Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-11-15

Lillian looked round at Kaine with |
 lingering, caressing glance.
 He bent toward her in quick re
 sponse and answered in whisper.
 She laughed and replied in an equally
 low tone.
 I4oder, to whom both remarks hai
 been inaudible, dropped into the vacant
 seat beside Mary Esseltyn. He haG
 the unsettled feeling that things were
 not falling out exactly as he had calcu
 lated.
 What is the play like? he hazarded as he looked toward his companion. Al all times social trivlalities bored him
 Tonight they were intolerable. He had come to fight, but all at once 1t seemed
 that there was no opponent. Lillian's attitude disturbed him, her careless graciousness, her evident ignoring of him for Kaine, might mean nothing. but also it might mean much.
 Tt is a good play" she responded. q like 1t better than the book. You've read the book, of course?"
 "No." Loder tried hard to fix his thoughts.
 Its amusing, but far fetched"
 Indeed" He picked up the pro- gramme lying on the edge of the box. His ears were strained to catch the tone of Lillian's voice as she laughed and whispered with Kaine.
 Yes; men exchanging identities, you know"
 He looked up and caught the girls self possessed glance. "Oh?" he said. "Indeed?' Then again he looked away. It was intolerable. this feeling of be- ing caged up! A sense of anger crept through his mind. It almost seemed that Lillian had brought him there to prove that she had finished with him, had cast him aside, having used him for the days excitement as she had used her poodles, her Persian cats, her crystal gazing. All at once the impotency and uncertainty of his position goaded him. Turning swiftly in his seat, he glanced back to where she sat slowly swaying her fan, her pale, golden hair and her pale colored gown delicately silhouetted against the background of the box.
 Whats your idea of the play, Lil- lian?' he said abruptly. To his own ears there was note of challenge in ais voice.
 She looked around languidly. ''Oh, it's quite amusing" she said. Tt makes a delicious farce-absolutely French"
 "FrenchY
 Quite. Don't you think so. LennieT
 "Oh, quite," Kaine agreed.
 'They mean that it's so very light and yet so very subtle, Mr. Chilcote," Mary Esseltyn explained.
 "IndeedY he said. "Then my im- agination was at fault. l thought the piece was serious"
 "Serious." Lillian smiled again. Why, where's your sense of humor? The motive of the play debars all seri- 
 Loder looked down at the pro- yramme still between his hands. What is the motive?" he asked.
 Lillian waved her fan once or twice. then closed it softly. "Love is the she said.
 Now, the balancing-the adjusting of and inspiration-is, of all processes in life, the most delicately inc. The simple sound of the word love" coming at that precise juncture hanged the whole current of Loder's bought. It fell like a seed, and like ] seed in ultraproductive soil. 1t bore ruit with amazing rapidity.
 The word itself was small and the manner in which it was spoken trivial, put Loders mind was attracted and leld by it. The last time it had met is ears his environment had been 'astly different, and this echo of 1t in m uncongenial atmosphere stung him o resentment. The vision of Eve, he thought of Eve, became suddenly lominant
 "LoveT he repeated coldly. "So ove is the motiveT "Yes." This time it was Kaine who in his methodical, contented 'oice. "The motive of the play is ove. as Lillian says. And when was ove ever serious in a three act com dy-on or off the stage" He leaned onward in his seat. screwed in his yeglass and lazily scanned the stalls. l The orchestra was playing a Hun arian dance, its cratic harmonies | nd wild altemations of expression alling abruptly across the pinks dnd | lues, the gliding and lights of the retty. conventional theater. Some hing in the suggestion of unfitness ppealed to Loder. It was the force f the real as opposed to the ideal. With a new expression on bis face, e turned again to Kaine.
 And how does 1t work?" he said. This treatment that you find so- 'rench;"
 His voice as well as his expression ad changed. He still spoke quietly, ut he spoke with interest. He was o longer conscious of his vague neasiness: fresh chord had been |, truck in his mind. and his curiosity ad responded 10 it. For the first ime it occurred 10 him that loye-the dangerous. mysterious garden whose aths had so suddenly stretched out efore his own feet-was a pleasure round that possessed many doors and n infinite number of keys. He was