Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-19


question.
Again l shook a heavy head, and she dropped the
handful of costly gems back in her bag
"No,'' she said. 'fYou right. / won Z give
them to you. They might not bring you luck.
With difficulty detached my mind sufficiently from
my affairs to ask her if they had brought no luck
to her.
She shrugged careless shoulder. 'The end is not
yet - she said He who lives viii But, if they
do not-shall / show You somethingP'
She pulled off a loose glove, slipped white hand
into the inner pocket of her fur coat drew out tiny,
muchornamented revolver, and laid it on her knee
l drew back in startled dismay. "Oh, mei' /
gasped. The horror which my soon to be COM
passed annihation caused nothing, i am
glad to remember, compared with what felt at the
thought of a violent death in connection with this
vivid creature with her beauty her strange attractive
ness, her fragrant, bewtching personality 'Oh mol
''Now, why not, wonderf'' she asked and smiled
upon me. ''You-'' she said and pointed to that
deep pocket of my overcoat in which my cold right
hand lay concealed its miserable grasp upon the re-
Gently acquired, clumsy agent, which was to free me
and those belonging to me from the consequences of
my own folly. "You-you-" she said
Looking upon her, 1 somehow enabled in that
moment to rise superior to my own selfish misery
reused myself from the suen torpor into which had
sunk
''Oh, what do matterl" I asked, its natural tone
all at once restored to my voice 'What difference
do / make to the world, in out of itf But you
you beautiful adorable rich. There must be hun,
dreds who love you. Every who sees you must
love you. There must be hundreds to whom you mean
everything I-can't bear to think of world
without you. +"
1t was an emotional moment. Ny feelings rose in
my throat and choked With sob / broke off.
Then l swallowed down my emotion, took grasp
again of the difficult calmness which had escaped me,
and nodded towards the tiny revolver in her lap.
''For you there-there can I be a reasonl - said.
She smiled at How far we now from
London Bridge Stationf' she asked; and looking at
my watch, told her how many minutes there still
were
~ am glad we have met, she said "And-it's
curious, ism t it9 Each of us young-I I'm good ten
years. and more, older than you, dear child, but l IN
young still Years and years of life before us, per.
haps; yet each of prepared" She glanced
from the pistol her lap TO my hand which never
left my greatcoat pocket and her sentence remained
unfinished.
$50 you think she began again presently, "that
the world would be poorer place without met You
think that my lfe-sO innocent and peaceful it is,
so filed with friendship and love, and the ten thou
sand joys that make this earth paradise for tendery
cared for, safe-guarded women-should be jealously
preservedf You think that, being rich, can do much
good you know, looking in my face, delight in doing
it9 Ism I that soa'' 81.
answered, somehow, in my barely-articnlate way,
that all and more than this believed of her.
'You think, although, of course, many men admire,
and few, perhaps, have, in their chvarous way,
loved me- that there is probably one man best in
holding me for his very own; one who wOrships me,
She paused and flashed smile at me. "He is
enviabe man, ism { heY''
got out that thought so
"You see me, perhaps, in my delightful home-his
and mine-with children about my kneess Waiti
Do you see me with children2''
"a
7 WAS too young then to understand what had
often read that the possession of children the
crown of a woman s life I had seen mothers
and tagged and dragged down by the care of them.
could not picture her with children, said therefore,
She gazed out into the darkness of the night
through which speeding. "You are right
there' she said in altered voice. ''I shall never
have any,
Then her eyes came back to my face, and the smile
to her curving lips 'That thing the Fates deny
me, then. But all the rest of the good things they
hold in their hands have been, and are-and to be