The Washington times., 1923-12-20

L
intervene until Monday afternoon,
st.cred to Mary Zattiany. But If
man wishes to regulate his life,
and more particularly his media
TONS to suit himself he would be
wise to retire to a mountain top.
| Civilized life is vast wool and
the shuttle. pursues its weaving
and counterweaving with no re-
gard for the plans of men. It
was impossible to ignore Mrs.
Oglethorpe's appeal, and it was
equally impossible to refuse to
aid in the hunt for that damnable
Janet when her distracted father
ana his own intimate friend took
bis cooperation as a matter of
course. And even IL he had re-
manned at home, no doubt she
would have wiggled her way in
before he could shut the door in
her face, Then there would have
been the devil to pay; for she
would have seen to it that he
was hopelessly compromised. No
doubt she would have run out on
the balcony and screamed for
help. Her failure was the one
saving grace in the whole
wretched night.
But she had planted her stings.
His Mood
He was in a fine frame Of mind
to make love to a woman. He
had pictured that scene as one Of
the great moments of life, SO
subtly beautiful and dramatic, so
exalted and exulting, So perfect
in its very incompleteness, that
not a lifetime of suffering and
disappointment could blur it.
And he felt exactly like the flat
tire of, Janet's distinguished ver-
nacular. Even his body was
worn out, for he had had but
nine hours sleep in two nights.
What dead cinch the play
wrights had. A man might as
well try to breathe without
oxygen on Mt. Everest as at
tempt to give his own life the
proper dramatic values. He was
a cursed puppet and life itself
was curse.
He excoriated himself for his
susceptibility to mere words; he
who juggled in words, and often
quite insincerely when it suited
his purpose. But that rejuven-
ated old DAME" and that old
Zattiany woman" crawled like
reeking vapors across some fair
landscape man had spent his
life seeking, blotting out it's love-
Illness, turning it to a noisome
rnorass.
He had used equally caustic
phrases when some young man
he knew had married a woman
+ only ten years older than him
self, and when old men had taken
To themselves young wives. And
meant them. for he was funda-
mentally as conventional and
conservative as all men.
Put he cared less that he
would be the laughing stock Of
New York than that his own soul
felt like boiling pitch and that
he was ashamed Of himself.
He looked at the clock. It was
twenty minutes to four. There
was neither love nor desire in
him and he would have liked to
throw himself on the divan and
sleep. But he set his teeth and
got to his feet. He would go
through 1t, play rp. somehow.
He felt better in the nipping
air and soon began to walk
briskly. And then as he crossed
Park. avenue and entered her
street he saw two men coming
down her steps. They were Mr..
Dinwiddie, AMI the extremely
yOAH6
Osborne had brought to the box
on Monday night. The young
man was smiling fatuously.
A wave Of rage and jealousy
swept Clavering from head to
foot. She, at least, could have
kept these hours sacred, and she
had not only received this grin
ming ape, but evidently given
him a delectabIe morsel to chew
on. He could have knocked both
men down but he was not even
permitted to pass them by with a
scowling nod. Another contre.
temps.
Dinwiddie hailed him delight
eddy.
Good old Lee! Haven't seen
you in an age. Where've you
kept yourself? Know Vane?
Mothers an old friend OF Mary's.
He's head over like the rest Of
us. Who says we don't live in
the age of miracles?'
"Yeh, amt life wonderful?"
Clavering's jocular faculty was
enfeebled, but it came to :he