Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-01

I'VE were talking about Olive Nett1eton---" she
began but Mrs Baxter raised warning, slender fore
finger.
mo scandal until King gets out" she objected He
has not yet learned that feminine gossip is pre-
cisely the same as his masculine sense of humor-
both treat of the other persons msfortunes Only
take seriously what men treat as a Joke"
Outside on the wide stone veranda Caroline
standing with her slender arms behind her, erect
poised outwardy cold and selfconained If the ques
tion in her eyes almost appeal, as she stood
there aloneif there tragedy in the of her
mouth there was instant relaxation when she heard
Kings step behind her
"The mater sent out some tea,' he said, "and she
says you look tired and to be sure to drink it.
If you don't about it. pour it the rail.
Shall trouble you If l stay here?"
'You are a friendly light chasing away shadows"
she said slowly Kingsley stood by made absorbedly
seconscious by the unexpected reference to what
always in his mind. The girl slipped her tea slowly,
looking down the straight path with its Haunting bor
ders to where the pergola, wreathed with trumpet vine
and creeper, framed the valley below.
Dear hollyhocks and four oclocks" she rhymed,
land the lady slippers and larkspur and salviaeach
one as prim and spruce and bright as a little New
she said whmscay. 81 am an anachronism. l
not Californian, King; not truly bred-n-thebone
one at all. belong here in the East, am
have the Puritan conscience"
Then like the Puritan conscience" he said,
smiling at her.
Some ones voice raised in the music room.
-Four years missing my dear" the voice said, "and
Olive Nettleton wandering the continent, looking
into peoples faces the street. everywhere; Rome,
St Petersburg, Cairo! Oh 1T was creepyl"
"we, 1T is olives affair" Mrs osborne's comforta-
BILE voice put in and they to be beginning things
all over again But suppose she had married again!
"olive had the Puritan conscience" came Leila
Dixons thin clear voice "She would never have mar
ried again. unless she had known he was dead"
Caroline had been listening. her head slightly bent
Now she looked up suddenly at the man beside her.
"I wonder If you understand, Kng?" she said Its
psychology suppose; the problem of small SOUL at
that Butt am like that-woman they are speaking
Of"
Kingsley took the cup and saucer from her and put
it carefully on the rail- Then he sat down somewhat
awkwardly beside her.
'I'm glad you've given me chance to speak," he
said "Im not very agile mentally, and can't fence
with shadows But think know how you feel. It's
the not knowing how or why-it's sort Of wound to
your pride that won't heal. Don't tell you still
love him. I don't believe 1t. don't want to be
brutal but people don't love the dead they remember
them-you know that, Caroine-and everything l
know of that awful time points to the thing"
"That he is dead!" she breathed. "But want TO
know; I'm like my old nurse at home, when her boy
was drowned She didn't cry she just stood by the
river bank waited day and night until they found
him. And then she CRIED and they knew her mind
was saved"
King leaned and took of her cold hands
between his warm, brown ones.
"You said little while ago that drove away the
shadows" he said earnestly Caroline, can't face
this thing together? love you-God knows. don't
want TO divide you with any one not even memory:
but it's come to the point where I'm almost ready
throw myself on your pity. Caroline, let me drive
the shadows away, always"
The girl dropped her chin into her two palms and
stared frowningly ahead.
''You are like him." she said at last "and he loved
rue too Oh yes, whatever people may think nothing
can take that away from He loved me- King; and
what if he should back and find that have not
been faithful? In there"-she nodded toward the
house-''they have been talking of some woman who
haunted the continent looking into the faces of the
people she met. sit here and look out the hills
and say, Which way? Which way?'"
The young man had folded his arms, and leaning
back. he too gazed over the hills. He was bafned
discouraged, but not beaten. "If you about him.
Caroline" he said after silence, "he was not
scoundrel I accept that accept the ghost that
stands between Bnt suppose can lay the ghost?
Would there be chance for me?'
Gould you save my fath?" she asked sharply. turn
ing to him
II will try" he pledged solemnly.
Mrs Baxter came languidly to the window and held
the curtain aside with a sweeping gesture
Dear me. how intense you look" she Knocked.