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Show I Fire of Y . -J I 1 C Cont'd from Last Sunday) CHAPTER XXVI. Albuquerque Again. TIE revulsion of feeling erpe-rlenced erpe-rlenced by Anthony during ' thai time of vailing in Paris ut, to him at lea?t. epochal Only a day. two days a moment. It seemed after the groat cosmic bath of joy, the Dark Powers ap-pea ap-pea red to have resumed their ma-JIgnatt ma-JIgnatt sway of the univi e He looked out from his window npun tbe garden of the Tuileries, on (he checkered lawns, the giavol paths, the fountains and brilliant geometrical flower beds before the ! gray imposing wails of the palace. They were precisely the same as yesterday, as the day before, at on the day of days when the world was rocking with happiness. ; Nevertheless he was acutely con- eciour as some delicate instrument sjiows consciousness of what naked B sense ann discern tha from every stone, from every paving j block in Paris, in all Europe, for aught bo knew, was rising a dank, evil rnlaemi of greed and nvarlco And cold calculation. After the sea of blood and the wave of joy it l seemed incredible, overpowering! t HOW all had sung the praises of :! America's dlslntereatedneaB, of her cleanness, her sense of Justice, of President Wilson's equity, his Kour-' Kour-' teen Points the new heaven and the new earth' But now In the re- j action it seemed as though under ; every flower of rhetoric lay a ier ",j pent coiled. The very air teemi d full of a fear that America might iprove too .Insistent upon keeping her word. .I Tho great hotels became hives of agents like those of Switzerland full of whisperings, intrigues and sibilant, shadowy dlsoucpluns. Hji' Anthony walked Into tho lobby of BU the Continental or the Crlllnn to find odd. bustlinc character.-, men I ) he had known In Switzerland as French acents. men who had sroken ;j BS though tho burden of good will !! bad -looped their shoulders by Its Lj very weight these now came edg- jj Ing toward him. murmuring, apolo- gizlnsr; and, because they knew him for an intelligence officer, they filled his ears with schemes TVouM Wilson be lnsltont unr.n all of his Points? Had he ever met Colonel House? What species of man I he, then' Had ho ever con-sldered con-sldered that American troops should be sent in great force into Russia? And as to Lithuania American troops were the only po-lutlon. po-lutlon. Those too zealous agents of the French Government seemed like the lhlng that creep out of hole after a tempest He had seen the true spirit of the people, the wave of unpremeditated joy that seemed to rain from the s-tars and in the stars reverberate again. But this this was diplomacy. "You see, monsieur, American troops in Lithuania breed eonfi-denee. eonfi-denee. There are many Lithuan-ians Lithuan-ians in the American army. The people of Lithuania would greet them as brothers. T can give you I book. pamphlets, literature to I ' prove It" thus a pudgy agent, who believed him capable of influ-ence, influ-ence, how faint soever, in certain I quarters, kept buzzine like a hornet ' in his ear; It seemed as though the little man desired French enterprise en-terprise to follow (at no expense) the American flag to Lithuania. Anthony An-thony did not know, he did not care. Whatever the purport of tho horuet, It was a part of the darkness dark-ness and tho devioubucss of diplomacy, diplo-macy, the slimy, winding pathway of indirection. How wholeheartedly wholeheart-edly be loathed It! And for this he had toiled and shed his blood' Tliis was buf a specimen, a sample Men left books at his hotel, invited him to dinner in mange houses, telephoned him, worked upon him. ergued on points in the coming peace terms, waylaid him, cajoled and flattered, and he was but one insignificant tog in the machinery with his discharge in his pocket! Clarkson, as he put it, blew lu about three days after the armistice, armis-tice, and Anthony discerned his tall, loose limbed figure stalking about that Irrepressible railway ?!,. tlon which Is the lobbv of the Hotel Continental. "Hello. Cap!" he sang out in his rumbling bass that demanded a prairie or a factory for its proper theatre. "It's back to the wire factory fac-tory for me whence all blessings come.' Anthony hailed him with delight, But he could not conceal his disgust at the poetbellurn atmosphere. at-mosphere. "What'n a matter""' probed Clark-son Clark-son "You look down in the mouth, son for Colonel Cole's golden haired boy He says your work was equal to the capture of two army corps two army corps of Huns think of It!" Anthony narrated somo of his sxperlences. "Is this it, Anthony?" she whispered tremulously, holcJinc the pendont against her up-raised palm. J.' ' .''"'' ' "The Fiends!" he cried with vehemence, ve-hemence, "nd it's only thie days after the bloodiest war In history' Will this reign of darkness never end? And we fought our best to end It!" "Diplomacy!" muttered Clarkson. Diplomacy! How he execrated the word. "Oh, ii is no UBe," he went on. "This civilization Is not modern ;t all It is the last of medievalism. Like the ancient pagan feasts that are still hidden in Christian holidays, holi-days, the spirit of Titus, of the Caesars and tho Borglas Js still animating an-imating the politics of Europe. This Is the Jast of medievalism and it is dying hard Even we American! Ameri-can! are tainted with it But wo have seen it we are seeing It now. For us and us alone Ifi task of building a new world based on justice and good will a world of comrades, of lovers such as v saw for A moment on the eleventh pf November. But we must make the beginning at home. That in to be our share in the development of the racp " The phrase "the enlightened opinion opin-ion of mankind" played about his inlud and fascinated him like A glittering object But the I I ened oninlon of mankind, he felt, must largely come from America. It must come and it must spread for before the wave of its onset the dark crealurei of Intrigue and "diplomacy" will be whirled bach to their crannies For at bottom he felt, v ith a rer-lltudo rer-lltudo of conviction that seemed to i r support him like a column, the vast underlying unity of mankind. Man was eternally talking of union, yet eternally bickering. Europe, with her Innumerable frontlets, seemed the world's obstacle to union as to peace That was what America must overcome, he assured Clark-son. Clark-son. "Have on, my son." said Clarkson good-humoredly. "It's a fine dream I mu.st hand you that. You think we are it do you?" "Yes, Clark, for high purposes a fresh naWa Is a necessity. Europe Is weary and outworn. Its will toward Ideals is frayed and fatigued, and only the gaunt, old instincts are showing through like the bones of a carrion." And suddenly his own people, tho C 199, Ii:tmaUonl Fra A Arc iyJTlA, S dear, simple, daylight people of h!s native tuv.n- iV1 nood ivi,",V r, the uncalculating, the great-hearted, who lived as under crystal, who feari d no ono and hated none, who would be more ashamed cf Intrigue and indirection than others are of crime like a vision realized they swam before hi. eyes in a new light us of a tropic dawn The two women wo-men who had played an important part in hi.i life were somehow intertwined inter-twined with his vision. For just as poor Vilma, with her sensuality, doviousness and intrigue represented repre-sented continental Europe, so Adela, the Cicar-cyed, the brlght-souled, brlght-souled, stood out auroolcd like a single detail set in tho oval of a picture she was tho symbol, tho type of his people. lur Sfrrltc. tDe. Ortt Dr . " . ' -. c '' w ""UHiat will you do when you pet liomo?" Clarkson asked him suddenly. sud-denly. What will I do?" ropeatcd Anthony An-thony thoughtfully, half to himself J 11 get me a pair of fat snails, start 'em on a race and watch 'era go.' His mind projected itself into the clouded future. What would he do? "Tell you what, West." Clarkson broke in on his reflections. "Come to my wire factory and handle labor for mo; talk to them as you tulk to sav"and thcy, do anything you A day or two later Clarkson more seriously repeated his invitation "T- ntm.,n, earneal" ho Insisted, t a like to havo vou with me " "No, Clark thanks all the same. Ililn nithu nr.rrred I've thought out my way and T know what my work must be. I am going back to my father's old paper tho Beacon." "What's tho circulation about a hundred and fifty?" scoffed Clarkson. Clark-son. Anthony laughed. "Something like that. There were about thirty-eight hundred or 80 when I left home. But those thirty-eight hundred. Clark, are a Cross-section of all America. 1 want to live with them, think their thoughts, share their ideals, and if I can. tell Uiem what those thoughts and ideals are. Clark that s what I want to do. They nro as good as any on this earth. I think of such men as my father was of such men as William Allen White la Oh! If I could be like them, j 'ark, there is nothing in the world I would care to change Tor my Job " "But stick yourself away in a small country town with your education, edu-cation, your experience make about three thousand a vear"" objected ob-jected Clarkson. "This" war has gone to your head, son." "A small country town" slowlv repeated Anthony, Ignoring the financial reference which made do impression upon him "Why, Clarkson. Clark-son. don't you know that a true word spoken in a whisper, if spoken sincerely, reverberates to the farthest stars'' I Know you'll say I am crazy, but if I am. I share the insanity of Emerson and Whitmantwo Whit-mantwo of the greatest, men that ever lived -and. thank goodness, both Americans!" Clarkson did not repjv n. I i liose ideas cro tnhL ,ressedhlmprfrounrimF bottom Clarkson'.. W1. 0rit4t1 Wic heart, touched h ;";k b7 the Picture f fate's decrees. tZI?W ho had fled was ih m,,. now longing frr De ; Why had he not e?a '.JB grealness 0f llfc-be,a,. "tt novice must learn for m" ' - That great ah,raf,; 11 'lilving mist, into h,g Shb' Thern a,0e he desbB ' --nandjo. heko.heK orM. Like a whi9per iT in his brain was , '1 -, , ' ' : 'ouk1, an MnandtfblK . . x and without as n-eil eeaiH ... Jlrfi r 2nfJ ,MlSa ' ' ''' :,n'l did no- ati,an. Jifc Hut he kn,- tbat In i": ' 11 "f hl's ;rrii he h3d iwli C(l 1 '"" -r- that .olMie n,0 keep sli-JB--' mlns small comtnuiBi the !lame of ldealiEai that the S bad brightened. Clarks m, a lli'Ie '..leran-ej by'BJrt '' " '' '7m:- changed (he subjert. g you've heard tbel"V "f 'v:'ri Itallaai v.-M-y of I lie war. I call thajY: pick i n the Italianafl J.T d Anthony. "Tik . re all il ' II Europe. Where i3 our oM ' try the war kindled high IdealajBl; this side it brought out f-.Bil . anoe, greed rapacity, ca fl " ' land., and S rinlno re no toMi'c: ' 'ther hke 'hem f:: besl, 1 typical. They're maauMFr: ' lar t - T-ha' 'hey .ire-iBl3- by the strings in the hands oBJ,( crowd To inj i hy seem flkHjj1 jectlona on tbn screen of the 2- : s'.on or itov.J the fL' and merged crowd itself" Jv-' "f Iron. IBM Pr--- m TTjicoT y crowd could malce auythinj . lisrir'; a spade or a razor:" Mp a "Something like that. ' jmi!edMr "I if-:.: I t. b on, "that President V, ,1-on itflaiUt ing on for the r.f-resW'Mi A line chance he'll have afflBl:tai those medieval barons holl sMjM won't he?" J 'He is pre'y canny." wis Cliu u ! e- o'mn-.ent, "l.ut I think hHJJAi bet .ik.ft and preierfK! If he comes he is -Hnsip " reflected Anthur.y. "hew; fail. r.u' hU !,i!Jur wi'.l crA, Heaven All the world Ki ashamed of his failure and Btt.!iji I i sot It right. Ail succeii iiljtik n failure, and his failure !m.J?!e like the dragon s teeth. anBaf, w ..rkers for ultimate success. sM hrk. i- :-o en'.ightcniBBstli? great failure." 1 , "Voure some littie dr.?i:r.er,"mjT-, served Clarkson, not without 'r. Of admiration. - I The inhabitants of Tarls -'i-v. wav of swiftly ret urn in; '"Jbfra ilaily prose of their lives, ap,tie thony, after the glow of his Hj&h ruaue decision whioh set DlsBgpaa aflauje - !,) T:ev. hopS. fCUnfth(U pressing in the drabne-s of Bru 0 oecupation.' A the jjipP'gjBfstitl be learned that the '""5 jl, rtocliambeau had been . "ft and that he would bae to few days longer in Paris. tie; He coiild E,"'r faoe lhc bl3Kl?,,, of waiting in a desert of i33B He walked down the Avenak l'Opera. found his way to "'HU aa grarh ofiice at the "'gl ... Jim yi0 . It read . vaff, :r":re t, ! ..,,.. ;,,.h CyrnlDs. Jtacn Have vou job for nie a-bled hN -'i'lr"-'.;,;J parsed it in a', the in.'lm7 ji1 irembling tinkers. "MZ taken : :ii..r..:i"" ' '--eSutJ querque" con'alned no s.n Wl nlflcance retiM The th rd da" ' 'f';(lN, Vlbuquerqu ,liur?flt( . jA',"! jD waning. Speed along and JJJNjf J,"SoIam still John Jim " he thought, "nr.-l u , dei9t h.rnlf the DImI 1 liopi '""MJtstflL su- h f 1 1. n-J Him-' , ,ut;y.i That afternoon he ;ci. ;t. Cr gage and took t no nigai Bordeaux. . .-r-olfSB What a lleTKl France since h, ,tfci , ra voled t h is w a y. p'ffeMO Is. sijing wa. filled w.tJ t ran 'AJH ing the magic letters i arpaiBvre comotives. box cars, , , Coutnurl fgj T - i!,:t nh"d ftZim. ,hio,..ltr!in!-:ioo from SB' reins into tJiose of a roan ,ft, of Layette hai surely 5iW rf-alN Picturesque phrase in maKJnc a pft nr . , acular Well, we tetany lodgings, but :- , f 3' n I" f"";" ui,JW"',he two days o r ., - r the streets ? -; - bi somnolent after sttK.W Ae Amerl. :l- XC ' 3 sweeping cur-K cur-K XW. ,. a lipcon t'jK Tke entered the military poet I - during the tl2K Bordeaux, ho had so . th!kK: loured for I '"fcti; which IS4toBf wurjc, : ;,r'n 1,0 liUjKefted- Bui as he fur. I . nd ' im to ' I the ruM.,,-..-. . as, nff,v':;r-s of almost every rail- jHrKjt office in America and ' ragged and frayed with '-,' ILLKibct a thrill for so Ion? un 'rtcjm . :ra shot through all his UgjX: ! The SMjstk'- Anthony" the letters ;t Were his in a fli i , I ulBsias'i know von' you i 1 1 think Ervhat you have thought of !a ' c ic Thomas . . . told I f;e-fV:i - lp rvf-X d to her the hr'iJW ' '10W , ft'-' what I hern he-rn droDgh the words. 1 ijrht Inc: twi I ,Jfti tnl:. aiany times. . . fttf you can possibly forrive a tttjB . . v, 1 now j i UYjtH srl'.h'-iit i . All my ft;':: t 1 ' you ' ' . . l aft Vciahair old! maBl Then she knew nothiii f I'm' :!v -he i- saf5 and wi ll! ""n trace Amri in. wi n Cto.-.; an:i a Y M. C. A. girl, mXtCs'r as tli-lM' dela rj'iw " It would iew trim Ironv of fate if she 'lflBtere. somewhere In France, keSiBib?a speeding heme. J .:;: found her. he would I Jt:: ' If II h-r of Vilma. of I Mr- bat 1 ould ' r.te that Vllma I ad- Adi la or'i SMm!, 1 . ugh to under (W1 Ab why had In beeu gjHlls to take 1:i.-i at her word te croto him never to sen at wJtGijor to communicate7 Why ti. uM-' to her, and in spite yfttft""? - '? explained, done all &esm rould? Then tn,s V ",,: ! BhTf been H w i i'i, ;-onse 11 that had paralyzed hi ni K MHkivere sure now to find b r'.'JatT '-er nd' Jtfead the letti r H.Ktes were aflame with ac- X v,lns '" f' "' sJi(S Bordeaux the offle.es of tbo TilCr'';i . ..'.d crams te be pent at "'-'Piric, to their ranln head-'-K'"' lD(lurir.c whether an Gri!f m on their roll.- hi Alfof Inpatient be waited for MrT TheS'vatiou Army's ''M; 1" i Batln came that (- BS: The others were lag- H RWala they not answer at ,wR?f il was onl- a matter of u "Wf 11 'h card Index? But it rtt." ontll noon the following if ,bt olh" messages trailed t 3kV. "a- an Anna Grav and ft,ni:ht c,t Angled happi-- happi-- ,, BlhM!ll"lrillnR aud the yd-" yd-" mr,J !ikf' in- i- ft-', cf, Klup as the ship LJ CHTER XXVII. ,Eltfft)irN.1oi,rne' En. " aad spectral seemed '"Wiod f th0 French Llne rJfc- v!a:'Anlbony Kt0d wail- fcSft1"1 Thf- bmij Mktd ln a movlB Prison, CrawlluK u little S5BKDe ft? 'h a ship aK rrr ,r",so ancient for- fitthH'f he I,ne ln this rScV?r heart r1"5 and tni cla,, w?ro e-lflT e-lflT ' lh0H' wonderful cus- tonis men of ours, at once Torque-madas Torque-madas and flaming swords of Pnra-l Pnra-l dlse. , i Wlng-ehod feet propelled him outward out-ward and ho found himself, liko a I mole dazzled by the light, staring i at the ugly expanse of Uio one broad street in New York, the water front, It was American ugliness, however, the ugliness of West street, and at that moment he loved It. Endlessly, he had revolved over and over again his first steps upon arrival. The Club! Whet her there were rooms vacant or not the club was a shadowy presentment of home Tho doorman knew him. some of the other servants knew him. He hungered for familiar faces, for some one in this place who would' welcome him and call him by name. He gave the taxi-man taxi-man the address of the club In Forty-fourth street. Tho streets of New York seemed to him to be mysteriously lacking In something their spacioiisno: as he had Imagined It 6o many times in Switzerland, Switzer-land, in France, aboard his floating prison, was sadly shrunken, and, t tell tho truth seemed for the most part start linsly rlrab and ;m-alluring. ;m-alluring. But ho loved them all the same. "They would know me If they saw m e." h e fe thought. "How of-ten of-ten I have dragged i my feet in them in ,,.,!t baking heat and ' . r u d g c d them through Wintry lirh." The' doorman at the club greeted u ; hhn by name That doorman was a . genius, like a poet. ' born and not made , For his words and &V!' the tone of them iJL'&suf"' were soothing like ' a balsam. (Oh. prlfice of all doormen!) door-men!) There was a room? too. fortu -l nately thehlghest- ffESpMBg priced room In the ''i house, the clerk re- , luotantly Informed "Be It never so : costly, there is no v-,t place like home," gratefully mur-ni mur-ni u r e d Anthonv. This was, in nnv ease, n&t a dull nr.d impersonal hotel. It was ha!f past three on a Friday afternoon in De- A door rember. and the sun was declining stood and the headlong sweep of New l orK was rusning rlamorous'y on with tho vast con-ru con-ru i d momentum of a he ivenly body through pathless space. (But what a pleasant clamor It was and what a clean confusion') If only his luck would hold and if only ho would find Adela ln her accustomed rooms at the Rubens! Ah, but that was too much to expect to hope Time, that unmoral Pagan deity and he closed his mind sharply to the sinister pictures of what time might be guilty of. "Morbid!" he said to himself, and the princely doorman opened the door of a taxlcab for him and gave the order to drive to the "Rubens." Never before had the passage from Forty-fourth to Fifly-sev nth street seemed so long and so full of palpitating heart-throbs. It was unreal as a'dream and yet the real-est real-est thing on earth! The capture ot tho spies at Cellgny was child's play compared with this. When Anthony had dismissed the cabman and asked the gravely smiling smil-ing Selkirk at the elevator whether Miss Hyde was in, the coffee-colored negro stood perplexed for a moment mo-ment racking his brain. ".Miss Hyde," he repeated, stupidly stupid-ly searching his memory, and Anthony An-thony experienced the shattering feeling of a crumbling universe that comes to us when we return to the past in quest of old landmarks, old friends. His heart sank. "Who lives with Miss Gray?" he explained. "Oh, yes. sar yes, sah." glibly answered Selkirk, as thouch he had not Just shattered a bright world "Yes, sah Miss Hyde Mrs. Nash now. Don't you know?" "Mrs. Nash?" repeated Anthony dubiously. "Mrs. Douglas Nash yes, sah Y'ou been away to the wah, sah?" with a beaming grin. "She married Mr. Douglas Nnsh?" "Yes, sah some time ago. Upstairs. Up-stairs. Fou'th floah take you right up, majah." A great, uncontroll able smile overspread Authony's faep. Chaos was giving way to a ludicrous sort of order. "So Clarice has married Doug-sle," Doug-sle," he thought, "after all little, Mrs. Nash's plotting for a fortune." Ho was still ignorant of how thoroughly thor-oughly Mrs Nush had enlisted tho gods in her favor! "I see you've forgotten my name, Selkirk," ho said aloud and stum-bled stum-bled as ho entered tho elevator. ' West's my name i used to come hero often." He slipped a coin into the nepro's palm "Oh, yes, sah remembah now oh, yes, sah." Anthony dared not ask him about Adela. "When did Miss Hyde marry Mr. Nash?" ho ventured Married! Was it possible that Adela, also Horrors! How slow that elovnto. was ! "Her married," Selkirk pondered slowly, "ah, her married long time ago long time p'apa two yea In, now most on two yeahs that's heh doah right theah yes, sah thank Ke you, sah." Jr ' Anthony stood rigid X? v before that mysterl- I . ous door. He knocknd ' I at last as though he were standing before ' tho grim portals of i.'r',.; ; . Fate A tense, tumul fcfe. :' , tuous silence throbbed ' - in his ear drums. Tbo C . 'r' ? lcatu. dour had A' ' ''Xci' ' - H t'; ' ' '' '' Mttfci ' I ' I j'. -' , , w-. f " , JPVv BBB f v ' '' '.'" - '.'' 7a ;': t :.'.:;y: '' - ' Br ,. "A ' "xsSif??A. "' k . 5Kk, HiBBk?3PV jk I fif-1 - l pened, and there s. ' Adela in her "V : i's uniform!' x confident of her because grated and closed. He was alone in a pulsating stillness No answer came to his knock. He knocked again, more loudly Some one was coming, the door slowly opened. A black maid, with an expanse of white teeth gleaming in tho semi-obscurity, stood facing him. "Mrs. Nash in?" he uttered from a parched mouth, as though ho had swallowed dust. "Yes, sah but she alu't heah now she'm gono to Philadelphia. Want to see her?" "Yes, but never mind I'll come back another time it doesn't matter." mat-ter." "Could you come next week?" "Surely," said Anthony hastily "and lime that Is whenever" abruptly he controlled himself. "Could you tell me," he Inquired almost casually, but with a poignant fear at the posslhlo answer; "could you tell me whether Miss Gray ever comes hero Miss Adela Gray?" "Oh. yes, sah Miss Gray come here yes she live here." Cold p plratlon beaded his forehead. A vast sense of relief permeated him and ho checked a sigh. She was then still Miss Gray! And she was in New York here' "Does she happen," he smiled Ingratiatingly, In-gratiatingly, though he feared she would hear his heartboats. "does she happen to be in? Could 1 see her?" "No, sah her ain't in now neither not now but ah think ah knows wheah you could find her " "Where?" he whispered, with burning eyes. "Do you know wheah Greenhut s is?" "Greenhut's," he repeated vaguely. vague-ly. "Greenhut's? You don't mean the department store?" "Yes, Bah yes that's it." - ' H. . " ' j x j "In Sixth avenue down round Eighteenth streetf "Yes, sah daown round Eighteenth Eigh-teenth street dat's It!" in triumph. But Anthony was a prey to bewilderment. bewil-derment. Was Adela what could that mean? "But I thought that was closed!" he murmured. "It was closed yes but it's open naow. Dat's wheah Mi63 Gray workin'." ' What does she do there?" and his face went pnle "Nursln the sick soldiers, sah." "Oh it's a hospital?" "Yes. snh yes a hassplttle. Her'a theah." 'ueer in the hnld," she added to herself. For without another word ho was making for the stairs and swiftly beginning to descend them. He never remembered precisely how he arrived at Eighteenth street But there, before the huge garish structure, a thlnp of windows built for display or cheap commodities he beheld lines of maimed and crip pled soldiers sitting, some of them reclining in invalids' chairs, a syru bol and a sign of what the diplomats diplo-mats of Europe were scheming to perpetuate. "That Is the original sin of the world of mortals." he thought, "tbo sin of Cain against Abel, the sin against themselves." And this is where he hoped to find Adela! So Adela; too, had been living In tho spirit and the wreckage of the war! Somehow he felt nioro at ease, more iiau i-Ajiei leneiru iuu. Her knowledge of concrete con-crete suffering seemed to bring her more nearly to tho framework of his recent re-cent life. Sho was not bo remote. He was standing In The ungainly office, speaking to a business-like nurse at a desk. Miss Adela Gray? Y'es, she would see. She spoke into a telephone. She had not asked his name and for that he was strangely grateful. Nurses were moving about. Two or three wounded soldiers sat in chairs against the wall on the opposite op-posite side of the room. It was a busy scene of disconcerting activity. ac-tivity. "Miss Gray is on duty at present on the floor above this." she briefly Informed him. gaz ng appreciatively appreciative-ly at Anthony's finely proportioned shoulders and his well-fitting uniform, uni-form, with the inevitable service stripes on his sleeve. "Just go up those stairs directly in front of you." his informant continued, con-tinued, "and you will find her in one of tho rooms or ln the hallway." hall-way." Anthony's sndle broadened as be eagerly climbed the last obstacle that lay between them. When he reached the head of tho stairs a door opened and there Btood Adela in her nurse's uniform! Sho looked at him for an Instant blankly, and then. In a burst of sunrise, tho color flamed In her '' -k . te r : t- were bi illlant with life and with joy surely, it was Joy! and she held out her hand "Axithony!" she breathed. "I hardly knew you you look so oh, how good It Is to see you!" "Adela Adela'" he murmured, conscious that he was the less self-possessed self-possessed of tho two Ho could hardly hear his own words, for something like an orchestra Was crashing and billowing In his ears. "And It's you!" he added "Adela1 You will never know what a Joy it Is to sco you!" She did not an-SWer, an-SWer, but the sudden brightening of her smile into his eyes was liko an embrace. Tho radlanco of her 8 appeared somehow completed anil supplemented by a quality of more tender sympathy, of a more tolerant wisdom. A new poise and firmness seemed to control her. "Anthony Anthony'" sho murmured, mur-mured, half closing her eyes, as though she loved to utter the word. Then suddenly she spoke briskly. "We can't stand here can we? It's horrid, but there's no place hero where we could talk. I'll ho off du'y a little later could you come to Clarice's studio at tho Rubens say. at seven0 I'm living with her until Douglas comes back from France did you know? What heaps of things to hear and tell!" He understood perfectly her Irrelevance Irrel-evance But time was precious. "Could I wait for you hero?" "Oil, no!" She laughed with a II' tie shudder. "Don't wait here. Come at seven not the old studio, you know two flights above." He could not take tho precious minutes to explain that he had already al-ready been there. "Are you well?" he asked. "Fine!" she answered briefly. "And happy7" he said She made a little moue and with a laugh put out her hand. "I'll tell you everything at seven." How exquisite were all her movements move-ments and phases! His eyes clung to hers. With a little wave of the hand, however, she left him and hurried away to the row of elevators. ele-vators. Outside tho door he found himself him-self engulfed in a Jostling throng of pedestrians hurrying In tho Wintry Win-try dusk; ho was liko a sleepwalker sleep-walker among them. What should he do with himself for the next two hours and more'' His mind was awhirl as he turned toward Fifth ivonue and then toward Washington Washing-ton Square to take a bus up Fifth avenue. When he reached Washington Wash-ington Square he decided to walk. Her words, her gestures, her look glowed ln his mind surely she was happy to see him! He could not be mistaken. He walked liko a spectre in tho throng, for it did not exist for him. He walked into the door of his club, then turned abruptly ab-ruptly and went forth again. Ho must keep moving. He walked up to Central Park, stalking solitary in the paths amid the bare Wintry landscape. He retraced his steps and returned to Fifty-ninth street. He looked into tho lighted Plaza nnd then resolved to ko direct to the "Rubens," regardless of the time, and wait there. It was n quarter to seven when ho knocked upon the door. The dusky maid gToeted him with a broad grin of an old friend Y'es. Miss Adela was ln, her Jes' come in. Would he wait In theah? Certainly! And she moved away leisurely, presumably to a kitchen This was assuredly an Improvement Improve-ment on tho old studio In size In furnishings those rugs! Old Doug-ile Doug-ile must havo been coining money before he left to mako a home like this. Where would he begin In telling Adela all that he had to tell her9 If only that letter had reached him when it was meant to reach him! he wasted ime of pain! He heard a step and In a moment Adela, In a frock of soft, shimmering satin, stood before him. He leaped up. "Adela''' ho cried, folding her hands ln both his own. "At last! Do you know, dear, that I didn't gel your letter until the day before I sailed?" "My letter?" she whispered, nnd ho almost wished he had not spoken, for the look of perplexity clouded the radiance of her welcome. wel-come. "My letter?" she repeated "The one about Grace Themas," he explained. "The one" "Oh, that one," Bhe broke ln; "I see'" and her eyes were great with wonder. "Yes about a year and a half old stamped and censored almost, out of exi tti DCS our military post OffloSSj you know It was at Bordeaux. Bor-deaux. But lucky I got It at all! ?OU don't know what it has done for me given mo new life" Ho paused, for her face was a plav of strange emotions. He knew nothing then of all the bitterness she had suffered long after she wrote the letter, which she thought he had disdained to nnswer the bitterness of her discovery of that other woman who had sold his mother's pendant neither the bitterness, bit-terness, nor the softening effect upon it of time, of months of toll in the hospitals, of the more tolerant toler-ant view sho had como to tako of all young men. In tho course of her work, Including Anthony. And he he had Just received her letter asking his forgiveness! That was what her faco was expressing. But Anthony thought it was regret at his past suffering. "You'll never know, Addie, ho much I suffered after you wrote me i never to see you again or to communicate." com-municate." Man-like he felt an instinctive in-stinctive desire to show her his own deep pain, but sternly checked himself. He had no right "I thought you see, Addie, I must tell you everything. Y'ou know all there Is to know about Grace Thomas. But there was Jin-other Jin-other woman those first month's When I came to New York when every house was a fortross that excluded ex-cluded ono. I was a pretty lonely boy then so lonely that this woman wo-man she was a foreigner I thought you had heard about her ; that you meant" ! "Madame Vanleer." breathed Adela, lowering her eyes. "Then you do know?" he mur- - I mured in astonishment. But information infor-mation was not what he at that moment desired. "Yes. She was Just the woman to make a lonely hoy think but I j have never truly loved anybody but you, dearest, and whon you came you lifted me up Into a new life I knew happiness for tho flr6t trme until that ghastly misunderstand- j Adela pulled one of her hands out of his clasp and covered her eyes. "Why, oh, why." she broke out with a sob of anguish, "must there always bo some other woman before?" His eyes were haggard and his face drawn with misery. "Indeed, T wish I had never seen her, Addie," he muttered with whito lips. "I loathed her but she's made up In a way over there in Switzerland" Adela took away the other hand also from Anthony. Indignation was in her eyes. I "What' She was over therewith there-with you?" "Yes," he answered gravely; "not with me but she was there." and ln the briefest possible words he gave her an account in what guiso and In what manner Vilma again I ,had come into his life, and how, ' finally, sho rassed out of it. "All that sho did. she volunteered," volun-teered," he explained. "I never, never wanted to see her again. Only ono thing I wanted of her the return of something perhaps you ought to know that, too a little lit-tle pendant, a keepsake, that mv mother left me for the girl I was going to marry. And she had lost it" he added almost whispering, his head lowered "that's tho worst part of the humiliation" "Tho ruby the 'fire of youth.'" whispered Adela. "I know" "You remember my mother wearing it, Addie? It should havo been yours that hurts more than anything. Oh, Adela my love mv love'" And he clasped her to him with violence, his hot lips against her face, breathing. "You will forgive for-give me, Addle you must forgive me' Say you do!" For a moment she lay Inert and yielding in his arms, then suddenly he saw her fumbling with her fingers fin-gers at the nape of her neck. Sho lifted her beautiful tear-stained oyes and held out her hand. "Is this it, Anthony?" she whig, pered tremulously, holding the pendant against her upraised palm. Ho was speechless, petrified Wild fancies flashed through the darkness of his stupefaction. How had sho come by it? What was this miracle? "Addle, darling'" he gTaspcd her hand, pendant and all. "How whore did you" with a kind of roughness to hide the trembling of his hands, he clasped It swiftly about her neck. "You you hrought it back to me." he whispered thickly, "after all my search!" And he drew her sobbing to his heart. Then It was that Anthony leame1 in astotilshmont of the tolerance, tho leniency, tho forgiveness ln the heart of even the most exacting i woman for the man she holds dear ' once she has been ripened by experience ex-perience and pain. He triumphed In tho victory of happiness, yet he stood abashed and humbled before the greatness that touches all women wo-men who love. Adela. for her part, was discovering discover-ing now that men were like children, chil-dren, erring and regretting, but always al-ways returning, as by the law of gravitation, to the heart where they j are enshrined. She was seeing ' clearly that tho best within him had always been hers. In tho words they spoke to ono another they perceived that though in each of them the fire of youth had burned away many barriers and obstacles, It had left aglow ln their hearts the stronger fire of love, which, ln a great poet's line, moves the sun aud all tho othsr stars. The End, Copyright, t'7 Ultlu, Biohu (X |