The Spectator., 1915-04-30

 riff-raff business, and I'm only riff raffer at best"
 Rather aren't you Paul Ellison, brother, twin brother, of the man l said was going home to marry?"
 How far away her voice seemed! The throb in his forehead and the dull ache over his heart, where some of the sledge-hammer blows had gone home, he no longer felt.
 Don't deny it. It would be useless. Knowing your brother as l do, who could doubt it?"
 He remained dumb.
 q couldn't understand. just simply couldn't. They never told me; in all the years I have known them, in all the years I have partly made their home my own, there was nothing. Not | trinket Once l saw camera pie ture. l know now why Arthur snatched | it from my hand. It was you. You were bending over an engineers tri- pod. Even now I should have doubted had I not recalled what you said one day on board, that you had built | bridges. Arthur couldn't build any | thing stronger than an artists easel. You are Paul Ellison"
 q am sorry you found out.'
 Why"
 Because l wanted to be no more than an incident in your life, just | Parrot X Co.,"
 | Parrot & Col" | It was like a caress but he was too dull to sense it, and she was uncon- scious of the infection. The burning l sunshine gave to his hair and beard the glistening of ruddy gold. Her imagination, full of unsuspected poetry at this moment, clothed him in the metals of viking. There were other whirlpools besides those in her eyes, but Elsa did not sense the drifting as he had done. It was insidious.
 An incident" she repeated.
 Could I be more?" with sudden fierceness. Could I be any more in any woman's life? I take myself for what I am, but the world will always take me for what I have done. Yes, I am Paul Ellison. forgotten, l hope, by all those who knew me. Why did you seek me that night? Why did you come into my life to make bitter ness become despair? The blackest kind of despair. Elsa Chetwood, Elsa, Well, the consul is right I am strong man. I can go out of your life, at least physically. I can say that I love you. and l can add to that good-by!"
 He wheeled abruptly and went quickly down the gallery, bareheaded. without any destination in his mind, with only one thought, to leave her before he lost the last shreds of his self-control.
 It was then that Elsa knew her heart. She had spoken truly. She was a pagan-for. had he turned and gone to him, gone with him, anywhere in the world lawfully or unlawfully.
 Elsa sang. When Martha came to help her dress for dinner she still sang It was a wordless song, a mel ody that every human heart contains and which finds expression but once. Elsa loved
 Doubt, that arch-enemy of love and faith and hope, doubt had spread it's dark pinions and flown away into yes terdays. She felt the Zest and exhila: ration of bird just given it's free dom. Once she slipped from Martha s cunning hands and ran out upon the gallery.
 | Elsa, your walst!
 Elsa laughed and held out her bare arms to the faded sky where. but a little while since, the sun had burned a pathway down the world. All in an hour. one small triflng space of time this wonderful. magical thing had happened. He loved her. There had been hunger for her in his voice, in his blue eyes. Presently she was go ing to make him feel very sorry that he had not taken her in his arms then and there.
 Elsa, what in mercy's name pos sesses you?"
 q am mad, Martha. mad as a March hare. whatever that isl" She loved.
 People will think so, if they hap pen to come along and see that waist Please come instantly and let me fin ish hooking it. You act like you did when you were ten. You never would stand still"
 "Yes. and l remember how you used to yank my pigtails. haven't really forgiven you yet"
 "I believe it's going home that's the matter with you. We'll. for one shall be glad to leave this horrid country Chinamen everywhere. in your room at your table. under your feet. And ir the streets, Chinamen and Malays and Hindus, and l don't know what other outlandish races and tribes. Why what's all this?" cried Martha, bend ing to the floor.
 Elsa ran back to the room. She gave little gasp when she saw what | t.-