Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-11-12
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Continued from page Z


men, but they were not philanderers.
One could imagine either one of them
tossing away ambition and all he possessed
for love of the one woman. Such men
rise seldom to the fly of womany charm,
but once caught, they are not lightly cast
aside.
Hollender studied their faces, glanced
at his wife, and brooded. He saw himself
and these three people as on plane in
finitely above the innocuous Smith and
the Blyths. In his exaltation he felt
securely above the level of vulgarity.
what test he thought to himself.
what a test it would be-" and smiled.
Then something his wife did or said,
some faint movement of her hand toward
the soldier,--some little thing, so quickly
passed that the brain could not altogether
seize it,-wiped the smile from his face.
For a moment he wondered vaguely what
was coming over him; then his thoughts
took form and direction. What man,
after all, is absolutely sure? How many
men have been fools to their wives and
all the world through too perfect trust?
What rot!" he cried to himself, and
shrugged his shoulders as though to shake
off his mood. But his nerves refused to be
steadied so easily. He arose, felt his
matches, said he was going out for
smoke, and passed into the corridor. He
had not gone five steps when the train
plunged into the tunnel. Almost without
voltion he paused, turned crept back to
the compartment, and stopped over his
wife
He remembered just how she had been
sitting, with her hat off, and her head
thrown back against the partition cushion
of the high upholstered seat. He bent
over her till he felt her faint breath. He
laid his lips gently on hers. For the frac-
ton of a second she recoiled; then, to his
horror, her lips came forward and caressed
his mouth with soft, silent kiss.
WITH his brain in mad whirl, he stole
from the compartment and staggered
down the corridor. The train shot out
of the tunnel into the glare of a rare
sunny day; but his eyes were so blurred
he could scarcely see. He stumbled along
until he found an empty section, tempo
rariy vacated by people gone to dinner
at the first call. He sat down and stared
before him. Presently he noticed that his
hands and knees We're trembling.
"You asked for it," he said aloud to
himself. "You asked for it,.
His own voice sounded strange to his
ears. For the first time in his life he felt
like two distinct persons. His own self,
the self he had always known. stood apart
and stared accusingly at the new and
shaken being that he had become. He
felt as though he were literally in the air,
as though all solid purchase had been
swept from beneath his feet.
One thought penetrated the chaos in
his brain: "You must go back. You
must pull your two selves together and
go back. You must go back as though
nothing had happened, as though you
knew nothing
Gradually he steadied his muscles. He
arose and walked up and down, cigarette
held absently between his fingers. He
had forgotten to light it. He pulled on it
two or three times before he noticed that
it was unlighted, then he struck match
and watched the flame trembe That
would never do. He struck another and
another until one burned quite steadily