, 1923-04-22

OF people. Hands are different. and
fingers-they're wicked-capable of
such terrible things-holding daggers,
gfts-caressing-throttiing - paying
music - exploring loving = hating.
Queer things, fingers. Your right hand
and your left hand aren't the least bit
alike. and your face ia still a third
person"
Before Mem quite realized how sol
EMMY ludicrous a couple OF coined
ians could be-if anybody had been
looking-except God-and perhaps
that Jap valet.-Ned Ling's head was
on her breast and his eyes were
turned up into hers-like n baby's.
He was in n newborn prattling hu.
NOR. That wal a secret of his sue.
cess. He was a baby with all a baby's
! privileges OF improperly, s~elfishness,
hatefulness. adorableness.
He could revert to infancy and
take his audience with him. make old
men and women laugh at the simple
things that had tiekled their childish
hearts. And withai there was an
amazing sophisticaJon. He was a
baby hat calculated and measured.
triumphed and yet wept and wanted
always the next toy. He was think.
ing of Mem as his next toy and she
was thinking Of him as her next
child.
His warm head and hts brown eyes
like maple sugar just as It Is liques
cent. to syrup. and with the same
gold flakes giinting-they were
quantity babyish to her in spite OF his
old talk.
81 want to love and be loved. but
not to owe too much. I'm afraid of
love. It has hurt me too bitterly.
Some OF them haven't been true to me
and that hurt me horribly. And 1
haven't been true to some OF them
and that hurt mo stu worse. I don't
know which is ghastlier-to see a
woman laugh at you or cry at you.
Marriage is no solution. I don't see
how 1t car help being the end of love.
Love ought to be free-like art and
speech. OF course art isn't free.
There's the censorship. NNall marriage
Is like censorship. Everything you do
and say and feel must be submitted to
the censor. They call his a free
country and have censorship and mar
riage."
She smiled. He was more like a
prattling baby the more cynical he
grew. His heavy head made her
breast ache and yesrn for a baby. But
he wanted only the froth of life with
out h body and the dregs.
Could you love me just enough and
not too much?" he pleaded.
II he had said. Marry me tomor.
row" he might ave had her then.
But she had not his opinion of mar
riage. She had played the game with
out the nRme-endured the ecstasy
and the penalty without the cere-
mony. She had escaped public shame
by a miracle of lucky lies and acci
dents. The hunger remained for the
rewards OF marriage. the honesty of q
home, the granite foundations of res
pectable loyalty.
So when he pleaded with her for
love that cheated and played for fur
and not all, for a kiss. for caresses
she shook her head-mystically as he
thought, but very sanely and calmly.
in truth.
She was far away-mothering a
shadowy child. swuying in a rocking
chair throne
Ned Ling's prayers gained fervoI
from her aloofness. He called upon
a goddess who would not hear. She
held his hands and slapped them with
n matronly condescension that drove
him frantic.
He could not get past the cloudy
masonry he had built round her by
deriding marriage. 1t was n good
subject for jokes, but contempt for It
was more ridiculous than the thing
ridiculed.
Finally she yawned in the face OF
his passion and said. I'll be COINS
homo now. please"
He was so thwarted and rejected
that he sent her homo alone. She
was grateful for that.
CHAPTER LII
Again when she got home her
mother was waiting for her. Her
fathen was waiting for her again
Her mother had fallen asleep with
her fathers letter in her hand. A.
Mem slipped in guilty and stared al
her, she leaped up In alarm and cried
out in protest with a sleepy reversior
to ancient authority: Mem. have you
proven utterly shameless7 Have you
gone wrong at last?"
Mem smiled and shook her head.
Something in her calm convinced he
mother more thar angry disclaimer
could have done. She breathed deep.
~ with relief from the nightmare
that rides mothers souls night and
day. She smiled as she held out an
other letter from the old child they
were both mothering.
My Beloved Wife-You will find
It hard to believe what I am about
to write. for you were never quite
convinced that prayers are answer
ID. Well. mine have been and I
am more than ever confirmed in my
faith.
A miracle has been vouchsafed
unto me. even mel
This morning Doctor Bretherick
called TO see me and stated that he
had been intrusted with a myster-
ious message. A former parlshioner
OF mine, a man whose name he was
forbidden TO disclose, had embezzled
some money ear g and had
never been discovered. The still
small voice OF his conscience. how
ever was never silenced. and at last
IL drove him TO restitution. But he
found that the people whom he had
wronged were dead and there were