The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1920-02-28
CHAPTER IV.-continued.

s.
And and want to thank you
now" she said in a tone which would
have fallen as blessing upon the ears
of any other man alive, 'for speaking
as though you loved him. And for
all you did for him. Perhaps you
know already . perhaps you can't
know but I'm trying to tell you,
because he was he was one of
my very dearest friends"
His brain snapped; he bent down
to her.
''You loved him-too?" ne said, I'M
comfortably.
"Yes," she said. "Once-I loved him,
tool"
Alone in the appointed guest room
of the Cullen hOme-for Mr.. Cullen
had been as good as his word, and
sent car to fetch his visitors be-
longings-Hilliard lighted a cigarette
Gan acquired taste, but advisable as
minor deception, since he had been
grinned expansively. Leisurely he be-
gan to undress, but before his shoes
were quite unlaced, he sat back COM
fortably in his chair and meditated.
"All serene so far" he said "But
when Carol came in :" He shook
his head vigorously. swell, it's over
anyway. The doctor :" Hill
Iiard's face darkened There's the
man want to get at Pious old hypo-
critic! And he didn't think deserved
to be in the family! Sort of hate to
let him make money out of this deal,
but it's all in the game. Goals of fire
But ten thousands lot from the doc
tor We'll say ten thousand"
He closed his eyes dreamily; and
his thoughts reverted from Doctor
Durant to the doctors daughter.
"Carol-Carol ~ ne murmured. zone
minute there, thought I'd crack. And
+ YEAS one OF her dearest friends l
was. was I? And she loved me-Once.
Once! Pity II wasn't twice! Pity she
and the doctor didn't say so the night
they kicked me out so neatly. Well,
business is business After
they've made their money out of it,
and found out this man billiards.
some little gold-plated whirlwind all
by himself il. Cad can't see their
faces when they get the truth of it"
With the cigarette dropping from his
lips, he stood up and swept clear
space in the table. From his suitcase
he exhumed a tablet Of thin transpar-
ent writing paper of q kind not sold in
America; it was the paper on which
the letter to Cullen from Richard Nor
gan had been written, and it was sheer
luck that billiard had brought the re-
mainder of the tablet from New York
with him. He tossed a blob of ink
from his fountain pen and inspected it
critically.
s"Too black" he decided, and went to
the bathroom, where he half-emptied
the reservoir of the pen and refilled it
with water.
"That ought to be just about right
sort of pale and mysterious and
war-strength."
He seated himself at the table, took
the pen in his left hand and inscribed
circles on the paper; scrubbed
meaningless sentence and laughed
gently.
"Funny how some people can be
ambidextrous and take so long to
realize it. If hadn't caught bullet
in my arm, and tried to write left
handed in the hospital, I'd give myself
away up here in no time. Writings
too blamed distinctive. But, as it is,
Left Hand, very large and plain, is
Henry HllIiard-" Here he shifted
the pen to the other hand-"And
poor, dead Dicky Morgan-'one of her
dearest friends I'm glad killed that
chan off-he never amounted to hill
of beans anyway. But this Hilliard
persona live wire, boy, live wire!"
And with q grin of sardonic hurnOr
he wrote on the flimsy paper, slowly
and a little irregularly, as though in
physical discomfort:
"Neuilly, 7-19-15.
"No matter what you ever think, no
matter what you have ever thought,
have loved you"
He grimaced, pondered diligently,
and made a correction.
81 have always loved you more than
my own life. You said my ideals had
fallen-do you think so now? l don't,
dearest; I think they're almost what