Evening star., 1918-12-29
EcoNTNUED FROM LAST Sunday

eeiS you uioH = Id
yes"
"Kick right over the traces-1
would. l couldn't go on as / have
been going, lonely, like a lost dog"
She raised his fingers and rubbed
Them along her lips.
"You will not be lonely" said the
unfortunate man in a muted voice.
rYou need not be afraid Of that" The
utter inadequacy of the remark CAL. >
to him like one Of those nightmare
fecognitions encountered as a rule
only in Dreamland. Yet she seemed
TO find it suficint, her mind, perhaps.
being engaged elsewhere.
what would you have said IL
had run away from you for good?"
asked she. Would you have been
borry?"
M "Yes-dreadfully."
4 Are you glad I've come back?"
Honestly glad"
eyes"
REALLY glad?"
".Truthfully. really, honestly glade"
well, so am l." said she. She re-
"Now, go and play me something.
want something soothing after We
we used sS be me toca oa0Dins 1t
Now, the only thing that Jones
had ever played in his life was "rhe
Star Spangled Banner" and that with
one f1nger-Chopin's "Spianato"!
No No, he said: I'D rather talk"
.hs hsWs,li s,sai talk talk tthen-mercy' t There's
A faint and far-away sound in
vaded the room. throbbed and ceased.
She rose, picked up her gloves. which
she had cast on chair, and then
piano.
"You have never kissed me-" said
she. speaking, as it were, half to her
self and half to him, seeming to be
more engaged in a momentary pierre
wearing than in thoughts Of kisses a
He came toward her like a school,
boy. then, as she held up her face,
ne imprinted a chaste kiss upon her
right cheekbone.
ever happened to mortal man hap.
pence 10 him TWO warm palms sud-
denly took his face between them and
TWO moist lips met his own.
Then she was gone.
..Hes He took his seat on the music
shocked. frightened, triumphant
The position was terrific.
y Jones was no Lothario He was a
straight: plain, common-sensical man
WIN nigh respect for women. and
the position Of leading character in
bad French comedy was not for
MIN. Jones would just as soon have
fDught OF kissing another mans
Wife as OF standing on his head in
the middle of Broadway.
& To personate another man and to
Kiss the other mans wife under that
disguise would have seemed to him
the meanest act any two-legged crea-
Fture could perform.
And he had just done 1t. And the
o.ner , mans wife had-heu! his face
: She had done 1t because of his de-
ception.
He found himself suddenly face to
race with the barrier that Fate had
been cunningly constructing and had
now placed straight before him.
s There was no getting over 1t or
under 1t, he would have to declare
his position at once-and what
position to declare!
She loved Rochester.
All at once that terrific fact ap-
peared before him in its true proper
tions and Its true meaning.
Then sho would want proofs.
He had to tell her the truth. Yet
to tell her the truth he would have
to tell her that the man she loved
was dead.
She loved Rochester.
He would have to bring up the
Savoy Hotel people. fetch folk from
America-disinter Rochester. Ior-
ror! He had never thought of that.
What had become of Rochester? Up
to this he had never thought once Of
what had become OF the mortal re-
mains of the defunct Jester, nor had
he cared a button-why should he?
4 But the woman who loved RochesA
ter would care. And he, Jones. would
become in her eyes a ghoul, a mon
Strosity, horror.
He felt a tinye OF that feeling to-
ward himself now.
Up to this Rochester had been for
him a mechanical figure. an abstrac-
tion, but the fact OF this woman's
love had suddenly converted the alb
etraction into a human being.
He could not possibly tell her that
he had left the remains of this hu-
man Icing, this man she loved, in
the hands of unknown strangers. cal
1ously, as though 1t were the remains
OF an animal.
He could tell her nothing.
The game was up; he would have to
quit. Either that, or to continue the
masquerade which was impossible: or
to tell her all, which was equally i'm
possible.
Yet to quit would be to hit her
cruelty. She loved Rochester.
Rochester. despite all his wicked
ness. frivolity, shiftlessness and gem
eral unworthiness--or perhaps be-
cause of these things--had been able
to make this woman love him, take