Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-26
CHAPTER XXI.
The Meeting.


Hardy was in a carriage hurrying to the
address given
He doubted If this could be the girl ne
wanted. She lived, certainly, under an
other name. And how came Ada nurse
maid, to be fiourishing In such a style
Morbidly anxious as he was to have her
safe and sure in his own keeping, 1t hardy
occurred to him that this very opulence
accounted for the reticences and hesitations
of her brother with regard to her.
But in twenty minutes he was sure On
a third floor servant led him into SNUG
drawing room, and there, on the wall, ne
saw an oval colored photograph; and he
recognized the slim bust, and the little
Chinese eyes, and the .piquant Geisha-giri
face warm yellow in tint.
At the door the servant, narrow
browed, mean-looking creature, had told
him that Miss Seward was away: and as ne
wished to speak further, she had asked
him within.
Where. then, was Miss Seward?
She had gone away
When?
-Four hours before.
Where to?
To Dover.
Was that certain?
Quite certain.
But whatever had she gone to Dover for?
That the servant could not say, or would
not say.
But was Miss Seward coming back soon?
The servant did not think SO Miss Sew
ard had left her sufficient money TO keep
her for some time.
Did the servant know much of Miss Sew
ards private affairs?
She knew something. She and Miss Sew
ard were very good friends, indeed, MISS
Seward sometimes spoke of things to her
But of course, she did not know every
thing.
What did everything" mean?
1t meant nothing.
Then Hardy began to WOO, to impIore;
then TO speak of big matters: to say that
all this was important to more than he
could name But the girl smirked and did
not follow that fight. The last thing that
occurred to him a bride; only In the
final moment of his despair did the thought
flash through his mind He limited at haz-
ard a hundred pounds, and the promptneSs
of the response surprised him.
1t large sum for poor girl
Yes: and all he wanted to know was why
Miss Seward had gene to Dover.
She had gone in order to go over to
France to the little Chinaman who was i'll
love with her
And now it was the turn of the servant
to be surprised-at the swift energy with
which Hardy vanished from her eyeSight.
He bore on his breast the initials of this
girl, Seward: she his, his very own.
But he was in this dilemma: That things
far more momentous on their surface de-
manded his personal presence where he was.
1t needed all the acumen of his shrewd eye
to determine which the main fact which
must influence his conduct.
He drove to the nearest post office and
teegraphed to the manager of the London,
Chatham and Dover railway.
There was at this moment not hope left
to Britain. The admiralty had chains of
steamers. intercommunicating with each
other, and with the southeast coast whose
task was to watch and to report. And the
nation now knew that on the morrow of this
final looking. sunless Wednesday was due
the horror of ultimate overthrow-the going
beneath the wave of the last emerging rock
of the old world.
Nor had the general mass of the nation
the faintest suspicion Of any power in
the earth which could save, or even momen-
tarily help it.
If heavenly host should appear in mid
sky, wrapped in flames of vengeance, then,
perhaps, that surge might be stemmed. But
though the people were now far from
doubling the interest of the gods their rea-
sons were the offspring of too advanced
period of time to await any such manifes-
tation.
number of floating things of every kind
were massed upon the extreme northwest
coast of France: and that in their passage
over to England they would have one of the
finest war fleets the world had ever seen
to protect them-against nothingi
And now-in this hour of world tragedy
the British people offered to the eyes that
regard a good spectacle. The panic was
gone. In such a place as the city of Lon
don there was. of course, no business done:
but everywhere else there was business
done. Shops were open; post offices were
open; the printing press throbbed If a man
met man in the street one pallid lip spoke
to the other pallid consciousness of the dark
weather of a business matter, of a family
affair-of everything except the Chinese
The subject of the Chinese in these last
days was rather looked upon being in bad
taste. The lower classes spoke Of them
but in general. with splenddly curved up
With sublime stofcism, with a regal dis
dain. Britain waited for her overthrow
Nearly every one made a point Of going
about his ordinary work
In the last resort the lip remains 1t IL
the final retort of a noble man, of a grand
naton, 70 destiny; The mind and spirit re-
What could Britain do now? She could
smile.
And by this her pallid smile in that hour
she proved, in truth her divine right to the
empire of the earth.
Besides smiling, every man, and most
boys, managed to provide themselves with
some sort OF weapon, sharp or blunt, dull
or cleaning. which they laid quietly by.
gentleman in Gray's Inn had for a
week been training a fine specimen of the
British bulldog to fly at Mongolian effigy
In reality, the arm of England was as
strong as her soul; but she knew the
strength of her soul, and did not suspect
the strength of her arm.
Her arm was John Hardy.
AT least he was the main muscle of it,
He was as much the west as Yen How was
the east.
But what is this shadow that dogs his
steps?-something absurd, grotesque yet
terrible?
At he had sent the telegram to the rail-
way company. At he drove once more
from Cavendish square, leaving host of
orders with an almost permanent commit
tee of naval men who now attended upon
him And he had sooner driven away
than a man in wide sombrero was asking
at his door If he at home
In this man Edrapol there was not now
II there had ever been, atom of venom
against Hardy. He was merely the absurd
slave of punctilio. In the view of that
frivolous old brain nothing in the world
could compare in Importance with the I'm
portance of an affaire dhonneur, a delicate
poiat, shade of usage. The thing first
of all that a. gentleman must do--in every
case-whatever happened-was to settle "a
delicate point.
Also, he knew the greatness of Hardy.
And his vanity prone, the moment he
found himself In safety on English soil, to
measure swords with him
He knew too, that soon the Chinese must
be here also, and then what could
be done? VOLTA affaire manquee.
Nothing could be more annoying to a gen.
tleman than an affaire manauee.
IT WAS clear that whatever he did rniist