Evening star., 1912-11-13
Cleveland Moffett and Oliver Herford.
Copyright By Monett and oliver Herford-isoa
VvVVC


what 1t WaS-qulte good role believe.
Betty picked up the neglected gar
denias and pressed their cool petals
against her hot cheek
go on she said.
Bob hesitated: he was beginning to wish
he had never started on this tack. He
had no idea Betty took her voice so Seri-
ously.
well to tell the truth" He pulled
nervously at his cigar and. discovering 1t
to be ont, knocked off the ash and re-
lighted it with unusual care. He felt that
this business of Christening Betty was
failure from every point of view. The de-
sire to 'get even had completely gone
from him: he would be glad now to sur
render on any terms, but Betty's waiting
eyes offered him no quarter.
Il didn't hear the particulars" he blum
dered on. 'All know is, it never came
to anything
"And you've no idea of the reason?"
Her flushed face was hidden in the gar
denias. Their sensitive petals felt what
the man could not see.
Bob threw his cigar out of the window
He wished he could throw himself after
1t.
"oh, well. every one can't sing in opera.
Poor girl. / suppose her voice wasn't
equal to it,
This was perhaps the most unfortunate
speech Robert Baxter ever made. Had
he known land he never did know the
true story of that untitled engagement he
had just said to Betty. If, by some mir
acle. Robert Baxter. then in New York.
had happened into Betty Thompson lit
tie apartment on the Champs Elysees
that afternoon two years ago. when NJ
Peletier of the Theater Parnasse called
with the contract for Mile Elizabeth
Thompson to sign, it might have proved
the saddest, If not the last. day of NJ.
Peletier's existence. The very recollec-
ton of that afternoon brought again to
Betty's beautiful face the white-hot fame
OF anger, that. like a sword of fire, drove
the satyr-faced impressario screeching in
the fear of death from her apartment.
down the headlong stairway, across the
crowded boulevard and into the nearest
cafe, where over a nerve-fortifying petit
verre. he wrote the brief note informing
Mile. Elizabeth Thompson. with regrets of
the most profound, that he must cancel
Immediately the engagement of made
moiselie for the Theater Parnasse, hav-
ing. after mature deliberation. decided
that the voice of mademoiselle, though of
the most charming, was not equal to the
demands of grand opera.
And now, when Betty pushed back her
chair with such violence as to shake the
glasses on the table, Bob wondered what
was the matter. AS she rose the yellow
ing gardenias dropped to the floor. and it
was as If in that moment all their white
ness had gone into Betty's face
He was on his feet in an instant. She
looked as II she were going to faint. His
eye went from table to table-except for
waiter or two drifting about at the far
alone.
Betty he cried Are you i'll? For
Gods sake. what's the matter?''
As he spoke her name her eyes rounded
with amazement, then slowly narrowed
to an expression that sent a chill through
Bob's heart. 1t was no more like Betty,
that look, than the voice that accompa-
MED It,
and yet you spoke to me like that-pre-
tending You didn't know"
Bob tried to speak, but she went on in
low. monotonous. terrible voice, only
just raised above a whisper.
You are coward, and what you have
been saying is lie-a mean. contempti-
BILE, cowardly Ii Now I'm going.
shan't see you again.
Her lips were beginning to quiver, she
could not trust herself to say another
word.
Bob. utterly crushed. bewildered and si-
fenced, walked beside her for appear
ance's sake to the door of the lift. With
out a word, without look she stepped
inside and the bronze door changed be-
tween them.
Alone in the writing room, Bob tore up
sheet after sheet of the hotel paper in fe-
vered attempts to compose note to
Betty. AS he crumpled them up one after
another. he stuffed them into his pocket,
not stopping to tear them up. The mo-
ments were slipping by. AT last, in des-
peration, he wrote:
"Betty-For Gods sake see me, if only
for a moment before l go. My train
leaves in half an hour. BOB"
He rang for a waiter and without stop
ping to reread it, slipped the note into an
envelope, directed and sealed it up, and
gave it to the man to take to Miss
Thompson's room.
After an interminable quarter of an
hour the waiter returned. Bob gave him
a shilling and snatched the envelope
from the tray. He turned 1t over eagerly
it was his own note, unopened
CTo be continued tomorrow