The Lamar register., 1919-10-15
CHAPTER !.

Andrea Pellor stood on the edge OF
the cliff at the back of the Indian
Ocean hotel and gaZed out across
twenty-five miles of inoonlit bay. 1t
was not for lack of a partner that she
stood alone. She had promised this
very extra to four insistent men, but
had excused herself to one after an
other of them, Just for moment.
Just while powder my nose"
They had all seen her run up the
stairs in the main hallway; they had
not seen her travel steadily on
through the length of the hotel and
come down the 'ladder-like exit into
the garden. Why had she done it?
That was a question that she herself
could not have answered but that did
not occur to her as a matter for solu-
ton. so often had similar impulse
snatched her momentarily away from
a crowded world.
Andrea had u past, but very little
history. She was the only daughter
of Lord Pellor of Pellor, a land-poor
baron who could distribute five titles
among his five sons but very little
cash. As a result Andrea had lived
the life. IL life you can call it, Of tab
ulated Impoverished English gentle
women: Everything that the traffic
will bear for the men OF the family
and for the girl just enough frocks at
her coming out TO dissemble the bait
that clothes the hook that catches the
man with millions.
During her first season offers had
come to her; not the measured ad-
vances OF buyers In the marrisg ge mar
ket, for about the brow OF such bud.
ding maidenhood as had been hers
there hangs a guardian halo that
blinds the eyes Of sane-aged men, but
the Overlapping onslaughts of youth
maddened hearts.
1t was In her fifth season that the
arbiters of her fate raised the shears
of destiny and clicked them. He who
fell to her lot was a man of humble
origin who had reached the ripe age
Of fifty-elght without ever having had
time to marry. His life. with a diff
ference, had been Just as narrow. hide
bound and conventional as had hers.
The difference was that he had trav-
eled ne sterestyped Dick Wilmington
trail to high finance rather than the
social highway. He had started out In
Africa with a pack of cheap jewelry,
an open mind and an easy conscience,
and had emerged after twenty-five
years as one of the few Gentiles In the
combine that controls the worlds dla-
mond output. His wealth was so great
that an ultimate peerage was almost
a matter OF course. But. as usual. an
aristocrntIc marriage had to come
first
The contract was as cold-blooded as
any ever perpetrated by a royal house.
Allowances, carefully graded. were
stipulated TO be paid at fixed times to
Andrea's parents and to each of her
five brothers. She herself came In for
a large and inalienable marriage set
tlement and was further secured in
such details as to where the town res
idence was to be located as well as to
the number and nature of the country
places which were to be maintained
When the document was finally com
pleted 1t was casually submitted to
Andrea for approval. Nobody dreamed
that she would doubt for moment
that those in family authority were
most able TO decide Whht was pest 1OT
her and nobody was right. She merely
SKINNED through the typewriter
pages of the prenuptial agreement, sat
isfied herself that vast sum of money
was destined to the upkeep Of Pellor,
and dreamy-eyed with sudden memo
ries, nodded her adorable head in con-
sent
All doubtless would have taken its
appointed course had not the Euro
pean war put In its nightly discon-
certing finger. Surprising things hap
pened In South Africa. Andrea's affi-
anced sailed on twenty-four hours no
tice. The diamond mines closed down.
took a short nap, and then suddenly
awakened to the fact that America
alone was demanding as much Of their
product as had the whole world before
1t turned its entire attention to max
ing munitions and paying for them.
Andrea's betrothed found himself har-
messed to his job, possibly for the du-
ration of the war. AS result 1t was
decided In family cOnclave that 1t was
incumbent upon Andrea to take ad-
vantage of a providential detail of two
of her brothers on the Nyassaland eI-
peditionary force and accompany