The Hattiesburg news., 1909-10-07
Well" he said aloud, in a tone of
doubt, after a minute or two.

Well he said aloud, in tone of
doubt, after minute or two.
But lie said no more, for he was
much too reticent and sensible a per-
Aon to talk to himself audibly even
Hyhen he was alone, and much too eau
X.ious 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 he understood that he was
not to see her again that day, and he
quietly let himself out of the house
and went of, 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 un-
derstood what it could mean to her.
She was eight-and-twenty years of
age and widow, and now it came
to her suddenly in a shape of tre-
mendous strength. through her trusted
/. friend, who had helped her for years
to help others. 1t was real tempta-
tion. The man who offered her a mil
lion pounds to save miserable wretches
from 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,
tthey all told much the same little
Ftory, and it was good to read. She
[had made many failures. and some
tsrrible ones, which she could never
forget; but there were real successes,
too, there were 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
hin, ering a marriage that was almost
sure to turn cut badly, perhaps as
badly as her own!-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-
Mage if it went home and Logotheti
himself was quite unaware of the
elillrul attack that threatened his han.
piness.