Evening star., 1926-05-29

Just one sec" she bubbled lar.
thur is here. John. and wants To know
II YOU VIII make up Il four for Hurl-
ingham tomorrow. II will be q rather
good knock--Indian VS. Argentines
Its the last thing I would dream
or doing" was the ungraCious answer.
$50 ] said. and auntie doesn't care
for poio-it frightens her. So Arthur
is taking little me. | just invited YOU
So as TO stop YOU from being peeved
because You were dropped for the
afternoon"
II asked for that, md got il" was
Johns comment when the door closed
'Frensham strikes me as quite a
nice Young fellow" said Leslie. indulg
| ing in his favorite trick of saving
something apparently not hearing on
the point at issue.
One of the best" agreed John.
heartily. He seems To have cottoned
onto your niece. II they make a
match of 1t they will he an ideal pair.
May will put just the right amount
of pep into, Arthur
Leslie nodded. He had not expected
SO direct a challenge. He wondered
what May herself would have said had
she heard.
You may be right" he said "Of
course. YOU must have acquired some
knowledge Of the ways of Canadian
girls. but I don't think YOU are a
Solomon when ii comes To understand
ing the feminine complex. May has
been here now three consecutive Sum
mers. and has given what she calls
the once over To scores of young men,
but ! haven't noticed that she is eat
ing her heart out in secret sorrow"
John felt- he had been snuhbed ef.
pect of meeting Conningt0n had sour
ed him for the day. Indeed the no
ton had occurred 10 him that MAY
Leslie would listen If he began to
whisper in her ear. hut it was oh.
viously impossible that he should
marry any nice girl while he was un-
der the cloud which threatened to
darken his whole life. 1T was exactly
this nebulouS belief. or half impres-
sion. which had ,begun to soften his
harsh Judgment of Alistair. II his
own blackened character were the real
bar. wherein did Eileen differ from
May. or either from any other woman
His father was right. The mere idea
was ''preposterous" i'm itself. lie pass
ed Lord Oban'S letter across the table
and rose.
Answer that as YOU think fit. sir,
he said. "1ll obey orders, never fear"
once in drafting a reply.
1t did not take him long. Writing
non-committal words had made up a
large part of his business career. Yet.
when the text was to his liking, he did
not hurry off to the city. but sat for
some minutes in deep thought. And
ii is probable. if his thoughts had been
given utterance to, they would have
taken some such form aS this:
When a proud man has been crush
ed by an almost intolerable disgrace
he seldom or never recaptureS the Joy
of life. Some Needless natures would
become convinced of their own limo
cence. and, having washed clean the
slate for themselves. would assume
the same leniency from all the world
But such people were never really
proud in spirit. John is different. He
cannot ever be brought to hope that
his lost honor may be retrieved If it
is-and / see a fair prospect Of ult-
mate success in the pending investiga-
tion-what will be the outcome? There
| am wholly at sea. The one thing ]
do know is that Miss May Leslie must
be content with baronetcy. if she
can get it, instead of Il barony. At
any rate. John is n good lad, and
worth saving. and, if can help 1t. he
will neither break the entail nor give
any fantastic pledge of celibacy in
favor of the InverlOchtie gang"
SO Mr.. Leslie was not only rather
annoyed by Alistair's maneuvering.
but more than a trifle hard on Eileen
If she were included in the comprehen-
sivee discourtesy of the word gang"
Copyright. 1926, by Louis Tracy)