Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-03
IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SHOWS
Continued from page s

tail all those things she had left untold. At
thought of that rare womanhood, It's pride
and purity and passion of feeling, at the
mercy of this Tiberius, the whole great man.
hood in him rose in revolt. He had kept his
own life clean, that he might be worthy to
hold her image in his heart. No unworthy
thought had profaned the shrine wherein he
had set her.
And yet this weak, vicious, unSpeakable
creature, who had alternately mouthed OBJ
scenity and raved curses through the night
for his pitiful drug, had assailed her ears,
despatched her sensbilities, fouled the
whole intangible gossamer fabric of that
wondrouS inner spirit of woman that no
man, even clean of hands and gentle of
thought, can hope to handle without soil!
He set his teeth hard; but the groan of a
soul in agony came through them. The vial
of morphia that he held was we'll nigh
crushed in his grasp.
As he turned to place it in the case, the
sound of the curtains sliding across their
rods arrested him. He paused, the bottle
still in his hand.
Mazda was standing between the curtains.
She held them clenched in each hand. Her
eyes were fixed upon the vial "You could
give him-all- of-it!" she said.
He stared at her, the shock of her sudden
presence stronger upon him than her words.
She wore loose gown of silk and lace, fall
ing in sheer folds to her feet. Across its
whiteness the wonder of her FURNISHED hair
showered its glory. If ever Beauty pro-
claimed itself, trumpet tongued, it spoke in
her,-her poise, her gaze, the whole warm,
vital, Intoxicating presence of her. Never
was woman a more magnificent tempta-
ton.
Her words had conveyed no meaning
Only one dominant note went pulsing
through the entire heart and fiber of him.
he loved her, loved her, loved her!
"You could give it to him. she repeated
clearly, and took step forward. pausing
Just within his reach "Why-don t-you!'
Now her words struck! They beat into
his consciousness at last. Hammering at his
brain, they bit deeper and deeper. In the
pregnant silence that held them both, each
word seemed to Shrek at him like Fury,
till he wondered if his nerves. strung taut,
had snapped, and he had gone mad.
Then, of sudden, a mighty wave swept
over him. Others came crashing up and
broke against his soul, the allurement of
her beauty, the greatness of his passion
but the first submerging surge was one of
horror. 1t struck him as the tidal wave
strikes the swimmer, and the world about
him went black. She, this woman,-the
Woman,-for whom his reverence had been
as illimitable as his alteration, she had said
Great God!
He flung up one arm sharply, as though
to shut out from his sight this terrible thing
of black and scarlet of which she suddenly
seemed the incarnation. But her eyes held
him; the fires within them blazed and held
him fast.
a love you'll" called the eyes. and after
moment, a love you'll spoke the lips
A great cry burst from him. His arms
flung out to reach her, to strain her to him,
to feed the heart and soul that had starved
SO long for her, at her lips. He was terribly
human, and-she had said she loved him!
Between them there was only that wreckage
on the bed. She was his by her own adnlis-
sion, by every straining fiber of the man
clamoring for his mate. What mattered the
thing called Honor. the ragged ethics of the
world, the puerile laws of make believe that