Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-27
IX-Continued.

his club and his country home. the young
man In despair caused himself to be con-
| veyed to the Bartholdi Hotel. where. pos
| sessed Of devil Of folly he preserved
his incognito by registering under the
| name of m. Daniels" And straightway
| retired to his room.
But not to rest. The portion of the
mentally harassed. steeplessness. was
his. and for an hour or more he tossed
upon his bed upon which he had thrown
himself without troubling to undress).
bordering. to no profit of his, the hun
| dred problems. difficulties and disadvan-
tages suggested or created by the events
| of the past twenty-four hours.
The gray girl. Anisty. the jewels, HIM
self: unHagg ng. his thoughts circum-
navigated the world Of his romance.
touchins only at these four ports, and
returning always to linger longest in the
harbor of sentiment.
The gray girl-strange that her person
ality should have come to dominate his
thoughts in a space OF time SO brief and
upon grounds of intimacy so slender.
Who and what was she? What
cruel r;gor of circumstance had impelled
her to seek a livelihood in ways so sin
lister? At whose door must the blame be
laid, against what flaw in the body So
she should have been forced into the
ranks of the powers that prey-a girl of
her youth and rare fiber. of her cultiva-
ton. her charm and beauty?
The sheer loneliness of her. her grace
and gentleness. her ingenious sensitive
ness her witEthey combined to make the
thought Of her. to him. at least, at once
terrible and a delight. Remembering that
once he had held her in his arms. had
eazed into her starlit eyes and inhaled the
impalpable fragrance of her. he trembled.
was both glad and afraid.
And her ways so hedged about with
perils! While he must stand aside, i'm
potent. a pillar of the social order. secure
in its shelter. and see her bounded and
driven by the forces of the law. harried
and worried like an unclean thing. forced.
as 1t might be, to resort to stratagems
and expedients unthinkable. to preserve
her liberty
1t was altogether ;ntolerable. He could
that their paths had crossed and parted
and were never again to touch. Or was
it? 1t must be 80 written-they
would never meet again. After all, her
have been nothing permanent. They had
encountered under strange auspices and
he had treated her with common decency.
for which she had repaid him in good
measure by permitting him to retain his
own property. Their account was even
and she forever done with him. That
must be her attitude. Why should 1t be
anything else?
"Oh the DEVIL" exclaimed the young
man in disgust And rising took his dis
temper to the window.
Leaning on the sill he thrust head and
shoulders far out over the garish abyss
of metropolitan night. The hot breath
of the city famed up in sitting waves
whose painted pavements men crawled
like insects-round moving spots, to each
his romance under his hat.
The window was on the corner. over
looking the junction of three great high
ways Of humanity-23d street. with its
booming crosstown cars. stretching away
into the darkpess on either hand Broad
way. forking off to the left. its distances
merging into a hot glow of yellow radi-
ance: 5th avenue. branching into the
north with its desolate sidewalks oddly
patterned in areas of dense shadow and
cold. clear light. Over the way the
park doomed darkly. for all its scattered
arcs. black and silent space. a we'll of
1t was late. quite late; the clock in
front of Dorlon's Che craned his neck to
seeJ made the hour one in the morning
the sidewalks were comparatively de-
serted, even the pillared portico of the
Fifth Avenue Hotel destitute of loungers.
A timid hint of GOODNESS, forerunning the
dawn. rode up on the breeze.
He looked up and away northward. for
many minutes, over housetops stenciled
black against the glowing sky. his gaze
yearning into vast distances of space.
melancholy tingeing the complexion Of his
mind. He fancied himself oppressed by a
vague uneasiness. unaccountable as to
cause. unless -
From the sublime to the ridiculous with
vengeance his thoughts tumbled. Gone
the glamour Of romance in a twinkling,
banished by rank materialism. He could
have blushed for shame; he got slowly to
his feet. irresolute trying to grapple with
a condition that never before in his ex-
slider.
He had just realized that he was fat
strapped for cash. He had given his last
quarter to the cabby. hours back. He was
registered at a strange hotel under an
assumed name unable to beg credit even
for his breakfast without declaring his
identity and thereby laying himself open
to suspicion, discourtesy, insult.
OF course there were ways out. He
could telephone Bannerman. or any other
of half a dozen acquaintances. In the
morning but that involved explanations,
and explanations involved making him.
self the butt Of his circle for many a
weary day.
There was money in his lodgings. in the
Chppendale escritoire. but to get it he
would have to run the gantlet Of re-
porters and detectives. which had already
dismayed him in prospect. OHagan-ah,
Impulsively, 1ncons-derate of the hour, he
turned to 1t.
Give me nine-o-eight-nine Madison
please" he said and waited, receiver to
ear.
There was a slight pause. buzz the
voice of the switchboard operator below
stairs repeating the number to central;
centrars appropriately mechanical reit-
Grafton: another buzz; a silence: a pro-
longed buzz, and again the sounding ST.
1enco
"Hellor" he said. softly. into the trans
mitter. at venture.
No answer.
"Hellor'
Then central. irritably: Go ahead.
You've got your party.
Hello. hello!
A faint hum of voices. rising and fall
ing. beat against the walls of his under
standing Were the wires crossed? He
lifted an impatient finger to jiggle the
hook and call central to order. when
something crashed heavily. He could
have likened the sound. without a strain
of Imagination. to a chair being violently
overturned And then a woman's voice,
clear accents informed with anger and
pain: mo-" and then
Say, that's my mistake. That line you
had's out of order. l had a call for them
while ago and they. didn't answer.
Guess you'll have to wait
Central! Central!" he pleaded. des-
perately. II say. central. give me that
connection again. please"
"Ah, say! what's the matter with you,
anyway? Didn't tell you that line was