Show ZA I 1 I 1 if if if fill queen e no L a c e by ly franices FraE fre n ices ms pair heyes Q frances parkinson keyes service CHA CHAPTER PTER XII continued 23 29 anne finally promised that she would talk tails to neal about going away but neal like most men and especially like most husbands while deeply concerned over acute illness did not regard convalescence as a serious matter now that she was up dp and dressed now that she went out for a short ride in the motor every day now that he saw her supervising nancys fall wardrobe with interest and shepherding her brothers into the social field now that he heard her discussing dinners with alphonsine he assumed that she was perfectly all right and said so but in the succeeding weeks he watched her with secret anxiety she was lie he was reluctantly forced to ad mit to himself very thin very white and very listless he tried to find satisfactory is explanations for this of course the loss of the baby had been a shock to her but she would recover from that of course she hid had suffered a good deal of pain but after all her constitution was good she ou ought ht to have excellent powers of recuperation rut but did she it began to look as if site she did not about the middle of november quite as if it were his own idea advanced for the first time he said a little gravely he thought 7 it would he a good plan for her to have a change of air its nice and cool in quebec he told anne its nice and cool in washington now retorted anne well you could have gone awn away sooner if you had wanted to you he asked almost grimly you said you care 1 I and I 1 dont unless you could come too just before the opening of congress my aly dear girl you know that is impossible I 1 am so driven at this time of the rhe year I 1 hardly know which way to turn besides besides you feel that this beat year if you went away at all ail you ought to go to flin H in shorn neal ne hesitated stated then drew in his breath and spoke with the air of one who was preparing for a deep plunge yes yea he said at length 1 I do I 1 have decided to run for the senate I 1 would never be satisfied if I 1 and that means a real fight I 1 ought to have got started at it sooner of course the man in has certain advant advantages izes but fletcher Fletch cr who Is a al most certain to appo oppose e me has mil lions behind him where I 1 have thousands and he owns the biggest newspaper in the state I 1 do think anne you sometimes overlook the importance of keeping in touch with state rif affairs fairs in your desire not to miss anything here you are kind to every one who comes to washington hut but youre not fit at home a great deal now if you could get to hirshorn Hin shorn early this spring 11 1 I can I 1 will and make up tip your mind for a heavy summer exert yourself dont act like a high brow A little of that stuff you tried cohush up tenc teaching hinz school living in a tenement and do ing your own washing has its points and in one of the sensational sheets you are pictured as an impudent aggressive gres sive ignorant little climber the stories are terribly distorted I 1 know but there is a grain of truth in them and they are not doing me any good anne sat very still an ignorant impudent aggressive little climber so chat was the way she appeared to her enemies and neals ne ils the perseverance the patience the self sacrifice which had enabled her to grow from a raw little country girl into a well developed self fissured woman were ignoble rather than admirable ties when viewed with unfriendly eyes she felt as if something cold and sharp had penetrated to her heart and coiled around it but neal unconscious that she was stricken went on talking 1 I dont want to hurt your feelings anne and of course I 1 know you dont mean to be indiscreet but well lassiter was here a good deal last winter it was rumored around that you that he anyway when the baby was born there was a paragraph in city chatter miss letts showed it to me not that I 1 believe a word of the scurrilous stuff or that she lid you know that of course you know that I 1 love you and trust you but I 1 thought though you ought to know 11 feeling that he had perhaps sald said enough neal bent over the evening paper it was half an hour before he looked up and when he did he noticed that hint anne hud hild left the room tip rip supposed that slip must have gow to bed as she often did now that she was so far from strong but when he reached the colonial chamber which she had made so beautiful she was not there either well then she must be helping sol and sam with their french she often did that too astonishing toni shing how she had mastered it ile de get a can of hot water himself if the steward who happened to wait on him speak english clever anne was and better every year a great credit to him he never would have got where he had bad without her complacently he went to sleep in the morning when he woke she lay as usual beside him her curls tumbled over the pillow one slim bare arm thrust under her head ne ile never guessed that she had spent most of the night walking 0 blindly beside the potomac river regarded with an anxious curiosity by an occasional watchful policeman and with covetous misunderstanding by an occasional night prowler but there was something about her that kept both from al approaching pro aching her something almost unearthly f if I 1 lose belford I 1 am lost something wholly tragic the slimy serpent of slander had crossed her path as it crosses the path of almost every man and woman of destiny and in the first hour hour of her agony it seemed to her that her feet would never touch clean earth again yes tes this is mrs conrad speaking no senator conrad cannot come to the telephone oh thank you mr daker baker ill take the figures yes I 1 have it right I 1 think conrad thirty two fletcher seventeen anne hung up the receiver and went swiftly front from the library to the shadowy hall in the dimness she could barely see neal standing near bear the door his white face strained and tense she walked over to him and put her hand on his arm mr baker has just telephoned front from Baker bakersfield bakerfield field she said gently the vote is thirty two for you and seventeen for fletcher A harsh sound something like a smothered grow growl 1 arose from neals throat As he be had bad foreseen the campaign had been a bitterly hard one he had bad borne the brunt of it bravely almost buoyantly but on election night he had suddenly collapsed and leaving his headquarters had come home refusing to see anyone or even to speak with anyone but anne if the telephone had been a colled coiled rattlesnake ready to strike at him he could not have manifested a greater horror at the suggestion of touching it so taking her place beside it anne sat waiting for the tidings which sooner or later would come tidings of victory tidings of defeat she had no way of guessing which they were to be she only knew that she must be there when they came that until then she must comfort cheer cajole caress in fd the gathering dusk her hands clasped tightly in her lap she re viewed the months that had passed since that night of desperation when bruised bruised and bleeding she had walked slowly along the speedway confessing herself beaten vowing that since she had tried so hard and failed she would never try any more and then suddenly miraculously finding the strength to vow that she had 0 only aly just be betin begun tin to fight turning from the gray potomac she had walked beside the still pool in which the columns of the lin coln coin memorial lay reflected in the ghastly light there was peace there peace not to be found in the rushing river she sat down on the bank and clasped her hands over her eyes slowly surely her sanity seemed to return her balance to be restored go back to Illus boro humbled and humiliated with neals career involved Involve dl 1 never never beverl never confess that a filthy periodical had the power to challenge her good name tier her dead baby seemed to rise from his grave forbidding her she shook the tears from her eyes threw back her head and walked towards home state headquarters yes mrs conrad speaking for senator conrad two wards in belford have gone for fletcher by a large majority thank you yes out in the hall again neal seized her arm and spoke before she could do so 1 I heard you the first two wards they have heard from I 1 if I 1 lose belford I 1 am lost you lost it what do two wards amount to in a city nothing nothing at all 11 back bach to the telephone yes mrs conrad sp speaking eakin oh the report from the third ward two hundred eighty six to tb ninety five in favor of my husband yes I 1 will tell him neal did you hear that you have carried the third ward in belford almost three to one well until I 1 hear from the north of t the he state that wont reassure me much 11 headquarters calling figures from Ch aselford summerdale sled med field just about a washout wash out mrs conrad would you care for the exact figures TO BE CONTINUED |