Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-08-19
The >llL;0orrzIk9~Ss:;>2r
W N ROBERT " CHAMBERS IN w

CHAMBERS II w
! DANES in New York-before their en-
tire underground machinery was set
in motion to seize those Wretched
papers in Brookhollow"
Neeland said:
You don't know even yet, prin-
cess, how amazingly fast that ma
chinery worked"
time &c enough to write my warning
since it is already too late And
she seated herself on the sofa and
drew Ruhannah down beside her.
Listen, dear" she said with pref
ty mockery, here is a most worthy
young man who is simply dying to
let US know how picturesque a man
can be when he tries to-"
Neeland laughed:
The only trouble with me, - he
less habit of telling the truth. 9th
erwise there'd be some chance for
me as hero in what I'm going to
tell you"
And he began with his first en-
counter with Use Dumont in Rue
Carew's house at Brookhollow. After
he had been speaking for less than
minute, Rue Carew's hands tight
ened in the clasp of the Princess
Naia, who glanced at the girl and
noticed that she had lost her color.
! And Neeland continued his partly
playful, partly serious narrative OF
| knowing accidents by flood and
| field" aware of the girls deep,
| GREATNESS interest, moved by 1T, and;
! conscious of it, the more inclined
to avoid the picturesque and heroic
| and almost ashamed to talk Of him
self at all under the serious beau
| ty Of the girls clear eyes.
But he could scarcely tell his tale
and avoid mentioning himself; he
was the center Of it all, the focus
of the darts of Fate, and there was
no getting away from what happen
| ed to himself.
| So he made the melodrama COM
| edy, and the moments of deadly peril
he treated lightly. And one thing
he avoided altogether, and that was
! how he had kissed Use Dumont.
When he finished his account OF
his dreadful situation in the state
room of Use Dumont, and how at
the last second her unerring shots
had shattered the bomb clock, cut
the guy rope, and smashed the water
jug which deluged the burning fuses,
he added with a very genuine laugh:
eff only some photographer had
taken a few hundred feet of film for
me I could retire on an ipcome in
year and never do another stroke
of honest work.
princess SI1ll6uy
but Rue Carew dropped her white
| face on the Princess Naia's shoulder
as though suddenly fatigued.
CHAPTER &XxvII
From Four to Five
The Princess Mistchenka and Rue
| Carew had retired to their respec-
| tive rooms for that hour between
four and five in the afternoon, which
the average woman devotes. to cat
maps or to that aimless feminine
| fussing which must ever remain
mystery to man.
| The afternoon had turned very
warm; Neeland, in his room, lay on
| the lounge in his undershirt and
trousers, having arrived SO far to-
ward bathing and changing his at.
/ tire.
No breeze stirred the lattice blinds
hanging over both open windows; the
I semi-darkness of the room was pierre
ed here and there by slender shafts
of sunlight which lay almost white
across the carpet and striped the OPP
posite wall; the Rue Soleil dor was
very silent in the July afternoon.
| And Neeland lay there thinking
about all that had happened to him
| and trying to bring it home to him
self and make it seem plausible and
real; and could not.
For even now the last ten days
/ read concerning someone else. Nor
! did it seem to him that he person
! ally had known all those people con-
csrned in this wild, exaggerated, gro
! tesque story. They, too, took their
places on the printed page, appearing
! lingering, disappearing, reappearing
i as chapter succeeded chapter in a
romance too obvious, too palpably
sensa tional to win the confidence and
credulity Of a young man of today.
Fed to repletion on noisy contem-
porary fiction, his finer perception
biunted by the daily and raucous yell
of the New York press. his mag
ination too long overstrained by
Broadway drama and now flaccid and
capable of further response to it's
leering or shrieking appeal the din
of Notwithstanding art fell on
nerveless ears and on a brain be-
numbed and sceptical.
And so when everything that he
found grotesque, illogical, laboured
obvious and DANGEROUSLY redundant
in Literature and the drama began
to happen and continued to happen
pening and involving himself and
others all around him in the pleas
ant July sunshine of 1914, this young
man, made Intellectually blaise,
found himself without sufficient ca
pacity to comprehend 1T.
which his mind was struggling as he
ia lay there, his head Graded on one
is elbow, watching the thin blue spi-
70 rails from his cigarette mount
n straight to the ceiling and that was
y the metamorphosis of Rue Carew.
,e Where was the thin girl he remem-
Is bered--with her untidy chestnut hair
ceand freckles. and a rather sweet
al m outh-dressed in garments the only
nc mission of which was to cover a
IN flat chest and frail body and limbs
e. whose too rapid growth had out
IS stripped maturity?
% To search for her he went back to
ne the beginning, where a little girl in
pink print dress, bare-legged and
e7i hatless. 1oitered along an ancient
on rail fence and looked up shyly at
y. him as he warned her to keep out of
range of the fusil1ade from the
TO bushes across the pasture.
Is He thought of her again at the
b. noisy party in Gayfield on that white
LzyE