Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-10-10
[Continued.l

she lowered her laehes before IT,
before gratitude that made her part
appear in fresh angle of misery.
There seems to be a kind of ia
tality about our relations" he went on.
Il lay awake pondering 1t last night"
His tone held more than gratitude It
had the elation of discovery.
"He is going to make it harder than
l ever guessed" echoed her own
thought, In a futter of confusion.
"Yes. 1t was strange our meeting on
the frontier in peace and then in war!"
she exclaimed at random. The sound
OF the remark struck her as too sub
dued; as expectant, when her purpose
was one of careless depreciation.
II have met great many women,
as you may have imagined" he pro-
ceeded. They have passed in review.
They were simply women, witty and
frail or dull and beautiful, and one
meant no more to me than another.
Nothing meant anything to me except
my profession. But never forgot you.
You planted something in mind:
memory of real companionship."
~Yes, made the prophecy that
came true!" she put in. This ought
to bring him back to himself and his
ambitions, she thought.
''Yesl" he exclaimed, his body stiff
fening free of the back of the seat.
You realized what was in me. You
foresaw the power which was to be
mine. The fate that first brought us
together made me look you up in the
capital. Now 1t brings us together
here on this bench after all that has
passed in the last twenty-four hours"
She realized that he had drawn per-
ceptibly nearer. She wanted to rise
and cry out: Don't do this! Be the
chief Of staff, the conqueror, crushing
the earth with the tread of five against
threel" 1t was the conqueror whom
she wanted to trick, not a man whose
earnestness was painting her deceit
blacker. Far from rising, she made no
movement at all; only looked at her
hands and allowed him to go on, con-
scious Of the force of a personality
that mastered men and armies now
warm and appealing in the full tide of
another purpose.
'@The victory that was thinking Of
last night was not the taking of Bor-
dir. 1t was finer than any victory In
war. It was selfish-not for army
and country, but born of q human
weakness triumphant; a human weak
ness Of which my career had robbed
me-" he continued. ~It gave me 9
Joy that even the occupation of the
Browns capital could not give. had
come as an invader and mad won
your confidence"
In causei" she interrupted hur-
T1edly, wildly, to stop him from going
further, only to find that her intona-
ton was such that 1t was drawing him
on.
''That fatality seemed to be working
itself out to the soldier so much older
than yourself In renewed youth, in
another form of ambition. I hoped
that there was more than the cause
that led you TO trust me. I hoped"
Was he testing her? Was he play
ing part of his own to make certain
that she was not playing one? She
looked up swiftly for answer. There
was no gainsaying what she saw in
his eyes, 1t was beating into hers
with the power of an overwhelming
masculine passion and a maturity of
intellect as his egoism admitted a COM
rade to its throne. Such is ever the
way Of a man in the forties when the
clock strikes for him. But who could
know better the craft Of courtship
than one of Westerling's experienced
He was fighting for victory; to crafty
a desire.
y Il did not expect this-I-" the
words escaped tumultuously and chok-
ingly.
He was bending 80 close to her that
she felt his breath on her cheek burn
ing hot, and she was sickeningly con-
scious that he was looking her over
in that point-by-point manner which
she had felt across the tea-table at
the hotel. This horrible thing in his
glance she had sometimes seen in
strangers on her travels, and it had
made her think that she was wise to
carry little revolver. She wanted
to strike him.
Contest Contest" called all her
own self-respect. Make an end to
your abasementl"
Confession, after the Browns have
given up Bordir! Confession that
makes Lanny, not Westerling, your
dupe!" came the reply, which might
have been telegraphed into her mind
from the high, white forehead of Par
tow bending over his maps. "Confes-
sion, betraying the cause of the right
against the wrong; the three to the
oonquering five! mol You are in
the thing. You may not retreat now"
For a few seconds only the duel
Of argument thundered in her temples
seconds in which her lips were part
ed and quivering and her eyes dilated
with an agitation which the man at
her side could interpret as he pleased.
A prompting devil-a devil reused by
that thing In his eyes-urging a
fnesse in double-dealing which only
devils understand, made her lips hyp-
notically turn in a smile, her eyes