The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-07-05

seat And the odd part of it was that
neither she nor her male partner
noticed that was studying their move
ments.
I had. in fact. been studying them
for some time.
Then, Of a sudden their surreptitious
amorous in:imacies no longer ensrosscd
my attention. For the man had
reached smtlingly into his pocket and
into the wonan's hand he had quietly
and calmly slipped a diamond that
wasn't the sort that is passed from
hand to hand about midnight trottertes,
as a rule. It was. saw. a canary
oolored' stone set between two en-
eralds. To make It more remarkable
= it was cut in the shape Of a heart
It would have looked cheap or gross,
1 think, II its tinting had been anything
hut the tenderest of buttercup yellows.
Without that sublimated essence of
sunlight to soften its glitter 1t would
surely have looked as blatant as the
diamond alligator which the lady her
Y self wore on her well-calcimined and
opulent bosom. You can't take fifteen
or twenty carats of living and flashing
sunset and frame. IL in grass-g green and
hope for anything much less con-
Spiouous than a broadway sky-sisn.
Even from where I sat could see It
sparkle and CLINT, in, the pink-tinted
hnd-hoilow cupped so aYariciously
and yet so abstractedly about it. For
every one o. those thousand sparkles. ]
told myself, some one had doubtlessly
paid a tear-or somebody. in time to
come, would pay their tear.
Then I looked more closely at the
woman herself. She sat a trifle back
from the damask- draped table, with
her knees crossed. Her left elbow
rested on her upper knee and her we'll
powdered chin rested in turn on her
left hand. Her right arm. bare and
rounded and n1ysteriousiy voluptuous
In its unrnuscied softness. lay stretched
out on the table with the canary
colored diamond resting between the
slightly prehensile fingers
She studied that diamond as closely
and as abstractedly as I was studying
her. verlyn vachen was Broadway
aotress, the kind who adorn muscial
comedy and invade the legitimate only
in distinctly minor parts which they
both over dress and uuder-act.
had been taught to sccept her as
| YanRins in with that army. by nc
means a small one. which accepred the
stage as a sort Of auction-block. where
uaraded beauty may be dGiy assessed
I
| bidder. And as she sat tfIers,. studNing
| tf.e Jewel in her hand. the Jewel watch
had iust been given to her by the mar
vim uuite as easily could have give1
her a million dollars, the idea OF the
| auction-blocAr kept coming back to me
l. again and again. For I FELT thar a
compact had been entered into, g
trophy had been sought and won.
/ couldn't help thinking Of that diamond
as a badge OF capitulation.
This caused me to glance back al
the man again, the man who In al
such things is of distinctly minor i'm
nortance. "Cappie'' Cairns was known
not only f6rrhis millions. but more fol
the manner in which he disposed OF
adequately generous slices OF tnat same
fortune. Yet he trod softly along tne
serried cotes of adventure. always CIV
ing an. sir of legitimacy to those ex-
l. c1,rsions. He "backcd' an occasiona
| musical comedy. which gave him. his
enemies proclaimed, an excuse for be-
,nv Interested in its daughters or song
He mixed with the motion-picture pro-
| ducers. for that trim new avenue. ex-
,,T.tns5 the same enemie-, led into tht
out1ands Of arrogant and self-exploit-
ing beauty where big game fell only e
the EXPRESS rifle OF millions. And al
the willis the upper layer OF Cappis
Cairuss4 associates asserted him to 81
the finest of fellows. fsnily-man wnf
bsIfsvsd IN a BIT Of FUN to keep tn
80 90 arr oueu-hauded to the need1
AMI sasv- going with the unfortunate
As for the lower layers OF Cappt'
-airuSs friends, their comments wer'
| more restricted since they had onlI
themselves and the police to talk to
II urobabIy paid them to remember
tf1e legend Of the goose and the colder
egg
For the man who sat across the taol'
from verlyn Vachell. so leisurely sup
ping on. rudy duck and Burgundy
looked anything but an ogre who al
Beauty almost as raw as he coYld ca
MS canvasback. He looked rathe
urban. in fact and exceptionally well
Rroomed, and a trife paternaL HI
face wore a set air o. pensivenes
touched with humor. as though Will
begging with one hand he remembers
he carried a sword in the other Abou
| The trirn-cut lines OF his shoulders wa
an almost military rigidity OF pose
making me think Of a West Point DO,
who'd taken to posing as Rip Val
Wrinkle. And his waist-line was sur
prisingly meager for millionaire boz
vivant who. could never hope to Sc
| nfty again I'd somewhere heaEu ina
h spent two frantic hours every day Il
a squa sh-court. followed by an equal
frantic hour with a Swedish rubber
"a also been told that he both dram
and smoked with scrupulous care. hv
irg austerely IN the small things @
iife to tie end that he might expen
prodiga1ly IN what he accepted as tn
big things.
II was the memory Of this, more tina
his actual appearance. that made hin
auddeniy odious to me. It made hiT
seem to professionalize animal passion
lust as the woman across the tabl
frcln him exploited and professional
ICED her appeal OF face and beauty {
body And the two forces had met ap
parentiy, had contended and wavere
and finally fused. The badge and SET
Of that union lay there In front OF m
eyes, as clearly defined az the fame {
an -oxyacetylene torch-lay there in til