The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-09-25

IookeJ straight DeIore ner across rne
room.
You can do pretty good deal with
a million pounds" said Mr.. Van Torp.
after the silence had lasted nearly
half a minute.
DON'T" cried Lady Maud. in an
odd voice.
Forty thousand pounds a yeaT," OBJ
served the millionaire thoughtfully.
''You could do quite a great deal Of
good with that, couldn't you?"
Don't! Please don't!"
She pressed her hands to her ears
and rose at the same instant Per
haps it was she, after all. and not her
friend who had been brought suddenly
to a great cross-road in life She
stood still one moment by the sofa
without looking down at her COM
panion; then she left the room
abruptly, aud shut the door behind
, her.
Van Torp got up from his seat SLOW
Il when she was gone, and went to
the window, softly blowing a queer
tune between his closed teeth and
his open lips, without quite whistling.
We'll" he said aloud, in a tone of
doubt, after minute or two.
But lie said no more, for he was
much too reticent and sensible a per-
son to talk TO himself audibly even
when he was alone, and much too cau-
tiOus to be sure that a servant might
not be within hearing, though the door
was shut. He stood before the win
dow nearly a quarter Of an hour think
ing that Lady Maud might come back,
but as no sound of any step broke the
. silence be understood that he was
not to see her again that day, and he
quietly let himself out of the house
and went off, not altogether discon-
tented with the extraordinary impress
sion he had made
Lady Maud sat alone upstairs. so
absorbed in her thoughts that she did
not hear the click of the lock as he
opened and shut the front door
She was much more amazed at her
self than surprised by the offer he had
made Temptation, in any reasonable
sense Of the word, had passed by her
in life. and she had never before IN
derstOod what it could mean to her.
She was eight-and-twenty years Of
age and a widow. and now it came
to her suddenly in a shape Of ire
mendous strength, through her trusted
friend, who had helped her for years
to help others. It was real tempta-
ton. The man who offered her a mil
lion pounds to save miserable wretches,
from a life of unspeakable horror,
could offer twice as much, four, five,
or ten millions perhaps. No one knew
the vast extent Of his wealth, and in
an age of colossal fortunes she had
often heard his spoken of with the
half-dozen greatest. You can do
quite a great deal of good with forty
thousand pounds a year"
Van Torp's rough-hewn speech rang
through her head. and somehow its
reckless grammar gave it strength
and made it stick in her memory, word
for word In the drawer of the writ
ing table before which she was sitting
there was little file OF letters that
meant more to her than anything else
in the world. except one dear memory
They were all from rescued women.
they all told much the same little
story. and it was good TO read. She
had made many failures. and some
terrible ones. which she could never
forget; but there We're real successes,
too. there We're over a dozen OF them
now, and she had only been at work
for three years. II she had more
money, she could do more; if she had
much she could do much; and she
knew of one or two women who could
help her What might she not accom-
plish in a lifetime with the vast sum
her friend offered her,-the price of
hindering a marriage that was almost
sure to turn out badly, perhaps as
badly as her Ownl-the money value
of a compromise with her conscience
on point of honor which many wom-
en- would have thought very vague IN
deed, if not absurd in such a case.
She knew what temptation meant,
now, and she was to know even better
before long The prima donna had
said that she was going to marry Lo-
gotheti chiefly because he insisted
on it.
The duel for Margaret's hand had
begun; Van Torp had aimed a blow
that might well give him the advan-
tage if it went home; and Logotheti
himself was quite unaware of the
skillful attack that threatened his hap
piness.
Continued tomorrow
SnAIL IVTCEVSlFS