The Washington times., 1922-11-05
(Continued from Last Sunday
CHAPTER XIV.

w Fancy's room upon that
w eventful night before her
marriage to Billy Fanshawe he
had not returned to the inn. In
action would, he felt, have driven
him mad. He had been on fire
with excitement, dismay, and
seething unconquerable anger
anger against Fancy, against Fan
shave, above all against the fate
which had brought him back into
Fancy's life just too late.
Without being aware of it he
had turned his face Londonward,
trudging on beneath the stars,
staring straight ahead of him, find
ing in movement certain measure
of relief. In heart and brain had
been a turmoil of conflicting emo
tions.
He wondered what would be the
outcome of the nights happenings.
Just for a moment the eager hope
had dawned within him that the
marriage might be delayed or pre-
vented. He had crushed it down,
but he had not killed it, and it had
lived with him until that later un-
expected meeting with Billy Fam
shave and his ward in the London
restaurant. Then, and then only
had it died, and with it, it had
seemed, the heart within him.
But on that night it had not
died, and it helped to make easier
what had seemed to him an igno-
minious shirking of his response
bilities. The manhood in him had
prompted him to remain where he
was, to face the reused household,
to admit the part he had played
in the tragedy.
Yet the knowledge of what such
a course would mean to Fancy had
forbidden this. He had acted like
a mailman in forcing himself upon
her as he had done. He had con-
fessed it bitterly to himself, strid-
ing along the deserted, silent roads
in the waning starlight. IL his
presence there, in her room, should
ever become known he would have
done her the greatest possible in
jury.
The presence of Austin Knowles
might be explainable. That OF
himself could never be. He had
known it then; he knew it through
all the weary, bewildering days
that followed. And because of
this he must stand aside, must re-
main silent. 1t had irked him, but
there was no help for it. BY
thrusting himself upon her in such
a manner he had placed the woma.
he loved in an impossible position,
a position for which there could
he no possible explanation or
excuse. And that night he had
felt tl.at he hated the whole civil
lied world; for little while he
had almost passionately regretted
the strange primitive life that he
had led for most of the last four
wears; had wished that he had
never returned.
He had walked until dawn came.
Then at one of the smaller stations
he had boarded an early morning
train for London. Later in the
day he had read tie account of
Austin Knowles's death in the
papers, AM mad smiled grimly over
Il.
Il had been brief, a skilful
travesty of the truth. Mr..
Knowles had been ailing for some
time. That night he had been
walking in the grounds before
going to bed. He had been taken
iil-had seen a light in one of the
windows-had forced his way into
the room which had happened to
be that of Miss Revell-now Mrs.
William Fanshawe. He had died
before Miss Revell had fully re-
covered from her alarm, etc., etc.
Death was due to syncope. II
was understood that Mr.. Knowles
had suffered for some time from
an affection of the heart. He had
been OVERRIDING himself lately; he
had been warned by his own medi-