Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-21

! Tom by this time had got into his clothes anC
was lamminR the Satanic grandeur into dress
suit case. "I'H change at my office" he said tc
! himself "and meet them at the dressingrooH
door at ten, just Ms the note arranged"
| Then, listening for a possible footstep, honest
Tom Seaton stole down his own stairs with tho
air Of a detected felon got into his top coat, and
quietly let himself out.
Ought how he hated it all, but dear little Kit
ty must have lesson-God bless herl She would
be in good hands, and he'd make it all right
with her afterwards; and then he thought OF
the tickets actually bought and paid for, which
secured passage for four on the lStrura one week
from date. Kitty had been teasing for months
to 60; IL would be joyful surprise. "And when
We get back" Tom whispered grimly to himself
wondering why his eyes seemed sort Of misty
81 guess NTaude Rurle-Weston will have to look
out for another friend"
And now TO return to Kitty.
She drove to the Sorosis Club and dismissed
the carriage. Then, having slipped on her domi
no in one Of the dressing.rooms, and concealed
this with her long wrap she stepped into the
cab that she had ordered and drove off to the
ball, all hhssfully unconscious that just ten
minutes after her departure from home a mes
sengerboy had delivered there hastily scrb-
bled note from NIaude Weston, beginning:
Dearest kitty: The game is upl Weston has
found out and behaved like n perfect pig. So
ing this in time to stop you.
Your aqonzed,
"MAUDE B. W."
And alas alas! for "the best laid plans o
mice and men," this same daintily perfumed
note was now reposing on Kitty's own little
desk, there to await her returnl
She felt horribly frightened when she got out
at Madison Square Garden, and still more so
when she didn't find Maude, in domino exactly
like her own, awaiting her. After twenty min
utes had passed she grew desperate, and secure
in the shelter of her heavy mask, she went to
the door to reconnoitrc. There was no sign of
Maude, but with a gasp of relief she recognized
Mephistopheles in black and red for though there
might easily have been dozens in like costume,
there was no mistalung Graham Chetwood's ire
mendous height and broad shoulders.
He came towards her at once and extended
his arm.
"Mr. Chetwood?" she said, as she took it some
what timidly, and he reassured her at once by
whispering:
Eyes, it's all right. Awfully glad you've got
here but YOU won't mind if I whisper, will you,
for I've caught jolly bad cold-voice all gone,
don't you know, down to my boots or some way,
and l can hardly make myself heard at all in
this Babel"
"Maude never came" Kitty went on, almost
tedTIullys HOW JlldJ sHc Icu tbO looO IoulIL an
anchor, "and 1 was getting so horribly fright
cned"
ooh, she's here all right" Mephistopheles re-
turned calmly. "Im sure | saw her-rg just
like yours don't you know-and in any case she
told me yesterday that if we got separated,
which is awfully likely in a place like this, we
were TO leave at twelve sharp for Arthur S
rooms, where we're all to have supper. So don't
let's bother too much about them You and I
can be perfectly happy together" bending so
low that Kitty shrank from the hot breath on
her cheek, resenting angrily the changed tone
and the almost affectionate squeeze he gave to
the little hand on his arm.
1t was a horrible evening, for though the cos
tunes were pretty and many of them excruciat-
ingly funny Kitty just couldn't enjoy herself.
She kept thinking miserably of Tom at home;
thev saw no sign of Maude and her brother, and
last. but not least Mr.. Chetwood seemed so hid
eously unlike himself,
Tn spite of the admiration Maude Weston had
always limited at, he had never once, during all
of Kitty's association with him, overstepped in
anv way the bounds of ordinary conventionaty.
But tonight a horrible change seemed to have
come over him. He kept murmuring things that
no man but Tom had ever dared to say to her
while Kitty. feeling him to be her only protector
in that awful place. dared not keep him too
much at a distance especially as she realized
miserably that by placing herself in false po'
sition she had brought it all upon herself.
The relief she experienced was past express