The Washington herald., 1922-11-19

She let her hand fan and stepped
back trife.
"You see," she added upon .
rather shrill note Of triumph, 'T
was in the garden too-that night
-and I saw you come outp'
CHAPTER XXXH.
DAN'S hands dropped heavily
to his sides. The flush died
out of his face leaving it
very white. His eyes were full Of
a dumb amaze and horror. Brenda
Waring, meeting them, laughed
rather nervously under her breath.
After a minute, hurriedly, she went
on speaking.
81 saw you-go in, too! You
were there before Knowles! And
you only got away just in time"
"Good GodT he whispered un-
der his breath. Good G9dr Then
why didn't you speak-be-
fore?" he demanded.
"Why should 1? There was no
object. Besides-I thought it
might be politic-to wait! You
see, such knowledge may always be
ussful-sometime or another. i
decided that if ever / was in hole
over anything-I-er-could al
ways be sure of getting either you
or Fancy to pull me out! And If
I'd spoken then | should only have
complicated the whole thing and
done myself not an atom of good!
You see, it's hardly likely that
even Billy FanshaMe would have
been such fool as to marry Fancy
if he had known"
"You-' Dams hands de-
.scended suddenly upon her shoul-
ders; he shook her with an unex-
pected violence that turned her
flushed face pale. "Great heaven
what are you suggesting!
He broke off as she twisted her.
self free. Her eyes were veno-
nous.
"Only what the whole world
would suggest-if it knew! It
was a different matter in the case
of Knowles! However unpleasant
his death might be for Fancy, she
could not well be badly compro-
missed by his presence there! His
intrusion was the unprecedented
freak of drunken sot. But you!
My dear boy, you know yourself
that the world in which we live is
anything but a charitable one.
And to say the least of ito put
the m ldest construction upon
your - er - indiscretion it
was the act of a madman! You
jeopardized Fancy's reputation
her whole future. No man in his
senses would have married her.
no person however charitably in
clined woull have looked kindly
upon such sn es-spade, Nothing
you could say could have altered
the fact hat you had seriously
compromised herr"
As his hands went out toward
her again she drew a little away.
She was pale, but her eyes still
glowed with triumph.
"Oh, no, my friend" she went
on again at won't do for you
to be bad friends with me! You
wouldn't like that silly fool Billy
Fanshawe to have his folly made
manifest, would you? For Fancy's
sake, If not for his? And still
less would you like the heiress
you've so skilfully ne-ted to guess
that her trust and faith in you
has been all along r-ost miserably
misplaced-that she has been just
a dupe-a|"
Zone moment"
The quiet voice came steadily,
unexpectedly from the shadows at
the other end of the room. As
the two wung found to face her,
Sally Hicks moved forward to the
empty hearth and laid her finger
upon one of the bell pushes. As
the faint, distant whirring came
to their ears Brenda Waring
gasped, and Dan uttered the girls
name in n odd, smothered way:
Dut Sne uld not look at him.
Her eyes were fixed upon Brenda
Waring; her face was quite white,
save for two brilliant spots of
color in either cheek-bone. A mo-
ment later a servant appeared at
the door and Brenda gasped again
Sally addressed the servant with
out taking her eyes from Mrs.
Warnings face.
"Will you kindly ask Mr. and
Mrs. Fanshawe to come here at
oncew she said. "Tell them it is
importa. urgent!
"Sally"
Dan took a couple of swift
strides toward her. Brenda cried
out suddenly:
"You little fool! Good heavens
-what--what- She stopped
abruptly. 1nvoluntarily she turn
ed to the door, but Dan had swung
round again. A moment later he
stood with his back to the panels,
looking down at her with eyes that
I,...oJ Ill, dov,a -, L., ,,,l:xz g.