Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-03-07
Again he thought of Chilcote, but his

face paled.
II saw it all. 1 lived with it all till
[ grew hard and indifferent-till / ac-
guessed in your nerves as readily as
the rest Of the world that hadn't sus-
pected and didn't know" Again she
laughed nervously. "And l thought the
Indifference would last forever. If one
lives in a groove for years, Il gets
frozen up. 1 never felt more frozen
than on the night Mr.. Fraide spoke to
me Of you-asked me to use my infu-
ence; then, on that night
eyes. On that night?" Loder's voice
was tense.
But her excitement had suddenly fall
en-. Whether his glance had quelled it
or whether the force of her feelings
had worked itself out it was impossi-
Bile to say, but her eyes had lost their
resolution. She stood hesitating for a
moment, then she turned and moved
to the mantelpiece.
THAT night you found ME changedY"
Loder was inSistent.
"Changed-and yet not changed"
She spoke reluctantly. with averted
head.
"And what did you think"
Again she was silent. Then again a
faint excitement tinged her cheeks.
II thought she began. ut seem
ed"- Once more she paused, hamper
ed by her own uncertainty, her W
sense of puzzling incongruity. Il don't
know why l speak like this" she went
on at last, as if in justification of her
self, "or why l want to speak. But a
feeling-an extraordinary, incompre-
hensible feeling seems to urge me on.
The same feeling that came to me on
the day we had tea together-the feel
ing that made me-that almost made
me believe
believe what?" The words escaped
him without volition.
At sound of his voice she turned.
believe that q miracle happened" she
said; that you had found strength,
had freed yourself"
"From morphia?"
"From morphia."
In the silence that followed Loder
lived through a century Of suggestion
and indecision. His first feeling was
for himself, but his first clear thought
was for Chilcote and their compact.
he stood, metaphorically, on a stone
in the middle Of a stream, balancing
on one foot, then on the other; looking
to the right bank, then to the left. At
last, as it always did, inspiration came
to him slowly. He realized that by
n plunge he might save both Chill
cote and himself.
He crossed quickly to the fireplace
and stood by Eve. you were right
in your belief" he said. For all that
time, from the night you spoke to me
of Fraide to the day you had tea in
this room, l never touched a drug"
She moved suddenly, and he saw her
face. John" she said unsteadily, you
IL have known you to lie to me
about other things"
With a hasty movement he ayerted
his head. The doubt, the appeal in her
words, shocked him. The whole isola-
ton Of her life seemed summed up in
the one short sentence. For the instant
he forgot Chilcote. With a reaction of
feeling he turned to her again.
"Look at me!' he said brusquely.
She raised her eyes.
do you believe I'm speaking the
truth?'
She searched his eyes %intently, the
doubt and hesitancy still struggling in
her face.
But the last three weeks?' she said
reluctantly. How can you ask me to
believer
He had expected this and he met it
steadily enough. Nevertheless his
courage faltered. To deceive this
woman, even to justify himself, had in
sacrilegious.
"The last three weeks must be
Buried" he said hurriedly. mo man
could free himself suddenly from-from
a vice" He broke off abruptly. He
hated Chilcote; he hated himself.
Then Ewes face, raised in distressed
appeal, oyershadowed all scruples.
"You have been silent and patient for
years." he said suddenly. Can you
be patient and silent a little longerT'
He spoke without consideration. He
was conscious of no s~elishness be-
meath his words. In the first exercise
of conscious strength the primitive de-
sire to reduce all elements to his own
sovereignty submerged every other
emotion. 3" can't enter into the
thing" he said; "like you, l give no
explanations. l can only tell you that
on the day we talked together in this
room l was myself-in the full pos
session Of my reason, the full knowl-
edge of my own capacities. The man
you have known in the last three
weeks, the man you have imagined in
the last four years, is a shadow. an
unreality-a weakness in human form.
There is a new Chilcote-if you will
only see him."
Eve was trembling as he ceased: her
fG,e was flushed; there was a strange
brightness in her eyes. She was NOV
ed beyond herself.
"Rut tbe other yolf-the old vouY"