The Mena weekly star., 1916-05-25

SyiNlH--c4Afld- NAlt-
 His head dropped baek-the strange stemrned pipe slipped from his power less fingers and fell with soft thud to the floor. The woman bent over him and kissed him. A single tear, drawn from well of savage pity, had dropped on the untroubled brow.
 "God of our fathers" she whispered from between clenched teeth. Thou knowest l am bad-rotten to the heart but thou knowest also 1 am not so bad as the woman who sent this man to me"
 She knelt down, and with her dark head against the sleeper's knee watched and waited.
 All was quiet. But on the other side of the curtain an Arab crouching beside the brazier awoke. There was a slight smile about his lips as though his dreams had brought him food for amused reflection, and with quick glance at his motlonless companion he got up and slipped out into the street It was now toward evening and the great heat of the day was broken At d white-walled villa on one of the broad avenues he glided through Moorish doorway into the passage Be fore him lay the courtyard where two women talked, their low voices min gling muslcally. At last he came out into the light. His manner was in- imitable in its suggested homage and a hundred unspoken hatteries.
 Madame, it's Abou-Yakoud who ventures before you" he said in his soft Arab French. "Abou- -Yakoud, who has seen Mecca and who reads Destiny as an open book. Give me your hand, madame For little franc. l will tell you good and evil--what was and what Is to come"
 Sylvia Arnaud started slightly and turned.
 You shall not come in here,- she said impatiently. and yet not without childish touch of hesitation. Beg ging is forbidden. Now be gonel'
 She tossed a handful of money on to the white stone flags. Each coin rang out like a note of dangling laughter, which still echoed after her as she passed into the shadows of the gate day.
 Abou-Yakoud bent and gathered the nickel pieces from the ground. When he looked up again he stood straight and erect, and the beard had vanished.
 "Gabrieller he said softly.
 She turned little. The warm gold of evening was on her face and soft ened the stern lines. to a mild and noble serenity.
 q know,y she said Your voice betrayed you. And then--sooner or later I felt that you would come. though for what purpose God knows"
 Let us hope he does not" he an- swered sardonically. T an here on my own business. and my own busi- ness has no sanctity about 1t. must keep control if am to win through to the things l want"
 "The things you wantlr she echoed with deep sadness. What are they now, s.spheag'
 He knelt on the marble edge of the fountain and caught her hand.
 "Gabrieller' he repeated hoarsely "Gabrieller'
 She looked down at him. Her free ! hand she laid quietly upon his
 You are cruel to yourself" she said Why have you come, Stephen?'
 God knows l have lied so much in all these ghastly years, Gabrielle. have lied most of all to my own con science. have called you an episode "a folly. l have heaped contempt on you, on my memory of you, and all ways you have risen as now-the one pure thing that I have loved, my one virtue, my own fidelity"
 Hush, Stephen, we have buried our dead''
 You haye-I cannot. tried. At first 1t was remorse that would not let me-the knowledge that have ruined you-dishonored you"
 That is not true" she interrupted proudly. No woman-no man--has ever been dishonored by one action Honor is not a possession to be lost or broken It is ourselves-what we are If you had dishonored me 1 should be different; but I am not different have grown stronger-that is all. see clearer. am happy"
 Happy? And your name-your po- sition--your people-aIl lostr'
 She smiled faintly.
 Those griefs are old and healed, Stephen. I have a name and a posi- ton. They are my own, and am a little proud of them. I owe you my knowledge of myself and my own strength--some hours illusion, broad CT outlook, deeper understanding of other women's failures. Let that suf- flee between us"
 "I cannot" He sprang up with wild gesture of protest. Tt is not re- morse that haunts me. I am not the man to feel remorse. I half loved and half despised you. Then-that night when came back and found that you knew me for what I was-a liar, cheat, common spy, to be bought and sold by every man--and had left me on the very eve of my atonement to yeu--then I knew my own madness. From that hoursI wanted yoh."
 Its too late, Stephen" she said. ''too late have buried my dead. dear. 1 cannot call the dead to life.