Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03

23d street. Now at least he would have q
good view of her companion, the man who
so insolently appropriated his wife in broad
daylight. But three stout women, crowding
past him at the critical moment, blocked
his view as the cab swung in once more
ahead of the car. He had caught only
another fugitive glimpse of the green MORE,
the CLINT of copper below the green ostrich
plume and still more vaguely q smooth
shaven, black-haired, youngish man beside
her. Impotently he cursed his weak near
sighted eyes, that left him In doubt who
the scoundrel was who braZenly rode there
beside Nora for all Broadway to see. Was
1t some one whom he knew? Some one
who had clasped his hand, partaken of his
salt, enjoyed his hospitality a score of
times? Among the men who came habitual-
ly to her evenings at home, or freely drop
ped in for dinner or for tea, there were half
a dozen of medium height, smooth-shaven
and with darkish hair. 1t might be any
one of these. The names seemed to re-
peat themselves trippingly<in his ear. in
rhythm with the hum of the car wheels
Jack Elting, Ted Voorhis, Windon HincKley
-Wndon Hinckley? The image of Mrs.
Faversham's brother persisted in recurring
to his mind, crowding to the front, elbow
ing out of the way the other wagner phan-
toms of his uncertainty. Never before, in
all these months of unspoken jealousy, had
his suspicious focused definitely upon. any
one man. Windon Hinckley! With his fop-
pish dress, his dilettante manner the in
definable stamp of dissipation in his boyish
face and keen, bold eyes. He had never
even tried to like Hinckley. 1t had Jared
upon his sense of fitness to see Nora, with
her innate fineness suffer contact with
nature that he stigmatized as vicious. Yet
this antpathy was SO intangible that he
had never put 1t into words. He had simply
left the house, on more than one fiimsy ex-
cuse, had gone out into the winter night
rather than listen to Windows light, frothy
talk, rather than hear his high-pitched
laugh, that seemed to penetrate the furthest
M
4,oras gray eyes widen mockingly in feign-
ed rebuke of his fiippant audacities. That
was the way he had guarded his home, by
taking his hat and going out into the Win
ter night!
At Union Square the cab turned east once
more Mellish sprang recklessly from his
car without waiting for it to slow up, and
broke into run once more, as though the
devil were squirting him. A hundred flower
vendors with trampled vioiets could not
have stayed him now, under the impulslon
of his new certainty Cutting. diagonaiiy
across the square, he gained somewhat on
the cab, which was fading into the vista
of 18th street when he finally reached the
corner. Luck once more played into his
hands, in the shape of an open trench
where a gas main was being repaired. Inc
cab must wait while dump cart was
backed out of the way Ten doors further
on it drew up in front of a four-story brick
dwelling in whose fallen fortunes could be
read the history of slow transition through
had lately been converted into second
rate bachelor apartment of the sort that
exercised no censorship over the quality
or sex of it's tenants visitors. The vesti-
bule, with the cleaning brass of its speak
ing tubes and letter boxes, was the one
touch of newness in the whole shabby eX-
terror.
Mellish. Keeling dizzily in pursuit, his
forces almost spent, was not hundred
feet away when the hanson stopped. From
the ambush of a grocer's wagon he saw
the couple descend, saw the driver touch
his hat in acknowledgment of his fare, saw
her glance apprehensively up and down
the street. before gathering up the folds
of her green skirt and slipping furtively
through the doorway. AS the man van
ished after her, Mellish awoke to a con-
sciousness that he was about to lose them
The street door had closed again before
he could reach it. In his haste to gain
admission he impetuously pushed every one
of the eight new brass bells in rapid sue
cession. The automatic latch sounded a
responsive staccato. the knob yielded to
his hand, and he sprang into the inner
hail. stumbling over a scrub womans PAIL
standing just within the dim vestibule
From somewhere above him there floated
down through the gloom Of the narrow