Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-04
CHAPTER III.

Everything went on just as convention
whose mouthpiece for the moment hap
pened to be Lady Ryder-desired; just as
Louisa surmised that everything would;
the letters Of congratulation; the stately
visits from and to Lord Radcliffe, Luke's
uncle; the magnificent diamond tiara from
the latter: the rope of pearls from Luke:
the silver salvers and inkstands and
enamel parasol handles from everybody
who was anybody in London society.
Louisas portrait and that of Luke
hastily and cheaply reproduced in the
halfpenny dailies, SO that she looked
like a white negress with cast
in her eve, and he like the mutilated hero
of 'LHomme Qui Rit'; the more elegant
half-tone blocks in the sixpenny weeklies.
under the popular If somewhat hackneyed
heading of 1.-The Earl of Radclyffe's heir
and his future bride, Miss Louisa Har-
ris"; it was all there, just as it had been
for hundreds of other girls and hundreds
of other young men before Louisa had
discovered that there was only one man
in the whole wide world. and that. be-
yond the land of diamond tiaras and OF
society weddings, there was fairy uni
verse. immense and illimftable, whereon
the sun of happiness never set and
whittier no one dared venture alone. only
hand in hand with that other being, the
future mate, the pupil and teacher of
love, the only one that mattered.
And the wedding was to be in four
weeks from this day. The invitations
were not out yet for Louisa. closely
pressed by Luke. had only just made up
her mind half an hour ago about the
date Strangely enough, she had been In
no hurry for the wedding day to come.
Luke had been so anxious, so crestfallen
when she put him off with vague prom
ises, that she herself could not account
for this strange reticence within her-so
unworthy a level-headed, conventional
woman Of the world.
But the outer lobby of the fairy uni
verse was surprisingly beautiful, and
though the golden gates to the inner halls
beyond were ajar and would yield to the
slightest pressure of Louisa'S slender fin
gers. yet she was glad to tarry awhile
longer. Were they not hand in hand ?
What mattered waiting since eternity
called beyond those golden gates?
This morning, however, convention
still voiced by Lady Ryder-'was more
ward peace Louisa, worried by aunt,
and with the memory of Luke's express
sion of misery and disappointment when
last night she had again refused to fix
the wedding day, chided herself for her
silly fancies, and at IL o'clock set out for
up. her unwonted fit of sentimentality
smothered by the louder voice of COM
mon sense.
She and Luke always took their walks
abroad in Battersea Park. In the MORN
ing hours they were free there from per-
petual meetings with undesired company
all outside company being undesirable
in the lobby of the fairy universe Louisa
had promised to meet Luke in the tropi-
cal garden at half-past IL. She was al
ways punctual, and he always before his
time; she smart and businesslike in her
neat. tailormade gown and close hat
which defied wind and rain; he always a
little shamefaced when he took her neatly
gloved hand in his. as most English
Young men are apt to be when sentiment
for the first time happens to overmas:er
them.
Today she saw him coming toward her
Just the same as on other days. He
walked just as briskly and held himself
as erect as he always did but the mo-
ment that he was near enough for her to
see his face she knew that there was
something very wrong in the world and
with him. Some one from the world of
eternity be"~1d had seen fit to push the
golden gates closer together, so that now
they would not yield quite easily to
the soft pressure of woman's hand.
What is it. Luke?" she asked, very