The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-11-17

that Lady Maud was on the yacht,
for he had not been told previously
that she was to be of the party, and in
the short conversation which had pre-
coded her appearance, no one had
actually mentioned the fact She her
self had come to dinner late with the
express purpose of presenting herself
before him suddenly, but she had to
admit that the intended surprise did
not take place.
She was not astonished, however,
for she had more than once seen her
husband placed in very difficult stu
atoms, from which he had generally
extricated himself by his amazing
power of concealing the truth. Being
seated nearly opposite to him, 1t was
not easy to study his features without
seeming either to stare at him Tudely
or to be bestowing more attention on
him than on any of the others Her
eyes were very good, and her memory
for details was fair, and if she did
not look often at his face, she watches
his hands and listened to the intona-
lions of his voice, and her conviction
that he was LeVen grew during din
ner. Yet there was still a shadow of
doubt, though she eould not have told
exactly where it lay.
She longed to lead him into a trap
by asking some question to which if
he were Leven, he would know the an
swer. though not if he were any one
else. a question to which he would not
hesitate to reply unsuspectingly if the
answer were known to him But Lady
Maud was not ingenious in such COX
versational tricks, and could not think
of anything that would do
The outward difference OF appear
ance between him and the man she
had married was so small that she
could assuredly not have sworn in ev-
idence that Kralinsky was not her
husband There was the beard, and
she had not seen Leven with beard
since the first months of her mar
riage four years ago, when he had cut
it of for some reason known only to
himself. OF course a recollection, al
ready four years old, could not be
trusted like one that dated only as far
back as three months: for he had left
her not long before his supposed
death.
There were the hands. and there
was the left hand especially That
might be the seat of the doubt Pos
sibly she had never noticed that
Leven had a way of keeping his left
little finger almost constantly crooked
and turned inward as if it were lame.
But she was not sure even of that,
for she was not one of those people
who study the hands of every one they
know, and can recognize them at
glance She had certainly never
watched her husbands as closely as
she was watching Kralinsky's now.
Margaret was in the best of spirits.
and talked more than usual, not stop
ping to think how Van Torp's mere
presence would have chilled and 81
fenced her three or four months
earlier.
vi ti4t ~ iAOAt II W do a S6N ulH0eT
and Mrs Rushmcrs and Kralinsky
knew that it was a very good one, and
told each other so afterward as thew
walked slowly up and down the great
promenade deck in the starlight For
people who are very fond of good eat
ing can chatter pleasantly about their
food for hours, recalling the recent de
lights of a perfect chaud-froid or q
faultless sauce; and It was soon evf
dent shat there was rctking con1ect-
ed with such subjects which Krsiin-
sky did no. understand ard App-eci-
ate, from a Chinese birs s-egst soup 10
the rules Of the great Marie > A'oine
Careme ana BEillnt-Sava-in' Pb@sL
ology of Taste" Kraiinsky vl.o knew
everybody. Between gAs>ronomy and
society, he appeared to Mrs Rush
more to know everything there was
to be known
Lady Maud caught snatches OF the
conversation as the two came near
her, and then turned back: and she re-
membered that Leven used to talk on
the same subjects with elderly women
on whom he wished to make a pleas
ant impression. The voice was his,
too, and yet she knew she had a doubt
somewhere, a very small doubt, which
1t was a sort of slow torture to feel
was still unSatisfied
Mr.. Van Torp sat between her and
Lady Margaret, while the two others
walked. The deep-cushioned straw
chairs stood round low fixed table
on which there had been coffee, and at
Margaret's request the light had been
put out, though it was only a small,
Opalescert one, placed under the avn
ing abaft the wheel-house and briGLe
We must be going very fast" sad
Lady Maud" for the sea is fiat as a
millpond, and yet there's a gale as
soon as one gets out of the lee of
things"
She's doing %. l believe" replied
Van Torn and she can do 90 IL