The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1904-09-07
BY a Trick
Of ate
n
By Izola L. Forester
Copyright. 1901. bD I. C. Mcclure


i Twice katherine had tried to leave
1er staterOom and reach the cabin and
1ad been forced back Once tie white
faced stcwariless had come to her door
There was no immediate danger. she
assured her. They would be notified
at once If there were. If she was
nervous, Mr.. Hetherington said he
would come to her. And Katherine
1ad sent back, word that she was not
1T all nervous, and Mr.. Hetherington
need not trouble himself ut all about
her.
thrown herself OF tic couch and given
full vent to the terror that had haunted
her all night long. She was afraid.
afraid with her whole Leart, of the
great, lashing. hungry sea. that tossed
and played with the yacht like some
huge monster with it's helpless prey
md threatened every moment to hurl
it down to death.
II Hetherington had been with her,
If they two could have faced eternity
In each others arms, with the old love
strengthening them, she would have
known no fear. But as it was, wild,
unreasoning, childish terror made her
tremble at every crashing wave, and
she longed for even sight of his face
before the end should have swept them
!rrevocably apart.
| The week at sea had passed like a
troubled dream. They were to have
made harbor the previous morning,
md the storm had driven them off the
course down the southern French
coast. BY this time she had thought
everything would have been over--the
brief, fearless parting with Hether-
ngton, the meeting with her mother in
Paris and the trip to Berbec.
Dear, lovely. lonely little Berbec up
IN the Normandy coast! The two sum
mers she had spent there. in old Mar
-igny's classes, had been the happiest
If her life. She loved even tie mem
Dry of the crescent shore line, with the
Did boats drawn up OH tie sand and
the nets drying in the sunlight and the
brown skinned fisher boys and girls
yossiping over their baskets of silvery
scaled fish. s..
| 1t had all been arranged and settled
30 decently, as Hethcrington said.
There had never been any open quar-
rels between them for the servants
ind public to gossip over. merely n
luiet, courteous antagonism which re-
luired no explanation. The marriage
had not been voluntary.
ut was the blessed, stupid mothers"
katherine said with gay cynicism at
their last interview. We're not the
kind who settle down, Bruce, and be
married and then do nothing but give
house parties and dinner parties and
yachting parties and all the rest Of it.
You were rich and nobody in particu-
lar, and I was poor and a Lorimer,
and the wise little mothers simply saw
q chance to found d dynasty of mutual
benefit, and we drifted until they land
ed us under the orange blossoms. 1t
Is q little tangle Of fate's skeins. We
can't go back and untangle it, but we
can do the Alexander trick and cut it."
He had agreed to the separation too
readily, she thought Even acknowl-
edging perfect Indifference on both
/
been desirable. He had almost seemed
cheerful when he had asked her what
she intended doing at Berbec.
"You haven't the ghost of a right to
ask me-" she had told him, 'but there
Ia nothing to conceal. Martigny keeps
up his summer classes still. You know
[ studied under him there and in Paris,
too, when we were poor, before
She hesitated and went on with light
touch Of bitterness-"before was the
fortunate Mrs. Hetherington. There is
certain to be some of the old class left,
and can rest and study"
"And be happy" continued Hether-
lngton. She had not answered.
She felt that he could not understand
how she longed for the old quiet life
away from the world. 1t was at Ber
bee he had first met her. Young and
handsome, he had come to the little
ashing hamlet on yachting cruise
and, with all tie confidence of new
riches, had expected to enter the little
exclusive art and social coterie that
gathered there 1t had been her favor
that had won him the entree, and be-
fore the ivy that clambered on old
Martigny's garden wall had turned to
crimson they were engaged.
| 1t was not until after the wedding
In Paris at Eastertide that Katherine
had realized how the world, her world,
was smiling at her in polite amuse
ment. 1t was SO palpably marriage de
convenance. Not breath Of the sweet
/ nj hn of ni,%
had reached it. 1t was merely that
Kitty LOrimer had married Bruce
Hetherington for his money, and all
he host of rouveau richie Hethering-
;ons were to sweep into society under
he shadow Of the Lorimer wings.
And the knowledge of the worlds
| Judgment of them had bred q vague,
mutual distrust. a fear born of love
| and pride that the other one might give
sredence to the worlds rumor. After
that the drifting apart had been swift.
and the end had come deliberately She
had wished to spend the summer at
Berbec alone He had refused posi-
lively to permit 1t. If she went against
his wishes, he would consider 1t final.
Before she had fully realized what 1t
meant she had tossed back her an
swer. It. was final then. She would
go to Berbec. The following week
they had sailed for France.
A sudden, sharp rapping on her state
room door startled her. She caught
her breath as she. rose unsteadily and
chung for support to the side of the
perth The moment of danger had
come, and they had sent for her. Not
Hetherington, she knew. Until she
called for him he would meet even
death without a word. But If she
could call, If there was only yet time,
only q moment of grace, to reach him
and tell him it was all miserable mis-
take OF pride, that she loved him with
all her heart and wanted his presence
with her now at the supreme moment
when all the world had fallen away to
nothingness, and there was only the