oilier voth the draining dra ins room and the din ing room jutted butted fo forward rard I 1 was mas in the third story two flights ocr the draw ins ing room because of the forward jutting position of the wing my window looked directly across to the other wing and gave a n slant mant view of the facade of the house lt lights gats nele gleaming in the cracks between drawn curtains in some of the windows and behind them I 1 could imagine people dressing for dinner in the front of the house down donn on the second story one wide mile window was nas and a mans figure was silhouetted blackly against the yellow vellow oblong of its light I 1 watched him with no sense of watching it was just a figure in a window standing at one side quite suddenly a womans comans figure came into the picture she seemed to whirl in to come up to tho the man with a sort of rush to stand before him a moment I 1 could see no faces no movement of tile the outline of her face but I 1 had an impression somehow that she was talking rapidly and then he struck her I 1 saw his arm go out in an unmistakable taka ble blow not a thrust but a savage smack and then they were both out of sight I 1 watched wholeheartedly now but their figures did not reappear and my angle of view was so sharp that I 1 could see only th the e space by the window I 1 was still staring out when the curtains cuita cui bains ins were suddenly drawn and then I 1 grinned to myself I 1 told myself that I 1 was quite as well off up here as dining with wilh such guests for evidently their cocktails had removed whatever adeer any training had put upon then them I 1 was as feeling much better by then I 1 thou thought glit about the pictures and a nd ran over in my mind the list of alle alleged ed masterpieces that had been old hiram kellers vaunt the man had said the gallery was on the same floor across the front of the house so I 1 went out into the hall I 1 passed the head of tile the stairs the main staircase rising from the first floor branched right and left to gain the second floor and a stair rose then to the third and turned to the door at the left the knob was so stiff that tor for a second I 1 thought thou glit it might be locked as galleries often are in european homes but almost immediately it turned and I 1 pushed the door open the light from the hall behind me fell a little way into a blackness I 1 felt as vast the place was dark as IL ii tomb tile the drawn I 1 surmised against any sun so that not even the alie pale oblongs ot of evening were discernible I 1 fura fumbled bled for a switch steP stepping into the shadow of the wall to ind find one out ot of the darkness a voice spoke so suddenly that I 1 jumped I 1 thought for it moment still obes obsessed Pd by my european experience that it was some watchman of the gallery and I 1 salil quickly its all right I 1 heard somebody walking toward me then my fingers found the switch and the lights II 11 ats sprang on and before me the face of a man in evening dress seemed to spring out at me with the lights it was so white bite so startling it was nas a beautiful face narrow highbred high bred challenging like some of the portraits of gay loung aristocrats in old english canvases but the e expression x pres slon was queerly de desperate it was the most bitter ond tormented face I 1 tin had eier eer seen A little breathlessly I 1 said oil oh I 1 thought thou glit it aris the watchman I 1 just wanted anted to see the pictures I 1 was so busy explaining myself that I 1 did not think of the oddity of ills his own oin position there la in the darkness of tile the gallery but ills his words f R IV 01 alj e fa k I 1 saw his arm go out in an un mistakable blow recalled it and pricked me with embarrassment barras at having haning blundered on some rendezvous rende zus 1 I was just wal waiting lie said a little t le tag vaguely ue I 1 Y YO you U we met before have we no oil oh no I 1 stammered 1 I 1 I just came to see the pictures and I 1 turned to be gone before that girl irl for whom lie was waiting should ar arrive you cant see the pictures if you go lie he reminded me with aith a sort of negligent amusement they stay on tile walls 1 I mean I 1 just came to the house to see tile pictures to examine them I 1 explained im not dot part of thi the house party 11 I 1 tried pridefully to sound u nd aloof as it if I 1 superior to such gatherings as house parties ill see thern them better by daylight and as lie he said nothing to that I 1 went hack back in my room I 1 told myself that I 1 had been silly to rush away like a schoolgirl girl for if there was any pait of the house to which I 1 did have a right of entry it was as the gallery it was lidl dal culous to be so confused so excited I 1 wondered about his bis rendezvous and its strange secrecy surely in a house like this with noth all its opportunities for meeting there must be something desperately intimate between two people to draw them to an unfrequented gallery for a few minutes together and ills his face lial had been so queer it did not look as it if it were rapture he was awaiting perhaps she was not coming per haps he despaired of her that eliut was the haggardness in his eyes I 1 was beginning tr to think about my tray for I 1 hal hail a healthy appetite for all my indignation when aien the houseman appeared suddenly ut toy my door with a message mrs keller would be pleased madame if you come down at dinner sly my first impulse beyond the sud den surprise was to refuse mrs keller wanted me orice once my pride anas ns as high as hers it was a little after eight I 1 was aas not dressed for dinner why should I 1 trouble myself because some borne guest had bad tailed and upset her table aud and she had taken the whim to send for me im not dressed I 1 began doubtfully she said to come down as soon as you could cut but I 1 lid did want to go I 1 wanted terribly to see what was happening downstairs what lay behind that invitation I 1 reminded myself that since I 1 was here I 1 might as well see it through gli and get all I 1 could out of it and I 1 told myself that it was tas more dignified more lous to any feeling of slight edness to go down as it it were a matter of indifference you can tell her ill be down I 1 said casually when he was out of the room I 1 fairly flew the blue satin now the new ceif fon stockings the blue and silver slippers tile the crystal chain and bracelet A stroke at my hair with a comb late us as I 1 was I 1 passed for a last feminine peep at the girl in the glass she was nas surely doing her best for me she might have been twenty instead of twenty sly six with her fresh clear color only a hint blot reinforced her bright light bellow hair and the eyes eye 9 that looked like deeper shadows of that frock I 1 was quiet poetic about myself as I 1 hurried down the stairs the sound of voices came from the lie open doors of the dining room beyond it was a large white room with mth a black floor there were about a dozen people about a long black table with the glitter of green glass on it at one end a woman noman in green with hair that was either white or platinum looked up and called to me oli oh hiss seton so nice there is yo your ur place it was the only vacancy between the black shoulders of tile men A butler drew back my chair and as I 1 seated mi self the hostess called down that Is mr Al matchell itchell Ml and sir mr deck the man at my left pushed a place card toward me im mitchell Ml he said with a quick smile lie ile hall had bright little black eyes a pince nez ne etli with a black ribbon and a bald forehead the other man was the young youn man of the gallery so that was alan deckand I 1 was beside him after all monty mitchell Ml to my intimates said the one at the left and I 1 can see that we are going to be intimate mr mitchell took on the duties of host and tills this Is miss van alstyn miss seton he said of the young woman nt at his left who gave me an instants view of a vague smile and clear shallow lightbrown light brown eyes then turned back to the man at her left and who Is beside herl her I 1 wanted to know dont you know him said the young man and while I 1 murmured that I 1 know a soul there I 1 was staring fit at the big hard bard boned face of tile the famous 1 I wondered where mrs Har harraden riden was then I 1 saw the place card before me with her name dame on it so I 1 was filling in for nora NOM 1 there was a queer amusement in it I 1 had een cien the wonder it if she was the woman whose face hall had bee been n smacked sma cled and so was staying away frona from dinner to hide the mark it seemed preposterous to think of nora Ilar harridon Harrid riden cn with a smacked face but some woman in the group had certainly been slapped and it was really no do more preposterous to think it of her than of any of those elegantly go gox gonad ned suave smiling creatures they were all like facades and only an occasional window could reveal what went on inside then I 1 thought that the men were facades too only the man at my right was a less impenetrable one for it if I 1 knew agony of spirit it was |