The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1914-09-02
CHAPTER II.
The Sign of the Three.


Out-of-doors, high brazen noon,
day in spring, the clamorGus life of
New York running as fluent as quick
silver through its brilliant streets.
Withindoors, neither sound nor sun
beam disturbed perennial quiet that
was yet not peace.
The room was like a wide. deep
well of night. the haunt of teeming
shadows and sinister silences.
| Little, indeed, was visible beyond
the lonely shape that brooded over
it, the figure Of an old man motion
less in a great, leather-bound chair.
His hair was as white as his heart
was black The rack of his bones,
clothed in q thick black dressing
gown with waist-cord of crimson silk,
from the thighs down was covered by
a black woCllen rug. He stared un.
blilkingly at nothing: man seven
eishths dead, completely paralyzed
but for his head and his left arm.
Presently Il faint clicking signal dis
turbeG the stiffness. Seneca Urine put
forth his left hand and touched one
Cf row of crimson buttons embedded
in the desk. Something else clicked
this time latch There was the
faintest possible noise Of a closing
door. and a smallish man stole noise
lessly into the light, paused beside the
desk ana waited respectfully for leave
to speak.
"Well?"
"a telegram. sir-from England"
Give it met"
The old man seized tie sheet OF yell
low paper. scanned it hungrily. and
crushed it in his tremulous claw with
a gesture of uncomfortable emotion.
Send my daughter Judith here!"
Two minutes later young woman
in street dress was admitted to the
chamber Of shadows.
"Ycu sent for me, father?"
sit down"
She found and placed a chair at the
desk. ard obedlently settled herself
in it.
'Judith-tell me-what day is this?'
My birthday. an twenty-one."
and your sisters birthday: Rose,
too, is twentyone."
"Yes."
"You could have forgotten that" the
old nan pursued almost moekinsly.
do you really dislike your twin-sister
so intensely"
The girls voice trer.bled "You
knew" she said, we have nothing in
common beyond parcutage and this
.abominable resemblance. Our natures
differ as light frCm darkness"
And which would you say was
Light"
Hardly my own: I'm no lypocrite.
Rose is everything that they tell me
my mother was. whilo THE girl
smiled strangely-I thinK-I am more
your daughter than my mothers"
A ned Of the white head confirmed
the suggestion. 1T is true. l have
watched you closely, Judith, perhaps
more closely than even you knew.
Before l was brought to this'-the
wasted hand nlado significant ges-
ture-"I was Il man OF strCng pas
iCill AAoltiSA il'Ntl i'fSti, oeI
rather feared me. And Rose is the
mirror of her mothers nature, gentle,
unseltish, sympathetic. But you. Ju-
dith. you are like a second self to
me-"
An accent Of profound satisfaction
informed his voice. The girl waited
in a silence that was tensely expect
ant.
Then, if on this your birthday I
were to ask q service Of you that
might iniuriously affect the happiness
of your sister,"
The girl laughed briefly: only
ask it,"
And how far would you go to do
my will?"
Where would you stop in the serv-
ice Of one you lcvcd?"
Seneca Urine nodded gravely And
after brief pause, Rose is in love-"
he announced.
oh. I Know know" the father
affirmed with 4 faint ring of satisfac
ton. Il am old. a cripple. prisoner OF
this living tomb: but all things |
should know-sorIehow- come to
know in course of time.'
IT'S true-that Englislrman she
scraped an acquaintance with en- the
Riviera last year-wAat'S, his name?-,
Law, Alan Law" Il
IN the MAN," The father corrected |
mildly, you are right. Only. he's not
English. His father was Wellington
Law, of Law & Son"
She knew better than to Interrupt, |
but her seeming patience was belied |
by the Whitening knuckles of 4 hand |
that lay within the little pool OF blood
red light.
And presently the deep voice rolled |
on: Law and l were once friends;