Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-10-31
She thanked him and sat down.


 He watched her in silence as she poured out the tea. and the thought crossed his mind that 1t was incred- ibly long since he had seen woman preside, over meal. The deftness of her fingers filled him with an unfamil- far, half inquisitivc wonder. So inter- esting was the sensation that when she held his cup toward him he didn't immediately see 1t.
 Don't you want any?" She smiled a little.
 He started, embarrassed by his own tardiness. I'm afraid I'm duIl," he said. I've been SOL
 "So keen worker in the last week ?"
 For moment he felt relieved. Then. as fresh silence fell, his sense of awkwardness returned. He slipped his tea and ate biscuit. He found him. self wishing, for almost the first time. for some of the small society talk that came so pleasantly to other men. He felt that the position was ridiculous. He glanced at Eve's averted head and laid his empty cup upon the table.
 Almost at once she turned, and their eyes met.
 "John," she said, do you guess at all why I wanted to have tea with you?"
 He looked down at her. 'No," he said honestly and without embellish- ment.
 The curtness of the answer might have displeased another woman. Eve seemed to take no offense.
 T had a talk with the Fraides to- day." she said, "a long talk. MT. Fraide said great things of you, things I wouldn't have believed from anybody but Mir. Fraide." She altered her posi- tion and looked from Loder's face back into the fire.
 He took a step forward. "What thingsY' he said. He was almost ashamed of the sudden, inordinate satisfaction that welled up at her words.
 '.Oh, mustn't tell your' She laughed a little. But you have surprised him" She paused. slipped her tea. then looked up again with change of expression.
 "John," she said more seriously, there is one point that sticks little. Will this great change last?" Her voice was direct and even, wonder fully direct for a woman, Loder thought. It came to him with cer- tain force that beneath her remarkable charm might possibly lie a remarkable character. It was not possibility that Hj occurred to him before, and 1t caused him to look at her second time In the new light he saw her beauty differently, and 1t interested him differently. Heretofore he had been inclined to class women under three heads-idols, amusements and membranes. Now it crossed his mind that a woman might possibly i'll another place-the place of a com panion. .s
 "You are very skeptical," he said, still looking down at her. "A
 She did not return his glance. T think have been made skeptical," she said.
 As she spoke the image of Chilcote shot through his mind = Chilcote, IT, ritable. vicious, unstable-and quick compassion for thls woman so inev- ltably shackled to him followed 1t.
 Eve, unconscious of what was pass Ing in his mind, went on with her sub ject.
 "When we were married" she said gently, "I had such great interest in things, such a great belief in life. l had lived in politics, and I was marry ing one of the coming men-everybody said you were one of the coming men. I scarcely felt there was anything left to ask for. You didn't make very ar dent love-" she smiled, but l think had forgotten about love. I wanted nothing so much as to be like Lady Sarah-married to a great man." She paused, then went on more hurriedly: , For awhile things went right; then SLOWLY InlugS Went WTonS. Aou So. your-your nerves"
 Loder changed his position with something of abruptness.
 She misconstrued the action.
 Please don't think I want to be disagreeable." she said hastily. "l don't. I'm only trying to make you , understand why-why lost heart"
 "I think l know." Loder's voice broke in involuntarily. Things got worse, then still worse. You found interfer. ence useless. At last you ceased to have a husband"
 Until a week ago." She glanced up quickly. Absorbed in her own feel ings, she had seen nothing extraor. dinary in his words.
 But at hers Loder changed color.
 Its the most incredible thing in the world" she said. Its quite incred ible. and yet I can't deny It. Against all my reason. all my experience, all my inclination. seem to feel in the last week something of what I felt al