Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-01-17

Ing ne my cOnpe!
 "Yes, thank you" nodded Miss Lan, dis coolly. You may go now" You're spoiled. that's what's the matter" retorted Ferrall wrathfully T thought I was to have this dance You said"-
 "I said perhaps because didn't see MT. Plank coming to claim it. Thank you, Kemp, for finding him."
 Her nod and smile took the edge from her malice. Ferrall who really adored dancing, glared about for any. body to dance with.
 Sylvia, standing beside Plank, look ed up at him with her confident and friendly smile.
 You don't care to dance, do you? Would you mind if we sat out this dance?'
 ''If you'd rather" he said, so wist- fully that she hesitated then with a little shrug lnid one hand on his arm, and they swung out across the floor together into the scented whirl.
 Plank, like many heavy men. danc- ed beautifully, and Sylvia. who still loved dancing with all the ardor of a schoolgirl, permitted moment or two of keen delight to sweep her dreamily from her purpose. But that purpose must have been strong one, for she returned to it in few minutes and, looking up at Plank, said very gently that she cared to dance no more.
 Her hand resting lightly on his arm, 1t did not seem possible that any pres sure of hers was directing them to the conservatory, yet he did not know where he was going, and she was fla millar with the house, and they soon entered the conservatory, where, In the 1 shadow of various palms, various youths looked up impatiently as they passed and various maidens sat up very straight in their chairs.
 Threading their dim way into the farther recesses, they found seats among thickets of forced lilacs over hung by early wistaria. A spring like odor hung in the air. Somewhere a tiny fountain grew musical in the semidarkness.
 "Marion told me you had been ask ed," she said. "We have been so friendly. You've always. asked me to sance whenever We have met, so thought I'd save you one. Are you fiattered, Mir. Plank?'
 He said he was. very pleasantly, per fectly undeceived and convinced of her purpose-a purpose never even tacitly admitted between them, and the old resentment, for he was willing that she should use him. Why not? Others used him, everybody used him. and if they found no use for him they let him alone. Mortimer, Fleetwood, Bel wether-all, all had something to ex- act from him. It was for that he was tolerated. He knew it. He had slow ly and unwillingly learned it. His in trusion among these people, of whom he was not one, would be endured on- ly while he might be turned to some account. The hospital used him, the clergy found plenty for him to do for them, the museum had room for other pictures of his. Who among them all had ever sought him without mo- tive? Who among them all had ever found unsellsh pleasure In him? Not one.
 He wished she would come to her ! At,,t but h.. knp fn tf too brusquely, because her purpose and her point were supposed to be abso- lutely hidden from his thick and cred ulous understanding. It had taken him some time to make this clear to himself. Passing from suspicion through chagrin and overwounded feel ing to dull certainty that she. too. was using him, harmlessly enough from her standpoint. but how bitterly from his, he alone could know.
 The fiutter of her fan meant impa- tience to learn from him what she had come to him to learn and then. satis- fed, to leave him alone again amid the peopled solitude of clustered lights.
 
 was tired of the sadness of it all | Whenever in his isolation. in his utter destitution of friendship, he turned i guilelessly to meet new advance, al- ways. sooner or later. the friendly mask was lifted enough for him to divine the cool, fixed gaze of self fin. terest inspecting him through the ! damask slits
 Sylvia was speaking now, and the plumy fan was under savant control. waving graceful accompaniment to her soft voice, punctuatlng her sentences at times. at times making an emphasis or outlining q gesture.
 , It was the familiar sequence-topics | that led to themes which adroitly skirt ed the salient point: returned capri ciously, just avoiding it-a subtly charming pattern Of words which re- quired so little in reply that his smile and nod were almost enough to keep her aria and his accompaniment afioat.
 It began to fascinate him to watch the delicacy of her strategy, the CO., quetting with her purpose: her naive advance to the very edges of it. the airy retreat. the innocent detour. the elaborate and eircultous return And at last she drifted into 1t so naturally that it seemed impossible that fatuous man could have the most primitive sus- plcion of her reconciliation.
 And Plank. now recognizing his cue, answered her. No. have not heard that he is in town. stopped to see him the other day. but nobody there knew how soon he intended to return from the country"
 "I didn't know he had gone to the