The Washington herald., 1922-02-13
Continsed from Yesterday.
when she had finally escaped

when she had finally escaped to
her room that night. Jeanne dis
missed her mother-in-lav's maid.
who awaited her there, and. locking
her door went determinedly to her
desk. unlocked . drawer and drew
forth the accumulation of trades
mems statements.
Sitting dejectedly before the
handsome inlaid desk, she shuffled
them hopelessly through her fin
gers like a deck of cards. When
she spread them out, they covered
the top Of the desk, three deep.
Such an appalling number!
She smiled with a kind of desper.
ate recknessness as she opened one
after the other and noted the to-
tails on a sheet of paper.
Before she had finished, the sheet
was filed and she drew another
from a pigeonhole Of the desk and
continued her tabulation. She took
an ironical pleasure in the fact that
the paper was crested with the
Barstowe insignia in gold and
mother of pearl
When the last item was entered.
she set her teeth and set about the
addition
"hCh sue Hdu nulSneO. she stared
straight ahead for a long moment.
and dropped her head on her folded
arms.
For long time she remained
there. too numbed to think or plan.
She only knew that she had losti
In her wild gamble. she had lost
49, 80 II
wealthy marriage. She had be-
ambition. And now. after every
thing. to find that she had married
only a moderately well-of young
man with a future,
With a future!
She almost laughed aloud.
What did future matter to her?
How could it help her now? She
had mortgaged hers beyond any
hope OF redemption. Vic Barstowe's
was not worth a scrap Of paper to
her in her present need.
She rose and went to the window,
looking out into the chill moonlight
that cleaned on the frost -silvered
terraces leading down to the Sound
The tall, clipped cedars cast weird
shadows. and the frozen fountain
was like an icy Cndine emerging
from her prison.
While she watched. the Barstowe
limousine rolled noiselessly up the
winding drive to the portico. The
footman in livery sprang down and
opened the door. She saw Bar
stowe. senior. aliSht and reach back
an assisting arm to her mother-in-
law. The electric lantern that
swung in the portico caught the
fash of the diamond tiara in her
hair and the cleaning furs that
enveloped her.
Jeanne turned away. beating her
palms together helplessly.
Wealth everywhere, She was
surrounded by il. suffocated by it,
And not a soul TO call her own. to
settle those terrible bills, to stife
the insistent demands of her
debtors,
She dared not ask Barstowe for
money. He must never know that
she had launched that brilliant So
cial life Of hers on credit. He must
never suspect that she was not the
woman OF wealth and fashion that
he had supposed her to be when he
met her.
She wondered suddenly why she
cared whether or not he found out.
There was no real need now to
keep such knowledge from him.
She had lost the prize she had
played for. 1t couldn't make her
situation any worse for him to
know.
The Csward's Way.
But something held her back
from confession. She believed il
was her pride: It would be difficult
TO admit failure publicly; infinitely
difficult to confess her duplicity.
Something about Barstowe.~ his
clear Straightforward eyes, his
clean wholesomeness. made her
ashamed of the role she had
played.
But there was no help for it now
She must go through with It some
how.
She knew that. even though wild
thoughts of packing a few neces-
sary things into a bag and vanish
jng silently into the night rioted
through her brain.