Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-14

ny LL1o COulQ Hut uloCuSo VIC
thing with stranger, even II
she could rid herself of the
i sense of the strangest thing
about him. She stopped him as
he tried to answer her own terrified
question.
Van Wrinkle was too weak to protest.
Apparently he had come into the hall
alone and the effort was too much Tor
him. He took hold of the doorpoSt to
steady himself But he smiled at her.
MAY I come to see you?" he asked.
Phyllis found it hard to concentrate
on what he said. But she managed TO
reply presently.
yes" She said. "Come when you
can. When you are strong enough"
'Mr. Brainard will bring me" he re-
piled.
That caught her attention thorough
". AS if he were BrainardS creature!
But he seemed to attach no special
significance to his own words.
She went down to the waiting car
where her mother and father sat
talking of some subject they dropped
when She arrived. They seemed as I'M
ready as she to discuss the theme that
absorbed them ALL The fact added
nothing to her compoSure, but relieved
her of the necessity of facing the
phases of the subject they might think
important. They were clearly dis
turbed.
She escaped from the worst of her
thoughts, however, by going again over
the conversation that had last occur
red among the whole group gathered in
Radley's studio. Away from the spell
cast by the white room and the sense
of what had occurred there, she could
get a perspective that seemed to throw
all Brainard'S explanations once more
into the region OF clever nonsense:
That night, alone in her room, and
next morning. as she took a gallop on
her mare Betty, she began to recover
her cheerful view of things. And she
wondered at herself. What a curious
thing was a human mind, that could
be so wrought upon by mere sense inn
pressions as to repudiate reason Itself!
She had been appalled, at visions OF
world turned back upon itself, rellvlng
its action of the paSt-with the thou
sand chimerical threats the idea con-
tanned She shuddered with the after
chill of it now 1t was the worlds
salvation that it could forget! Then
she found that she could laugh with
huge relief in the conviction that the
involved explanation Radley had offered
them had been nothing but smoke
screen to cover some psychological ex-
pertinent he was making on them. She
might have resented this last idea had
it not comforted her to believe that the
real Radley was also merely still behind
that screen.
And he had something, as Carol had
said. OF course he had been disap-
pointed at her attitude! The things he
had shown them through the sheer
curtain of his exhibition chamber were
nothing short of miraculous. Enter
tainment? He would have q world at
his feet!
She paused at the crest of rise
back of the beach and looked down
upon the little city in which was her
home. 1t was not SO lovely a thing
as a city of homes at the Pacific's
threshold should be. 1t was not so
beautiful as it had once seemed to
Phyllis. Back there where the enor-
nous spread of studio upon studio OF
the present colossal entertainment COM
bine stretched away toward what Rip
Van Wrinkle had called Hollywood there
was color enough, gay show of BAN
nerS and streamers, Of gfittering gilt, OF
flowing life, visible even from here.
But that was not beauty. She looked
off at. the blue Pacific-and filled her
lungs with its sweet breath-and went
back home feeling that her world was
normal again!
1t was the following afternoon, after
"a hours more of this respite, that her
mother told her Radley was coming to
dinner, land bringing Mr.. Van Wrinkle"
Mrs. Norman told her Radley had ex-
planned that he intended to treat the
man as friend, to take care of him
and study his case for a time. He was
friendless and without resources other
wise. And Mrs. Norman added naively
that, however unfortunate he might be-,
Mr.. Van Wrinkle seemed gentleman.
She used the name now quite naturally;
j but the mere mention of it thus brought
| the girl qualm of misgiving that un-
! dercut the buoyancy of her heart. It