The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1922-05-27

29LOm8 JOSEPH NAhJeA s
son
cor, :. los. .,ess.a!!Nsss.a..

son y leas. ,asssaa. Ave.
Confined From, Our Last Issnel
He seemed startled and unmis-
6takabfy affected by the aI1lessness
of this confession and held her
close.
..But. my dearest girl. you're
trembling.sW What is it? Tell me -
It's 80 wonderful to haze you
back, Lynn. Don't ever leave ms
for SO long again.
GU tempt me to - he laughed
indulgently II think you've learn
ed to love me better while I've
been away than you did in all8the
while thatI was here!"
She answered with an odd little
laugh of love and depreciation: y
really think, / have
They dined at Narcotics not the
happiest selection for their first
few hours together, for the place
was thronged with picture-tolle-
Motoring to Santa Monica, Luz
cinda snuggled into the hollow Of
Summerlad' g arm, and rested a
long time in contented silence.
1t is too perfect she murmur-
ed at length, ito sweet to last
Why not? So long as we love,
what's to prevent all beauty last
ing
courage to speak of what she had
till then purposely Kept back
.'Bellamy."
The car was swinging into the
streets of Santa Monica. Lucinda
gave him her lips.
aYr g f1r 10 l.. sc.
me again while there's tins.
The restaurant to which the
Lontaines mad hidden them was
the one in those times nlsst favor
ed by the froth OF the picture col
ony for its weekly night OF csrni-,
val.
Round the four walls and en-
closing the CONSTRUCTED floor for
dancing tables were SO closely
ranked that passage between them
was largely impfacticable without
a guide. Everybody OF any con-
sequence in the stu iin1 was there.
Gno everybody knew everybody
else and called him by his first
name-Apreferabl:- at the, top OF
his lungs.
Lontaine's party. a large one,
comprising the most Influential
of the colony with whom
he and Summcrlad were ON agree
able terms, hal teen long enough
in session already to have become
eEililucatrd ard collec-
lively hilarious. Summcrial it
took to its bosom with hout3 of
acclaim, and he ssamed TO fad IL
thering. y sense of Illustration
LuciEda. She had been
happy half an iEour since. Here
in this heady atmosphere nf per-
fune flesh, tobacco reek and pung-
ent alcohol, the idyI of her eve
ming grew faint and fled. While
the man she loved had no regrets.
In moment Of disconcerting
luc1dity she saw him as a strange
man, flushed with drink and
blown with license, looking on 9TH
er women with a satyr's apprais-
ing eyes, bandying riboId wheezes
with the lips she had 50 lately
kissed. And she WINGED and drew
away, recalling the abandon of af-
lection with which she had given
herself to his embrace at the
hotel, feeling of sudden soiled
and shopworn as from common
handling.
A strange man, man she had
known But few brief weeks-i VI
Covertly watching him, she
saw Summerlad in the middle of
a passage of persiflaGe start and
fall silent, his lips in an instant
wiped bare of speech. And fol-
lowing the line of his stare, she
espied, at some distance at a table
near the edge of the dance floor,
.Bellamy sitting with woman.
He saw her but. made no sign
more than to intensity his mean
ing smile, and Immediately return
ed courteous attention to his COM
panion.
AT this Lucinda stared in doubt
for several seconds, she was so
changed. But finery that shrek
ed of money spent without stint or
taste could hardly disguise the
wild and ragged loneliness of Nelly
Marquis.
Lucinda looked a second time.
More than a month had passed
since that brief acquaintance, and
Lucinda had put her out of mind
so completely that her efforts to
recall the features of the other
conjured UP only foggy impress
sion of a shabby, haggard. haunt
ed shadow by turns wistful and
feebly defiant, that bore what
might be no more than chance
Az. Of a ~ ~