Evening journal., 1904-07-13
BY a Trick
Of Fate
By Lola L. Forester
Copyright, iee, bv 7. c. Mcclure


Twice katherine had tried to leave
her stateroom and reach the cabin and
had been forced back Once the white
faced stewardess had come to her door
There was no immediate danger. she
assured her. They would be notified
at once If there were. II she was
nervous. Mr. Hetherington said he
would come to her. And katherine
had sent back word that she was not
at all nervous. and Mr.. Hetherlngtou
need not trouble himself at all about
her.
When the girl had gone, she had
thrown herself on the couch and given
full vent to the terror that had haunted
her all night long she was afraid,
afraid with her whole heart, of the
great, lashing, hungry sea, that tossed
and played with the yacht like some
huge monster with it's helpless prey
and threatened every moment TO hurl
it down TO death.
If Hetherington had been with her,
II they two could have faced eternity
strengthening them, she would have
known no fear. But as It was, n Wild,
unreasoning. childish terror made her
tremble at every crashing wave, and
she longed for even a sight OF his face
before the end should have swept them
irrevocably apart.
The week at sea had passed like a
troubled dream. They were to have
made harbor the previous morning.
and the storm had driven them OF the
course down the southern French
coast. BY this time she had thought
everything would have been over-the
brief, fearless parting with Hether-
ington, the meeting with her mother in
/ Paris and the trip TO Berbec.
Dear. lovely, lonely little Berbec up
on the Normandy coast. The two sum
mers she had spent there, in old Mar
/ tigny's classes, had been the happiest
of her life She loved even the mem
ory Of the crescent shore line, with the
old boats drawn up on the sand and
the nets drying in the sunlight and the
brown skinned fisher boys and girls
gosslping over their baskets Of silvery
scaled fish
II had all been arranged and settled
so decently, as HetheringtOn said
There had never been any open quar-
rels between them for the servants
and public to gossip over, merely a
quiet. courteous antagonism which re
quired no explanation. The marriage
had not been voluntary.
1T was the blessed, stupid mothers,
Katherine said with gay cyniclsm a
; their last interview. We're not tn
! kind who settle down, Bruce. and b
married and then do nothing bat Civ
house parties and dinner parties anl
b yachting parties and all the rest Of II
! You were rich and nobody in particu
lar, and l was poor and a Lorlmer
md the wise little mothers simply saw
, a chance to found a dynasty of mutua
benefit, and we drlfted until they land
ed MS under the orange blossoms I
Is little tangle Of fate's skeins. w
can't go back and untangle it, but W.
can do the Alexander trick and cut It.
. He had agreed 20 the separation to'
readily, she thought. Even acknowl
edging perfect Indifference on botl
Sides little hesitancy would havl
been desirable. He had almost seeme'
cheerful when he had asked her wha
she intended doing at Berbec.
"You haven't the ghost Of right 4
ask me-" she had told him, "but ther
is nothing to conceal. Martigny keep
up his summer classes sull. You know
studied under him there and in Paris
too. when we were poor before"
} She hesitated and went on with a ligh
? touch Of bitterness before l was tn
fortunate Mrs. Hetherington. There
certain to be some Of the old class lef
7 and can rest and study"
"And be happy" continued HetheI
p ington. She had not answered.
{ She felt that he could not understan
how she longed for the old quiet lif
i away from the world. 1t was at Be-
b bee he had FIRST met her Young an
handsome. he had come TO the llttl
e fishing hamlet on a yachting cruis
b and. with all the confidence OF ne'
r riches. had expected to enter the littl
d exclusive art and social coterie tn,
p gathered there. 1t had been her fave
. that had won him the entree, and b.
/ fore the ivy that clambered on ol
g Martigny's garden wall had turned
g crliason they were engaged.
d It was not until after the weddln
+ I'm Paris at Eastertide that Katherir
l. had realized how the world, her worl
d was smiling at her in polite anus
ment. 1t was so palpably a marriage
CONVEYANCE. Not a breath Of the swee
o ness of the wooing at quaint Berb'
r had reached Il. II was merely thi
p Kitty Lorimer had married Bru'
g Hetherington for his money. and a
# the host OF nouveau richie Hetherlni
d tons were TO sweep into society und'
S the shadow Of the Lorimer wings.
e And the knowledge Of the world
t Judgment Of them had bred a vagu
e mutual distrust, fear born Of lo'
Y and pride that the other one might gi'
credence to the worlds rumor. Aft
l that the drifting apart had been swii
p and the end bad come deliberately. 81
IT had wished TO spend the summer
a- Berbec alone He had refused pos
IT lively TO permit Il. If she went again
Ic his wishes, he would consider it fin,
d Before she had fully realized what
D. meant she had tossed back her a
Ie swer Ii was final then. She won
II go TO Berbec. The following we
D. they had sailed for France.