The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1915-05-21
CHAPTER x.
OF a MusIc.Master.

Of a Muslc.Master.
A month passed. Yyonne held the
| destiny of three persons in her hand.
They were like figures on a chess
board and she moved them with the
~sureness, the unerring instinct OF any
skilled disciple of the philosophers
game. They were puppets; she
ranged them about her stage in swift.
changing pictures and applauded her
own effectiveness. There were no re-
hearsals. The play was going on all
the time, whether tragedy, comedy or
chess.
Of the three, Lydia alone faced the
situation with courage. She was young,
she was good, she was inexperienced,
but she saw what was going on be.
meath the surface with a clarity Of
vision that would have surprised an
older and more practiced person; and,
seeing, was favored with the strength
to endure pain that otherwise would
have been unsupportable. She knew
that Frederic was infatuated. She did
not try to hide the truth from herself.
The boy she loved "a slipping away
from her and only chance could set his
feet back in the old path from which
he blindly strayed. Her woman's
heart told her that it was not love he
felt for Yvonne. The strange mentor
that guides her sex out of the igno.
rance of youth into an understanding
of hitherto unpresented questions re-
vealed to her the nature of his feeling
for this woman. He would come back
to her in time she knew, chastened;
the same instinct that revealed his
frailties to her also defended his sense
of honor. The unthinkable could never
happen! 7
She judged Yvonne too in a spirit Of
fairness that was amazing when one
considers the lack of perspective that
must have been hers to contend with.
Lydia could not think Of her as evil,
immoral, base. This beautiful, warm.
hearted, clear-eyed woman suggested
nothing of the kind to her. 1t pleased
her to play with the %good-looking
young fellow, and she made no pre-.
tense of secrecy about it. Lydia was
charitable to the extent of blaming her
only for an utter lack of conscience In
allowing the perfectly obvious to hap
pen so far as he was concerned. For
her own qualification she was calmly
inviting a tragedy which "a likely to
crush him without even so much as
disturbing her peace of mind for an in.
slant, after all was said and done.
There was poison in the cup she hand.
ed out to him, and knowing this be.
yond dispute she allowed him to drink
while she looked on and smiled. Lydia
hated her for the pain she was storing
up for Frederic, far more than she
hated her for the anguish she, herself,
was made to endure.
Her mother saw the suffering in the
girls eyes, but saw also the proud
spirit that would have resented sym.
pathy from mi even so close as she.
Down in the heart of that quiet re-
served mother smoldered a hatred for
Yvonne Brood that would have
stopped at nothing had it been in her
power to inflict punishment for the
wrong that was being done. She too
saw tragedy ahead, but her vision was
broader than Lydia's. 1t included the
figure of James Brood.
Lydia worked steadily, almost dog.
gedly at the task she had undertaken
to complete for the elder Brood. Every
afternoon found her seated at the table
in the study, opposite the stern.faced
nan who labored with her over tho
seemingly endless story Of his life.
Something told her that there were
secret chapters which she was not IN
write. She wrote those that were "a
endure; the others were to die with
him.
He watched her as she wrote. and
his eyes were, often hard. He saw ira
growing h%aggardness in her gentle
girlish face; the wiaful, puzzled ev.
preston in her dark eyes. A note =,
tenderness crept into his voice and 70
manned there through all the honr.
they spent together. The old.tinoe
b%rusqueness disappeared from h,s
speech; the sharp authoritative tone
was gone. He watched her with n,tv
IN his heart, for he knew It was ~.
dained that n day he too was to bur+
this loyal %pure-hearted creature even
as the others were woundine her r.n.
he frequently went out Of hts NV
TO perform quaint little acts Of cour.
tesy and kindness that would hon.
surprised him only a short tim. ~
fore. He sent theater and opera tic.st,
to Lydia and her mother. He n,aoaS
bouquets of flowers at the girls snS -,
the table, obviously for her alone ~
! sent ner home-just around the corn.r