Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-01-20

ed Quarter for her! thought she'd
played him to the gaff-
please don't be coarse, Kemp" said
Mrs. Ferrall, sending her horse for
ward. Her husband spurred to her
side, and without turning her head she
continued: "Of course Sylvia won't be
foolish. If they were only safely mar
ried. But Howard is such plll''-
what does Sylvia expect with How
ards millions-a manT
Grace Ferrall drew bride. 1.-THE Gu
rious thing u, Kemp, that she liked
him"
Likes him7"
mo, liked him. I saw how 1t was.
She took his silences for intellectual
meditation. his gallery, his library, his
smatterings for expressions of a cult
waited personality. Then she remem-
bered how close she came to running
of with that cashiered Englishman,
and that scared her into clutching the
substantial In the shape Of Howard.
Still, wish I hadn't meddled."
"Meddled how?"
"Oh, / told her to do It! We had
talks until daylight. She may marry
him-I don't know-but II you think
any live woman could be contented
with nun like THAR
That's immoral"
Kemp, I'm not. She'd be mad not
to marry him, but don't know what
I'd do to a man like that If were his
wife. And you know what terrific
capacity for mischief there Is In Syl-
via. Some day she's going to love
somebody. And It isn't likely to be
Howard. And. oh, Kemp. l do grow
80 tired Of that sort Of thing! Do you
suppose anybody will ever make de-
cency a fashion,"
"Xou're doing your best" said Fer
rail-, laughingsat his wife's pretty boy
fish face turned back toward him ovei
her shoulder. You're presenting your
cousin and his millions to q girl who
can dress the part
Don't, Kemp! don't know why !
meddled. I wish hadn't
81 do. You can't let Howard alone.
You're perfectly possessed to plague
him when he's with you. and now
you've arranged for another woman to
keep 1t up for the rest of his lifetime.
What does Sylvia want with a man
who possesses the instincts and intel
lect Of a coachman? She is asked ev-
erywhere. She has her own money
Why not let her alone? Or Is 1t too
late?"
"You mean let her make fool OF
herself with Stephen Siward? That Is
where she is drifting"
"'Do you think
Eyes, do She has nerfect genius
for selecting the wrong man, and shes
already sorry for this one. I'm sorry
for Stephen. too, but It's safe for me
to be-"
"She might make something of him.
"You know perfectly well no woman
ever did make anything of doomed
man. He'd kill her. l mean it, Kemp.
He would literally kill her with grief.
She isn't like Leila Mortimer; she isn't
like most girls of her sort. You men
think her rather stunning, highly
tempered, unreasonable young girl,
with reserve Of sufficiently trained
intelligence to marry the best our mar
ket offers-and close her eyes-a thor
oughbred with the caprices of one, but
also with the grated instinct for prop
er mating"
"Well, that's all right, isn't it," ask
ed Ferrall That's the way l size her
up Isn't it correct?"
Yes, in way. She has all the ex'
pensive training of the thoroughbred
and all the ignorance too. She Is cold
blooded because wholesome, tride
skeptical because so absolutely I'M
awakened. She never experienced a
deep emotion. Impulses have intoxi-
Gated her once or twice. But-but II
ever a man awakens her-I don't care
who he is-you'll see girl you never
knew, u brand new creature emerge
with the last rags and laces of conyen-
tionality dropping from her. woman,
Kemp, heiress to every generous I'M
pulse. every emotion, every vice, every
virtue of all that brilliant race of
hers"
you seem to know" he said, anus
ed and curious.
II know. Major Belwether told me
that he had thought of Howard as an
anchor for her. 1t seemed pity
Howard with all his cold. heavy mega
tive inertia. said I'd do it. did.
And now don't know. wish, almost
wish hadn't"
"What has changed your ideas?"
II don't know. Howard Is safer than
Stephen Siward, already in the first
clutches Of his master vice. Would
you mate what she inherits from her
mother and her mothers mother with
what is that poor boys heritage from
the Siwards?"
She held her horse to a walk, rid
ing forward, grave, thoughtful. pre-
occupied with new problem, only
part of which she had told her hus-
band.
For that night she had been awaken
ed in her bed to find standing beside
her white. wide eyed figure. SILVER
ing, limbs a-chill beneath her clinging
lace. She had taken the pallid visitor
to her arms and warmed her and
soothed her and whispered to her.
murmuring the thousand little words
and sounds, the breathing magic moth
ers use with children
Driven she knew not why, Sylvia
had crept from her room In search OF
the still warm fragrant nest and the