| Show WE E LWE HAVE B HAEB CHANGE ALL abl AB l THAT by NEI FA 1 HERBERT QUICK AND ELENA EIENA mcmahon macmahon Uc HAc MAHON COPYRIGHT br the W NAIL S E 9 CHAPTER X 18 the petition rebels rebel linsky Vl would not have known loris at that moment tor for he be was no longer the calm and self contained person who had for so long steered his course safely through the wild c currents ur of the stormy sea of the revolution loris stood for a few moments looking down at the sweet bit of russian nobility which had been placed in his power nobody can account tor for those things his impassivity was wag suddenly swept away an hour before or the day after it might not have happened my dear said he approaching her ills his hands and his lips trembling a strange smile on ills bis face you are just wonderful 1 fate has sent you to me mel I 1 I 1 need comfort and solace and you are exactly tharl he slipped his arm about her waist while she stood like a charmed bird she could not believe that he be could do such a thing to her not this man who looked so much like the men she knew it had been different with he was a loathsome beast but it was incredible that such a man as this could offer her such an indignity her alusta krassin who had bad been respected as something lofty all her life the passage between loris and her mother had been unintelligible to her for it was her mother she could not take in at once the dread implication that loris believed that her mother had made such a degrading surrender of some point of honor which she did not quite visualize that mothers indescribable stammering admissions of whatever charges loris was making against her ausla was not as naive as tier her mother insisted in believing her but she was too pure and innocent to apprehend or comprehend comore hend all that this meant she stood still as a charmed bird as loris put his arm about her waist an and stooped to kiss hiss her but as the little curled mustache brushed her pale lips she stiffened turned ee from the encircling arm and to in a second stood facing him her cheeks crimson with anger her breast heaving with agitation tie lie stood still smiling that strange little smile his hands quivering as he stretched them out to her she turned scornfully her glance passing the place where he stood as though he were a bit of furniture and moved with dignity toward the door oil oh not no I 1 he half whispered not so BO soon my dar darling lingi 1 not when our acquaintance Is only beginning 1 not with the advantage all on your side I 1 will not harm you little dear ue ile had placed himself across the doorway burring barring her way out she turned and looked around for a way of escape and tier her eyes fell on the pistols swords enles and daggers hanging banging all over the walls quick a as af f light she snatched a japanese sword from its corred ivory sheath sli eath and thus armed faced her peril moving toward the door would you exclaimed loris you line creature and in speaking he closed clo sed with his little opponent deftly twitched the weapon from her hand and pushed her to a seat on the divan where she sat fat shaking as with fin an ague it was most pitiful loris sat down beside tier lier but at a respectful distance sheathing the sword they say said he that tills this edge will cut a silk handkerchief falling upon it through the air even when ut wielded elded by that thai little liand hand I 1 Innig imagine ine that it would affect the health of a bolshevik very seriously now please be calm I 1 really moan menn it now when I 1 8 say y I 1 will not harm you she looked in his eyes for a moment and saw a changed expression there slip she saw inquiry there now mingled with respect let me go she said pleadingly presently said he quietly so you were not taken into your mothers confidence when site she laid her plan musin sat mute 1 I do not need to ask ash he went on pointing to the ivory scabbard this Is in my answer it is not true site she flamed up op in tier her denial my mother Is incapable of such a thing 1 I once thought lie he replied that I 1 was incapable of ninny many things in ID these days we ne are all the be time dis dikeov ering new things within the range of our capabilities that Is what ih hi trouble Is sly my mother could not but your brother bruthers bru therl lie he queried afterward she remembered pred I 1 that he said gald 11 II very gently to save your lir my aly brother said site she looking him film in 10 the fare face would a thousand times ather go to execl execution tion and be snuffed out by a firing squad he be said A man Is dead a long long time you she was growing more con fluent now you cannot mean what yuu you what W hat you seem to say bayl I 1 I 1 know better he sat for a long time looking down at his military boots for an interview of such exciting inception and of developments so tragic in their possibilities the affair was becoming rather quiet iab with the advantage still shifting to muelas side HOW how much he be was as like the young men with whom she had bad played about in the old days and just now she was about to plunge that sword into his bodyl 1 I must not keep you here much longer said he looking into her eyes with a sort of frankness which she remembered with surprise afterward 1 I owe you amends for what has just happened I 1 do not believe you can understand it now but sometime you yon will you must not think that a commissar of the dictatorship of the proletariat is an eastern despots despot to give and take life at pleasure I 1 cannot say anything about your brothers case I 1 cannot promise to do anything about it I 1 can only promise to look into it I 1 am but there Is no use in telling you of my troubles it you wish to follow up the case ot of your brother you may come again it if you dare 1 I dare she looked up at him with halt half a smile on her face the advantage now was quite with her 1 I wish there were something more dangerous than coming here she he went on which I 1 might do to save ve him oh sir it if there la is anything you can do tor for poor ilya do it and command my grateful prayers forever I 1 and what does poor ilya call his little sister he asked usually she replied he calls me sometimes Maro osla ile he wrote the name down in his memorandum book 1 I can promise nothing said he be not even that I 1 shall be here or anywhere when you come again but remember this you must say nothing of what has taken place here to anyone especially to your mother I 1 do not care to have it echoing about the krassin whispering spering gallery ausla reddened whenever her mind was recalled to her mother she felt a passion of shame and indignation swelling higher now it overcame her and she bowed her head in her hands and sobbed rising and moving to the door she turned and spoke 1 I have no longer a mother said she ile he bowed her out of the door respectfully fully As she went out the next in line a wrinkled peasant woman passed her on her way into the tigers den As she brushed tier her way past ausla she looked up and noted the traces of tears the signs of agitation and smiled she wished that her petition could be presented by one so young and fresh and pretty TO BE CONTINUED |
