Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1921-01-06
CHAPTER FIVE
Rendezvous With Destiny.
|. THE CLOCK.

BY the time Priscilla Maine had spent
twenty minutes phoIing and all her pa
itience garnering snubs from one arro-
CANT cab company after another, the
van Of the storm had passed, leaving
the completer subjugation Of the
stunned and cringing city to the end
less legions of the rain.
Her own car was being used by Mrs.
iTrowbridge for a dinner visit out of
town. In her present state of mind
and nerves the prospect of stopping on
indefinitely in the studio was insuffer-
able.
Resigning herself, then, to a drench-
ing, the girl locked up and scampered
through swimming streets to Fifth
avenue-where she waited three min
utes that seemed ten till a trudging
bus consented to pick her up At the
uptown end of her journey, likewise,
she had two blocks to run, from Fifth
avenue to Park, before she got home,
with hat, suit, furs and temper all de-
moralized.
While her maid prepared a bath, she
begged off by telephone from a dinner
engagement to which she had long
been looking forward. Tonight she
felt it would be impossible to holu her
own, with anxiety on account of Mario
and LeOnora forever at her elbow, a
gibbering specter.
A hot bath and the ease of negHge
should have lent her some tranquility,
but did not. She made the merest pre-
tense of dining from tray in her
room. She could not forget
Past seven: in less than three hours
Leonora must start upon her journey
And she could do nothing /.
nothing . but wait and wonder
and wiring useless hands
A little before ten an inexplicable
change in the texture of her emotions
made her aware that the peak of her
transports had been reached and
passed. OF sudden she found herself
more calm, not with the calm of mis-
givings set at rest, rather with that Of
courage dauntlessly addressing itself
to a forlorn hope.
Intuition OWNED the explanation: In
that strange, deep sympathy which
made them one, her mental and emo
tional processes faithfully reflected
Leonora's; what, agonies of doubts and
fears she had suffered tonight were
but replicas of those which Leonora
had suffered. But now the time of
waiting was no more: Leonora had left
her hiding place and, committing her
self bravely to her dark adventure,
had found relief in action.
If only she might be with Leonora
tonight as she had so often been, see
ing what she saw, doing what she did,
knowing what she knew, participating
in every reaction of her wits and per-
Only if she could sleep, it was pos
sible, she might dream =.
Darkening her bedchamber, she
went to the window, opened it, and
tarried a little in it's recess, looking
out.
ASoAA Neo OlAll LdlllllSJ lOII6ullul
lancing the night with it's myriad slen.
der, silver, slanting jets, brlmmirg
cutters, flooding sidewalks, blackening
and furnishing roadways to the sem
tblance Of rivers of ink that mirrored
multitude Of lights. She thought Of
Leonora struggling through that scour
ing tempest to an unknown bourne :.
The clock struck ten.
She turned back to her bed, threw
herself down upon it without undress
ing, and closed her eyes. Immediately
she opened them again; there could
be no sleep for her till mind and spiri
were tagged out altogether.
On her dressing table the CONVEX
crystal of q French clock caught {
clear beam from some street light ant
was TRANSPORTED into the likeness of ;
little captive moon of dead white glare
Upon this, the brightest spot in tn
room, Priscilla's gaze focused natural
ly. For minutes on end she watchet
1T, in phase Of lethargic fascination
which was rewarded when the littl
moon began to grow, to spread Out
its cold light filling the room, tn
worid, and all the spaces of her con
sciousness, so that spellbound percep
tiOns grew faint, then failed, and sh
was no more aware of herself as Pris
ella Maine, an individual entity, bu
only as a pinpolnt of anonymous bein
adrift in the measureless incoherenc
of infnity. -.
II. THE STREET.
She had neither raincoat nor um