Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-07-06
XXXXVII.
A Mysterious Cabaret Number

Il HUSteTtOUS CuOdret NunOef.
T UCILLE's return to her apartment at the ho-
- tel was greeted with an apparent respect that
spoke plainly of the arrival of the flood of pack
ages she had ordered sent immediately. Her lips
were still frightened, her eyes cold as ice, her
head high as she entered the elevator and shot
to the coy room where the bundles and boxes
were piled.
Upon every conceivable article in the room
they were, but she seemed to take little pleasure
in opening them. In piles she assorted them,
hats, gowns, lingerie, gloves, hose, little trinkets
dear to the heart of all women. Then she seated
herself and carefully, coldly made choice of what
she intended wearing for the conquest of Lou
beque.
How odd it all seemed! Before her rose a
picture of the great spy, many pictures, and a
curiously sad little smile twisted her lips as she
realized that winning over him would give a bit
terness to her life which she could never forget,
the bitterness of losing the great respect she
held for him as an enemy, the bitterness of hav-
ing obliterated from memory those times when
the tenderness dormant in him had come to the
surface as he cared for a poor, sick girl, fighting
an unequal battle.
1t was several hours later that she looked at
herself in the long cheval glass, frank admira-
ton and wonder tingling within her, mantling
her cheeks with roses that no ruby necklaces
could have purchased. For the first time she real
lied that she was wonderfully beautiful, that the
girl who had landed aboard the Empress in her
riding habit, who had fought her way through
the jungles in tattered skirt of black had grown
into a. wonderful woman whom men worship and
fall down before in breathless admiration. Her
eyes, too, were slanting, the eyes of an odalesque,
while there was just the curling hint of invita-
ton in the full, red lips that tended to beguile.
Yes, adventure, purpose and fullness, the con-
slant battling for others, the omnipresent Love
within her had broadened and ripened her into Il
full, rich womanhood such as she had not
dreamed possible. And even as she stood there
came a clear tapping upon the door. With a
smile upon her lips she moved toward it, allow
ing it to open, the slightest fraction at a time,
all the dramaturgic which is part of femininity
telling her how to enhance the effect of her ap-
pearance.
Hugo Loubeque stepped within. 1t was char
acteristic of the man that he did not halt inn
mediately he saw her but moved on until he was
well inside. Then he turned, immaculate in his
evening clothes, and bowed gravely, his eyes TAX
ing her in from head to toe, frank admiration
glowing in them. Neither mentioned the contrast
in her appearance. The, spy merely waited, while
into his eyes crept the hint of a challenge min
gled with the cloud of a premonition of danger.
Instantly she resented 1t.
"You will dine with me?" His manner was
courteous as ever, yet there was a change. Some
thing already was lost between them, some of
the strands which bound them together as in
separately through enmity as ever could have
bonds of friendship slackened, dropped apart
never to be put together again.
Lucille merely nodded. Her heart was grow
ing larger and larger, and she found herself
frightened. Dangers of all sorts, adventures,
everything she could endure with not the slight
est fear but there w~as'something in her now that
set her pulses throbbing irregularly and rendered
her speeches.. She rested her hand upon his
sleeve and allowed him to escort her to the din
ing-room.
In the dining-room she gave herself over to
a mood effervescent as the champagne that bulb
bled in the glass before her, creaming and cast
ing up its little spirals of sprites, laughing glee-
fully with her own thrilling mirth a bit too nerv-
Gus to be quite unaffected.
Loubeque had not proven adamant against
the frank admiration which went the length OF