Williams news., 1922-06-30

| 1OOay nlS WaS so
 marked, his uneasiness so much
 greater than anyone had seen it be-
 fore, that the attendant whom Corvet
 had sent, a half hour earlier, to re
 serve his usual table for him in the
 grill-"The table by the second win dow"-had started away without dar- | ing to ask whether the table was to be set for one or more. Corvet him.
 self had corrected the omission: For two" he had shot after the man. The tables, at this hour, were all | unoccupied. Corvet crossed to the one he had reserved and sat down
 he turned immediately to the window at his side and scraped on 1t little
 clear opening through which he could
 see the storm outside. Ten minutes later he looked up sharply but did not
 rise, as the man he had been await ing-Spearman, the younger of his two partners in.
 Spearman seated himself his big,
 powerful hands clasped on the table,
 his gray eyes studying Corvet closely.
 The waiter took the order and went
 away.
 When he returned, the two men were
 obviously in bitter quarrel. Corvet's
 tone, low pitched but violent, sounded
 steadily In the room, though his words
 were inaudible. The waiter, as he set
 the food upon the table, felt relief that Corvet's outburst had fallen on other
 shoulders than his.
 For nearly an hour the quarrel con- tinued with intermitted truces of si- fence. The waiter, listening, as wait CTS always do, caught at times single sentences.
 'You have had that idea for some timer" he heard from Corvet
 eve have had an understanding for more than a month";
 ''How definite?"
 Spearman's answer was not audible. but it more intensely agitated Corvet: he dropped his fork and, after that made no pretense of eating.
 The waiter, following this, caught only single words. "Sherrill''-that of course, was the other partner. Con stance"-that was Sherrill's daughter The other names he heard were names of ships. But, as the quarrel went on the manners of the two men changed Spearman, who at first had been as sailed by Corvet, now was assailfng him. Corvet sat back in his seat, while Spearman pulled at his cigar and | now and then took it from his lips and | gestured with it between his fingers, as he jerked some ejaculation across the table.
 Corvet leaned over to the frosted | window, as he had done when alone, | and looked out Spearman shot con- ment which made Corvet vince and | draw back from the window; then Spearman rose. Corvet looked up at him once and asked a question, to which Spearman replied with snap of the burnt match down on the table; he turned abruptly and strode from the room. Corvet sat motfonless.
 The revulsion to self-control, some times even to apology, which ordina- rily followed Corvet's bursts of frrfta- tion had not come to him; his agita- tion plainly had increased. He pushed from him his uneaten luncheon and got up slowly. He went out to the coat room, where the attendant hand ed him his coat and hat.
 He winced as he stepped out into the smarting, binding swirl of sleet, but his shrinking was not physical; it was mental, the unconscious reaction to some thought the storm called up. The hour was barely four o'clock, but so dark was 1t with the storm that the shop windows were lit; motorcars, slipping and skidding up the broad boulevard. with headlights burning, kept their signals clattering con stantly to warn other drivers blinded by the snow. The sleet-swept side walks were. almost deserted; here or there. before hotel or one of, the shops, limousine came to the curb, Il and the passengers dashed swiftly across the walk to shelter
 Corvet turned northward along avenue, facing into the gale. The sleet beat upon his face and lodged in the folds of his clothing without his needing it.
 He continued to go north. He had not seemed, in the beginning, to have made conscious choice of this direc- ton but now he was following 1t pur- posely. He stopped once at a shop which sold mems things to make a tel ephOne call. He asked for Miss Sher- Till when the number answered; but he did not wish to speak to her, he said he wanted merely to be sure she would be there if he stopped in to see her in half an hour. Then-north again. He crossed the bridge. Now fifteen minutes later, he came in sight of the lake once more.
 Great houses. the Sherri1l house among them, here face the Drive the bridle path. the strip of park. and the wide stone esplanade which edges the lake. covert crossed to this espla- made. He did not stop at the Sherr-u