Evening star., 1915-03-14


cally their first meeting, though Ingersoll
had seen her as girl of fourteen several
years earlier. This step was not so foolish
as it might have been in the case of two
young people without means. Ingersoll
had an income Of three thousand dollars
year, and complete devotion to art in his
student days had enabled him to save a
small capital, which he spent on an estab-
lishment, and particularly on adorning an
exceptionally handsome and attractive wife.
1t had been far better were they poverty
stricken. Mutual privations and combined
effort to improve their lot would have
bound them by unbreakable ties. AS it was,
the taste for pleasure and excitement crept
into Stella Ingersolls blood. The first tiff
between the two was the outcome of some
mild protest on Ingersoll's part when his
wife wished to increase rather than dimin-
ish her personal expenditure after Yvonne's
birth. There were tears, and of course the
man yielded: only to raise the point again
more determinedly when an absurdy eXpen-
sive dress was ordered for a ball at the opera
Thenceforth the road to the precipice be-
came ever smoother and sleeper; though
Ingersoll did not begin to suspect the crash
that lay ahead until his wife left him and
fled to her relatives in America Her calous
abandonment of the baby girl not yet year
her. She told him plainly why she had
gone She was "sick to death" of petty
economies. Indeed, her letter of farewell
was brutally frank
think have qualities that equip me for a
society that you and l together could never
enter Lshe wrotel Why, then, should deny
myself while am young SO that | may con-
sole vain regrets with copybook maxims when
l am old? | see clearly that would only en-
bitter your life and spoil your career. BE wise,
and take time to reflect, and you will come to
believe that am really serving you well by
seeking my own liberty. Meanwhile | shall
do nothing to bring discredt on your name.
promise that, on my honor!
Her honor All his life Jim Ingersoll had
hated cant, either in dogma or phrase, and
this ill judged appeal stung him to the
quick He threw the letter into the fire, left
Paris next day, and his wife's strenuous ef-
forts to discover his whereabouts during the
subsequent year failed completely.
Then he heard by chance that she had
divorced him, and married Walter H. Car
mac in her maiden name, and the tragic
romance of his life closed with a sigh of relief,
because as he fancied, the curtain had fallen
on its last act He little dreamed that an
epilogue would be staged nearly nineteen
years later.
He was in such state of mental distress
lilal dl Soieallledu lie SAT Ior Wlole nour III
cafe opposite the station, meaning to return
to Pont Aven by the next train. But the
mans natural clarity of reasoning came to
his aid. He forced himself to think dis
passionately Two vital principles served
as rallying points in that time of silent bat
tle,-Yvonne must not be reft with crude
violence from the grief-stricken and phys-
cally broken woman who claimed daugh-
ter's sympathy, and he himself must avoid
NEE ing this wife risen from the tomb. He
had acted right, after all, in seeking refuge
with his friend.
To be continued newt Sunday