The San Francisco call., 1913-07-20

A MOST fascinating story, II Keeps
II the reader on the alert from
start to finish. Complications
that seem to battle human ingenuity
are smoothed out by the love OF one
woman and the sweet and gentle
influence Of another. Starting In a
beautiful country home, the story
reaches its climax in the heart OF
New York city. The author, well
known to lovers OF fiction, knows
how to hold his readers enthralIed.
TvELYN GRAYsoN, meeting me OF
the old Boston road, between
Greenwich and Stamford, gave me-
a message from her uncle. That Is
the logical beginning of this story
though to make everything quite clesi
from the start it may be better &c
bark back a few months, to the day or
which Evelyn Grayson and first met
Then. as now, we were each driving
our own car, we we're not on any such
broad, roomy thoroughfare as the Bos.
ton road. On the contrary. we were
short cutting through narrow, rough
lane, beset by stone walls and inter
rupted at intervals by a series Of sharI
and treacherous angles.
| know shall never forget the mo.
mentary impression | received. Out
of the golden sunlight, 1t seemed te
me, there had emerged suddenly tab.
Ieau of Queen Titania on a topaz
throne-the fsirest Queen Titanis
imagination ever conjured--and l. II
my mad painting speed was about Il
crash into the gausy fabric Of that
dream creation and rend it with brutal
torturing onrush of relentless, hard
driven nickel steel. I take no credit
to myself for what I did. My hands
acted as an impulse. For just flash.
ing instant the gray nose Of my cal
rose before me, as in strenuous assault
1t mounted half way to the coping oil
the roadside wall. | felt my seat dart
away from beneath me, was consciou.
of my body in swift, unsupported aeria
fight, and then--when | regained con
sciousness Queen Titania was kneelinl
in the dust of the lane beside me--i
very distressed and anxious Queer
Titania, with wide, startled eyes, ant
quivering. sympathetic lips--and abou
us were a half dozen or more OF tbs
vicinal country folk.
Between that meeting in mid Ma,
and this meeting on the old Bostor
post road in mid September there hat
been others, OF course, for Queen tt
tania, whose everyday name, as hav,
said, was Evelyn Grayson, was the
niece and ward of my nearest neigh
Dor, Mr.. Robert Cameron. q gentle.
man recently come to reside on whai
for century or more had been known
as the old Townsbury estate, extend
ing for quite a mile along the Con.
necticut shore of Long Island soune
in the neighborhood of Greenwich.
The intervening four months hat
witnessed the gradual growth of al
near an approach to intimacy between
Cameron and myself as was possibl,
considering the manner of man tina
Cameron was. By which statement
mean to imply naught to my neigh
boris discredit He was In all respects
admirable-a gentleman Of education
and culture, widely travelled, of ex
alted ideals and noble principles tt
which he gave rigid adherence. Their,
were moments, however, when he wa,
unresponsive. At times he was almos
stubbornly reticent. And yet, In spite
of these qualities, he gave repeated
evidence of a nature at once SO simple
and kindly and sympathetic as to com
mand both confidence and affection.
To the progress of my intimacy with
Evelyn there had been no such tenn
peramental impediment She was
fearlessly outspoken, with the frank
ness born of unspoiled innocence
barely six weeks having elapsed be-
tween her graduation from a tin,
French convent and our perilous en-
counter in that contracted, treacherous
yet blessed little Connecticut lane
And she possessed, moreover, a multi
plicity of additional charms, both O
person and disposition-charms tot
numerous lndeed to enumerate, and ia,
too sacred to discuss. From which /
may rightly be inferred that we wer,
already considerably beyond the stat,
or condition of mere formal acquaint
anceship.
1t was no Queen Titania who cam,
gliding to a stand beside me on tn,
broad, level, we'll oiled highway, un
der a double row of arching elms. /
was no gossamer fairy, but Hebe. tn,