Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-06
CHAPTER VI
The Plan

NAREY'S scheme to make Cleo pay
~ for the suffering she had caused
Dick was colossal. All his life he had
been cynical concerning women. He
had q contempt for their weaknesses,
and such q woman as he judged Cleo to
be was fair prey.
His plan was to meet her, and to play
her own game more skillfully than she
had ever played It. He would win her
love, bring her in abject abandonment
to bis feet and then laugh at her as
she had laughed at Dick. The idea do.
lighted him. He thought 1t would DO
great fun, and he could hardly wait to
make his first move.
Carey was not boy; he was thirty.
four, nine years older than Dick. he
had lean, swarthy face and gray eyes
that had never been known to soften
under the influence Of q woman. Per-
hnps 1t was partly because Of the way
women had thrown themselves at him
that he thought 20 little Of the sex !;
but he would enjoy a battle with an
experienced coquette, a woman who had
many scalps attached to her belt. II
would be game well worth playing and
one which he was quite confident of
winning.
If he could have seen Cleo at tho
moment when his plan first occurred
to him, he would have been surprised.
Certainly no one in tho world would
ever have taken her for Z professional
vampire, a scheming adventures, a
heartless coquette, or a deliberate dirt.
She was not even baby vnmp or a cold
blooded little fappef; but abe was q
very much frightened and rather dis.
illusioned girl. She was unhappy. and
pened. She was fearful Of the conse.
herself because Of the things that Dick
had said.
His accusations had made her see
her own experiences in a different light.
and until tonight she had been SO
happy. She had given herself lavishly
to life, and life had hurt her. Dick,
her good friend, had misunderstood her,
he had accused her Of encouraging him,
of leading him on, and It wasn't true.
Dick had always been 90 reverent with
her.
There had never been light caresses
and kisses between them, just a rather
beautiful friendship that was now
smirched with sordidness and seemed
cheap and ugly.
In her nightdress, over which she had
thrown light negligee, Cleo sat hud-
died at the foot Of her bed. She was
fearful Of what tomorrow might bring.
She was uncertain as to just what Dick
had meant by those wild words, but that
terrible suspicion persisted. Suppose he
did something desperate. If he did, her
own life would be over. She would
never marry; she would never know
what 1t meant to love a man with all
her heart and soul, for just as Dick had
said, he would stand between her and
the man she would some day love. The
shadow Of his memory would be with her
always.
In the darkness she threw out her
soft bare arms In an agony Of terror.
Hot tears stole down her cheeks.
Love, what was It? Half her life
she, had dreamed about It, and always
it had seemed to her that 1t loomcd just
ahead, that her days were filled with a
kind of husband waiting for it's COM
ing. And as she crouched there in the
darkness, crying out her heart for q
man she had unconsciously hurt, love
was indeed looming up just ahead OF
her, but what love! It was love
that would take all and give nothing
1t was the love that Carey Phelps was
planning to throw in her face after he
was sure that he had won her heart.