The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1905-02-17
kenry Seton Merriman

art of being beautiful.
Paul did not answer at once. He vas
looking at a large photograph which
stood in n frame on the mantelpiece,
the photograph of a handsome man Of
twenty-eight Or thirty, small featured,
fair and shifty looking.
"Who is thaty" he asked abruptly.
"Do you not know? My husband"
Paul muttered an apology, but he
did not turn away from the photo
graph.
ooh, never mind,' said Mrs. Sydney
scarborough in reply to his regret that
he had stumbled upon a painful sub
ject. II never
She paused.
NO" she went on, IT won't say
that"
But, SO far as conveying what she
meant was concerned, she might just
as well have uttered the words.
II do not want a sympathy which is
unmerited," she said gravely.
He turned and looked at her, sitting
in a graceful attitude, the incarnation
of a most refined misfortune. She rails
ed her eyes to his for a moment, a sort
of Photographic instantaneous shutter,
exposing for the hundredth part Of a
second the sensitive plate Of her heart.
Then she suppressed a sigh-badly.
II was married horribly young" she
said, before l knew what l was do
Ing. But even If 1 had known I do
not suppose 1 should have had the
strength of mind to resist my father
and mother"
'"They forced you into it,"
"Yes." said Mrs. scarborough. And
It Is possible that q respectable and
harmless pair of corpses turned in their
respective collins.
Paul. standing in front Of her, look
ed down thoughtfully at the beautiful
upturned face. His hands were clasp
ed behind him, his firm mouth set
sternly beneath the great fair mus
tache. In Russia the men have good
eyes = blue, fierce, intelligent. Such
eyes had the son Of the Princess Alexis.
There was something in Eta Bambor-
ough that stirred up within him a quail
ity which men are slowly losing-name-
", chivalry. Steinmetz held that this
man was quixotic, and what Stein
metz said was usually worth some
small attention.
Paul's instinct was to pity this wom-
an for the past that had been hers.
His desire was to help her and protect
her, to watch over her and fight her
battles for her. 1t was what is called
love. But there Is no word In any
spoken language that covers so wide
a field. Every day and all day we call
many things love which are not love.
The real thing is as rare as genius, but
we usually fail to recognize its rarity.
That which Paul Howard Alexis felt
at this time for Eta was merely the
chivalrous instinct that teaches men
their primary duty toward women
namely, to protect and respect them.
But out of this instinct grows the bet
ter thing-love.
There are some women whose desire
1t Is to be ali things to all men In
stead Of everything to one. This was
the stumbling block in the way Of Eta
scarborough. 1t was her instinct to
please all at any price, and her ODE
dience to such instinct was often I'M
conscious. She hardly knew perhaps
that she was trading upon a sense of
chivalry rare in these days, but had
she known she could not have traded
with a keener comprehension of the
commerce.
II should like to forget the past al
together" she said. But it is hard
for women to get rid Of the past. 1t is
rather terrible to feel that one viii be
associated all ones life with a person
for whom no one had any respect. He
was not honorable or
She paused, for the intuition of some
women is marvellous. A slight change
Of ~countenance had told her that char
ity, especially toward the dead, IL a
commendable quality.
"The wonA," she went on rather hur-
riedly, never makes allowances, does
1t? He was easily led, l suppose, and
people said things of him that were not
true. Did you eve hear of him in Rus
sia-of the things they said of him?'
She waited for the answer with sup
pressed eagerness.
mo; l never hear Russian gossip. l
know no one in st. Petersburg and few
in Moscow"
She gave a little sigh of relief.
''Then perhaps poor Sydney's delin-
Quencies have been forgotten" she
said. I'm six months everything Is for
gotten now. He has only been dead
six months. you know. He died IN
Russia"
All the while she was watching MS
face. She had moved in a circle where
everything is known, where men have
faces of iron and nerves of steel to con-
ceal what they know. She could hard
" believe that Paul Alexis knew SO
little as he pretended.
$50 I heard a month ago" he SAID.
In a fash Of thought Eta remem-
bered that it was only within the last
four weeks that this admirer had pc
trayed his admiration. Could this be