Evening star., 1915-03-21
the city and partly to look up Earl Necdham

IL must see my little sister, Florence
had urged. 81 know you'll not mind, Rob-
ert. | am always dreaming of her, and Won
dering about her. She has been a particu-
larly bad correspondent; but | don't lay
that up against her. 1t makes it all the
more imperative that | should learn how
she has fared.'
"Of course you must see her" Robert as
sented heartily. at would be absurd and
wicked not to-"
60 the second day of their presence in the
city, leaving their young sons in charge
of their Brazilian nurse the two started
upon search for Aurora's home. They
carried themselves, perhaps, with touch Of
conscious sangfroid Somewhere beneath
all frank recognition Of the fact there trem-
counter, half-sick fear of the old bewitch-
ment. But they talked of anything rather
than that, keeping up their brave show of
irrelevancy, neither suspecting that the
other felt an anticipation that was like a
dread, a fear of joy that was more disturb
ing than any fear of pain.
Presently they were there. They were
in the elevator going up past the many
doors; they had reached the right door
been admitted. Then they saw Aurora
futtering into the room. She came toward
rhythm. She was beautiful, with hec-
tored and restless beauty, and she wore
garments SO extreme in their fashion as to
strike these provincials as ridiculous. Yet
she was charming, in bizarre fashion,
like figure on fan, delicate, but carica-
tured in the interests of piquancy
ooh, Forence" she cried ooh, Sister!'
Suddenly all those subterranean imps of
jealousy in Florence vanished, skunk back
into their primordial causes, and she saw
only the ravaged face of the girl she had
cheek and the nervous clutch of her hands.
"Ah,' breathed Florence. what a happy
hour! But here is Robert, Aurora. Did
you not notice.
81 saw him, of course; butt could not
get beyond vou Flo. Oh, Robert, what
handsome Indian you are!" She swept him
with her glance and drew back from him a
little, spiritually, even while she gave him
her hands.
Earl is not at home at this hour, fear
said Robert, when the first salutations were
over. "Perhaps we ought to have waited
until evening. Then we could have seen
him too. But Florence was so impatient to
come
Aurora turned on them suddenly con-
torted face. "Then you don't know? You
don't know?'
"Know what?s cried Florence. "You
don't mean that hes"
"Not dead no." said Aurora sharply
She made a little sardonic noise in her
throat mo, not dead, Flo Neither am
l. But we both wish we were"
"Aurora!'
"Yes, we do. OF course we do. Don't
we hate each other3 Hate each other,
tell you!"
"No-no!"
ooh, yes we do. We've come to that.
At least, think you call it hate. lists
charred love, maybe-burned out love! The
whole of it is, Florence, we never had a
thing to say to each other. We had no
tastes in common. We never liked the
same friends, or the same play. or the same
holiday. And it was popularity of each
of us that we had to have what we liked.
Intensity, you call that, suppose. know
the doctors all say Pm terribly intense. I
have insomnia. Earl has neuritis. Sounds
amusing, doesn't ito It's just about as
amusing as-as hadcs. The worst of it is,
we can't get over thinking about each other.
We hate each other consumingly. 1t takes
up all our time
"Oh, stop, stop!" cried Florence "Don't
talk like that, Aurora. Don look like that
Quiet yourself, please"
"But don't you see that that is precisely
what | cannot doo It's what Earl cannot