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Show fp " ? j I i 7 Y?n . . 7 II By MARY ! f A thrilling mystery story about a j j j ld I man who lost his courage and ihe I 1 KUIiiihld j j; girl who helped him to find it again j j JfJgHART I iii -hse ! ? Perhaps no other career tests the quality f womanhood so re- Ientles6ly as trained nursing. It calls for may qualities, spiritual and Tj , physical. The reward is not large, and while many seek them, but few 4 ? are able to win the big prizes the -.-rvice offers. Sidney Page, age . eighteen, Is taken in at the ho-.Ttal as a probation nurse through the influence of young Dr. M--:i Wilson. The Pages Sidney, her semi- 5 invalid mother and h Aunt Harriet had taken in K. LeMoyne, a J J" strange young mai as a roomer in order to help meet expenses. He's 4. X very mysterious but charming, and Joe Drummond, Sidney's high- j school sweetheart, becomes violently jealous. Immediately Sidney enters hospital service her threads of life begin to tangle. You get .s, "X first sight of this in the installment printed here. ' t L J. A. .L J. .L .1. A. J. .!. X JL JL A .1. A 4. .1. 4. 4. .1. 4. .1. .1. -V 4. -t. A 'V 4 'l 4. .1. -1 4. 4. 4. 4. .t, J. A .J. CHAPTER VI. Continued. 5 "Tired?" He adopted the gentle, almost al-most tender tone that made most woin-m woin-m Iils-i slaves. "A little. It Is warm." "What are you going to do this evening? eve-ning? Any lectures?" "Lectures are over for tlie summer. I shall go to prayers, and after that to the roof for air." "Can't you take a Kttle ride tonight and cool off? I'll have the car wherever you say. A ride and some supper how does It sound? You could get away at seveu " "Jliss Gregg is coming 1" "With an Impassive face, the girl turned away. The workers of the operating op-erating room surged between them. I'.ut he was clever with the guile of the pursuing male. Eyes of all on him, he turned at the door of the wardrobe room and spoke to her over the heads of a dozen nurses. "That patient's address that I had forgotten, Miss Harrison, is the corner cor-ner of the Park and Ellington avenue." "Thank you." She played the game well, was quite calm, lie admired her coolness. Certainly Cer-tainly she was pretty, and certainly, too, she was interested in him. He went whistling into the wardrobe room. As he turned he caught the interne's in-terne's eye, and there passed between them a glance of complete comprehension. comprehen-sion. The interne grinned. The room was not empty, nis brother broth-er was there, listening to the comments of O'Hara, his friendly rival. "Good work, boy 1" said O'Hara, and clapped a hairy hand on his shoulder. "That last case was a wonder. I'm proud of you, and your brother here Is Indecently exalted. It was the Ed-wardes Ed-wardes method, wasn't it? I saw it done at his clinic in New York." "Glad you liked It. Yes. Edwnrdes was a pal of mine in Berlin. A great surgeon, too, poor old chap 1" "There aren't three men in the country coun-try with the nerve and the hand for it." O'Hara went out, glowing with his own magnanimity. Doctor Ed stood by and waited while his brother got into his clothes. He was rather silent. There were many times when he wished that their mother could have lived to see how he had carried out his promise to "make a man of Max." Sometimes he wondered what she " - ' ' r : Em I IfP "Can't You Take a Little Iide Tonight?" To-night?" wmild think of his own untidy methods compared with Max's extravagant order or-der of the bag. for Instance, with the dog's collar in it, and other things. On these occasions he always determined to clear out the hag. 'I guess I'll he getting along," he said. "Will you he home for dinner?" "I think not. I'll I'm going to run out of town, and eat where it's cool." The Street was notoriously hot in summer. "There's a roast of beef. It's e pity to cook a roast for one." Wasteful, too, this cooking cf food for two and only one to eat it. A roast of beef meant a visit, in Doctor Ed's tuodest-rnjI:i3 clientele. He still paid the expenses of the house on the Street. "Sorry, old man; I've made another arrangement." They left the hospital together. Everywhere the younger man received the homage of success. The elevator man bowed and flung the doors open, with a smile; the pharmacy clerk, the 'doorkeeper, even the convalescent patient pa-tient who was polishing the great brass doorplate, tendered their tribute. Doctor Doc-tor Ed looked neither to right nor left. Sidney, after her involuntary bath In the river, had goue into temporary eclipse at the White Springs hotel. In the oven of the kitchen stove sat her two small white shoes, stuffed with paper pa-per so that they might dry in shape. Back in a detached laundry, a sympathetic sympa-thetic maid was ironing various soft white garments, and singing as she worked. . Sidney sat In a rocking chair in a hot bedroom. She was carefully swathed in a sheet from neck to toes, except for her arms, and she was being as philosophic as possible. Someone tapped lightly at the door. "It's Le Moyne. Are you all right?" "Perfectly. How stupid it must be for you !" "I'm doing very well. The maid will soon be ready. What shall I order for supper?" "Anything. I'm starving." "I think your shoes have shrunk." "Flatterer 1" She laughed. "Go away and order supper. And I can see fresh lettuce. Shall we have a salad?" K. Le Moyne stood for a moment in front of the closed door, for the mere sound of her moving, beyond it. Things had gone very far with the Pages' roomer that day in the country; not so far as they were to go, but far enough to let him see on the brink of what misery he stood. He could not go away. He had promised prom-ised her to stay: he. was needed. He thought he could have endured seeing her marry Joe, had she cared for the boy. That way, at least, lay safety for her. The boy had fidelity and devotion written large over him. But this new complication her romantic interest in Wilson, the surgeon's reciprocal interest inter-est in her, with what he knew of the man made him quail. From the top of the narrow staircase stair-case to the foot, and he had lived a year's torment ! At the foot, however, he was startled out of his reverie. Joe Drummond stood there waiting for him, his blue eyes recklessly alight. "You you dog 1" said Joe. There were people in the hotel parlor. par-lor. Le Moyne took the frenzied boy by the elbow and led him past the door to the empty porch. "Now," he said, "if you will keep your voice down, I'll listen to what you have to say." "You know what I've got to say." This failing to draw from K. Le Moyne anything but his steady glance, Joe jerked his arm free and clenched his fist. "Wiiat did you bring her out here for?" "I do not know that I owe you any explanation, but I am willing to give you one. I brought her out here for a trolley ride and a picnic luncheon." He was sorry for the boy. Life not having been all beer and skittles to him, he knew that Joe was suffering, and was marvelously patient with him. "Where is she now?" "She had the misfortune to fall in the river. She is upstairs." And, seeing see-ing the light of unbelief in Joe's eyes : "If you care to make a tour of investigation, investi-gation, you will find that I run entirely entire-ly truthful. In the laundry a maid " "She is engaged to me" doggedly. "Everybody in the neighborhood knows it, and yet you bring her out here for a picnic! It's it's damned rotten treatment." treat-ment." His fist had unclenched. Before K. Le Moyne's eyes his own fell. He felt suddenly young and futile; his just rage turned to blustering in his ears. "I don't know where you came from," he said, "but around here decent de-cent men cut out when a girl's engaged." en-gaged." "I see !" "What's more, what do we know about you? You may be all right, but how do I know it? You get her into trouble and I'll kill you!" It took courage, that speech, with K. Le Moyne towering five inches above him and growing a little white about the lips. "Are you going to say all these things to Sidney?" "I am. And I am going to find out why you were upstairs just now." Perhaps never in his twenty-two years had young Drummond been so near a thrashing. Fury that he was ashamed of shook Le Moyne. For very fear of himself, he thrust his hands in the pockets of his Norfolk coat. "Very well," he said. "You go to her with just one of these ugly insinuations, insinua-tions, and I'll take mighty good care that you are sorry for it. If you are going to behave like a bad child, you deserve a licking, and I'll give it to you." An overflow from the parlor poured out on the porch. Le Moyne had got himself in hand somewhat. He was still angry, but the look in Joe's eye startled him. He put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You're wrong, old man," he said. "You're insulting the girl you care for by the things you are thinking. And, if it's any comfort to you, I have no intention of interfering in any way. You can count me out. It's between you and her." Joe picked his straw hat from a chair and stood turning it in his hands. "Even if you don't care for her, how do I know she isn't crazy about you?" "My word of honor, she isn't." "She sends you notes to McKees'." "Just to clear the air, I'll show it to you. It's no breach of confidence. It's about the hospital." Into the breast pocket of his coat he dived and brought up a wallet. The wallet had had a name on it in gilt letters let-ters that had been carefully scraped off. But Joe did not wait to see the note. "Oh, damn the hospital 1" he said and went swiftly down the steps and into the gathering twilight of the June night. CHAPTER VII. Sidney and K. Le Moyne were dining din-ing together at the White Springs hotel. ho-tel. The novelty of the experience had made her eyes shine like stars. She saw only the magnolia tree shaped like a heart, the terrace edged with low shrubbery, and beyond the faint gleam that was the river. The unshaded glare of the lights behind her in the house was eclipsed by the crescent edge of the rising moon. Dinner was over. Sidney Sid-ney was experiencing the rare treat of after-dinner coffee. Le Moyne, grave and contained, sat across from her. To give so much pleasure, and so easily! How young she was, and radiant 1 No wonder the boy was mad about her. She fairly held out her arms to life. Ah, that was too bad ! Another table was being brought ; they were not to be alone. But what roused in him violent resentment only appealed to Sidney's curiosity. Carlotta Harrison came out alone. Although the tapping of her heels was dulled by the grass, although she had exchanged her cap for the black hat, Sidney knew her at once. A sort of thrill ran over her. It was the pretty nurse from Doctor Wilson's office. Was it possible but of course not ! The book of rules stated explicitly that such things were forbidden. "Don't turn around," she said swiftly. swift-ly. "It is the Miss Harrison I told you about. She is looking at us.V Carlotta's eyes were blinded for a moment by the glare of the house lights. Then she sat up, her eyes on Le Moyne's grave profile turned toward to-ward the valley. Lucky for her that Wilson had stopped in the bar, that Sidney's instinctive good manners forbade for-bade her staring, that only the edge of the summer moon shone through the trees. She went white and clutched the edge of the table, with her eyes closed. That gave her quick brain a chance. It was madness, June madness. mad-ness. She was always seeing him, even in her dreams. This man was older, much older. She looked again. She had not been mistaken. Here, and after all these months ! K. Le Moyne, quite unconscious of her presence, pres-ence, looked down into the valley. Wilson appeared on the wooden porch above the terrace, and stood, his eyes searching the half-light for her, If he came down to her, the man at the next table might turn, would see her She rose and went swiftly back toward to-ward the hotel. Ail the gayety was gone out of the evening for her, but she forced a lightness she did not feel : "It is so dark and depressing out there it makes me sad." "Surely you do not want to dine in the house?" "Do you mind?" "Your wish is my law tonight," he said softly. After all, the evening was a disappointment disap-pointment to him. The spontaneity had gone out of it, for some reason. The girl who had thrilled to his glance those two mornings in his office, whose somber eyes had met his, fire for fire, across the operating room, was not playing up. She sat back in her chair, eating little, starting at every step. Her eyes, which by every rule of the game should have been gazing into his, were fixed on the oilcloth-covered passage outside the door. "I think, after all, you are frightened fright-ened !" "Terribly." "A little danger adds to the zet of tilings. You know what Metzsche says about that." "I am not fond of Nietzsche. Then, with an effort: "What does he say 1 '"Two things are wanted by tne true man-danger and play. There ore he seeketh woman as the most dangerous dan-gerous of toys.' " . "Women are dangerous only when vou think of them as toys. When a man finds that a woman can reason-do reason-do anything but feel-he regards her as a menace. But the reasoning woman wom-an is really less dangerous than the other sort." This was more like the real .thing. To talk careful abstractions like this, with beneath each abstraction its concealed con-cealed personal application, to talk of woman and look in her eyes, to discuss new philosophies with their freedoms, CJ ' , She Went White and Clutched tKe Edge of the Table. to discard old creeds and old moralities morali-ties that was his game. Wilson became be-came content, interested again. The girl was nimble-minded. She challenged his philosophy and gave him a chance to defend it. With the conviction, as their meal went on, that Le Moyne and his companion must surely have gone, she gained ease. It was only by wild driving that she got back to the hospital by ten o'clock. Wilson left her at the corner, well content with himself. As he drove up the Street he glanced across at the Page house. Sidney was there on the doorstep, talking to a tall man who stood below and looked up at her. Wilson settled his tie, in the darkness. Sidney was a mighty pretty girl. The June night was in his blood. He was sorry he had not kissed Carlotta good night. He rather thought, now he looked back, she had expected it. As he got out of his car at the curb, a young man who had been standing in the shadow of the treebox moved quickly away. Wilson smiled after him in the darkness. dark-ness. "That you, Joe?" he called. But the boy went on. Sidney entered the hospital as a probationer pro-bationer early in August. Christine was to be married in September to Palmer Howe, and, with Harriet and IC in the house, she felt that she could safely leave her mother. The balcony outside the parlor was already under way. On the night before be-fore she went away Sidney took chairs out there and sat with her mother until un-til the dew drove Anna to the lamp in the sewing room and her "Daily Thoughts" reading. Sidney sat alone and viewed her world from this new and pleasant angle. She could see the garden and the whitewashed fence with its morning morn-ing glories, and at the same time by turning her head, view the Wilson house across the Street. She looked mostly at the Wilson house. K. Le Moyne was upstairs in his room. She could hear him trampin" up and down, and catch, occasionallv the bitter-sweet odor of his old brier pipe. What sort of disgrace is K LeMyne trying to live down? A theft? Wife desertion? A t etrayal? Or would you say he I J has bee" disappointed in love? 4,4. -.4.4,4. 4,4. 4,4.4, 4,4,.. . TL BE COXTI.NUKU? ? |