Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-07-24

| IN urgent distress brought him back
TO consciousness of outward things,
and he looked UP in startled surprise
to see young woman staggering on
the sidewalk, as If about to fall.
He rushed up and caught her quick.
ly, half carrying her back to the stoop
from which he had come. The woman
had a deep black veil on, veil that
entirely concealed her face; but she
was otherwise dressed in unrelieved
black, so the veil was not provocative
of any thought on his part.
IF you will come into this house,
Miss, we can send for a DOCTOR"
"Oh, I'm all right, thank you," she
said weakly. "Just a weak spell.
| get them soften. I won't trouble you
further. You're very kind. will go
home" She started to walk away
from him, but again staggered weakly
as though about to fail ana was again
caught and sustained by Mason.
He helped her into his automobile
and started for her apartment on the
upper West Side. She seemed to grow
worse as they went along, and when
they arrived her seeming plight made
1t necessary that he carry her up the
stairs.
When they arrived at her room
after painful climbing of steps she
suddenly recovered sufficiently to rise
and take of her hat and veil, and he
was shocked and incredulous at rec
ognizing Clarice Adair, dancing girl of
the cafe he had raided two night be-
fore. Her recovery was now extraor-
dinarily rapid, and he was suddenly
panic-stricken as a realization of what
this all meant came upon him. She
smiled at him mockingly as she be-
gan to take off her outer garments.
He had not long to realize, however,
for in another. moment the door was
thrown rudely open, and two men
entered. y
You will come with u.s." one of
them said, shortly.
I'VE cannot listen to explanations.
Besides" looking meaningly at the
half-dressed woman in the corner,
"I'm afraid you'd have rather a job
Of it."
The plot of Gibson and his tools had
worked.
Came the day of trial; the trial of
the young assistant district attorney
accused of contributing to the de-
iinqency of a dancing girl. Clarice
was the complainant; District Attor-
ney Bell the prosecutor; Sid Dodge,
the jury fxer, and Mason, the defend
ant. What if he did have a good at
torney? What If he did get u jury
disagreement? His reputation was
blackened forever.
Into the surge of his despair came
the thought of Marion--his Marion.
1t was the one bright spot in the dark
ness of his broken life. The thoughts
of her were the one solace that his
traducers couldn't tear from him. And
! he turned his footsteps in the direc-
ton of her home. When he arrived
there the butler barred his entrance,
and the iron entered deeper into his
SOUL
Marion, oh Marion. you don't believe
them?"
. But the echoes of his mad, despair
ing cry were the only answer he re-
ceived.
Sid Dodge wrestled madly, fearfully
with the woman before him, in the
rear room of his cafe. She broke
loose once, and with fierce, wild ges-
ture, took up a great vase and
brought it down with terrific force
on his shoulder, just missing his head.
. |
soft yielding arms in his gripping fn-
gers and slowly forced her back into
a chair.
|, Slowly the struggling figure in his
grasp relaxed, and became limp in the
chair. Slowly there pervaded that
face horrible agony OF powerless
despair. Once her hands raised and
tried to cover her face, and her
shoulders hunched as she shrank deep
into the chair as though trying to
separate herself from the dread of
her thoughts. But It was of no use.
They would be with her always. those
houghts-alwaysi What usurers.
those thoughts-how they compound
, ed the debt and made a settlement
impossible! How she would have to
pay-to pay alwaysi Thoughts OF the
man she had ruined, the girl whose
dream of love she had blighted.
thoughts of the putrid vileness OF her
own lying soul! And now the light,
and the realization that she would
have evermore to pay!
That evening Charles ellison spoke
long and earnestly at meeting OF the
Commonwealth Club. on the necessity
for sincerity In all of LIES undertak-
! WHO PAYS7
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