Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1919-09-06

Jalnly would nave Deen recorded ny 4
less sensitive person than Barnes as
ripping"
In reply to his perfunctory delight
ed, I'm sure, etc." she said quite clear
ly: "Oh, now remember. was sure
/ had seen you before, Mr.. Barnes.
You are the magic gentleman who
sprang like a mushroom out of the
earth early yesterday afternoon"
'And frightened you" he said !;
''whereupon you vanished like the
mushroom that is gobbled up by the
predatory glutton."
He had thrilled at the sound of her
voice. 1t was the low, deliberate voice
of the woman of the crossroads, and
as before, he caught the almost i'm
perceptible accent. The red CLEAN
from the blazing logs fell upon her
shining hair; it glistened like gold.
She wore a simple evening gown of
white, softened over the shoulders and
neck with a fall of rare valenciennes
lace. There was no jewelry-not even
ring on her slender, tapering fingers.
Mrs. Collier, the hostess, was an ell
derby, heavy-featured woman, decid-
eddy overdressed. Mrs. Van Dyke,
her daughter, was a woman of thirty,
tall, dark and handsome in q bold,
dashing sort of way. The lackadaisi-
cal gentleman with the mustache
turned out to be her husband.
"Ny brother is unable to be with
us tonight, Mr.. Barnes" explained
Mrs. Collier. "Mr. O'Dowd may have
told you that he is an invalid. Quite
rarely is he well enough to leave his
room. He has begged me to present
his apologies and regrets to you. An
other time, perhaps, you will give him
the pleasure he is missing tonight"
De Seto's cocktails came in. Miss
Cameron did not take one. O'Dowd
proposed toast.
ITO the rascals who went cunning
for the other rascals. But for them
we should be short at least one men,
Der Of this agreeable company"
1t was rather startling. Barnes
glass stopped half way to his lips. An
instant later he drained it. He ac-
cepted the toast as a compliment from
the whilom Irishman, and not as a
tribute to the prowess of those mys-
FERROUS marksmen.
The table in the spacious dining
room was one of those long, narrow
italian boards, Enthusiastically antique
and equally rare. Sixteen or eighteen
people could have been seated with
out crowding, and when the seven took
their places wide intervals separated
them. No effort had been made by the
hostess to bring her guests close to-
gether, as might have been done by
using one end or the center of the
table. The serving plates were Of sill
yer. Especially beautiful were the
lOng-stemmed water goblets and the
graceful champagne glasses. They
were blue and white and of a design
and quality no longer obtainable ex-
cept at great cost. The esthetic
Barnes was not slow to appreciate the
rarity of the glassware and the chaste
beauty of the serving plates.
The man Nicholas was evidently the
butler, despite his Seventh avenue
manner. He was assisted in serving
by two stalwart and amazingly clumsy
footmen, of similar ilk and nationality.
On seeing these additional men serv-
ants Barnes began fguratively to
count on his fingers the retainers he
had so far encountered on the place.
Already he had seen six. all of them
powerful, rugged fellows. 1T struck
him as extraordinary, and in a way
significant, that there should be so
many men at Green Fancy.
Much to his disappointment he was
not placed near Miss Cameron at
table Indeed she was seated as far
away from him as possible. There was
place set between him and De Soto,
for symmetry's sake, Barnes con-
cluded. In this he was mistaken;
they had barely seated themselves
when Mrs. Collier remarked:
"Mr Curtis secretary usually joins
us here for coffee. He has his dinner
with my brother, and then, poor man,
comes in for a brief period of relaxa-
ton. When my brother is in one Of
his bad spells poor mr. Loeb Doesn't
have much time to himself"
Loeb. the private secretary, came in
for coffee. He was a tall, spare man
of thirty, pallidly handsome, with
dark, studious eyes and features Of an
Enthusiastically Hebraic cast, as his
name might have foretOld. His teeth
were marvelously white and his slow
smile attWctive. More than once dur
ing the hour that Loeb spent with
them Barnes formed and dismissed a
stubborn ever-reeurring opinion that
the man was not Jew. Certainly he
was not an American Jew. His voice,
his manner Of speech, his every action
stamped him as one born and bred in
a land far from Broadway and its
counterparts. If a Jew he was Of the
east as It is measured from Rome
the Jew Of the carnal Orient.
And as the evening wore on there