Omaha daily bee., 1899-06-18

( life was comparatively tasteless and void
| OF interest; there was nothing to look for
| ward to and the recent past meant extremes
of heat and cold, long, solitary rounds
| ridden by night and days rendered so far
| alike by iron-ha rule and method that
one was driven to mark the lapse of time
by the seasons, not by the ordinary divisions
| of weeks and months.
As he lounged in a chair, full of these
| thoughts, a slight rustic, soft and silken,
| like the rustic of a woman's dress, caught
his ear. He turned his head quickly. The
corridor, with its slender pillars, which
stood at long intervals, was STEPPED in the
clear electric light and from where he sat
he could see there was no person visible
| throughout it's entire length.
| Then, as his gaze Travelled back, it rested
on something which had certainly not been
| lying where he now saw it at the time of his
| entrance.
| Not six PAGES behind him, stretched across
the dark carpeting, in the very center of
the pillared vista, lay woman's long glove.
womans glove possesses a peculiar
charm for all men. Perhaps it suggests
some of the sweet mystery of womanhood.
| The first action of most young men in
| Rallywood's place would have been to raise
| 1t at once and to examine it, as though in
some impalpable manner 1t could tell some
thing of its unknown wearer, who might
turn out to be the Hathor, the one woman
in the world
But the circumstances of Rallywood's life,
and, perhaps, also. some exclusive element
in his character, had heretofore set him
rather apart from the influence of women.
He had grown to regard them without curl
osity, which is the last stage indifference
can reach.
1t must be admitted that 1t was WITH a
feeling akin to repugnance that he at last
lifted the long, soft, pale-hued, family
scented suede from the floor and dangled it
at an unnecessary distance from his eyes,
holding it as he did so daintily between
finger and thumb. Its subtle appeal to his
senses as a man failed to reach him It
simply aroused an old feeling of reserve
toward the sex it represented. His face
altered slightly and he dropped it suddenly
with an odd repulsion, as he might have
dropped snake, on a couch nearby.
Then he resumed his chair and turned his
back upon it, till the reflection that the
woman to whom it belonged must have
come and gone while de sat thinking with
his back to the corridor sent him wheeling
round again,
The glove still lay where he had placed
and with a suggestion OF helplessness and
pleading 1t annoyed him unreasonably
He frowned and looked at his watch, Half
an hour had passed since selpdorf dismissed
him
At that moment a gutteral voice broke the
silence of the house and heavy curtain
over the door at the nearer end OF the
anteroom was thrust back by brusque
hand and tall highshouldered handsome
man, dressed as If he were about to at
tend some court function, stood in the
opening. Behind him Rallywood caught
sight of furried and explanatory lackey.
"Ah, so / have lost my way after all :"
said the parsonage in a bland voice. "a
mistake But hope you will accord me
your forgiveness, mademoiselle?"
Rallywood spang TO his feet at this most
unexpected ending and looked around
Close beside him stood a tall girl wrapped
in long cloak Of fur and amber velvet she
/ was singularly beautiful with nals clear