, 1898-09-28
HER EXPIRATION.

Aubrey Yeldham better than | could
have loved a brother, but | had seen
her and had caught the reflection of his
sentiment, though in a tempered degree.
I had met her but once, in a verdurous
Devon lane, where she had lost her
bearings and we had come to her assist
ance.
Her name was Ruth Lascelles, and
she was a widow. That was the sum
total of our knowledge. She might have
been 20, but we estimated her age at
20, deducing our theory from a certain
fatigued languor Of voice and expression
that accorded i'll with the g~irlish satin
Of her skin. This was arrived at on the
first day Of our meeting-we had not
discussed her since. But one morning
when he had called at the little farm
cottage where she lived and had found
her flown without a word Of regret his
despair had been too much for him
The whole story rolled from his lips;
his love for her, her seeming reciproc.
ity, their wanderings in the woods, her
reliant, trusting attitude-that had
taught him to wish himself some knight
Of the Holy Grail and not a mere be-
mirched man Of many passions.
o. I was SO out Of it, as the phrase is.
that 1 could volunteer small elucida-
tion. That she was a coquette of the
first order seemed the most feasible So
luton, and I offered it. He derided the
nation-it was apparently SO frivolous
. venture hat it failed to anger him.
But one day. after we had returned to
town and we're working well in har-
ness, he with his book, I with my illus
trations for it, he burst out afresh:
"She Internationally let out where
Ghe lived. 1t is a village on the coast of
France. She must have returned"
"Well?" l said, %suspending my work
and pretending to extract a hair from
the fine point of my drawing pen.
"Well," he burst out, 1.-THE world is
our oyster. II we sbirk opening it, we
can't hope to fitch pearls"
"That means?" l hinged expectantly.
"That means. in plain words, that l
don't intend to give up the biggest
pearl that God ever sent to make a man
rich."
"You intend to follow herr" l ques-
tioned-needlessly indeed, for his kin
ding eye contained a fire of decision and
energy that for IA days, since the sorry
one Of her disappearance, had smol-
dered.
He had been absent but a week when
I received the telegram announcing his
intended return. l stood-with my
back against the mantel and hands
warming themselves behind my shelter
ing coattails-eager to recognize his
rampant mount of the stairs, to feel the
clasp Of his hand or the thump on the
shoulder blade and hear his CHEEKY
Congratulate me, old fellowr' that I
knew must come. A cab stopped outside
and q key turned in the lock. Then a
slow, heavy tread ascended. We met in
the passage. There was no need for
more than q glance at him to abridge
the exuberance of welcome that had
bubbled to my lips.
The silence was so long-so pregnant
with unsyllabled anguish-that at last
I closed a warm hand over his fingers
they clasped the arm end of his chair.
"Well?"
"Well," he said huskily, starting a
little from his coma and poking a coal
with the toe Of his boot, "it's over"
$50 I supposed, and the pearl was
"Not for my handling" he inter
rupted. II knew you'd think something
hard Of her, but you won't, you won't
wh,n I tell YOU
He stretched his hand to his glass
and emptied 1t before continuing.
ut came about sooner than 1 intend
ed-the horizon was 10 serene 1 wanted
to lay to for q bit-but it was no use.
We were talking Of something-I for
get what-and made aquotation. You
know the chap who said. Show me a
woman's clothes at different periods Of
her life and I will tell you her his
Eyes, I forget his name, but l think
Il was = Frenchman."
well / quoted him. pretending to a
like perspicacity. 1t was q sneaking,
cowardly ruse to know more Of her."
"Welll"
"she mapped at my offer-was al.
most ardent in her wish to test m
II caught her wrist as 1t turned the
handle Of the wardrobe door and remon.
serated: i refuse to see them. l know
nothing Of clothes, and I'm not a detec-
tive. l WON'T pry into your past secrets
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