Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1919-11-06
THE LADY EVELYN

A Story of Today
BY MAX PEMBERTON

KraJOva. He brought the news to
us. My father lives. But he IL at
Krajova no longer. The Russian
Government never forgets, my lord.
It remembers the day when Georges
Odin was its enemy. My own people
fear that my fathers liberty would
awaken old affairs that had better
sleep. He is the victim Of them.
Yours Is the one hand in all Europe
that could set him free. Ny lord, the
world must know his story and you
shall write 1t. And II not you-then
my Lady Evelyn. your daughter. Do
you think / am SO blind that l do not
read the truth? The blood that ran
in the mothers veins runs in the
daughters. Open the doors of this
house to her and she will go to the
hills as her mother went. The desire
Of life throbs in her veins. When l
speak to her, l, witness the struggle
between the old and the new; faith
and Joy; the convent and the theatre;
love and the prison. Your pride, your
fear, have made captive OF her-but
!. my lord, may yet cut her pretty
bonds. AS God Is in heaven, will
not spare her one hour of shame II you
do not give my father back to me.
Think of that before you answer me.
The girl or the man. Your shame or
her freedom. My lord, you have not
many hours in which to choose"
Such an alternative the Earl car.
ried with him to his own room; such
an alternative spoke to him from
every page of the diaries his hand
turned so painfully. 1t was as though
the dead had risen to accuse him.
Yonder, in a great clamped drawer Of
the bureau, were the letters he had re-
ceived from his dead wife in the days
when he contended with Georges Odin
for the love of that mad, wild girl Of
the Carpathians. How ardently he
had loved her! What mad hours they
had lived amid the gypsy children Of
Roumania! And yet in heart and will
she was another's. He had long
known she loved the prisoner at Kra.
jova. And the one supremely cow
ardly thing he had done in the course
of his life had been done at the die.
tation of an uncomfortable passion
which would sacrifice even honor for
ber sake. Georges Odin, the Counts
father, had met him in fair fight-the
better swordsman had won. Never
would he forget the day-the snow.
capped hills, the white glen in which
they fought; the keen sword lightly
engaging his own; then the swift at
tsck, the mastery reposte and that
sensation as of red-hot iron passing
to his very heart. No shame here,
II is true; but there were days OF
shame afterward when the story came
out and King Charles himself asked
the question, was 1t SO? A word from
Robert Forester would have saved
his enemy from the mines. He never
spoke it. The man disappeared from
his ken, and he believed that he was
dead. He could scarcely deny the jus.
tice of the retribution which now over.
took him.
Georges Odin alive and prisoner
still in some unknown fortress cita-
del. How the very name could awak-
en- forgotten sensations! 1t seemed
to the Earl as though the madness of
his youth struggled once more for
mastery with the finer impulses and
desires which later day had inspired.
Yesterday he had been country gen.
tleman, seeking to cast behind finally
that cloak of unconventionality he had
worn with such pleasure IN his youth.
He had meant to whitewash the sepul-
chre; to take his seat in the Lords; !;
to equip himself for the great honors
thrust upon him; to marry Evelyn Sc
&ately to a son of a noble house and
then. as 1t were, to convince himself
that the abnormal had been purged
out Of him and would affiict him no
more. These ambitions, however,
were powerless now to combat the
more natural instincts which the story
Of his youth could recreare for him.
Once more In imagination he rode the
hills OF Roumania as a free adventur.
er. submitting to the laws neither of
God nor OF man. Once more the sen.
suons voluptuousness of the Earl DOM
inaied him, and the spirit within him
rebelled at Its captivity. He must e.
cape convention. he thought, become
wanderer once more. And Evelyn!
Had he not feared to read in her acts
this very inheritance his own nature
cried out for. He shuddered' when he
thought of Evelyn. Who would save
her,in the hour of cataclysm?
Such were the thoughts o: that
night long drawn and terrible. In mo
ments of revulsion against those VINO
had thus brought him to bay, there
were mad whisperings which remind
ed him that Georges Odin's son WAS
he prisoner of his house and that, a.
he wonld, he might readily be detain.
ed there until some understanding had
been come to. This was a thougl; the
Earl could recall again and again.
The man was alone and helpless IN his
hands. 1t womld be folly 10 op9n the
doors and to say. Go out ap6''t!r The
story to the world" Meibo.irnc Hall
had barbored greater secrets before
that davt. and might witneae than