Evening star., 1936-04-19

over the worries of other people"
How absurdw
mo, it's not. You're one of those
who like to sacrifice themselves almost
unnecessarily I've watched you"
You make me sound half-witted."
"You make me feel as though I'd
like to protect you from yourself.
suppose you know that love you?"
he added in a matter -of-fact tone.
"Oh, not with mad passion that's
going to ruin my life, or try to ruin
yours" as he saw her surprise. Tim
othy could know all about it, Mine is
just kind of love that would like to
do something for you when it sees
that you're unhappy. Gould it?"
Nobody" said Sheila. gently,
"could make me really unhappy but
Timothy. So suppose no one but
Timothy could make me happy again,
either. But it's nice to know that
you'd like to help"
well, don't forget it," urged
Pierre.
Then he was really gone, and Sheila
still sat in her chair by the window of
her loved room and wished that
Timothy were there, too. The feeling
grew SO strong that she went to his
study door. and, at the risk of dis
turbing him, tried it very quietly.
There was no one in the room. Tim
othy had evidently gone out by the
door which opened on the staircase.
Rather slowly Sheila went over to it,
and, as she did so. she heard Tim
othy's unmistakable step - coming
up the stairs. She started to open the
door, then hesitated, for the step con-
tinued up to the floor above, and the
next moment she heard the door OF the
apartment upstairs open and close
again.
II hate suspicious wives" said
Sheila to herself. She got book and
went back to her window on the gar
den. All at once she heard Nadya
singing. She got up and closed the
window with infinite precaution, but
the song broke off abruptly, as though
someone had heard her.
She couldn't sit there any longer.
She put on her hat and went out. AS
she passed the big house whose gar
dens lay beneath her own windows.
she saw the doors of the porte
cochere wide-open, and the concierge
brushing cushions. The family had
evidently gone away for the summer.
Sheila had faint curiosity to see the
garden from another angle than that
which ordinarily presented itself to
her. She spoke to the woman whom
she had often greeted in passing Could
she 60 to the end of the archway and
peep at the flowers?
The concierge gave her permission,
and Sheila walked through and stood
at the edge of the garden she knew
. so we'll and looked up at the back of
her own house. She raised her eyes to
it. In the window, above hers, a
woman was standing - Nadya, of
course. AS Sheila looked, a man
came and stood behind Nadya, and
Nadya, turning, put her arms up
around his shoulders and drew him
down to her - and Sheila knew that
the man was Timothy.
She shrank back into the archway
with an oddly empty sensation, and
heard herself thanking the concierge
calmly. Then she went back, upstairs
to her sitting room. and sat, not in
her usual chair, but in corner of the
sofa by the fireplace. There was no
particular consciousness of unhappi-
ness; there was only feeling of ex-
treme detachment from everything in
life.
She put out her hand, instinctively,
to steady herself, and it closed on the
edge of the firm, cool marble of the
low mantel. That was steady, and
dependable. 1t had been there for