New Britain herald., 1922-05-27
oDr1 h Louia jos~.h vans
(Continucd From Our Last Iss,c)

(Continucd From Our Last Issue)
 He seemed startled and unmistak tably affected by. the artlcssness o this confession, and held her close.
 But, my dearest girl! you're trem bling What it Is? Tell me '"
 "ltn so wonderful to have yo, back. Lynn. Don't ever leave me fo 80 long again."
 You tempt me to-" he laughed in diligently. 'I think you've learned t love me better while I've been away than you did in all the while that was here!"
 She answered with an odd little laugh Of love and deprecation: "l really think have ."
 They dined at Marcello's, not tht happiest selection for their first few hours together, for the place wal thronged with picture-folk.
 Motoring to Santa Monica, Lucin. da snuggled into the hollow of Sum merlads arm, and rested a long time in contented silence.
 Tt Is too perfect" she murmured at length, "too sweet to last"
 Why not? So long as we love what's to prevent all beauty last ing?"
 Life. mean"-it took all her courage to speak of what she had till then purposely kept back-"Bel- lamy."
 The, car was swinging into the streets of Santa Monica. Lucinda gave him her lips
 Let's forget it for tonight Kiss me again while there's time"
 The restaurant to which the Lon taines had bidden them was the one in those times most favored by the froth of the picture colony for it's weekly night of carnival.
 Round the four walls and enclos- ing the constricted floor for dancing. tabls were so closely ranked that passage between them was largely impracticable without guide. Everybody of any consequence in the studios was there. and everybody knew everybody else and called him by his first name-preferaby at the top of his lungs.
 Lontaine's party, large one, comprising the most influential mem bers of the colony with whom he and Summerlad were on agreeable terms, had been long enough in ses- sion already to have become indi- vidually exhilarated and collectively hilarious. Summerlad it took to it's bosom with shouts of acclaim, and he seemed to find it easy to catch the spirit of the gathering. A sense of illustration oppressed Lucinda. She had been happy half an hour since. Here in this heady atmosphere of perfumed flesh, tobacco reek and pungent alcohol, the idyl of her eve- ming grew faint and fled. While the man she loved had no regrets.
 In a moment of disconcerting lu- ctdity she saw him as a strange man. flushed with drink and blown with license, looking on other women with a satyr's appraising eyes, bandying ribald wheezes with the lips she had so lately kissed. And she winced and drew away, recalling the aban- don of affection with which she had 1 given herself to his embrace at the hotel feeling of a sudden soiled and | shopworn as from common handling. |
 A strange man, man she had l known but a few brief weeks!
 Covertly watching him, she saw Summerlad in the middle of a pas sage of persif1age start and fall silent, his lips in an instant wiped bare of speech. And following the line of his stare, she espied, at some distance at a table near the edge of the dance-floor, Bellamy sitting with a woman.
 He saw her but made no sign more than to intensity his meaning smile. and immediately returned courteous attention to his companion.
 At this Lucinda stared in doubt for several seconds, she was so changed. But finery that shrieked of money spent without stint or taste could hardly disguise the wild and ragged loveiness of Nelly Mar Quis.
 Lucinda looked second time. More than a mouth had passed since that brief acquaintance and Lucinda had put her out of mind so completely that her efforts to recall the features of the other conjured up only a foggy impression of shabby, haggard, haunted shadow, by turns wistful and feebly defiant, that bore what might be no more than chance likeness to this figure of f1a1nting extravaganceI at Bellamy's table.
 A question forming on her lips, turned back to Summerlad, but surprised the tail of his eye veering hastily away, and fancied a