Smyrna times., 1907-01-09
BY Sarah Mcconnell

IL.
capricious, inconstant, vain; she was
self willed and full of wiles; she was
oh, she was Alexandra Lee. He would
not think of her.
A great deal that had happened that
night was blurred to him. But the
bang of the carriage door as they
started home reverberated in his mind
like the crack of doom. 1t had slipped
from his hand and swung to with q
crash. Alexandra's laugh mocked him.
with any one else, George, I'd have
said the door slammed"
He remembered how she looked as
he turned, something strange in her
eyes that matched, in impression, the
misty multitudinous rulings and bill
lowings of her gown-that frivolous.
huttering, elusive green tulle he had
watched all evening as she danced
with every other man in the room
with Herbert Hartley, a dawdling,
dangling derelict a signpost to every
path but that of rectitude-of all men
In the world, Herbert Hartley!
From her carriage corner Alexandra
sighed. 1--we had such a good time.
and now suppose there's the piper to
pay"
IF you mean there is Hartley to set
tie for
Herbert? You've a tone that hints
at thirdly and fourthly, brethren and
poor Herbert! He's so much more of
q song than a sermon"
That began it, He had never meant
to quarrel, only to dea' with her in
firm, prompt fashion, as a man should.
Firm, prompt he had been, with GER
tain ability of exposition that served
him well in courts of law, but with
Alexandra
She bent down as he ended. "Are
you there, Alexandria" she asked of
the floor. Poor dear, there is nothing
left to pick up. Oh, I'm tired, tired!
I'm stifed. 1 can't breathe There,
take it backr' And she tossed the
ring across to him. "Now one can
draw a free breath"
"Alexandrar' he begged.
But he had cut, and she meant he
should pay. And hers was a pretty
gift of table turning.
He held his anger down. No more
doors should slam by chance about
him, and it was only as they neared
the house that he interrupted:
''We haven't gained anything this
way. Discuss me again. The point is
Herbert Hartley"
Then 1 must put on my bonds
again? Where is the ringP
But he hadn't the ring.
You had it last"
81 laid it in your lap"
But 1t was not in her lap nor the
seat nor the carriage. Alexandra
laughed. "Oh, thrifty George, are you
| sure you've not taken it back for safe
keeping?'
| He stood a long moment at her door.
"And Hartley?" he said.
| Insistence was match to her powder.
"How can l answer unress we're en-.
| gagged? And people can't be engaged
| without rings, can they, George? You
seem to think with mine on that |
fail to remember. Bring it back to me
| and-good nightp'
After a week of wrath mingled with
pain he got himself under control and
| wrote her. But the answer came back
the same absurd, maddening, almost
insulting reiteration-the ring, always
the ring. A perversity first or a pre-
text, did she use it now as a weapon
| rTo hadn't fba ,.;no oh l-uaxu
Life was turmoil once Alexandra en-
tered, and he remembered with what
perverse astuteness she had said her
self: "Im like a mustard plaster on
your mind You'd better take me of
before / raise a blister"
But she was in every wind that blew
and without her nothing was wortf
while that once had been.
So for fortnight he had gone abou
his accustomed ways, and, though
many a fiutter of familiar skirts hat
set his heart a-jump, yet he never hat
met Alexa since that night. Then ;
case of some Importance took him ou
of town with such sharp demand upol
all his faculties that he had known
sort of respite.
But back in the town his work wa
all to do again. He went his wa.
down to his office; he bowed to peo
pie who drove past with swift hop
that Alexa would not be with them
And then unexpectedly with groul
near the Hurds--there was Alexal
Yes, 1t was Alexandra and Evelyl
Hurd, and with them Herbert Hartley
The group stood until he had almos
reached them, when Hartley turned
and Evelyn went back to the house
while Alexa stopped by the Hurds
waiting carriage.
He knew she had seen him long bt
, fore, butt was one of her insinceritie
he most disliked-she acted out acut
surprise. He put sitter guard upo
himself.
A sitter guard she called it b
= another name. She hated him whe
he was like that. How futile be mad
- faaI how trivial how yainf Wei