Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-06-11
Woman' S Face
FLORENCE WARDEN

glanced at them curiously, or watched
them with hungry interest while Lord
Kildonan glanced keenly round the
muscle quivered. He turned to Arma-
thwaite, and putting his arm through
that of the young man, asked, in a
low tone, which to An outsider would
have seemed one of Indifference:
"You must come to the help of my
know here? The truth-if you please
Armathwaite looked round, shaking
with apprehension. Then, after
securing every corner with a searching
glance, he said, with a long drawn
breath of so much relief that his en-
phatic tone made some even among
the gamblers look up at him:
| "No."
Lord KildOnan's face never changed
! Without releasing the young mans
arm, and with a courteous reply to
one of the women, who offered to find
| a table for them, he crossed the room
to a doorway, before which hung
thick curtain. Raising this, they
| passed through together.
| The apartment they now entered was
much larger than the first. In addition
to small tables in two of the corners,
! it contained one long table, upon
I which the deepest interest of the as
sembly was evidently concentrated.
T1n yNJo,
ly keen or restlessly eager faces, sat
on either side, and staked their money,
won or lost, in almost unbroken 81
lence. The game was baccarat, and
the stakes were for the most part high,
as the newcomers could see by
notes that chinked and rustled on the
table. A constantly-shifting but quiet
crowd moved about, taking their places
at the table or watching the play, with
steady and almost silent interest. If
a young man, in a lively after-dinner
mood, began to disturb with unwel-
come hilarity the absorbed attention
of the players, he would be led off
with little delay to a third room, in
which, by the sounds of vacuous and
discOrdant laughter and the popping
of champagne corks, which came upon
the ears with a loud burst when the
communicating door was open, it
might be judged that less austerity
prevailed.
Slowly and steadily, examining the
players on the opposite side face by
face, Lord Kildonan, his hand leaning
a little more heavily on Armathwaite's
as moment by moment passed and yet
he made no discovery, worked his way
through the crowd, always a little in
the background, until they had nearly
completed the circuit of the table.
There were but few women among the
players. Armathwaite's eyes noted
each one with passionate hope that
there might be none among them
whom he could recognize On the first
side of the table that they scanned
there was no face, mans or woman's,
that he knew. AS they drew slowly
to the opposite side of the room he
scarcely dared to look. The first
hasty scrutiny treasured him. An
old woman, lean-faced, hideous, with
faded eyes that saw nothing fair or
good; stout woman, whose age was
not clear; and third, insignifcantly
dressed, who wore mttens and had no
other saliant point about her, were the
only exceptions to the row of male
players. The two younger women
wore short wells, thick enough to hide
the upper part of the face pretty COM
pletely. Unutterably relieved, Arma-
thwaite let Lord Kildonan lead him
on, beginning at last to feel with some
certainty that they had happily got
on the wrong tack, when suddenly
he felt the elder mans grip tighten on
his arm. He looked up quickly, and
felt as if he had been turned to ice.
Following the direction of the old
mans eyes, he saw Crosmont, his face
set and livid with sullen anxiety and
despair, standing among the onlOokers
or the opposite side of the room,
watching, not the cards, but the i1-
signiicantly-dresse woman. She was
sitting next but one to the dealer, stalk
! ing her money, watching the game,
with the stolid steadiness of an old
| hand. Through the thickness of her
veil, as Armathwaite watched, he saw
two steel-bright eyes flash like sparks
of light; underneath the thick black
| edge he saw two coral-red lips tightly
set. In spite Of his suspicious, in
! SPITE of his fears, it was he who stag
gered, and not the older man by his
side, when he recognized in the one
! person in the crowded room whom on
careful inspection he would have
chosen as the ideal representative of
the passion for play, the well-disguised
but unmistakable face and form of
Lady Kildonan.
The secret was out: she was a
gambler; not from pleasure, not from
choice, but because it was in her
blood, bred by generations of spend
thrift, fast-living ancestors, whom
nothing but laws OF entail, and the oc-
casional happy accident of a possessor
of the estates who was free from the
family vice, had stopped in the race of
ruin. Her fathers strange injunc-
tions; her feverish anxiety to go
abroad; her exhausted calm after the
visits to Liverpool; all was explained
AS she sat with her brilliant eyes in
capable Of seeing anything but the
cards, all the passon Of her ardent
lanaroetio animal nature concentrate cd