Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-01
THE MASQUERADER
By KATT4ERINE CECH. THU

Asthor q s-rhs Crels.s HI

XXI.
A few minutes before the curtain fell on
the second act Of Other Mems Shoes
Loder rose from HIS seat and made his
apologies 70 Lillian.
At any other moment he might have pom
dered over her manner OF accepting them
the easy Indifference with which she let
him 90. But vastly keener issues were
claiming his attention. issues whose re-
suits were wide and black.
He left the theater, and. refusing the
overtures Of cabmen. set himself to walk to
Chiciote's house. His face was hard and
emotioniess as he hurried forward. but
the chaos In his mind found expression In
the unevennegs of his pace To q strong
alarming and IL often fraught with inspira-
ton: but this applies essentially to the DIFF
ficulties evolved through the weakness. the
folly or the force OF another: when they
character. 1t Is in presence of his own
soui-and In that presence alone-that
man may truly measure himself.
AS Loder walked onward, treading the
whole familiar length of trafhc-flled street,
he realized for the first time that he was
standing before that solemn tribunal-that
the hour had come when he must answer
to himself for himself. The longer and
awakening. For months the song of self
had beaten about his ears. deadening all
other sounds; now abruptly that song had
ceased-not considerably, not lingeringiy
but with a audiences that made the sue
ceeding silence very terrible.
He walked onward, keeping his direc-
ton unseeingly. He was passing through
the fire as surely as though actual flames
suit, whatever the fiber of the man who
emerged from the ordeal the John Loder
who had hewn his way through the past
eeks would exist no more. The triumph
own strength, had kept his eyes upon one
point refusing to zee in other directions
had ceased to be.
Keen though It was, his realisation OF
this crisis IN his life had como with char
acteristdc sIowness When Lillian Astrupp
had given Her dictum, when the music OF
the orchestra had ceased and the curtain
risen on the second act OF the play. moth
his mind In that moment the crest song
was silenced. not by any portentous cpl
sode, not by any incident that could have
lent dignity to its end, but-with the full
measure of LIES irony-6y trivial social
commonplace In the first sensation OF
blank loss his faculties had been numoeo !;
in the quarter of an hour that followed the
rise Of the curtain he had sat staring at
the stage, seeing nothing. nearing nothihe,
filled with the enormity of the void that
suddenly surrounded him. Then, from hao-
IT. from constitutional tendency, he mad pc
gun slowly and perseveringly TO draW hIs.
one thread and then another from .he
tangle of his thoughts--to forge with DOUBT
and diffic1llty the chain that was 10 draw
him toward the future.
II was upon this same incomplete and yet
tenacious chain that his mind WORKED a. >
he traversed the familiar streets ana at
last Raind the house he had SO easly
learned to call home. - q.
AS he inserted the latchkey and felt II
move smoothly In the lock, momeh.a.s
revolt against his own judgment, his own
censorship swung him sharply toward re-
action But It Is only the blind VINO can
walk without tremor on the cage OF an
abyss, and there was no longer as oanda np
like strip of lighted paper; then, nke q
strip of lighted paper, II dropped pack ~
ashes He pushed the door open anu
slowly crossed the hall.
The mounting of staircase Is often the
index to a mans state of mind. AS Loder
assembled the stairs of Chilcote's house ms
shoulders lacked their STIFFNESS ms neaa
his feet were weighted. He had ceased 10
be the man Of achievement whose smailest
opinion compels consideration; In the prl-
vacy of solitude he was the mere human
fiotsam to which he had once compared
hmself-the fotsam that, dreaming 1t mas
found a harbor. wakes to nnd ltseir the
prey of the incoming tide
He paused at the head of the stairs TO
rally his resolutions; then, still walking
heavily. he passed down the corridor to
Ewes room. It was suggestive OF his char-
acter that. having made his decision. ne ola
not daily over its performance. Without
waiting to knock, he turned the handle ana
walked into the room.
1t looked precisely as It always looked.
but to Loder the rich, subdued colorfng OF
books and fiowers-the whole air Of culture
and repose that the place conveyed
seemed to hold deeper meaning than pc
fore: and 1t was on the instant that ms
the MI fA oh
on their owner that the true force of his
position the enor1nity of the task before
him, made itself plain. Realization came
to him with vivid. Overwhelming force; ana
it must be accounted to his credit. in the
summing of his qualities that then, In that
moment of trial. the thought of retreat, the
thought OF Yielding did not present itself
Eve was standing by the mantelpiece.
She wore beautiful gown. long string of
diamonds was twisted about her neck, and
her soft. black hair was coiled high, after
foreign fashion, and held in place by
large diamond comb. AS he entered she
turned hastily, almost nervousiy, and
looked at him with the rapid, searching
glance he had learned to expect from her;
then. almost directly, her expression
changed to one of quick concern With
faint exclamation of alarm she stepped
forward.
what has happened?" she said You
look like ghost"
Loder made no answer. Moving into the
room, he paused by the oak table that
stood between the fireplace and the door.
They made unconscious tableau as
they stood there-he with his hard. set face,
she with her heightened color. her mex
plicably bright eyes. They stood COM
pletely silent for space-a space that for
Loders held no suggestion of time; then.
finding the tension unbearable, Eve spoke
again. 81
Has anything happened?" she asked. us
anything wrong?
Had he been less engrossed the intensity
of her concern might have struck him; but
in mind SO harassed as his there was only
room for. one consideration-the considera-
ton of himself. The sense Of her question
reached him, but its significance left him
untouched.
us anything wrong?" she reiterated for
the second time.
BY an effort he raised his eyes. No man,
he thought, since the beginning of the
world was ever set task cruel as his.
Painfully and slowly his lips parted.
Everything in the world is wrong, he
said In slow, hard voice.
Eve said nothing. but her color suddenly
deepened.
Again Loder was unobservant. But with
the dogEcd resolution that marked him he
forced himself to his task.
You, despise hes" he said at last. .-fell
me what you would think of q man whose