Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-05-14

the hand he had offered falling
by his side. The girls gesture, her
tone, were plain enough; not only
Irenya and Rupert, but the whole
troup of witnesses stood arrested.
This to Danilo Lesendra, from the
gracious Delight; this public insult
and condemnation? Lightly as they
esteemed the judgment of
the Montenegrins regarded each 9TH
err gravely.
Rupert came to the relief of the
in1passe.
~ 'Mr. Michael met her and put up
a scare,'ihe muttered, passing the Of
ficer.Tl %
Delight accepted the Americans
assistance. At Lesendra she did not
look again, hurryinge by with averted
face.<- So she and '1renya entered the
tower they had so merrily left. At
the door she paused. gazing back to
where the officer still remained, a
motionless figure. She vaguely hoped
that he would spring after her, show
anger, protest. demand an explana-
tion-take any of the actions of an
innocent man. He did not move.
Very slowly she went in.
Irenya was pr~e-eminently practi-
cal. She asked nothing, either of the
encounter with Michael or the hui
initiation Of her betrothed kinsman.
Still In the pink frock, she assumed
charge Of her Countess. Delice as If
age and position/had been reversed.
Delight passively submitted to being
put into negligee, to having her
damp hair brushed out and coiled
low on her neck. and to drinking the
tea prescribed. But she could not
eat. and would not lie down. They
compromised on a capacious arm
nh ~ roor.<ho na1oho~h1~S ~~4n
window, after which Delight firmly
dismissed her attendant.
go and rest-have your own din
ner. Talk to Rupert, if you chvose.
Go, dear Irenya!"
"If you wish to be alone. Countess
Delice, why not say that" rebuked
Irenya, without the least annoyance.
"Also it would be severely improper
that L should converse with Mr..
Rupert at this hour. But Twill eat
and continue in the blue o SO
that I will be near when you want
me-"
Delight impulsively drew the girl
down and kissed her.
you shall come to America with
me! oh, my dear, my dear, If I "a
not be happy, I will make you So!
You do not love Danilo; say you do
mot" Sc @a
Il do not" obeyed Danilo's aancee
P Paod Goa "H MSo i is san the
Countess Delice."
After her going, the room was very
silent. The night was still, warm
and MINDLESS as an Italian night. The
moon vas rising, floating up and
blossoming against the dark like a
water-fower on a black lake. There
was a fiowerlike fragrance in the
room, but it did not come from with
out: it was the persisting rose per-
Feodorovna Balslc, the ghost Of roses
and beauty long dead. Delight Bal
sic pressed her ace against the silk
cushions; she had beside her the
ghost Of dead faith. With it, she
kept vigil. s,
Michael, and Lesendra, and her
duty to stefan Balsic-those were
the themes on which her weary
thoughts spoke and clamored, argued
and dissented. OF the three men.
one alone stood an unchanging i'm
like herself, was cheated of his
trust. The girl shivered in cold sick
mess as she remembered what she
would have been in his eyes. at this
hour, but for Rupert. No one would
have known the truth of her flight
with Michael: she must have seemed
the wife who had gone with her
lover. Count Balsic must have sup
posed the automobile drive planned
Well. she had kept primitive, hon
esty with her husband. Did she owe
him no deeper honesty? She fought
against the suggestion; she could
not tell him Of Lesendra's fault, de-
Iliver the young officer to punishment