The Red Cloud chief., 1907-01-25
lCoNTINUED.l

freedom. would find his obligations a
thousand times more irkSoinc than be
fore: he would struggle for II time,
then
4 shadowy smile had touched Lo.
der's lips a. the idea formed itself.
Then would come the inevitable re-
call: then in earnest he might venture
10 put his hand TO the piow. lie never
INDUCED in day dreams, but something
ia the nature Of u vision had flashed
over his mind in that instant. He had
seen himself standing in that same
building. seen the rows of faces first
bored, then hesitatingly transformed
under his personal domination, under
the II great power he knew himself
to posscss-tlc power of %eloqucnce.
INC strength Of the suggestion had
been almost painful. Men who have
attained self repression are occasion
any open TO a pcriious onrush of feel
ing. Believing that they know them
selves, they walk boldly forward to-
ward the hiShroad and pitfall alike.
These had been Loder's disconnected
~ u" Sl''uidtipiic VII tht bISl uul
Of his new life. At 4 O'Clock on the
ninth day he was pacing with quiet
confidence up and down Chilcote's
study, his mind pleasantly busy and
his cigar comfortably alight, when he
paused in his walk and crowned. inter
ruited ~ the entrance of a servant.
The man came softly into the room,
drew Il small table toward the fire and
proceeded to lay an extremely fine and
u~nserviceable looking cloth.
Lodcr watched him i'm silence. He
had grown TO find silence a very useful
commodity. To wait and let things
develop was the attitude he oftcnest
assumed, but OH this occasion he was
perplexed. He had not rung for tea.
aud In any case Il cup on a salver sat
isfied his wants. lie looked critically
at the fragile cloth.
Presently the servant departed and
solemnly re-entered carrying Il silver
tray. with cups, a teapot and cakes.
Having adjusted them to his satisfac-
ton. he turned to Loder.
Mrs. Chilcote will be with you in
FIVE minutes. sir" he said.
lie waited for some response, but
Loder ave II Again he had found
the advantages of silence, but this time
il was silence of a compulsory kind.
lie had nothing to say.
The man. finding him irresponsible,
retired, and, left to himself. Loder
stared at the array of feminine trifies;
then. turning abruptly, he moved to
the center Of the room.
Since the day they had talked on the
terrace he had seen Eve only thrice
ana always in the presence Of others.
since the night Of his first coming she
had not invaded his Uumntn. si,G he
wondered what this new departure
might mean.
His thought of her had been less
vivid in the last few days. for. though
still using steady discretion. lie had
been drawn gradually nearer he fas-
chatting whirlpool of new interests
and new work. Shut his Eyes as he
might, there was no denying that this
moment, so personally vital to him,
was politically vital to the whole coun
try and that by n curious coincidence
Chilcote's position well nigh forced
him to take IN active interest in the
situation, Again and again the sug-
gestion had arisen that should the
~smoldering fire in Persia break into a
flame ChilcOte's commercial interests
would facilitate would practically
compeAhis standing In IN the cam
paign against the government.
The little incident Of the tea table,
recalling the social side of his obllga-
tons, had aroused the realization Of
greater things. AS he stood meiltative-
ly In the middle Of the room he saw
suddenly how absorbed he had become
in these greater things-how, in the
swing of congcnial interests, he had
been borne inseusibly forward, his ca
pacities expanding, his intelligence as
sorting itself. He had 80 undeniably
found his sphere that the idea of usur-
patton had receded gently as by natu-
raj laws until his own personality had
Begun to color the days work.
AS this knowledge came he wondered
quickly If it held a solution of the
present little comedy; if Eve had seen
what others, he knew, had Observed
that Chilcote was showing a grasp of
things that he had not exhibited for
years. Then, as a sound of skirts came
softly down the corridor, he squared
his shoulders with his habitual abrupt
gesture and threw his cigar into the
fire..
Eve entered the room much as she
had done on her former. visit. but with