The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-15

certain point, but a certain point tsn [ good enough nowadays. And man wants money to get on. Pm sure 1t s easy enough to make q fortune if you have a decent share of brains and a bigger one of capital I want to make money and yet the East End has taught me to hate money. If MT. Gessner can convince me that 1 have any claim upon his patronage, I shall go right into something and see if l cannot come out on top. You, I suppose, don't think much of the dirty professions. You'd q like your brother to be a soldier. wouldn't you-or if not that, in the navy. Half the fellows at Westminster wanted to go into the army, just as | though killing other people were the chief business in life. Of course, 1 wouldn't run it down-but what l mean to say is, that I'never cared at all about 1t myself and so I'm not quite the best judge
 His little confession ended somewhat abruptly, for he observed that his words | appeared to distress Anna Gessner beyond all reason. For many minutes she re- mained quite silent When she spoke her | eyes were turned away and her confusion not altogether to be concealed.
 I'm afraid you take your ideas of us | from the cheap story folks, she said in a low voice; women. nowadays, have ' l1elT OWH dllDlllDnS dilA Atilh ASS2 oA | mems. My dearest friend is a soldier, i but I'm sure he would be 8 very foolish one If war broke out. They say he worked | terribly hard in South Africa, but l don think he ever killed any one. So you see 1 shouldn't ask you to go into the army | and I'm sure my father would not wish i it either"
 Tt would do no good If he did," said | Alban as bluntly. T should only make a | fopl of myself YOur friends must have told you that you want a pretty good all | loWance to do upon-and fancy begging ] from your people when you were H. l Why, in the East End many a lad of l9 keeps a whole family and doesn't think himself ill-used. Isn't 1t rot that there should be so much inequality in life, Miss ] Gessner? l don't suggose, though, that one would think so if one had money"
 She smiled at his question, but diverted 1 the subject cleverly.
 Are you very sef-willed, MT Ken nedy?'
 Do you mean that I get what I want or try tor"
 T mean that you have your own way l in everything. If you were in love you would carry the poor thing off by force"
 "If I were in loves and guessed that she was, l should certainly be outside to time. That's East Side, you know, 1 for punctuality,"
 You would marry in haste and repent at leisure"
 Ut would be yes or no, and that would be the end of it. Girls like a man who compels them-they like to obey, at least when they are young. I don't belieyeSany | girl ever loved a coward yet. Do you | think so yourself2"
 She astonishel him by rising suddenly and breaking off the conversation as abruptly.
 God help me, l don't know what l 1 think" she said; and then. with half a laugh to cover 1t, Here is MT. Geary come back to take care of you. l will say 1 goodnight. We shall meet at breakfast and talk Of all this again-if you get up in time"
 He made no answer and she disappeared l with just a flash of her ample skirts into the boudoir and so to the hall be- | yond The curate appeared a minute i later, full of apologies and of the Dorcas meeting he had so lately illuminated with his intellectual presence. A mild cigarette and q glass of mineral water found him | quite ready for bed.
 There will be so much to speak of to- morrow. my dear boy,' he said in that lofty tone which attended his patronage there Is so much for you to be thank | ful for today. Let us go and dream of 1t all. The reality must be greater than anything we can imagine"
 I'll tell you in a weeks time,' said Alban, dryly.
 A change had come upon him already for Anna Gessner had betrayed her secret. and he knew that she had lover
 CHAPTER x. Richard Gessner Debates an Issue
 Richard Gesner returned to Five Gables as the clock of Hampstead Parish church was striking one A yawning footman met him in the hall and asked him if he wished for anything. To the mans astonishment, he was ordered to carry brandy and Vichy water to the | bedroom mmedlately.
 ! ITO your room, sir7'
 ITO my room-are you deaf7''
 T Beg your pardon, sir. Miss Gessner has returned"
 My daughter-when? ?'
 After dinner, sir"
 | Was there any one with herr"
 T didn't rightly see, sir. Fellows opened the door-he could tell you, sir -
 Gessner cast a searching glance upon the mans face and then mounted the great staircase with laborious steps. Pass l ing the door of the room in which Alban slept, he listened intently for a moment as though half of a mind to enter; but abandoning the intention, went on to his l apartment and there, when the footman l had attended to his requirements. he locked the door and helped himself lber- ally to the brandy. An observer would have remarked that drops of sweat stood | upon his brow and that his hand was | shaking.
 He had dined with a city company; but had dined as man who knew little of the dinner or of those who ate it. | Ten days ago his energy, his buoyant | spirits, and his amazing vitality had as- | tonished even his best friends. Tonight | these qualities were at their lowest ebb- | and he had been so silent, so self-con- centrated, SO obviously distressed, that | even a casual acquaintance had remarked the change. To say that a just Nemesis had overtalIen him would be less than the truth. He knew that he stood accused, not by man, but by q nation. And to a nation he must answer
 He locked the door of his room and. drawing a chair to little Buhl writing table, set in the window, he opened a drawer and took therefrom a little bun dle of papers, upon which he had spent nine sleepless nights and, apparently, | would spend still another They were Todd scraps-now of letters, now of legal documents-the precls of a past which | could be recited in no court of justice, but might well be told aloud to an up< sympathetic world, Had an historian been called upon to deal with such doc uments, he would have made nothing whatever of them-but Richard Gessner could rewrite the story in every line, could garnish it with passions awakened. fears unnamable, regrets that could not save. despair that would suffer no con- solations.
 He had stolen Paul Boriskoff's secret l him nd had fn,