Evening star., 1913-06-15
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR JUNE Is. 1913

one wild instant, might be Pamela.
And yet the day was different, simply
from an inner conviction he had that this
was the day. In its own good time and that
time would be before he sought his bed to-
night, something was going to happen. He
was going to find her. or, at any rate, going
to know that he was on the way to finding
her. 1t made it all much more exciting, and
vet, at the same time, more restful Chicago
didn't look barren and commercial and to-
tally materialistic any more. 1t looked big
with mystery instead.
The Oklahoma side of him tried to dis
count his disappointment in advance, by
attributing his feeling to the strange, heavy,
humid stiffness there was in the air; but the
West Country blood in his veins was singing
a different tune and refused to listen.
The mood grew stronger and more COM
pelling as the lovely summers day waned
into evening. He ate his dinner in an alb
straction that worried the waiter. A man
who so obviously had something on his mind
that he didn't know what he was eating
might even forget the tip.
But John didn't do that He did one fun
ny thing though. When his coffee came, he
took his little black briar pipe out of his
pocket, loaded it, unconscious of the horri-
fed stares of everyone about him, and was
on the point of applying lighted match to
it, when the waiter recalled him to his senses.
And not even the price John paid for the big
brown cigar he ordered instead, nor the size
of the tip, entirely restored that walters
confidence. A man who would offer to light
pipe in a dining room like that was queer
bird and no mistake
Going to the theater in the evening was as
much part of the daily program as the
morning rides and the walks up and down
Il 4 4 +1,xt 10, -, II
the stiffness of the stars were SO poignant a
reminder of Pamela that they hurt intoler-
ably.
But tonight he wanted to be reminded.
He had made a picture of her, all through
dinner, in the chair at the other side of the
table 1t had been, indeed, with the idea OF
crowning her black hair with another cloudy
smoke wreath that he had taken out his pipe.
AND now that the dinner was over and the
cigar smoked instead, he wandered
straight past the newsstand where he Ordi
narily bought his ticket, and went on to the
telephone desk, where he called up the garage
and sent for his car. He would imagine her
there in the seat beside him, and they would
drive together out under the quiet stars.
As he stood waiting in the carriage en-
trance for his car to come, sudden puff OF
wind off the lake blew strongly in his face,
and then died as it had come, leaving the air
stiller than ever 1t reminded him vividlv
of the breeze off the Channel that had struck
his face the same way one day in Exeter and
given him his sailing orders. This breeze
might be an omen tOo-only what was the
message that it carried?
When his car came, he mounted to the
drivers seat, dismissed the man who had
brought it, and let in the clutch without an
idea in the world which way he should 60
1t could make no difference, surely. This
was Pamela's drive. Pamela should sit there
in the seat beside him all the way. And
what could north or south matter after that?
And yet, as the car moved forward the
conviction seized him that it would matter
intensely, that the question that must be
decided at the next corner would make,
literally, all the difference in the world
Only he couldn't decide it for himself
The natural way to go, if one simply fol
lowed the curb, would be south. But Just
as he reached the intersection of Michigan
ave-, the shrill whistle of the traffic police
man stopped the north and south stream of
vehicles to let those from the west come
through.
Well, that settled it. John swung his car
round IN a big arc TO the left, crossed the
width of the boulevard and turned north