The Press., 1906-12-26
Temper and
 Green Tulle By sSorob McConneU

He was busy getting the thought of her out of his mind, sore put to 1t to be free and his own man again. She was capricious, inconstant, vain; she was self willed and full of wiles; she was oh, she was Alexandra Lee. He would not think of her.
 A great deal that had happened that night was blurred to him. But the bang of the carriage door as they started home reverberated In his mind like the crack of doom. It had slipped from his hand and swung to with a crash. Alexandra's laugh mocked him. with any one else, George, I'd have said the door slammed"
 He remembered how she looked as he turned. something strange in her eyes that matched, in impression, the misty multitudlnous ruffllngs and bill lowings of her gown-that frivolous, futtering, elusive green tulle he had watched all evening as she danced with every other man In the room with Herbert Hartley, a dawdling, dangling derellct, signpost to every path but that of rectitude-of all men in the world, Herbert HartleyI
 From her carriage corner Alexandra sighed. "I've had such a good time, and now suppose there's the piper to pay"
 'If you mean there Is Hartley to set tie for''-
 Herbert? You've a tone that hints at thirdly and fourthly, brethren,' and poor HerbertI He's so much more of a song than a sermon"
 That began 1t He had never meant to quarrel, only to deal with her in a firm, prompt fashion, as a man should. Firm, prompt he had been, with cer- tain ability of exposition that served him we'll in courts of law, but with Alexandra
 She bent down as he ended. Are you there, Alexandra? P she asked of the floor. Poor dear, there is nothing left to pick up. Oh, Pm tired, tiredI I'm sti1ed. I can't breathe. There, take 1t back~ And she tossed the ring across to him. "Now one can draw a free breath"
 "AlexandraP' he begged.
 But he had cut, and she meant he should pay. And hers was a pretty gift of table turning.
 He held his anger down. No more doors should slam by chance about him, and 1t was only as they neared the house that he interrupted:
 'We haven't gained anything this way. Discuss me again. The point Is Herbert Hartley"
 ''Then I must put on my bonds again? Where Is the ringY'
 But he hadn't the ring.
 You had 1t last"
 'T laid 1t In your lap"
 But 1t was not in her lap nor the seat nor the carriage. Alexandra laughed. "Oh, thrifty George, are you sure you've not taken 1t back for safe keepingT
 He stood a long moment at her door.
 "And Hartley?" he said.
 Insistence was match to her powder
 How can answer unless we're en- gagged? And people can't be engaged without rings, can they, George? You seem to think with mine on that I fall to remember. Bring 1t back to me and-good nightT'
 After a week of wrath mingled with pain he got himself under control and wrote her. But the answer came back the same absurd, maddening, almost insulting reiteration-the ring, always the ring. A perversity first or a pre- text, did she use 1t now as a weapon? He hadn't the ring, she knew.
 Life was turmoil once Alexandra en- tel d, and he remembered with what perverse astuteness she had said her self: "I'm like a mustard plaster on your mind. You'd better take me off before raise a blister"
 But she was in every wind that blew, and without her nothing was worth while that once had been.
 So for a fortnight he had gone about hls accustomed ways, and, though many a futter of familiar skirts had set his heart a-jump, yet he never had met Alexa since that night. Then a case of some importance took him out of town with such sharp demand upon all his faculties that he had known a sort of respite.
 But back in the town his work was all to do again. He went his way down to his office; he bowed to peo- ple who drove past with a swift hope , t Alexa would not be with them. | md then unexpectedly with a group l elr the Hurds-there was Alexal
 Yes, 1t was Alexandra and Evelyn | Hurd, and with them Herbert Hartley. |
 The group stood until he had almost | reached them, wben Hartley turned, | and Evelyn went back to the house, while Alexa stopped by the Hurds' | waiting carriage.
 He knew she had seen him long be- | fore, built was one of her insincerities | he most disliked-she acted out acute | surprise. He put a stiffer guard upon | himself.
 A stiffer guard! She called 1t by | another name. She hated him when | he was like that How futile he made | her feel, how trivial, how vainl We'll, | at least she would make him feel once more and betraY 1t: she would wiring | out of him protest.
 And then her mind misgave her. Was she being left with the situation on her hands7 Would he accept with out protest? Would he never speak7 | She looked up and then down again to her ungloved hand on which his eyes were fixed. A seal ring of Her bert's took the place of the one that was lost. A 1oks-a stupid Joks-buA