The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-05-05

saved you His arm moved. as though
TO- draw her towards him. and then he
released her--smiling.
Mordac held out the brush with q
little inclination Of his head
Permit me also to assist" he said.
Elise took the brush and laid It on
the table. She was shaky and Mustered
and Z little frightened, for she was
realizing. about these two men some
thing which had hitherto escaped her
conscious knowledge; that each In his
way was possessed of certain force, an
unswerving strength, which seemed
typified In their attitude towards her
during this little incident Brunei
had gripped her, held her, made to
draw her towards him. Mordac had
stood aloof, offering slavery, with a
well-tuned phrase. Yet the threat Of
them had been eQual--if there was a
threat outside her own Imagination.
And Lolette. She ventured a glance
at Lolette. The dancer was vet very
| still, yet with the same sneer, the
same narrowed eyes. She sighed ex-
aggeratedly as Elise replaced the brush,
and her white shoulders lifted high.
Mon Dieu!" she breathed.
| "A
| went she saw that Brunei was watching
her, but that Mordac was watching Lo-
lette. He seemed amused.
1t was later, over supper at night
restaurant, that Mordac, alone with Lo-
| lette, ventured to mention Elise.
you were not pleased, cherie, that
| your dresser should stumble, Helm ~
Lolette, her cheeks flushed beneath
their makeup, slipped the half-consumed
champagne before her.
Tcha ! was contemplating. / She
| is such a simpering baby-so modest
Dieu Modesty She exudes it. She is
too wholly yirtuous to admit that lips
were made for kissing and not talking
Mordac nodded with becoming gray
ity. He understood Lolette very well,
| this stink, smooth man; and he knew
perfectly well the rock-bottom founda.
ton of her hate for Elise. For he
could read the difference in them with
ease-the one leapt from the gutter.
lacking refinement and elegance, and Dos
sessing only a certain slashing con-
fidence to carry her through; the other
gentle, with breeding all about her, top
pied into the mire by giant circum-
stances and yet preserving herself and
her beauty with patient fortitude.
so, So" he said. But what would
you? 1t is not all of us who realize
our gifts" Toilette did not appreciate
the irony of this.
Gifts, you say! You would call a
characterless face and simpering con-
tinence gifts? Listen, MON anil am
tired of that one. Understand? She
affronts me !"
Mordac understood that very well he
had understood it long.
She shall learn" Lolette, warmed
by the champagne, was speaking eager
~. "She shall learn. She shall dis
cover that there are--what says that
poet more things in heaven and
earth" She laughed deviiishly, "You
know the rest. More than she dreams.
shall arrange i'll. Lolette. That
she should be insolent dumbly to
me! She! l will teach her!"
Mordac's lips had lost their smile.
and he was very earnest. You mean
that you would" he began, and left
the sentence significantly unfinished.
II shall teach her. ~ repeated Lo-
lette.
Mordac's lips pursed. He watched
Toilette quietly, slyly. 'How?" he
.Lolette laughed. She was nightly
mysterious. She finished her cham.
payne.
There is man through whose hands
pass many girls, girls who wish to get
on, and make for themselves a name
like me. That is all. / have an idea.
shall teach hertz
And Mordac, sitting back, watching
the smoke wreathe lazily upwards from
the top of his flat cigarette, had a aud
den memory of Brunei holding EEse's
arm and making to draw her towards
him, and, with the memory, realized why
Lolette had been so inexplicably silent
at the time.
Brunel-He took up his champagne
cup and twisted its stem in his white
fingers. Brunei - Well, there were
others. beside Brunei, to whom Elise's
beauty appealed.
He smiled across at Lolette and re-
marked on the heat.
CHAPTER SON THE BRINK
For a fortnight Elise waited for the
dismissal she deemed inevitable and
TOR fortnight Lolette watched her
slyly, her yellow eyes aglow. In that
time Elise found something freshly
sinister about her mistress. Lolette's
AOfAA<Ae NC@oeus ANO AUuSCE WAS tine
shrill, piercing voice lifted in invec-
tive; no longer were the ears OF elise
assailed BY that sonorous insult of
which the French tongue is peculiarly
capable.
Lolette was quiet. She spoke softly.
She said please and thank you"
Once she used the word '.cherie." II
win be understood that there were no
delicate shades Of subtlety in Lolette's
nature. She was not as Mordac, find
ing the easy. smooth way through life,
avoiding the corners and the hills with
facile elusiveness. She was mentally
the same as her outward appearance.
al haring color, extremes Of light and
shade. and when she wished to be
cunning with Elise she oyerdid it.
For in her Quietuess and her new
found politeneSs Elise read a threat un-
utterable. To her strained imagination
It was as though some deadly creature
drew back. breathless, watching, able
to pounce and destroy at any moment.
but wishful Of prolonging the sport
to the ultimate second.
1t was, perhaps, small matter, this
losing OF her position; yet Elise mag
nified it to the crisis Of her life, and
found an innate, inexDlicable justifica-
ton for doing 80. She may have been
clairvoyant in those days, as people
are sometimes when they stand on the
brink of mighty change. On the hort
Enn ~ har fSAA AkA oI@..S. -. ~. ~