Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-06-26
CHAPTER x-Continued

"Oh, l know" Sydenham replied
with his superior manner. II didn't
mean that; I'd thought 1t better to
call the picture Brena."
'Brena I" roared Parmalee.
"Yes."
II won't have it I"
'Why not?" his wife asked, rising
from the divan and coming out of the
studio shadows. "Why not, Compton,"
Because the name Is a peculiar
name" said her husband in ridicu-
lous petty rage. ut is yours and I
don't want 1t spread all over every
picture gallery. It's bad enough"
wait" Sydenham interrupted. "You
have no cause to be disturbed. I
shall call the picture The Riddle. 1t
will be offered to you at the end Of
my exhibitions under that title"
1t never was offered to Parmalee,
= sxsa q sHaatter OF fact,~ and those ~ No.
member it only identify it by the ~
Sydenham gave it. but B srs tried in
eident during that period to escape the
conclusion that Compton feared that
0OAiCOAC WOulQ ISCOSulLC
her likeness, especially If her own
name had been attached to 1t, and
then through the artist trace back
until she were found.
Not six months later the suggestion
that Parmalee feared some individual
or group of individuals who would de-
liver to him a dreadful vengeance,
came sharply to her attention, leaping
up, like horrid shape out of the
quiet path of life, to stare into her
face.
She had been motoring out from
New York with Paul, the taciturn
chauffeur. who always appeared to
her to be man with the odors of the
penitentiary clinging to his bristled,
badly shaped head, but who had been
retained by Parmalee, through many
raise in salary and many an exhi-
bition of insolence.
I'm glad that you are well again, Il
Brena said to him as they were wiroa
ing up the yinelike road that. rps
preached the glowering old house.
'I'm not well, madame" Paul said.
'But the substitute arks-the man
Mr.. Parmalee engaged to cover my
illness, ma'am-he Left
II didn't know she said. "Ar Par
malice engages all the employees, Paul
even the maids. He wishes to do so.
So didn't know"
There's much that one doesn't
know, ma'am. isn't there?" he said in
an oily voice behind which was
snarl.
what do you meant"
'For instance, the reason Marks
left"
"What reason?"
well, ma'am, Mr.. Parmalee is sus-
picious of servants. You probably
don't know he requires birth certlfi-
cate and all of that. Getting a Job
here is just like getting a passport,
ma'am. And Marks he had one
forged - he did - not meaning any
harm. But Mr.. Parmalee found 1t out.
He wrote himself to the city clerk of
the place. And when he knew, there
was no tanning him, ma'am He was
like a rat in corner, if l may say
so-frothing like a mad dog"
If Paul had not occupied position
from which no insolence of his own ever
had dislodged him. Brena would have
dismissed him then and there. She
knew, however, that her husband
would reinstate him.
Paul is handy man-with his
fists and perhaps with other weap-
ons," Parmalee had said. Il feel that
he would be useful In an emergency"
Brena concluded that not only was
Compton living In terror himself but
that now and then he yielded to the
temptation to communicate this terror
to her just as one who suffers from
a disease might have degenerate de-
sire to spread its contagion. She re-
sisted this by pretending not TO rec
ognize the existence Of ANY abnormal
itY in their lives.
The third winter Of their marriage