Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-10


hotel the champagne atmosphere of the modern cara
vansary 1t was in public restaurant that he had first
met her. hve years agoa dinner Sherrys where he
had first listened to those utinous red lips first been
dazzled by the coppery CLINT of her hair first looked
into those wide gray eyes and answered their appeal
for Hattery She little than child in years
he had realized that at the me-just a tall, slim
thing, with face that robbed him of his sleep He
could smile now grimy, remembering how he had
fought against the pquant spell of her precocity her
nascent grace of womanhood 1t not normal he
had told himself for young girl in the butterfly days
of life to care seriously for shy, reserved man like
himself already vergng upon forty and settling down
to said bachelor habits. But Morals family had smiled
approval upon the junior member of the established
house of Marvin & Mellsh and clevery manoeuvred to
make his courtship easy. He had not been blind to
their diplomacy. He had simply allowed himself to
be oajoled deluded hypnotized into the belief that
through some modern miracle, some special dspensa-
tion, Nora really loved him Even now, after five
years, there were heetng hours halcyon days. when
such belief ceased to seem absurd Yet almost from
the hrst the discrepancy in age had ranked in him,
begettng vague suspicious, morbid doubts, symptoms of
which he was slow to guess the meaning. Then, one
day he realized with wave of sef-contempt that he
eaous-he, Meish, in his sober middle age jeal-
GUS of calow youths with the bloom of Undergraduate
conce fresh upon tem the jargon of football in their
speech; jealous of every compliment murmured in her
ear; jealous of strangers Aaering glance That
was the burden that he carried secretly, the incubus
of an underlined unjustfied jealousy. At times
dehnte' images, ugly thoughts with ugly names had
threatened to crystalline But he had quite put
them into words, even beneath his breath, never
rowed down his fears to specific accusation Above
ALL he had sought to hide his burden from Nora her
self, as hides physical deformity.
Before the solid, unpretentous building the cor
landmark of fashion and convivaty to earlier
generation, Meish paused uncertainty, peerng blind
ishly, with near-sighted eyes, wondering whether
where behind that broad expanse of spotless window
Nora was still there; wondering indeed, If she had
been there at all
The warm, bright summer afternoon was passing,
and still Mellish fingered staring Intellectually at the
doorway, through which he had already ceased to
pect her to appear Suddenly. bevy of women came
out together, two four yes, six of them. He could
not see their faces from across the street Mrs Faver
sham might be there she might not; but the lizard
green more unmistakable, his poor eyes
showed that He made reckless plunge i'll front of
delivery wagon, and narrowly Stunned automobile,
because his thoughts, like his gaze fastened
that group of women across the way half hidden be-
hind hanson cab Nora had told the truth after ALL
he thought, with gladness that almost pain But
the automobile moved out of his path, he her,
to his amazement, step into the waiting hanson.
man sprang in after her, slender man. of medium
height whose face he could not see The other women
had dispersed melted, vanished in thin ar-it scarcely
naered where, they not after all, Mrs Faver
shams luncheon party He arrived beside the cab;
ne caught sidewse glimpse of the coppery hair, the
soft watery simmer of the green moire; one more
step, and he could have reached out his hand and
touched her The driver swung his long flexible
lash, that snapped like sptsful cracker within
inch of Mellish's The horse, yellow roan with
gaunt ungainy legs started nervousy, scrabling for
foothold the slippery asphalt then lurched sud-
denly forward and swept the woman and her COM
panon from his asounded gaze around the corner and
down Fifth Avenue
At any other time had the question been laid i'm
partially before him. Mr. Mellish would have held that
a who tried to follow on foot rapidly retreang
hanson cab through the crowded maze of New York
Streets during the busy rush of Saturday afternoon
in serious condition. bordering upon lunacy. In
the present crisis he did not pause to consider, but
simply gathered himself together and sprinted nmbly
down the avenue, forgetting for to be sef-con
scious his long thin legs flashing like the long thin
spokes of rapidly turning wheel his glasses threaten
ing slip from the bridge of his long thin nose; his
nearsighted eyes straning hepessy after the yellow
roan that fitted like thing of evil in and out through
the endless stream of landaus motor cars, omnbuses
and business wagons At Twenty-hfth Street the
mounted police stationed there to regulate traffic
waved the south-bound stream of vehicles westward
towards Broadway through the tag end of city block
that forms the base of the Worth Monument triangle.
AS they swung in single file first right then left again,
Mellshs first lucid thought to spring into one
Of the many vacant hansoms that waited along the
curb and bid him follow the yellow roam which this
time threatened seriously to elude him. He waved to
one spasmodically with his long Then as it
promptly responded he waved it again He
realized suddenly that he could not bring himself to
take a stranger, even an unknown cab driver so far
into his confidence as to bid him follow that other
hanson, No. he could not expose his Jealousy to
cab driver already he pictured the ironica curiosity
in the fellows eyes Instead he swung himself to
Broadway open car, that for two blocks shot south
ward with such speed that he gained rapid
y the fuPitives. when at Twentythrd Street he
suddenly lost sight of them altogether He from
the seat he had Just taken in bewildermen of help
less indecision But the had started more
before he could decide to get Off and the next minute