Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-15

there-why should one want to come back
TO Engiand?'
Had any one asked Evelyn why she spoke
In this way to a stranger. man of whose
existence she had hardly been aware yes
terday, she would certainly have been UNI
able to give satisfactory answer. To no
other in all her life had she spoken so
openly and readily as to this fair-haifed,
hiue-eyed Englishman. who did not appear
to have one grain of humbug in all his
body. Her surprise was not greater than
her pleasure; she would not deny that 1t
pleased her thus to confess intimate
thoughts which she had not shared even
with her own father. Gavin, upon his part,
a servant of candor always. observed moth
ing unusual in her freedom; but he could
ask himself already If she were In love with
the man to whom her future was pledged
I'VE are forgetting how to be serious,
he rejoined; that is also one of the vices
of the age. People chatter away as though
words were enough and the truth of words
nothing at all You do not mean anything
you say, and you expect me to listen to you
in the same spirit l decline to do so. II
you go to Bucharest, you will come back
again before the year Is out. As for the
blue, red and orange. well. could as soon
ina CINE you buying, an early Victorian side
board. That is my frank opinion. You
must forgive me II 1t offends?'
He looked straight into her eyes and she
did not turn away. Gavin Ord was unlike
any man she had known-not by mere
cieverness alone, but by that strength of
will and character which could not fail to
assert Itself In any company Whatever It's
nature. Here sat one whom We're he to
command her, she would certainly obey.
Such possibility OF docility astonshed
Evelyn beyond measure-but it also en-
couraged her to put question to him.
Frank o4k1ions need no forgiveness"
she said. II am longing for more. Mr..
Ord You told me laG night that you be-
Heved you had metyfne in London. Please
tell me where 1t was"
She asked the question with some pretty
pretense of Indifference which did not de-
ceive him for instant 1t is better, he
thought, that l should tell her. and so he
said, without any affectation whatever:
Il am quite wrong, of course; but when
I thought the matter over ] remembered
that young actress, who made & great
sensation at the Carlton Theater i'm May.
might have been named for your own sis
ter. That is what gave me the idea that
/ had seen you before"
How strangei Do you also remember
the lady's name?''
Perfectly All London went mad over
her. She called herself Eta Romney, and
the play showed such q house this. 1t
was the old story of Di Vernon retold. Lady
Evelyn
You were much taken with the play, it
mot with the play at all But thought
Eta Romney one of the cleverest women
l have ever seen on the stage"
rs she playing still, may l ask?
You know that she is not, Lady Evelyn"
Il know it-are you serious?"
SO serious that l shall forget the sub
ject until you choose to speak of it again.
But it interests me greatly" she plead
ed, with that insistence which often at
tends the discussion of things better avoid
ed. IF | am really SO like somebody else,
ought l not TO be curious? You say"
Indeed, l say nothing" he exclaimed
quickly, and then in a lower voice-"at
least until the earl has breakfasted."
She did not reply. The earl entered the
room and began at once to speak of Ga
WINS work and the arrangements which
must be made for it.