The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1910-10-06

| only tnlng tnat neld them. AS mucn
of fight as she had put up with the.
rest-the people who had taken her in
she had put up the hardest with
Clara. Yet Of them all Clara was the
only one she had failed to capture.
Clara was always there in the middle
of her affairs, but surveying them
from distance, and Flora's struggle
with her had resolved itself into the
attempt to keep her from seeing too
much, from seeing more than she her.
self saw.
Their dubious intimacy had created
for Flora a special sort of loneliness
"a loneliness which lacked the Sc
curity of solitude; and 1t was partly
as an escape from this that she had
accepted Harry Cressy. BY herself
she could never have escaped. The
initiative was not hers. But he had
presented himself, he had insisted,
had overruled her objections, had
captured her before she knew wheth.
er she wanted 1t or not-and held
her now, fascinated by his very sue
cess in capturing her, and by his beau
tiful ruddy masculinity. She did not
ask herself whether women ever mar
ried for greater reasons than these.
She only wondered sometimes If he
did not stand out more brilliantly
against Clara and the others than he
intrinsically was. But these moments
whens she was obliged to defend him
to herself were always when he was
! Of i,, Il
rlage she had been as aware of the
splendor of his attraction as now
when they had stopped between the
high lamps of the club entrance, and
she saw clearly the broad lines of his
shoulders and the stoop of his square
set head as he stepped swingingly to
the pavement. After all, she ought to
be glad to think that he was going to
stand up as tall and protectingly be-
between her and the world, as now
he did between her and the press Of
people which, like a tide Of water,
swept them forward down the hall.
sucked them back in its eddy, and
finally cast Them, ruffled like birds
that have ridden a storm, on the
| iilOIt ScHGlO opiCC VI tuC WiuCb up
ward stair.
From here, looking down on the
current sweeping past them, the little
islands of black coats seemed fairly
drowned in the feminine sea around
them-the flow of white, of pale blue
and rose, and the high chatter like a
cage of birds, that for the evening
held possession.
Ladies Night" Harry Cressy
mopped his flushed face. Its aw-
full"
Flora laughed in the effervescence
of her spirits. She wanted to know,
teasingly, as they mounted, if this
wese why he had brought two more
to add to the lot. He only looked at
her, with his short note of laughter
that made her keenly conscious of his
right to be proud of her. She was
proud of herself, inasmuch as her
self was shown in the long trail Of
daring blue her gown made up the
stair. and the powdery blue of the
aigrette that shivered in her bright
soft puffs and curls-proud that her
daring, as 1t appeared in these things,
was still discriminating enough to
make her right.
She could recall a time when she
had not even been quite sure of her
clothes. Not Clara's subdued rustic
at her side could make her doubt
them now; but her security was still
recent enough to be sometimes con-
scious of itself 1t was so short q
time since all these talking groups,
that made a parsonage of her, had
had the power to put her quite out Of
countenance. The women who craned
over their shoulders to speak to her
how hard she had had to work to
make them see her at all!
And tonight 1t was not the picture
exhibition, nor the function itself
that elated her, but the fancy she had
as she looked over the moving mass
below her that the crowning excite
ment of the day, the vanishing mys-
terry, hovered over them all. 1t was
} fantastic, but 1t persisted; for had
not the Chatworth ring itself proved
that the most ordinary appearance
might cover unimagined wonders?
Which of those bland, satisfied faces
might not change shockingly at the
! whisper "Chatworth" in its ear? She
} wanted to confide the naughty thought
to Harry. But no, he wasn't the one.
If Harry were apprehensive of any
thing at all 1t was only of being
caught in too hot a crush. He saw
no possibilities in the mob below ex-
cept boredom. He saw no possibil-
tiles in the evening but his conven-
J tional duty; and Flora could read in
his eye his intention of getting
n through that as comfortably as pos
sible. His suggestion that they have
look at the pictures brought the two
womens eyes together in rare gleam
! of mutual mirth. They knew he sus-
pected that the picture gallery would
be the emptiest place in the club.
since to have look at the pictures
was what they were all supposed to
| ha thora for