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Show LsJ 1 i 117 4" I I AUTHOR o "THE LOME I van rr B0WL' ZTC Vi,(VJ COPYRIGHT BT LOUIS JOSEPH VAMCf CHAPTER XIV. Continued. 16 "You darling!" In.' declared with emotion. "H'uit till I (,'i't my breath. Mini's got no business courting when lie nln't In (ruining." I.yilin lunched aloud. Impossible to resent tin; extravagances of this Irrepressible Irre-pressible boy! "I'm in no hurry," she countered, 11 hint of malice making piquant her demureness. "I got you!" .said Peter, breathing heavily. Suddenly Lydia realized that Peter was the cheerfullest soul she had ever known. She'd he sorry to lose him, with Ills high spirits and honest, out-jMPf out-jMPf friendliness. itut she was hound to lose him; and not 111 in alone, hut all her new-found friends. This night had demonstrated indisputably In her understanding that Craven's mode of life could never be hers. They lived and thought on different dif-ferent planes. Downing street's secret agent must of necessity have his secrets nnd guard them jealously; but - Icve and loyalty could not endure in an atmosphere of petty deception, useless, persistent fibbing, feigned emotion intrinsic in-trinsic selfishness. She meant to leave him without delay. de-lay. Come morning, and she would strike out for herself. And that involved in-volved forfeiture not only of her father, fa-ther, but of his friends thnt now were hers. It would be Impossible to keep on terms of equality nnd companionship companion-ship with those amiable creatures of exalted irresponsibility, and spend her days behind a counter ! She felt very forlorn, lonely, young nud inexperi- V enced. J- ----- She turned at length from unseeing contemplation of Central park's dismal perspectives, to look curiously at Peter, who forthwith grinned gracelessly. "What do you want madman?" "Just to talk to you," he replied ' '" frankly. "You keep to yourself so much I get lonesome and desperate. Think what it must mean not to see you In over twelve hours to a man of my mercurial temperament ! Uonest, I was feeling awful low when you . , ... showed up just now. In another hour "" I'd 've been taking things seriously the same as you." "What makes you say that?" "Because you show it." "Do I, really?" she pleaded anx-. anx-. lotisly. . f - "Not so's anybody'd notice it but me. You'll have to learn that you can hide nothing from me. Consider what a swell time you'll have when we're married." mar-ried." "No don't joke, please. I I am not very happy tonight.' "You aren't?" Peter sat up at attention, atten-tion, serious for once at least. "It's nothing don't ask me, please. I'm just a bit low-spirited." ' "Nothing doing !" declared Peter firmly. "Dissimulation isn't your long suit. I know !" He nodded with immense im-mense gravity. "You're fretting about that cussed necklace." He drew a long breath and lied magnificently. "You see, w-e were talking it over when you came in : Quoin calling Betty down for making Craven try to smuggle, and Betty fighting back like a good one the whole story coming out. I don't care if Tad is your father, he hadn't any right to put a raw deal like that over on you. Now," Peter wound up defensively, "turn loose the heavy artillery artil-lery ! I've spoken my mind when it was none of my business, and it's up to nie to take the count without a whimper." Lydia was silent, her face averted. "No," she said presently, "I'm not nngry with you. Why should I be? I myself don't think it was right. It It's pleasant to know somebody sympathizes, sympa-thizes, when everybody else seems to think It nothing at all." "Not my way of looking at it," Peter insisted. "Listen to me now ! Why not marry me and chuck the whole game Betty, Tad, Quoin, the whole outfit? Think how good it would be to know you don't have to care what they think ! Just say 'Peter, you're on !' and we're off winter in Egypt everything like that. You see? Not a bit of use fretting fret-ting about people when life makes it-uelf it-uelf so easy." "Please don't, Peter. It makes you seem unsympathetic, after all." "Don't you believe it. I'm so full of sympathy for you that it hurts me. Please won't you marry me?" "I can't listen to you if you will go on this way!" she cried, half distract-ed. distract-ed. "I'm not thinking of marrying anybody." any-body." "I know. It's just as good a line as It ever was, and you read it to perfection. perfec-tion. But it loses force with repetition, my dear. Don't forget that this is another an-other scene several chapters farther on no other fellow has turned up to niiiue it difficult Tor you to decide. I know, 'cause I've been watching." "Please be kind if you can't be serious." "But I am serious." "Ah, hut you promised me you never were and never would be!" She tried to laugh; tut not very successfully. "That just goes to show how little I knew myself. The diagram is, of course, I never wanted to be serious before I fell in love with you. Don't you understand under-stand that, really? I love you, Lydia !" The girl sighed and looked away, troubled, a strange, sweet fluttering In her bosom. And Peter was searching her shadowed face wilh eyes she dared not meet lest they surprise her agitation agita-tion and wrest a victory from it. Her lips grew tremulous, her eyes dim. "I love you," he repeated gently. "Oh, believe me, heart of my heart !" His hand closed firmly over her own. "But," she protested in a voice scarcely more than a whisper, he had to bend very near to hear, "but Peter " "Dearest?" "It's the first time you you ever told me that." "God forgive me !" cried the young man devoutly. "I never thought. I thought you knew all the time !" CHAPTER XV. "Peter !" The cry was smothered. "Silly boy! Can't you see the cab is turning? Do let me go!" "Only into a side street. I say, where are we bound anyway?" "It doesn't matter only to deliver a note and get an answer." "Who to and from? Grammar's nothing to me, anyway." "I sha'n't tell you if you don't stop. Well, a friend nobody you know. If you don't let me go, I'll " "What will you do?" "If you'll let rne go, Til tell you something." Curiosity triumphed. Lydia extricated extri-cated herself. "What is it?" "There I'm all mussed and rumpled. You're frightfully inconsiderate." "May's well get used to it. You've got a long, rumply, mussy lifetime be- "Wait Til! 1 Get My Breath Man's Got No Business Courting When He Ain't in Training." fore you. What were you going to say?" "Promise not to be silly again, If I tell you?" "I say, that ain't sporting of you. You promised " "Very well. No wait. Is my hat straight? We're turning again stopping. stop-ping. Look out and see if it's the right number." "Ninety-eight." "That's right." "Now what are you going to do?" "Get out, deliver the note, get the answer, and come back to you, Peter." "Nothiug could be fairer than that. Only you don't'get out till you tell me what you promised to." "Very well. But you'll have to get out first. Not a word while you're in this cab. Now, Peter, please !" "Oh, all right." Peter backed out and offered his hand. He closed strong fingers round hers. "No, you don't not till you keep your word !" "Then listen, Peter!" her voice was low, but clear and very sweet. "It doesn't make an ounce of difference to me about those others so long as it's only me you love now aud always will !" With this Lydia ran up the steps, leaving Peter dazed with the memory of her face at parting. And indeed the wits of the young man were reeling, drunken with the fragrance of his beloved. It was some moments before he began to recover. Interim, he stood bareheaded iu the drizzle, blinking fatuously at an electric elec-tric arc on the corner of Park avenue. ave-nue. Then suddenly he remembered what misgivings had sent him headlong head-long from the Margrave to overhaul this taxi of ten thousand Elysian delights. de-lights. But when he did remember it was too late. His dearest had already been engulfed by the front doors of that ill-omened house. Ill-omened, at all events, he must consider it in the light of whit Quoin had hinted. And yet, surveying the residence, one began to doubt An eminently respectable quarter, Seventy-sixth street, between Madison Madi-son and Park avenues, a block as sedate se-date as any in town, dedicated to the hnines of solid, decent, law-. ,M, ling bodies who, to be sure, wouldn't suffer suf-fer association with any establishment of the least questioimble character. Since the cab had stopped nut a sound had ili-uirln i the quiet s:;ve the semiiiccasiunal rui'iUiug of surface cars uii the one hand or scoring of in,,!o:s on the other. And number !$ itself was a resilience resi-lience of a type and caste to allay distrust dis-trust at a glance an elderly, well-to-do sort, with hrownsLore front, well groomed ; nothing in this ensemble the least ominous or threatening. Inclining to question old Quoin's ever-ready inference, Peter climbed back into the cab, and for five minutes min-utes hugged himself in private ecstasy. Everything was for all the best in the best of all possible worlds. lie needed only to crowd things a bit, rush the wedding through before Lydia realized that people were onto Craven, keep her if possible ignorant forever of old Tad's disgrace That could be fixed, no doubt. Fortunately Betty wasn't vindictive. Quoin's commission from her hud been merely to scare Craven silly and vuu him out of town. And that, of cour.se, would keep things dark ; for Craven would never dare return. re-turn. Of course, if he ever found out his daughter didn't know, and her husband hus-band didn't want her to know, he would likely trj on a little blackmailing, blackmail-ing, just to keep body and soul together. to-gether. But Peter wouldn't mind that not in moderation. Anyway, he'd always al-ways liked old Tad ; and to think of him In wanl, who had been so refulgent reful-gent a figure in the life of town, would be keen discomfort for his prospective son-in-law. Peter dared say old Tad could do with a tidy bit of blackmail something adequate and regular. And he, for one, would never begrudge it. But when five minutes had elapsed Peter began to fidget. That's a long time to wait for a girl you're crazy about, who has just owned up she's crazy about you ! He consulted his watch: ten minutes past eleven. Lydia had tome to the Margrave about a quarter of: they couldn't have been more than a quarter quar-ter of an hour coming up town. Peter became convinced that he had waited ten minutes, not five. Things began to look ttubious. He hopped out and up the steps of 98. The outer door was fastened ; but a steady pressure on the push-button brought a shadow to skulk suspiciously suspicious-ly behind lace-screened inner doors. One edge of the curtains was pulled aside a trifle, he was inspected narrowly, nar-rowly, and then the shadow materialized material-ized into a woman who came forth and unlatched the outer doors. Even to Peter's captious scrutiny she looked a very nice sort, altogether an apparition appari-tion to abash suspicion. "Yes?" she inquired in a pleasant voice. "Yes," the discomfited young man replied intelligently. "That is to say I ah " "Perhaps you've mistaken the house?" "No I mean to say Miss Craven I brought her here was to wait to see her home, you know waited so long-began long-began to wonder " "I see," said the woman quietly, a flicker of amusement in the eyes that Peter rather liked. "If you don't mind waiting another minute, I'll ask her." Singularly enough, Peter thought, she didn't ask him to step in out of the weather. On the other hand, she was considerate not to keep him waiting long; though the message she finally brought him proved distasteful enough. . "Miss Craven asked me to give you this, Mr. Traft." "Thanks," said Peter, graciously accepting ac-cepting the proffered envelope. It wasn't sealed. Unceremoniously he lifted the flap and withdrew the in-closure, in-closure, a square, white, heavy correspondence corre-spondence card with the address stamped in black letters. Below a stub pen had been used with disastrous effect ef-fect : "Dear Mr. Traft Please don't wait for me. I can't tell how long I may be detained. Sincerely, "LYDIA CRAVEN." Dear Mr. Traft, nonplussed, accepted dismissal with what grace he could muster. "Oh ah thanks," he said blankly. "Awf'ly good of you " "Good evening, Mr. Traft." "Good evening." The door closed. Peter grunted disgust dis-gust and went slowly down the steps. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |