Evening star., 1925-03-29

The general phoned that all was
\ ready. and the fiery Miss W. turned
up according TO schedule. so that at
half past a cab deposited US out
/ side 104 Berkeley square, where the
| old soldier resides--one of those awful
| gray London castles which would
1 make a church seem frivolous. A
1 footman showed US into a great yell
Ilow-curtained drawing room, and
fthere was the lady awaiting us, de-
l mure, pale, elf-contained, a. infleXi-
ltble and remote as a snow image on q
m mountain.
1. 'I don't quite know how to make
ther clear to you, Watson. Perhaps
( you may meet her before we are
! through and you can use your own
! gift of words. She is beautiful but
with the ethereal other-world beauty
| of some fanatic whose thoughts are
! set on high. ! have seen such faces
| in the pictures Of the old masters
| of the Middle Ages. How a beast
man could have laid his vile paws
| upon such a being of the beyond
! cannot imagine. You may have no
/ ticed how extremes call to each other
the spiritual to the animal, the cave
| man to the angel.
she knew what we had come for
| of course-that villain had lost no
time in poisoning her mind against
| me. Miss Winters advent rather
amazed her. I think. but she waved
| us into our respective chairs like a
reverened abbess receiving two rather
! leprous mendicants. If your head is
| inclined to swell, my dear Watson
take a course of Miss Violet de Mer-
| Vile.
| Well sir said she, in a voice like
| the wind from an iceberg, your name
| is familiar to me. You have called,
| as ! understand, to malign my fance,
| Baron Gruner. 1t is only by my
| fathers request that l see you at ALL
and / warn you in advance that any
! thing you can say could not possibly
| have the slightest effect on my mind ;
| Il WAS sorry for her, Watson. I
thought of her for the moment as
/ would have thought of a daughter
! of my own. I am not often eloquent.
use my head, not my heart. But
| ! really did plead with her with all
| the warmth of words that l could
find in my nature. I pictured to her
the awful position of the woman who
only wakes to mans character
| after she is his wife--a woman who
| has to submit to be caressed by
bloody hands and lecherous lips. I
spared her nothing-the shame, the
fear, the agony, the hopelessness of
| it all. All my hot words could not
one Oh COioT 10 lHoSS
ivory cheeks nor one CLEAN of emo
tion to those distracted eyes. l
| thought of what the rascal had said
about post hypnotic influence.
! x =
GONE could really believe that she
~ was living above the earth in
some ecstatic dream. Yet there was
nothing indefinite in her replies.
| 81 have listened to you with pa
| tience, Mr.. Holmes said she. The
effect upon my mind is exactly as pre-
( dicted. ] am aware that Adelbert,
that my f1ance, has had a stormy life
! in which he has incurred bitter
| hatreds and most unjust aspersions.
! You are only the last of q series
| who have brought their ISLANDERS be-
fore me. Possibly you mean we'll.
| though I learn that you are paid
| agent who would have been equally
willing to act for the baron as against
him. But in any case I wish you to
| understand, once for all, that I love
! him and that he loves me, and that
/ the opinion of all the world Is no
more to me than the twitter of those
| birds outside the window. II his
noble nature has ever for an instant
| fallen, II may be that I have been
specially sent to raise 1t to its true
and lofty level. I am not cleaT-here
| she turned her eyes upon my COM
panion-ewho this young lady may be-
II was about to answer when the