The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1924-05-23
E. Phillips Oppenhein
copyrigA. b LI.sIe, Brown aad company

othy said calmly, that you have laid
your information?''
I've parted with 1t and serve you
right" was the bitter reply. "Tm not
saying that you're not a brave man,
Sir Timothy, but there's such a thing
as being foolhardy, and that's what
you are. wasn't asking you for half
your fortune, nor even a dab of it, but
If your life wasn't worth few hun
.dred pounds-you, with all that money
well, it wasn't worth saving. So
now you know. I've spent ninepence
to give you chance to hop 1t, be-
cause met a gent who has been good
to me. I've had good dinner and
feel merciful. So there you are"
do I gather" Sir Timothy asked,
in perfectly level tone, shat the
deed is already doneT
Its already done and done, thor
oughly," was the incorporating an
swer. "Tm not ringing up to ask you
to change your mind. If you were to
offer me five Thousand now, or ten. I
couldn't stop the bally thing. You've
sporting chance of getting away If
you start at once. That's all there Is
to it."
%You have nothing more to say?'
"Nothingi Only l wish to God I'd
never stepped into that Mayfair agen-
cy. I wish I'd never gone to Mrs.
Hilditch's as temporary butler I
wish I'd never seen any one of you !!
That's all. You can go to HI which
way you like. only, if you take my
advice. you'll go by the way of South
America. The scaffold isn't every
mans fancy"
There was burr of the instrument
and then silence. Sir Timothy care
fully replaced the receiver, paused on
his way out of the room to smell a
great bowl of lavender, and passed
back into the garden.
More applicants for invitations|
Lady Cynthia inquired lazily.
Her host smiled.
mot exactly! Although" he added,
"as matter of fact my party would
have been perhaps little more COM
plete with the presence Of the person
to whom l have been speaking"
Lady Cynthia pointed to the stream,
down which the punt was slowly drift
ing. The moon had gone behind a
cloud, and Francis figure, as he stood
there, was underlined and ghostly. A
thought seemed to flash into her mind.
She leaned forward.
"Once," she said, che told me that
he was your enemy"
''The term is little melodramatic,"
Sir Timothy protested. eve look at
certain things from opposite points of
view. You see, my prospective son-in-
law, If ever he becomes that, repre-
sents the law-the Law with a capital
(which recognizes no human errors
or weaknesses, and judges crime out
of the musty books Of the law-givers
of old. He makes of the law a me-
chanical thing which can neither bend
nor give. and he judges humanity from
the same standpoint. Yet at heart he
is a good fellow and like him."
"And your"
"My weakness lies the other way, "
he confessed, "and my sympathy is
with those who do not fear to make
their own laws"
She held out her hand, white and
spectral in the momentary gloom. At
the other end Of the lawn. Francis and
Margaret were disembarking from the
punt.
Does 1t sound too shockingly OBJ
vious," she murmured, eff I say that
want to make you my law?"
| I, 1t would have puzzled anybody. ex-
cept. perhaps, Lady Cynthia herself,
to have detected the slightest altera-
ton in Sir Timothy's demeanor during
the following day, when he made At
full appearances at the Sanctuary, or
at the dinner which was served lit
tie earlier than usual. before his final
| departure for the scene of the fes-
tivities. Once he paused in the act
of helping himself to some dish and
listened for moment to the sound
of voices In the hall, and when taxi
cab drove up he set down his glass
and again betrayed some interest.
"The maid with my frock, thank
heavensp' Lady Cynthia announced
glancing out of the window. my last
anxiety is removed. / am looking for
ward now to wonderful night"
"You may very easily be disappoint-
ed" her host warned her. my en-
tertainments appeal more, as rule
to men,"
"Why don't you be thoroughly orig
inal and issue no invitations to vAomen
at all?" Margaret inquired.
"For the same reason that you
adorn your rooms and the dinner-table
with flowers" he answered. Zone
needs them as relief Apart from
that, am really proud of my dancing
room, and there again. you see. your
sex is necessary"
eve are fiattered," Margaret de.
clared. with a little bow. at does