The Washington times., 1924-01-09
By Gertrude AthertOn,
Author Of Many Notable Novels,
and One Of the Most Widely
Read Writer'S Of the Day.
sCHAPTER LVm.

N~N-NNN- /.
Ciavering slept when he first
went to bed, for he was healthily
tired. but he awoke suddenly at
midnight with body refreshed and
mind abnormally clear. He knew
that he would sleep no more that
night. and he put on his trousers
and coat over his pajamas, thrust
his feet into bedroom slippers and
went out into the living-room.
TLere he put log on the fire
and paced up and down, not un.
Jlto q tiger round its cage.
He Felt as II black bats were
flying about his brain, each
char ged with a different potent
OF disaster. Once more the un-
reality Of the whole affair over.
whelmed him. How could he
have been so fatuous as to be-
neves that he had really won such
Il woman2 He remembered his
first Impression: that she was on
aaisfplane above, apart. They
hadn't Ian interest in common,
not even a memory that ante
dated their meeting a few short
weeks ago. She had lived a life
OF which he knew nothing out:
side OF European novels and
memoirs. She. had known moth
ing Of any other world until he
had introduced her to his friends.
and he made NO doubt that her
interest in them was about as
permanent as highly original
comedy on the stage would in
sp.re. There was nothing, liter
ally, between them but mutual
Irresistible attraction, and that
bond recognized so unerringly by
both
That bond.
Would it hold?
Had this man offered her some
thing that would make love seem
Insignificant and trivial? She,
who had had a surfeit Of love
long since? Whose eyes had
looked a thousand years old until
he had given her mind back its
youth as the great Vienna biol
ogist had rejuvenated her body.
He was entirely Indifferent to
her old love affair with Hohen.
hauer. It was those years of
political association and mu.
tual independence in Vienna
that he feared. He had,
when he first met her, appraised
her as a woman to whom
power was. the breath Of life.
Ambition--in the grand manner
incarnate. She had all the APP
pearance and the air Of woman
to whom the welding Of power,
however suhtly, was an Old story.
He recalled that that terrifying
suggestion of concealed ruthless
forces behind those charming
manners, those feminine wiles, had
almost made him resolve to
''avoid her like the plague. Ana
then he had fallen madly in love
with her and forgotten everything
but the woman. ;,
Her RevulsiOn
He had OWNED even before
these last miraculous days that
she had looked upon love with
abhorrence for almost half as
many years as, he had lived, an
abhorrence rooted in a profound
revulsion Of body and mind and
spirit. For nearly twenty years
that revulsion had endured and
eaten into the very depths Of her
being. He had q sudden
blaze, Of. enlightenment. She had
fregusntly alluded to that lodge Of
hers In the Dolomites and their
sojourp there together, but al
ways in the terms Of romance.
She had never given him
q glance Of understanding.
And she had put of the wedding
until the last possible moment.
If. she. had really been as
eager az himself she would have
left her power Of attorney with
Trent and started for Austria six
weeks ago. Or the papers could
have been sent to her to sign. II
her signature were imperative.