The Mena weekly star., 1916-06-01

you or in youg My child, 1T your nus band had acted as you say, he would have been cashiered for an intoxicated incapable; but he gave me his expla- nation. It was an explanation which men among themselves--some men understand and accept-madness on account of a woman. 1 let your hus- band go free. Do you thank me2' She made no answer The graceful knowl- edge of her power was gone. Her eyes hung on his with the blankness of a will in abeyance. You do not thank me" he went on deliberately. You would like to. You would like to play the role of the faithful wronged wife. But I am the one person before whom you cannot act, either to yourself or to others. 1 have seen through you, and your little shallow soul knows 1t. All artfice between us is useless. Do not move-stay therel He caught her hands and held them in a grip of iron
 She tried to wrench her hands free, the while her eyes remained in help less attendance on hls.
 Colonel Destinn-you are insult ing-you have no right"
 T am not insulting. And if were you would have to listen to me. The power l have over you is yours over me. We belong together, Madame Ar maud, by virtue of our vice. We are both corrupt, worthless-you in your way, in mine Hear me out, please! I am brutal man, and I am tearing down the veil with brutal hands But no matter-you will have it mended by tomorrow. For an hour l choose that you should see clearly. You have bounded two men to their ruin-in all innocence. You set yourself on false pedestal which they could not reach you set them a task which they could not accomplish without using your own methods. They had not your powers of assuming virtue nor my powers of valuing your peculiar worth. The one man virtually committed suicide at the altar of your perfection, the other murder
 He stopped entirely. It was as though his own thoughts had engulfed his knowledge of her existence. She drew her hands away, and he made no effort to retain them.
 Colonel Destinn," she said gently, q think you must be mad Even if the dreadful things you have said were true, why should you say them to me? gave you my friendship because you seemed to need it--a little, as you say, because I myself was lonely and un- happy But does that merit so much brutality in return?'
 Forgive me, madame I am ruff fan. have forgotten the language. See, I am pleading with you for my life, my sanity. X soul in hell--a soul that you could save cries out to you as to the last hope of it's salvation. Are you a woman and have not the cour- age to hold out a hand from your own grief to q deeper grief, deeper de- spair? Will you turn away from me. Sylvia?"
 Colonel Destinn, we shall neither of us find peace in evil" she said. You have done wrong-you have thrown a shadow on a friendship that I treas ured. Whatever we have to bear we must bear bravely and with nonorp
 What do I ask of you?" He took her hands between his own and held them caressingly. "Only what you say you have given me--friendship but friendship freed from false convention and hypocrisy, friendship that dare be itself and it's own law. l need you. A mans fate lies in your hands"
 He broke off, and she too was silent. Tn his silence there was covered irony, in hers fear. Her eyes no longer met his She was gazing fixedly across the plateau to where a dark stream flowed out from between the banks of olive and came on swiftly, its surface caught by the evening sun, glittering in long lines of silver.
 Look she said under her breath. He glanced over his shoulder. A barsh bugle note rang through the peaceful evening stiffness, and as IEOugu tDe SOuHu udu Delu eDclalt- ment the stream recoiled. rolled back on itself in waves of light and then amid untitled thunder came to rest.
 Colonel Destinn nodded
 'It is their last camp-out before we go south." be said We are going south. Did you know thatT
 No" she said in that same low 1ne.
 "Tke-e is the road to be completed my road. Until you came 1t was my life-the thing I deadened my brain with-a kind of narcotic. It Is the finest military road in Algiers, and in three months 1t will be finished" He looked her deep into the eyes. There are limits to human patience. I had not meant to outlive my ambition. It was the term I had set myself. Shall I come back, Sylvia?"
 She made no answer. She seemed only in part to underst' nd him. But instinctively she recognized that the pleasant infprmazzo nf rnmanno xuhtoh