The Benson signal., 1918-02-23
Copyright 1916. The Bobbs-M Merrill Company
CHAPTER XX-Continued.

wind struck her as she closed the door
behind her, and whipped her unbut-
toned ulster about; but she did not
cover under it, nor turn away-stood
there, finely erect, confronting it.
There was something alert about her
pose-he couldn't see her face distinct
ly-that suggested she was expecting
somebody. And then, not aloud, but
very distinctly:
"Roddy," she said.
He tried to speak her name, but his
dry throat denied it utterance. He
began suddenly to tremble. He came
forward out of the shadow and she
saw him and came to meet him, and
spoke his name again.
81 saw you when you went out" she
said. 81 was afraid you mightn't
wait. hurried as fast as could.
rve-w-waited so long. Longer than
you"
He managed at last to speak, and
as he did so, reached out and took her
by the shoulders. "Come home," he
said. "You must come home"
At that she stepped back and shook
her head. But he had discovered,
while his hands held her, that she
was trembling too.
The stage door opened again to emit
a group of three of the ponies"
They stared curiously at Dane and
the big man who stood there with her,
then scurried away down the alley.
eve can't talk here" he said. "We
must go somewhere"
She nodded assent, and they moved
off side by side after the three little
girls, but slower. In an accumulation
Of shadows, half way down the alley,
he gripped her arm tight and they both
stood still. The next moment, and
without word, they moved on again.
Finally-"Are you all right Roddye
And the babies?" she managed to say.
"It's a good many days since I've
heard from Portia." And then, sud-
denly: "Was it because anything had
gone wrong that you came"
"I didn't know you were here until
1 saw you on the STAGE" he said.
This was all, in words, that passed
until he looked about him in 8 sort Of
dazed bewilderment when she stopped,
at last, at the stoop before her door.
Here's where live" she said.
"Where you live!" he echoed
blankly.
"Ever since went away-to Cali
fornia. I've been right here-where !
could almost see the smoke Of your
chimneys. I've a queer little room
only pay three dollars a week for it
-but-it's big enough to be alone in"
"Rose :" he said, hoarsely.
A drunken man came lurching pitt
aDly down the street. She shrank into
the angle of the steps, and Rodney fol-
lowed her, found her with his hands,
and heard her voice speaking breath
lessly, in gasps. He hardly knew what
she was saying.
"It's been wonderful know
we haven't talked; We'll do that some
other time, somewhere where we can
But tonight, walking along
like that, just as Tomorrow,
I shall think it was all dream"
Rose
The only sound that came in an
swer was long, tremulously indrawn
breath. But presently her hand took
the one of his that had been clutching
her shoulder and led him up the steps.
She opened the door with latchkey,
and then, behind her, he made his
way up two flights of narrow stairs,
whose faint creak made all the sound
there was. In the black little corridor
at the top she unlocked another door.
"Wait till / light the gas" she
breathed.
She turned and looked into his face,
her eyes searching it as his were
searching hers, luminously and with a
swiftly kindling fire. Her lips parted
a little, trembling. There was sort
Of bloom on her skin that became
more visible as the blood, wave on
wave, came flushing in behind it.
AS for Rodney, he was the same
man who, an hour ago, in the theater,
had ragged and writhed under what he
felt to be an invasion of his propri-
etary rights in her.
He wouldn't have defined it that
way, to be sure, in talk with Barry
Lake; would have denied, with the
best of them, that husband had any
proprietary rights in his wife. But
the intolerable sense of having be-
come an object of derision or con-
temptuous pity, of being disgraced
and of her being degraded couldn't
derive from anything else but just
that.
"Have you anything here,'' he asked
her duly, besides what will go in
that trunk?"
1t was the surliness Of his tone,
rather than the words themselves,
that startled her.
"No," she said, puzzled. "Of
course not"
"Then throw them into it quickly, -
be said, "and wen lock the thing up.
~