The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1916-02-14

And then?
Crawleys brain reeled. He felt sud
denly almost physically sick. To the
world the picture was Gree, the SYM
boil of the classic myth, Circe, daugh-
ter of the Sol and Perseus, who with
magic potion of venomous herbs turn
ed Ulysses and the Trojan warriors
into swine; Gree, the Nymph of Aeea.
To Crawley she had been the incar-
nation of the myth, the symbol, even
as Zoe had been to him the incarna-
ton of many things. But to Brooke,
her husband? What would it be to
him?
1t was before this question that he
dared not ansv er that Crawley bowed
his head with fear that could not be
measured. a shame that was unname-
able. for in the last few hours the ar
fist had become the man. Zoe, but the
wife OF his old friend and benefactor,
and Gree was no longer the Sorcer-
ess of Aeea, but Mrs. Godfrey Brooke.
But that was not all, although,
Heaven knew, that was bad enough.
since the portrait was startling and
lifelike, despite the spirit of sin and
the symbolism of the Hellenic legend
he had infused into the painting,
which gave it it's subtle, if somewhat
morbid fascination.
Anyone who knew Mrs. Godfrey
Brooke would have recognized Craw-
ley's Gree. That, as he realized, was
bad enough, but it was the other thing
that was 50 damning It was the fact
that Brooke knew that Gree was Zoe.
and knew the story Of Zoe. Crawley
might have painted Zoe's portrait in
the most conventional manner, paint
ed her as saint or as Madonna of the
Lilies, as, indeed, he had done, but it
would make no difference, because if
Brooke saw the picture he would rec
ognize his wife, and in the same in
slant realize that she was Zoe, the
woman who lived Crawley.
Whether Zoe had ever loved her
husband Crawley could not say, and
his thoughts were much too occupied
to trouble about that question One
thing, however. was very certain, and
that was that Brooke firmly believed
she loved him now, that as she was
all his life SO was he all hers.
Brooke was the sort of man who
would have defended that thesis with
his life, the sort Of man who, did he
know the CHASTITY truth, would have
killed her without mercy. Crawley
knew it, and quailed as man may
quail before the wrath of God, for
Brooke was no ordinary man.
There was something very grim
about Brooke, something terrible and
primitive. He had lived his life among
stern realities facing death so often
that he and death were almost good
friends. His life and experience had
imbued him with savage's disregard
of human life. Brooke feared princi-
pies and worshipped ideals. He look
ed into the future and did his level
best to make realities of his dreams.
Life was great thing to Brooke-life
as a whole-but he had little care for
the life Of the human unit. ~ ~
He had shot men down by the
score In free and fair fight. He had
judicially sent offending natives to
execution without so much as a
thought beyond the broken law and
the nee sssity OF stern and impartial
justice.
Crawley knew all ths-none better.
And as Brooke was in his impersoll-
al and more or less official side, SO
was he when affairs touched him
| closely. There was ne sentiment in
the making of the man; at least, GRAY
ley had never suspected it until yes
terday, when the grim, weather-tanned
pioneer had spoken of home and wife.
Perhaps that made it all the more ter
rible.
And Brooke was rather terrible He
was power, giant among his fell
lows. Men had learned long ago not
to get in Brooke's way, because when
man got in Brooke's way Brooke
soon removed the obstacle, and the
manner of it's removal was as swift as
1t was efficacious.
To he I'M against Rrooke was to he