The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1915-10-15
CHAPTER X.
Of a Music-Master.

ueSLlny OF tnree persons IN neT manu-
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 we're 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 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 was 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!
She judged Yvonne too in 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 was 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 one even so close as she.
Down in the heart Of that quiet re-
served mother smoldered 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
man who labored with her over the
seemingly endless story of his life,
Something told her that there we're
secret chapters which she was not to
write. She wrote those that were to
endure; the others were to die with
| him,
He watched her as she wrote, and
his eyes were often hard. He saw the
growing haggardness in her gentle
girlish face; the wistful, puzzled ex
preston in her dark eyes. A note Of
tenderness crept into his voice and re
NAMED there through all the hours
they spent together. The old-time
brusqueness disappeared from his
. speech; the sharp authoritative tone
was gone. He watched her with pity
: in his heart, for he knew it was or
dained that one day he too was to hurt
this loyal pure-hearted creature ever
as the others were wounding her now
) He frequently went out of his way
/ to perform quaint little acts of cour
) tesy and kindness that would have
surprised him only short time be
fore. He sent theater and opera ticket.
? to Lydia and her mother. He placed
: bouquets of flowers at the girls end o
3 the table, obviously for her alone. HI
sent her home-iust around the corne