The Washington times., 1937-02-08
NOW READ ON
By LLOYD G. DOUGLAS
opotan Production Appear in Warner Bros Theatel


Suddenly she started, pressing
her white knuckles hard against
her agitated lips. For at the south
end Of the spacious hall he was
slowly and dejectedly pacing back
and forth, his head inclined, eyes
fixed on the tagging, his soft
gray hat crushed under fis arms,
hands deep in his coat pockets.
Furtively, self-defensiVely, Phyl-
lis retreated on tiptoe out OF range,
tarrying for a brief instant in the
broad doorway of the corridor to
look down with brooding eyes.
Safe within the arc, she stopped,
tugged off her hat, and nervously
swept her forehead with the back
Of her wrist as if to erase the pain
ful scene on which she had un-
Willingly intruded, reflecting that
she had no right to witness his
agony, however desperate her own
might be. A wave of something
like compassion overwhelmed her.
For so long had the name of
Newell Paige been indisolubly as
sociated with her mothers tragic
death that it had acquired, in Phyl-
lis memory, a peculiarly sinister
quality, symbolic of an ineXcuSable
and irreparable disaster.
Phyllis had never harbored the
apprehension that they might
meet. It was reasonably sure that
he would keep his distance. Now,
the whole Paige concept had been
radically altered for her. 1t sud-
denly occurred to her that her
mother, if she could be aware of it,
would be deeply grieVed over this
wretched situation. Suppose it
were her mother, instead of her
self, who had come here and found
Newell Paige disconsolately lonely,
tortured by the ineradicable
memory of his fatal blunder. What
would she do? Phyllis could hard
ly imagine her mother doing other
wise than taking each of them by
the hand and delivering them to
each other.
For an instant she was gripped
by an almost uncomfortable urge
to run down the stairs and apollo.
gize for the pain she had caused
him. She even ventured a step in
that direction. then clutched at
the wall, frightened.
At length she went with spirit
less, uncertain steps to the picture
galleries. Seating herself in
room temporarily free of visitors.
she tried to bring her turbulent
mind to order.
Searching herself critically,
Phyllis was obliged to admit
though this candid analysis made
her cheeks burn-that her heavy
anxiety to relieve Newell Paige's
mental agony was inextricably
tangled with the undeniable fact
of her personal feeling for him.
This sentiment she endeavored to
assay. 1t wasn't, she told herself
confidently, a mere physical at
traction. His being six feet tall
and strikingly handsome, really,
truthfully, had nothing to do
with it, she said. 1t wasn't a mat
ter of his being urbane and dis
tinctly of her own world. Nor was
it his slow smile, his curious trick
of brief but singularly expressive
gestures, his serious searching
eyes that rambled all over your
face and came to rest in the exact
center of yours-not impudently,
but earnestly in quest OF you.
Not was his tenderness. She
could account for that now,
though it had puzzled her at the
time. He knew who she was and
wanted to tell her how sorry he
felt. But-wasn't it a little more
than that? When she talked, he
had watched her lips with a queer
little smile in his eyes. He had
liked her. She knew that.
The incident of her discovery
of the real Newell Paige was now
definitely closed. 1t was incon-
ceivable that she would ever see
him again. The conditions that
would keep them apart were insur-
mountable. irrevocable But she
had, Phyllis felt, gained some.
thing of value by this chance meet
ing, however painful had been its
eventuality. She had been relieved
of a self-poisoning aversion. Here
after, the name of Newell Paige
would not be an embittering SYM
boil for the chain of disasters that
had made her life difficult. From
now on, she told herself, his name
would stand for that one enchant-
ing half.hour Of Singularly sweet
comradeship-an event to be for.
ever cherished, though never re-
peated.
Finding the apartment unoccu
pied, Phyllis went directly to the
telephone and called Sonia at the
shop. 1t comforted her to find
that Sonia had not been very much
upset by her failure to appear, a