Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-28
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Impresario's Prayer.

SO the Lady Evelyn had become Eta
Rumney once more. the child of the thea
ter. the daughter of a mystery which Lon
don was upon the eve of solving. The
events which brought her to this resolution
are briefly outlined in letter which she
wrote to her father upon the morning after
her interview with the great Charles lizard
at the Carlton Theater. No longer ashamed
Of her resolution. she took up her. resi-
dence boldly at the Savoy Hotel and en-
tered her own name in the visitors book,
afraid of none.
Savoy Hotel.
Thursday.
Ny Dear Father:
am here in London. according to my
determination already announced to you
shall live a little while at this hotel and
nfterward where my profession may make
1t necessary. Believe me, my dear father,
that this life alone is best for me- and
best for you at this moment. l could live
no longer in a house where. rightly or
wrongly I have always felt a stranger
and my love for Gavin forbids me to hear
those things which must hear every day
IN my old home. Now that l am mistress
Of my cwn actions, you will be able to find
an answer In my independence to those
who are not to be answered in any other
way. Should Count Odin follow me to
London, he will learn that / am neither
without friends nor resources; and l shall
not hesitate to call upon both for my pro-
lection. II Is my intention TO establish my
self here until such time as news of Gavin's
welfare may come TO me or that I may,
myself, go to seek It, That he has been
tile victim of foul play / am sure; and l
will not rest until the truth Is known,
Dear father. II you must suffer because of
me, forgive and forget and be sure always
of my love for you and my desire for your
happiness. We are outcasts OF fortune
both. and while the world is enjoying our
position we know that II is false, that we
are but intruders by accident, and that our
past IS rising up every day to laugh our
ambitions to scorn. Happier far when we
were wanderers and poor, with days OF
love and hone to live and no debt to pay
20 a great and insupportabie heritage. Dear
father. you will next hear of me as Eta
Romney, the actress-but never forget that
Evelyn will return TO you II you have need
of her; and that her love for you Is i'm
perishable. Willingly would she take your
burdens upon her own shoulders, and give
you those years OF rest and peace which
are your hearts desire. But, for the time
being she must live alone for the sake of
the man who has befriended her and to
whom she has given her love.
Dearest Father.
Your loving EVELYN always.
From which II Is clear that the month OF
November found Gavin Ord still In Rou-
mania and Count Odn again In Derbyshire
The latter had returned from Bucharest
early In the month Of September, and, dis
r1issng his friends, the gypsies, had settled
down al Melbourne Hall as one who at
no distant date. would be It's master. That
the earl acquiesced In this assurance con-
WINGED Evelyn finally that she did not pos
sess the whole Of her fathers story. Either
he was coward (and this she would never
believe J, or some mystery of her own past
or his abetted the counts pretensions. No
other explanation Of the matter was pos
sible: nor could she foresee a day which
would rid her OF the presence OF a man
80 ~ k,rt h.ar
mothers country had bequeathed to her
and its penalties.
She had always feared Count Odln, and
che feared him now when the true meaning
OF a mans love had been made known to
her and her daily prayer was for Gavin =
safety. Not that she doubted herself or
the truth OF her love, but that she feared
that something In her blood which might
for all time her faith I'm her own woman
hood and her spoken word that she would
be Gavin's wife upon his return. So great
ly did this fear haunt her that the days OF
waiting became almost insupportable. She
would rise with the sun each morning and
say to-day his letter will come" The
nights found her brooding and restless and
fighting ever against the insidious advances
OF a man who made love to her with a
southern tongue-and when he was repulsed
had no shame 10 threaten her
Your English friend was a fool to go
20 the mountains" he would say; I'VE can
not protect him there-my government is
helpless. The prison In which my father
Hes, sent there by the man who should
have been his friend. will not open to an
Englishmans knock. II could have helped
your friend. l would have done so because
he was your friend. You say that he loves
you. | Will believe Il when the sun shines
in England. My dear lady. your heart is
in the south with the vine and the pome-
granates. All your life has not made an
Engiishwoman OF you. You are like a
flower that cries for the sun all day and
MlfnRra because there is I Will
take you TO land of roses and set your
feet upon golden sands. We will visit the
east together-the color, the life. the music
OF u. shall enthrall US. There they will
teach you how TO love. In England your
hearts are iee-bGt you have not an English
heart"
Day by day these vehement protests
would be made day by day he whispered
them In her ear. following her at home
and abroad. In the galleries OF Melbourne
Hall. and to the glades and the thickets
OF the park. And her father abetted him.
rot openly by word. but silently by impo-
tent consent he scquiesced In her persecn-
tion. protesting that Georges odin's son
had claim OF hospitality upon him. and
that he could not shut the gates OF the
house In his face. In plain truth. Robert
FORESTER sinned not OF his will but of de-
stair. He did not dare TO tell Evelyn thai,
by the English law. Dora d'Istran might
not be recognized his wife at ALL and
that she. his daughter. had therefore but
dubious claim TO that dignity which the
accidents OF fortune had thrust upon him.
III loved her understood every within of
that strange. romantic mind. and believed.
T. may be that the young count would not
be an unworthy husband for her. Bot the
fear that she would charge him with the
shame prevailed above other thoughts lie
would not that she should pay he price
for the follies and the aSnours OF his youth.
And what OF Evelyn herself. meanwniieg
She was as one to whom the heaven of l.fe
has been suddenly revealed after long years
of darkness and doubt. II she understood
the meaning OF womanhood that Of pi9R-
hood was not hidden from her In Gavin
Ord she had. for the first time. me: aud
known intimately an Englishman: under
stood the nobility OF man, the resolution,