Evening star., 1913-06-15

there on the low rail that guarded the ap-
proach to the stone bridge that first night.
The imaginary touch thrilled him now al
most as much as the real one had.
He took the outer drive. round the curve
Of the seawall. going as slowly as he could
on the high. And the stiffness and the deep,
velvetv sky and the occasional loud lazy
plash of little wavelet against the wall,
were all he felt they should be for Pamela
lust as she wanted it. But when he had
come back to the parked spaces OF the drive,
just south of the park itself, with It's allur-
ing paths and thickets, it occurred to HIM
that perhaps Pamela would rather walk.
SO he asked her, and said yes for her, and
turned the car into a garage IN crosS-Street
just little way from the park entrance.
After he had gone, one of the garage men,
who had watched him walk away, said to
the other, "A man in that state of mind
oughtn't to be trusted to wheel a baby car
riage.
1t was a pity they couldn't have talked
him over with the waiter who had taken
care of him at dinnertime.
RUT Iohn was deeper in his mystery than
u ever bv that time; because, Just as he
left the garage and was turning north again,
a third puff of wind had come in from the
lake and pressed against his temples and
caressed his hair. Fate approved OF his
walking too.
He strolled along happily enough, north
ward beside the drive and then across
North-ave. into the park itself. He had
plenty of company; for something was hap
pcning in the park tonight that drew
crowd. Scores of couples and little family
groups were drifting along with him. And
presently a faint sound of music in the dis
tance brought him the explanation, band
concert.
John didn't care for band concert. He
wanted to be more alone with Pamela than
that So. instead of striking off across the
broad, level lawns into the interior of the
park as the others were doing, he followed
the curve of the drive around to the eastward.
Motorcars were flashing by every minute or
two: although it was too early yet for the
steady stream of them. But, somehow,
they with their meteOr1c flashes past HIM
did not violate his sense of solitude.
Another flaw of wind was coming In from
the lake Already he could hear it whip
ping the leaves in the trees and shrubbery
at the other side of the drive. What sort
of message would it bring to him now? Not
mere approval Of a decision OF his; for he
had made none. The rustling swish of it
confused and merged itself with the whir of
car that was coming up behind, a car that
in cutting the sweeping curve of the drive
was coming along now on the wrong side
The breeze reached him just as the car
did. And then he suddenly stopped with a
gasp of surprise as something soft and black
cnveloped his face. He pulled it down and
held it in his hands in time to sec the car dis
appear round the curve.
What the breeze had brought, what 1t
had whipped out of the window of passing
automobile and blown straight into his face,
was black chiffon veil.
THAT was easy and natural enough.
There was nothing about it to hold him
standing there in daze like a man who has
just seen a specter or heard voice out of
the empty air Yet that is the way John
Stanfeld stood, with a weak feeling in his
knees and in the pit of his stomach, and his
hands, as they crushed the soft, black thing
between them, trembling The inexplicable
thing was that nothing, not even hearing
her name spoken aloud, could have brought
him a stronger sense of Pamela and her
presence than that black veil did. He had,
of course never seen her with such a veil.
and it had formed no part of the picture he
had made of her in the seat beside him in
the car, or walking arm in arm with him in
the park