The morning times., 1897-02-14


he was called into the cloakroom for n
consultation with one of his colleagues
about a certain bounty, he agreed to
everything the other said without having
heard word, and he escaped at last, as
if from bear garden, to his own rooms,
a toilet and the Arlington.
Several people were before him. Nine.
D'Arco, filling and overflowing her arm
chair, sat by the fire slipping her rchocoiate,
and Gloria sent away a dark youth and
invited Harry Bentinck to place among
the cushions beside herself. She was III
a shapeleSs robe, more like cloak than
q gown, he thought, of some thin, white
silk, with great ''flots" of lace, the drap-
ery curling around her feet as she rose. a
white lace mantilla fell from her hair, and
she Wore the pearls again.
do you always wear pearls?' he said
Yes she replied. Il had other things,
to be sure-Spanish topaLes.r lWould have
given them to the maids, but sold them
instead. AS for the diamonds, they are
my aunt's, entailed anyway. And so are
the great star sapphireS from Ceylon,
whose history is part of the history of
queens. But i wear pearls for the sake
of Cuba, the Pearl of the Antilles. That is
sentimental, fantasucal? At any rate
AT any rate, it is beautiful he said.
"Ifyou mea n that the pearls are be autiful,
why, i know it. If you mean that Cuba
is beautiful, oh. then you win Iny hearth
Il would mean anything for that" he
said.
You know / did not intend But
perhaps | shall put you 10 the test, y
JS fxpA hmm ~
three? Not any tea? Nor chocolate? Then
you will have cigHrette2 And she
rolled him one, and then she rolled another
for herself. lis it disenchanting?' she
said holding it off after fairy puff, and
with laugh that at all events was capti-
waiting. But It'll custom ofmy country" :"
Rather of old Spain, is IL not?' said
Mr.. Bentinck.
In an instant tile cigarette had flashed
into the CRATE. ITO tell the truth, never
cared for it, she said, but il was just
duty, you know, to do anything that is
purely Cuban
'Or Russian
"Yes, yes! You are right. The only
thing that really seems TO be purely Cuban
is suffering
Il am afraid,'' lie said, "that / have
not considered it sufficiently. / am i'll
Informed on this matter that interests you
so deeply
You shall be better informed before
YOU leave u.s. she exclaimed, and she
leaned back among the cushions and looked
straight before her, so proud, so pale, SO
melancholy, that Harry did not know
whether the thrill that went through
him was a pang of sympathy for her
sorrow or of JOY for her beauty.
But whatever she might have said was
interrupted by the arrival of other guests.
do not CO., said Nine. D'Arco, beckon-
ing him to her side. Let them pass" And
then for an hour or more he had to endure
the presence OF an ex-Secretary of State,
a general who had led triumphant bat
talions, OF one or two officers of the
Southern army, one or two Senators, some
women of fashion, end various foreigners
Harry Bentinck, speaking now and then
with one and another, rough it all
really saw no one but Gloria, the ease
with which she discussed with the Sec
retary the policy of his predecessor, the
sparkle with which she met the soldiers,
the half gracious, half Indifferent, lassi-
tude of her manner with the foreigners,
the fire that every once in awhile flashed
out through it all. II am tired" she said,
when the door closed on the last of them.
Il shall have to let you go. But you will
come again?" And he went up to a night
session OF the House a S gloomily as if he
had been shut out OF paradise.
Ii was the next morning that, some
thing overdone, he ordered his hoIse for a
canter out Rock Creek way, before break
fact, the roads being hard with frost. 1t
was a day when in the thin film OF mist
that overlics the sky the whole atmosphere
seems one vast opal, and all the country
glistened in rime under haZes of blue and
silver.
The charm of it, the keen air and the
motion, gave him presently an exhiIara-
tion that overcame his fatigue, name
less joy, just the JOY Of living and breath
ing, perhaps of loving. He had nearly
reached the old mill, when two riders
came ,galloping down the crossroad, and
passed on, without observing him, the