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Show AJy wzmomiuvm tugs third Deem;1 CHAULK KLEIN v y ARTnURDnORNBLOT ' V ILLUSTRATIONS BY RAY 'v-VLTEIi$ 013 Sank Sleepily Back Among the Soft Divan Pillows. "Howard, wake up! confound you! You've got to get out there's somebody some-body coming." He shook him roughly, but his old classmate made no attempt to move. "Quick, do you hear!" exclaimed Underwood Impatiently. "Wake up some one's coming." Howard sleepily half opened his eyes. He had forgotten entirely where he was and believed he was on the train,, for he answered: "Sure, I'm sleepy. Say porter, make up my bed." His patience exhausted, Underwood was about to pull him from the sofa by force, when there was a ring at the front door. Bending quickly over his compan ion, Underwook saw that he was fast asleep. There was no time to awaken him and get him out of the way, so, quickly, he took a big screen and arranged ar-ranged it around the divan so that Howard could not be seen. Then he hurried to the front door and opened it. Alicia entered. ' CHAPTER VII. For a few moments Underwood was too much overcome by emotion to speak. Alicia brushed by in haughty silence, not deigning to look at him. All he heard was the soft rustle of her clinging silk gown as it swept along the floor. She was incensed with him, of course, but she had come. That was all he asked. She had come in time to save him. He would talk to her and explain everything every-thing and she would understand. She would help him in this crisis as she had In the past. Their long friendship, all these years of intimacy, could not end like this. There was still hope for him. The situation was not as desperate as he feared. He might yet avert the shameful end of the suicide. Advancing toward her, he said in a hoarse whisper: "Oh, this is good of you, you've come this Is the answer to my letter." let-ter." Alicia ignored his extended hand and took a seat. Then, turning on him, she exclaimed Indignantly: "The answer should be a horsewhip. horse-whip. How dare you send me such a message?" Drawing from her bag the letter received from him that evening, she demanded: "What do you expect to gain by this threat?" "Don't be angry, Alicia." Underwood spoke soothingly, trying to conciliate her. Well he knew the seductive power of his voice. Often he had used it and not in vain, but to-night it fell on cold, indifferent ears. "Don't call me by that name," she snapped. Underwood made no answer. He turned slightly paler and, folding his arms, just looked at her, in silence. There was an awkward pause. At last she said: "I hope you understand that everything's every-thing's over between us. Our acquaintance ac-quaintance Is at an end." "My feelings toward you can never change," replied Underwood earnestly. earnest-ly. "I love you I shall always love I you." Alicia gave a little shrug of her shoulders, expressive of utter indifference. indiffer-ence. "Love!" she eiflAaimed mockingly. I "You love no one but yourself." Underwood advanced nearer to her and there was a tremor in his voice as he said: "You have no right to say that. You remember what we once were. Whose fault is it that I am where I am today? to-day? When you broke our engagement engage-ment and married old Jeffries to gratify grati-fy your social ambition, you ruined my life. You didn't destroy my love you couldn't kill that You may forbid me everything to see you to speak to you even to think of you, but I can never forget that you are the only woman I ever cared for. If you had married me, I might have been a different dif-ferent man. And now, just when I want you most, you deny me even your friendship. What have I done to deserve de-serve such treatment? Is it fair? Is it just?" Alicia had listened with gTowlng Impatience. Im-patience. It was only with difficulty that she contained herself. Now she interrupted him hotly: "I broke my engagement with you because I found that you were deceiving deceiv-ing me just as you deceived others." "It's a lie!" broke in Underwood. "S may have trifled with others, but I never deceived you." Alicia rose and, crossing the room, carelessly inspected one of the pictures pic-tures on the wall, & study of the nude by Bouguereau. "We need not go into that," she said haughtily. "That is all over now. I came to ask you what this letter this threat means. What do you expect to gain by taking your life unless I continue to be your friend? How can I be a friend to a man like you? You know what jour friendship for a woman wom-an means. It means that you would drag her down to your own level and disgrace her as well as yourself. Thank God, my eyes are now opened to your tue character. No self-re-spectin voman could afford to allow her nam to be associated with yours. You are as Incapable of disinterested friendship as you are of common honesty." hon-esty." jldly she added: "I hope you , quite VjBtlerstand that henceforth my house ii, closed to you. If we happen to mte.1 In public, it must be as stranger?,." stran-ger?,." Underwood did not speak. Words seemed to fail him. His face was set and white. A nervous tv'Mhing about the mouth showed the terrible mental Etrain which the man was under. In the excitement he had forgotten about Howard's presence on the divan behind be-hind the screen. A listener might have detected the heavy breathing of the sleeper, but even Alicia herself was too preoccupied to notice it. Underwood Under-wood extended his arms pleadingly: "Alicia for the sake of auld lang syne!" "Auld lang syne," she retorted. "I want to forget the past. The old memories mem-ories are distasteful. My only object in coming here to-night was to make the situation plain to you and to nsk you to promise me not to carry ott your threat to kill yourself. Why should you kill yourself? Only cowards do that. Because you are in trouble? That Is the coward's way out. Leave New York. Go where you are not known. You are still young. Begin life over again, somewhere else." Advancing Ad-vancing toward him, she went on: "If you will do this I will heip you. I never want to see you again, but I'll try not to think of you unkindly. But , |