Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-01

which felt what it did not know. The morning
papers acclaimed him. and the evening papers
brought out the ugly story which ruined him
even more completely
Eugene could never find out the truth The
Infatuated young wife of the very man who had
discovered Pascal, man of great prominence,
claimed him as her lover IF she says so, it
must be So" was his reported reply And so
Chicago was done with him, and the bitterly
ripped-up fragments of all his music on the
floor of his studio and the bits of paper which
had been his contract were the only trace of
Jandro Pascal and his two-day sensation that
any one had ever found.
A FTER vain waiting and hoping Eugene de-
cided she had little more to remember
him by than the reSt-an assured way with his
hands, firm set of chin and mouth which
grease paint could not obscure, a voice Finally
her heart had closed up again and whatever
pain reposed there during nearly three years
of her work lay dormant until 1t should be
awakened in the middle of the South Atlantic
under heaven fun Of low warm stars.
Eugene could not tell how long she waited
there by the rail, listening hoping for one more
strain to free her mind Of any doubt. For the
instant the singers voice had Stilled she could
no longer be sure. 1t might have been Just
trick Of the subconscious, just a mood Of her
own, just the south wind.
At last she walked slowly forward along the
empty promenade deck, convinced that it was
met
the tall young second officer. He stepped out
Of a shadow and spoke to her in French:
'Mademoiselle Is walking In her sleep?"
She glanced up at him under the visor of his
cap. That same lean firmneSs Of mouth. But
all the men she had ever felt drawn to were
like that-her own father, her first teacher,
even Michael Hope. It was her type.
II could not waste such night asleep" she
said. did you hear some one singing q while
ago?"
He shook his head Perhaps one Of the
mo, said Eugene, because it was an Eng
lish song-if it was any song"
She walked on around the deck down the
port side and aft again. CHANGING through the
smoking room windows as she passed she saw
Michael Hope sitting there alone brooding. She
Joined him.
ITS nearly o'clock. What are you sitting
here thinking about?"
His gaze came up slowly to hers.
"You," he said.
II told you not to say things like that"
ST know seldom do as am told. What
were you thinking about Eugenie-out there?"
mot you, Michael" Then she wondered If
that were quite true. Maybe it was Michael
after all, his hard, practical mind, his lank,
hard, out-of-doors makeup his sneness of
purpose which had been really in her thoughts
just acknowledgements my telling you about
that man in Chicago who-mattered to me,
Mlcnaelp l think ne is on board this ship.
Did you hear any one singing?"
did you?"
"I think So think-it was he"
Michael Hope laughed. "You heard the
south wind, probably. What does the fellow
look hke?"
II don't know. I told you that But I
would know him #"
IF he sang to you, I suppose. You music
people are quite mad, Eugene. You order your
whole lives on the stuff, and, of course, it lets
you down. I'd turn to something or some one,
surer If were you Why go on imagining
yourself in love with ghost?"
Eugene rose and left him without a word,
his laughter following her all the way down the
A-deck corridor to her suite, and CONJUNCTION
dying within her that but for that memory
borne to her tonight on breath of wind, she
might have fallen in love with Michael Hope.
He had come to her first with letter Of
introduction in New Orleans year agony
friend Michael Hope, Yankee with a Spanish
mother, owner and manager of about half the
coffee plantations in San Salvador" They had
met again by the merest chance in San Fran
cisco and now, to find him on the Normandie-
well, she had wondered if it were fate.
EUGENE wakened next morning with an
uncomfortable feeling that she'd been
ridiculously melodramatic with little If any
cause. She got up and out as quickly as pos
Sible and did her promenade and sun bas1ing
In blue-white sparkling reality that made
stars and south winds and songs in the night
seem as fantastic as some of the opera COM
pany's stage props.
That evening Michael leased her about it
during dinner for the benefit Of everybody ct
the captains table