Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-01-23

i AiSh io tLCiC uily SuuISt. IS luelt any question of what to do?'
 Sylvia looked out into the winter sky, through the tops of snowy trees Everywhere the stark, deathly rigidity Of winter. Under it, frozen. lay the rain that had scented the air. Under her ambition lay the ghosts of yester- l day.
 Nc" she said there is no question of choice know what must be-
 
 For q week or more the snow con- tinued. Colder. gloomier weather set in, and the impending menace of Ash Wednesday redoubled the social pace. culminating in the Westervelt ball on the eve of the forty days, and Sylvia had not yet seen Siward or spoken to him agoin across the wilderness of i streets and men.
 l In the first relaxation of Lent she ! had instinctively welcomed an oppor- tunity for spiritual consolation and d chance to take her spiritual bearings, not because of bodily fatigue. for in the splendor of her youthful vigor she did not know what that meant. To St. Berold's she went in cure of her soul She was fond of Father ! Curtis, who, if he were every inch priest was also every foot of his six feet man-simple. good and brave.
 However she found little opportu- nity, save at her brief confession. for a word with Father Curtis. It was fashionable to adore Father Curtis, and for that reason she shrank from Ncnturing any demand upon his time. and nobody else at St. Berold's ap- pealed to her.
 Agatha Caithness was there a great deal looking like a saint in her sub dued plumage and very devout, dodg- ing nothing, neither confession nor Quarters occasionally lifted eyes. though their gaze. meeting, seemed lost in dreamy devotion or drowned in the contemplation of the spiritual and remote.
 Plank came docilely from his Dutch Reformed church to sit beside Leila. AS for Mortimer, once a vestryman. he never came at all. There was new set of men among whom he had recently drifted. to the unfeigned dis gust of gentlemen like Major Bel wether-"club" men in the commoner and more sinister interpretation of the word.
 Mortimer stayed out at night very frequently now: also he appeared to make his money go further or was luckier at his "card killings" because he seldom attempted to bully Leila. being apparently content with his al lowauce
 Once or twice Plank saw him with an unusually attractive girl belonging to q world very far removed from Leilas. Somebody said she was an actress when she did anything at all one Lydia Vyse. somewhat celebrat- cd for an audacity not too delicate. But Plank was no more interested than any man who cant afford to en. danger his prospects by q closer ac- quaintance with that sort of pretty woman.
 Meanwhile Mortimer kept away from home, wife and church. and Plank ire quented them. so the two men did not meet very often, and the less they met the less they found to say to one another
 Though the opera was over. theaters unfashiOnable. formal functions sus- pended and dances ended. the pace still continued at a discreet and dec orous trOt. and those who had not fed to California or Palm Beach remained to pray and play bridge with an unctiOn most edifying.
 And all this while Sylvia had not seen Siward.
 Sylvia was changing. The character istic amiability. the sensitive reserve. the sweet compoSure which the world had always counted on iE her, had be- cnme exceEt'ons and no longer the rules whicn governed tie caprice and i1lrulse always latent An iEdiffer- eDce SD pointed as to verge on inso- leare amazed hpr intimates at times. \ sIddea. flushed impatience startlel tho hshtucs of her shrine. There was a new. unsep!rE hardness in her eyes. in her attitude the faintest hint of cynlc.7m For -he first time c slight sense of fear t!lctuTed tLc general ad- mira-!oH
 In public her indifference and grow ing apatience vith Quarter had not reached tue verge of bad taste. but in priyatn she was scarcely at pains To conceal her veariness and inattention- That la noticed # was evident even to her. wbp raTeiessly ignored the conse- quences of Ier own attitude.
 At the M.-eareme dance given by the Siowa Hu sluarTier. who was NJ r. II. led the ru5i.Ion with agreeable pre- cision and lnpersouaI accuracy. favor ing her at intervals. She returned Co town next morning with Grace FerralL irritable. Suiky. furious with herself All hot with sesf contempt. she lay bark in the comfortably upholstered corne- of the L-r.Izaam. staring straight before her. Sllien rnI mOurh unresT0nsive to the szrrasouai ineon- sequeat questions of Grace FerraIL
 After awhile. observed Grace. -pep Ule uiii IeEiu ts .zlk about the disCOH tented beauty of y"Hr face
 Sylria's eyebrows bent still farther lnEard
 A fretful face. but rather pretty sOmmenfer Grace msliciOusly It won't Go. dear. Your role Is dfznfne1