The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-12-24
A WOMAN OF FLAME

merriment. ridfcule. joy; it was like hand straying over a harp. And beyond this, in every day life, she possessed quiet cachinnation which Lane himself had likened to plum met striking the water in deep well. And whenever he heard this quality, he watched for the outbreak of some mild bit of deyiltry.
 Genius, as a dramatist being divina- ted, he often wondered if she were not a true daughter of the south for all that she and her forbears had been born in the north? Who could say that some Viking ancestor of her had not raided the Sicilian or Nea- politan coasts in bygone centuries and taken to wife his captive?
 Selma was an inveterate gambler. She took plays that had been re- jected everywhere and gambled with them, sometimes with extraordinary success. She gambled with her audiences. In Europe she gambled with gold; here in America she gambled with stocks. And as she ran out for the coffee percolator she decided to gamble with Lane.
 Presently she returned. Lane sniffed pleasurably. She lighted the alcohol lamp and drew up a chair. She invariably made ceremony of it. She had the European house. wife's opinion that no man knew how to make coffee.
 The two of them stared at the water-bulb in a fascinated kind of way. Usually they chatted about the play he was writing; but tonight the tof ion which provoked a silence that lasted until the mental cover of the upper bulb threatened to pop off.
 Swiftly she bent her head and blew out the wick.
 Like that,n she said.
 Like what?' ne asked. awakening from his, reflections.
 That is the way I wish to die"
 q wish you wouldn't talk like that"
 Well, it's the truth, heart O mine. The one thing dread is to die in bed, alone. forgotten, crowded to suffocation by memories. When we are young and active, we can open and shut that door at will. But in old age the hinges are loose, the door Hops and memory comes out at flood tide, from every channel No; don't want to die like that. Only two cups, mind. You ought not to have any; but if you will work all night at least it shall not be work wasted. Good night.
 CHAPTER II
 The Lanes had been wealthy for three or four generations. Herbert Lane wrote plays because that was part of his destiny That he was 1l;,-ing a fss+une as dramatist was of less interest to him than the fact that this money was tangible proof of his success.
 Forever and always money is sue cess. In his youth he had been tudi- ous; he had never been a waster, roister by night. He was like thou sands of his kind. Those young fools we read about are merely exeep- tions to the rule. New York knew but little of him. even in those days of his literary triumphs.
 Sordidness in any form repelled him. His dramas were strong and sometimes brutal, but they were never tainted by the sordid or the unwholesome. He was moralist who was neither prude nor pedant It was his clear insight into life and the attendent cleanness of his mind that first drew Selma.
 When the day came when he could not longer withstand. temperament tally, the desire to be free-free of this increasing repellance which for ever pushed him back and forever drew him ion--he told his wife frankly.
 Very well; do as you like.r She said nothing more than that.
 He packed and left. For days aft ' he lived in kind of hypnotic fury. And in this mood, always susceptible to sympathy, he met Selma Nord- strom--the woman. not the actress.
 Upon leaving his wife, he had turned over the estate and It's reve- nue. condltionally. Sc was to enjoy them so long as she lived, provided she did not marry again. In the event of her decision to divorce him. these terms should still maintain.
 Ii she married again. naturally all her rights would instantly cease. There was. however, generous clause. She would have tho tbso- lnfn and control of hundred thousand.
 These arrangements were in no wise suggested by a consciousne. that he was wronsing her. He was generous and open handed because that was one Of his eharac teristics.
 He believed in his right to happi- ness. and he could not be happy with