Evening star., 1921-08-07

BELIEVE INTO ACTUALITY UNTIL
IN STOOD CONVINCED THAT IN s.
VAS SAVING THE LIVING DAUGHTE
book. and a marked disappointment
showed on his fact at Katherine Kim
sella's reluctance to discuss with him
the influence of the curtainleSs stage
on the structure of the Elizabethan
drama. But she was more actively
interested in the fact that he sized
up" well with Anada kinsella, that
their conjunction had already given
touch Of freshness to some of the
Jaded old scenes, and that they seemed
to go placidly on with their work
without any of the nonsense which
one might expect from the young.
new trick or two. and it was not
long. in that hard and hectic school.
before he achieved convincing
enough pretense at composure. 1t
was not long, either. before he worked
surprisingly well with Anada Kim
sella. And in so doing. her ever
watchful mother perceived. he was
unconsoiously helping the girl. She
was playing up to him without know
ing it. So. besides throwing an air of
youth into the dust-laden old dramas
through which they wandered with
preoccupied detachment all their
own. they brought into it an occa-
sional breath Of power. And Kath-
crime kinsella began to congratulate
herself on getting at so modest a
more than merely pass muster.
For even then she was utterly
without any. comprehension of the
situation. She became conscious of
Anada's more rigorous moods of pre-
occupation. of her silences and her
reservations. There were times. too.
when she was troubled by something
electric in the air. something elusive
and stirring and unfathomable. But
her eye fell on nothing definitely sus-
picious. And there was very little
that escaped that eye.
She did not understand. indeed un-
til the irrefutable evidence of it came
from the sheet of paper which she
found folded together and pinned on
the left side of the girls chemise.
It was the sheet of paper which
Wallie. as the Robin Hood in chaps.
besieged by the sheriff's posse, thrusts
into the girls hand in the third act
of THE Road Agents Revenge" 1t
was supposed to be message calling
for help, written under great tension.
1t was customarily mere stage
scrawl, dash or two of a pen across
Katherine Kinsella's attention that
the young outlaw in chaps. as he
wrote that message, slowed down the
, tempo OF the action by inditing actual
words on his sheet of paper. 1t an
! noyed her, at first. and then it puz-
zled her. And then it began to worry
. her. For after the act she caught
sight Of Anada tucking the scrap of
paper tenderly into her bodice.
She knew better than to ask about
it. Her daughter, she remembered.
had her privacies of life which she
| insisted on being respected But the
,, older woman bided her time. Long
after midnight. when the girl was
asleep beside her, she got up out of
bed and quietly pursued her search.
She found the paper pinned where it
would rest over her daughters heart.
And it was a love message. Even
now" were the words written there,
Il can't help saying just these three
words: I love you"
| Katherine Kinsella studied it with
sort t,e, OF terror suTsing s;a through her
by a sense of betrayal. and this in
turn by sense Of futility. Her first
impulse was to act, ana to act with
decision.
But the more she brooded over the
helplessness. She knew her daughter
well enough to understand that if she
summarily dismissed young Craswell
the girl would go with him. They
were already united in a campaign of
deception against her: To talk to
question. She had nothing to say to
, them that would be understandable.
from the viewpoint Of reason. They
knew nothing Of life as she had
come to know it. And an emotional
appeal was out Of the question 1t
was beyond her. 1t would never reach
the self-contained girl who had built
up about her young life it's laborious
walls Of reserve. And there was the
added danger Of precipitating what
was not yet final
co Katherine Kinsella became dis
~ Greet, silently and reptiliously
discreet. She waited and watched.
She studied the situation. She held
the key. now, which opened the door,
way to hundred earlier eniemas.
She began to understand the meaning
of the girls lassitude, the warmer and
Quicked flow of color to the smooth
cheek which the rawest of makeup
could scarcely disfigure, the new vi
brata in her deepening voice as she
declaimed the once tawdry lines of
| her tawdry love scenes with the ap-
POLICEMAN youth who moved about,
dream
For they were in a dream, the two
of them. the immaring and golden
misted dream Of first love. They had
| taken wing. in spirit, from that
shoddy road company with shoddy
They had escaped to a garden Of en-
chantment. where the light was mel
lower than that which came from a
ca Aum spotlight, where the roses