The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-07-18

probed further.
We've always been such chums'"
the girl murmurec brokenly. II never
had a secret from her before. L"
Her eyes flooded with tears, She
stepped forward and laid both hands on
Dams arm.
"oh, Doctor Daniels" she cried, Jam
I doing very wrongT Tell me! I'm
so bewldered. Mr.. Slemmer didn't
want to tell mother of our engagement,
because he thought she'd want us to
wait, and-I don't know! Is it-all
rightl"
Carwood patted her shoulder tenderly
and winked over her head at Slemmer.
"You must not worry, child" he
said consolingly. Brother Slemmer Is
a good man. and he will be kind to your
mother. She will not have lost a eaugh-
ter by your marriage, but will have
gained a soma strong man upon whom
she can rely"
I'm so gladv' the girl sobbed, COM
forted by the words of the gambler mas
querading as Gods minister. eve felt
$3.50 wrong about 1t allv'
Everything viii be WE'LL" Dan in
toned, and walked quickly from the
room to give vent to his mirth.
The situation was perfect, he told
himself. The mother alone and an IN
valid-good Her suffering would be
the keener. Dan knew, none better. the
path on which he was helping to set
the daughters feet. DISBURSEMENT,
horror, degradation, death-those were
the stations along it's course, and a
delicate young girl Of Helen Willamore's
type would not be long in passing all Of
them. She and her mother had been
such chums, had they? Well, they
wouldn't be quite so chummy hence
forth
Thus Dams thoughts, and they
pleased him nightly. He only wished
that he could let the mother know his
part In the destruction of the daughter
without discriminating himself. He
would like to have her know that he,
Dan Carwood, the man she had fitted,
hac aided In running her daughter--the
daughter Of the man for whom she had
broken her troth to him. He would
like to have her know!
Dan was eager to seal the girls fate.
The witnesses, two sartorially pre-
sentable cronies of Slemmer, had ar
rived. Dan could hear them In the next
room congratulating Slemmer and the
girl The caterer had finished his ar
rangements for the wedding supper. Dan
returned to the living room, smiling
smugly.
"If we're all ready" he limited
pleasantly.
"Just minute" Slemmer said. The
flowers have just come from Dan
dridge's. They're bringing them up
stairs now. Can't have a wedding
without flowers, you know! Here they
are now"
A florists messenger entered, bear
ing large paper box. Slemmer opened
1t. revealing several dozen American
Beauty roses. Helen Willamore gave
a little Groom of delight.
sob! You remembered she ex-
claimed happily.
THAT you loved roses?" Slemmer
said, laughing as he took the flowers
in his arms. Indeed / did. That's
Why I ordered them-roses and nothing
else. Like them?"
Like them? Oh !" The girl fondly
touched her cheek to the cool, fragrant
petals. "They are mothers favorite
flowers, too"
Dan CarwooC's brain was ablaze with
hate. The sight of the roses, so in
separately associated with the memory
of the woman who had hurt him,
parched his heart with a savage thirst
for revenge. He remembered the rose
in the mothers hair on the night when
he had found her in the other man s
embrace-in the embrace of the man
who was this girls father.
As he thought of it, a savage within
possessed him. The daughter should
wear red rose in her hair, while he,
Dan Carwood, performed the mock cere-
mony that doomed her! He would
place it there himself-would crown her
with red, the red that would soon be
the symbol of her shame!
He stepped forward and snapped a
huge red rose from its stem.
"a crown for your happiness" he
said, bowling, and fixed the flower in
her bent head.
Y
As he arranged it, he was aware Of
a strange tide of weakness blowing
through hip The room swan before
his eyes. He felt himself growing faint
under the influence of an irresistible
power that acted upon him like an anes-
thetic. He tried to fight it, but was
powerless, for he knew not what it was
that numbed him.
The mysterious and potent something
sapped the foundations of his evil will.
He felt the cynical, brutal structure
built of the experiences of twenty hard,
bad years crumbling, falling away from
him, under the disintegrating influence
Of the metaphysical ether that flowed
about him, leaving his soul exposed,
naked, and young and true.
Under the strange influence he found
himself after a moment of bewildered
terror, the mental and spiritual counter