Indiana State Sentinel, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 January 1892 — Page 12

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THE INDIANA STATE SENTINEL, WEDNESDAY MORNING, JANUARY 20, 1892-TWELYE PAGES.

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Or, fl SPLENDID EGOTIST. A STORY BY JEANNETTB H. WALWORTH, The author of "That Girl From Texas," "The Bar Sinister," "The New Man at Rossmerc," etc.

CHAPTER IX. "You Pee, Mackaye, I am a trifle hamperedttliea it comes to entertaining my ! IrienJs decently at Lome." Mr. I.cmx wai waxing confidential. Ho : and the sculptor were alono ia tho diningroom at the close of the Thursday's dinner to which Randall had been invited. Tiu ro w cru u box of cigars and a bottle of wine between them on the table. He leaned over to till Randall's srm once more. The sculptor made a faint protest, the-J yii-hied. Randall Macfcaye's protests against the rcluetie things of life were laint (or feint. "Afraid? Nonsense! It is a little heady, but you haven't taken enough to hurt a sio: baby yet." Rvidently Mr. Lenox's idea of entertaining hi friend-? "decently" embodied frequent recourse to tins winebottle. It never occurred U him that hab tuat (enfireed ) ab"teniiou-neF9 miirht make inda'ciiee danrernii- t 1 1 1 - ßiifpt. "Yes, as 1 w:'.j saying, I'm . trifle hamper'"!. I irenerally have my own iriends uj t tli ler.;rie t diuner. Ry-the-way, put me ilown f'.r next Thursday at the ciub. I want to introdc.ee you to pome fellows who've ot lot. more money than brains. This is .Mi- Lenox's domain. 31 v hide L'irl is too youn.t: to be put at the head ci a table full of men. Her position, to. is a lilt'.e peculiar. No mother. .My dear wife left u fur a better world two ea-i u". Nottiin in the woman line "but liildah. Uildah's a good wo;r,an. Col never made a Letter one but well Hilda h L Hi dah." Mr. Lenox laughed indnVentlj', filled tl.e irlm et ;;;:ai:i and listened po'i'ely to Randall'n fervent asseveration tliat nothing ecu! J nave be r: more delightful than the little Lrniiy dinner they l;a 1 just disp scd of. It was so kind to admit him thus into the home circle. "Yes, but 1 take it you're not one of the dome.-tii.' sort. You rrtists are generally Rohennan-. However, you must stay and finish out the evening with Jeanne and Hiidah. This is Jranne'rt jit-home. Sie gets rather afjueer lot t"u'ther. You Fee, Jeanne's poiti.ti is r.'th r trvio:. She's top young for her mother's !d set. They are inclined to pa'r hrp.n 1 thMitilo xnonkoy has ru t i nie vith a r:d of iron F lor.' that fh-' ilcn't .i.TPT't j'lronnee very meekly run anybody, sin; wouldn't lrom iien Yie." Juit lier'" Jeai:ne's bright face was suddenly lrame 1 in the iininn!:i door end lier voice ca'ne to them in a little authoritative command. "Rapa, if you are goin: to yet any advice from Mr. Mackayo about your pictorial Noah's nrk 1 wish you would p now. Aunt Hiidah and 1 will want him to he p us presently." "All riht, my tyrant. Come, Mackaye. 1 keep the ark, but -he entertains th animals. Jeanne uets a regular inenairc-rie together every Thurs'l iv." Jeanne laujlied. then turned towarl Randall with the d 'intiet j r. sil le frown puckering her smooth white forehead. "At-homes are dreadful. l'on't von think ho?" Randall reminded her of his limited opportunity s of judjjinjr, at which fie; blushed in delicious confr.sion. He? ha i n?ver meant to lusi n to any d etatn. errnit the faintest altrence ia their social "Ah, vou ar r. tranter here vet awld e. V.'nit until this 'Vinter, and you wii! 1 e bored out of your existence." "You Fee," she went on rapidly, blushing vividly at his, i j 1 'i n t assurance that be should escape b rt- !mn only by pi in;; where ho was sure t inept lier, "Aunt HiMah a:.d iapa m.ike mv at-homes so dreadfully diillcult. l'apa raus away entirely, as a k'.-i!er:d thin?, and Aunt Hiidah p'"'T, dar, jo.tient Aunt Hiidah siie hits b hind the tea-things for all the world as if ehe were uispen-in t-a at a church fair for so much a cup, and was 'afraid she'd ?et the dringe wrong if ehe permitted o n vt-rfition." "ilii'luh wa.s Lorn in Connecticut, educated in New Ilamrshiie, and has soeat the larger portion of a i s; re and olaim-iess tsitence iu New Jersey," said Mr. Lenox, cxpisnatf.ri! v. 'Yen stia'n't n-rtkeftie of Aunt Ilihkh!" Jeanne Limed en him with charming incoas stc torn. Rut icy. "Mm? vou will is true sold at botstav and help me with all those stupid i.eopld toniirht, Mr. Zdackaye?" "Of course he will. I will fetch him myself presently. Set Miss Cheney onto Li.'.i, Jeanne. She'd toll him more about Ritinhaif a minute than ha could learn by a lifo time of arduous application: and the cornK;-t no, the Hu'ist, will be hero tonight?" "They'll fill be here tonight," said Jeanne, with her rippling, girlish lauii. "They know this is my last Until in tho fal!." She took a tiny diamond-studded watch frouiEoni" hidden recess about her laco bodice. 'Tara, I will cive you just one half-hour for tht pictures. After that lr. Mackaye belonss to me." Sli9 threw him a daring look and flutlored out of siht. Randall followed bis host in the opposite direction, toward tho lone wing-room which the Vi'all-st. man fcad convertei into a receptica! for a'l the pictures and statues and so-called works c fart that had been accruing to several fenerations of Lenoxes. "You know, Mr. Maekaye," Jeanno's father said, stopping in front of a huire tanva., after thev Lad made a elow circuit Cf the gallery, "as a rule we city men laake egregious asss of our-elve? when-t-ver we undertake to buy picture. TLere's a lot of bare epace to be filled, f.nd I've iust Kot eense enough to know that I don't know anything about this port c f thin?," wav-in bis band comprehensively; "tiiat is," as if repenting Jof his l.umiiity, "I think I know a tine thing vrhen I pee it, but these rdcture dealers J.ave puch an infernal gift of he gab that they can talk an easy-going fellow into l uvln a picture, whether ho likes it or I.ot." Randall admitted that the craft was not tbove tricks of the trade. 'o I need a supervisor, you preceive." Vhw. under the tlimsiest veil cf necessity, did Jeanne's father attempt to keepMiis pro nise to her, and help thm struggling j,ative eenius. "I want you to fill that epace for me. Take your own time. Make your own selections. In the meantime draw on me for comrniagiona as toon as you p ease.." It was well-meant and kindly done. JJeverthele-s Randall Mackaye winced Under it most unreasonably." Jeanne's father placed a friendly hand on hia arm. "Now, then, my dear fellow, I'm under tonds to hand you over to the women, fter all, they are th ones to float a fellow. I've got to mf et mme men at tho CiUh at S ::) jom fellows from Albany who are only in town for a day. You will ACI1S Die." lis had been conveyed aa far &3 tho

Drvmli

tack parlor br Mr. Lenox, then Jeanne had come and taken possession of him with a little triumphant smi.e. "You won't find it like Mrs. Kockwood's at-home," ehe paid, laying her small gloved hand on his arm. "Mrs. Kockwood'a at-homes are perfect. Don't yon think so?" "I never attended but one, and then you were there. Of course it was perfect." He bated himself for the epace of half a second after these vapid, empty words had escaped his lips, the girl by his side sent such a shy, sweet glance upward to him, and tho fed had come so swiftly into her smooth young cheeks. It was with a curious feeling of personal discomfort and harsh resentment surging up in him that he went mechanically through no end of introductions to the rather callow brood that Jeanne had collected about her, before taking refuge near Miss Hiidah. who stood entirely too much in awe of anyhody who could do anything, even to raise her mild blue eyes toward tho spot where "Jeanne's r.rtist" stood leaning gracefully against the blue-velvet mantel lambrequin, asking himself all sorts of spiteful questions. Why was Rate perpetua ly throwing this girl acrors his pathway? Why was the girl herself such a tantalizingly charming bit of humanity that it was almost impossible to be near her without an uncontrollable desire to eat' something caressing, to do something rash? Why was he so constituted that he must be ministered to with htniles and tender words? Why had Marianne chosen to absent herself at this particular juncture, hinging him back rn himself just as hn was getting a foothold among these people? Rinaby after ad, what was Jerome Lenox's liberal hospitality but a piece of class insolence? lie hail held out his hand, with a promise of gold in it, to an obscure sculptor, who, as a man, was absolutely innocuous to his daughter, born in the purple, and hedged securely about with social boundary lines and family traditions. As he stood leaning apainst the mantelpiece, sipping a cup of tea which Jeanne had just brought him with ber own hands and presented with one of those sweet, shy glances he loved so to provoke, he was eeized with an infernal desire to put to rout the insolent security of the father and win for himself thu utmost this child-woman had to offer to :ny man. Who could blame him? This intimacy was not of his seeking ! Moreover, would it not b for her happiness? Where was his deranged fancy conducting him ? Far, very far from tho lowceiled, luxurious drawing-room, where he saw, as in a dream, Miss Hiidah sitting rigidly behidd the teu-thincs, mak'ng heroic e'.forts to entertain an unhappylooking young man. w hose fatuous smiles were entirely at variance with the hungry ga.re that loliowed Jeanne as she flitted gavly from one group to the other, trying I vainly to infuse some oi her own vitality i inta the incongruous material that made ! up her at-home. 1 He saw and h -ard it al in a hazy fash- ; ion. Somebody sanr, and lie helped applaud him or her ( 7) Somebody recited 1 something. He could never iccail w. tat it ; wa-, only, as it seemed to excite mild mur- ' r'nnent from Jeanne's well-bred guests, he indulged in a moderate amount of smiling I as his contribution. ; The room wa-i growing intolerably hot, j the perfume of llowers and extracts overi powering. He wandered back to the ! picture-gallery. Softly-shaded lamps were : burning in various parts of the l uig room i He p.:se i a mirror. Something in his I own appearance struck him as peculiar. I He stopped to survey himself deliberately. i The iiian in the glass seemed to fling an : accusation at lira. i "Randall Mackaye, vou are an infernal scoundrel, not nt to ureaine me air oi Jeanne Lenox's home, (io home before you let the villainy in your soul escape at 11 . . l it A 1 your hps. It was good advice! lie turned to obey it. A gurgle of triumphant laughterlloated toward him. Jeanne was cocing swiftly towara lam witn ouistretciiea lianas. "Aunt Hiidah said you had gone home, bored to death. Rut I thought I would Had vou here. I'apa has no business to till your mind with business this evening. Vou are mine for tonight. Sdop thinking about tnesc blank soaces." she looked at him coouettishlv. Her hand W33 in his. It lay there passively as ha looked down at her with burning eyes. The remnant of the thing he called con science made ono of ita feeblest efforts to be heard. "I think I had better not go back to tho drawing-room, Miss Lenox. There is some work crying out in my studio for mj' tres ence. Ret me make my adieus here, have had a charming evening." "You have had nothing of the sort," said Jeanne, with her most irresistible pout, "and if you go away now, I ehall think" "Think what?" His voic? was thick. Ili.s burning gazo held her fascinated enthralled. "That vou do not like me." She said it slowly and daringly, never once dropping her eyes. It was almost a challenge. "Child, you don't know what vou are saving! You don't know what you aro doing." lie caught her in his arms. He drew her cIom; to him, pressed one long, clinging kiss upon her pure voung lips : then. holding her from him at arm's length, ais passionate excitement culminated in question asked with brutal directness: "Jeanne, do you Icve me?" a Tho answer came to him in a fluttering sigh, scarcely audible above the stormy beating of his own heart. She stood be fore him with ehy, downcast eyes: "Yes you Know I do." "God help you, little one!" It came from him with a groan. Ho flung her hands from Lim with passionate impatience, passed SAiftly out of the pal lery, found his hat and left the house without even glancing toward the drawing room, where he could stid hear the inane chatter of Jeanne's guests. Jeanne stood where ho had left her plunged in a delicious mare of gratifiec vanity, bewilderment at ber lover's sud den departure and a host of other nove sensations. Then ehe settled it all with her usual prompt decision, holding her hands the while to her hot cheeks. "Roor fellow he is afraid of papa. That is all. He thinks rich men are all ogres ... anu ne is anout to he devoured hy one He ia a tempest. I adore him 1" CHAPTER X. When Iiandall Mackaye opened his eyes tho next morning he found himself stared in the face by two excessively disagreeab e tacts; he had enacted the double role of fool and knave, on his first appearance aa Jerome Lenox a guest; and he had eplitting headache. Perhaps, if hin physical discomfort ha besn lead, his moral compunction might

have been greater. As it was. he nunc?

himself desperately out of bed and plunged his disordered head into cold water. In the midst of his ablutions the memory of certain previous periods ot pain came back to him periods when he nad been ministered unto by a whitebanded woman, skilled of touch and ready of sympathy. Rut these memories only served to inflame his wrath to a hicher pitch. "It is a deuced bore," he reflected, viciousiy rubbing his curly head with a big towel the while, "to have to look out or one 8 self, at any time ; worse than a deuced bore to go stumbling about like a horse with the blind staggers, hunting for clean things. When Mrs. Mackave does pat in an appearance I ehall settle things on a firmer baeis." The possibility of Marianne's never re turning to him had not. up to that time. entered the egotist's mind. lie bad quickly disposed of the alarm aroused by finding that she was not in Hoboken: "She has gone to vi-it that sickly old cousin of hers, up about Lake George somewhere, who is always writing for her. Doubtless ehe is enjoying her outing, while I am fuming about her." In dressing gown and slippers he Bat down to"face the situation." It so chanced that he also faced "Love's "oung Dream." when, Hinging himself into the most com fortable chair in the room the finished plaster model stood draped in its ghostly sheet behind a curtain. Nearer by, the unfinished work in marble depressed him with its suggestions of idleness, lack of purpose and other unpleasant things. It was almost as if Marianne herself had urned her head away from him in cold disdain of him as he was. He had Been ler assume just that attitude so often. l rom the beginning he had worked on ua masterpiece in his own erratic fashion. The head, with its rounded neck, was al most finished. One arm, terminating in an exquisitely moulded hand, was entirely finished. The cold, impassive fingers lay rigidly against the unahaped mass that was to be chiseled into dranerv. In his rare moments of feverish impa tience to see this, "the work of his life," completed he had sometimes contemplated following tho example of hiscraltand turning model and all over to a mason to e iinished. Rut his finer instincts re coiled against it. And Marianne, too, had recoiled from the suggestion. The work lad been conceived and the plaster model executed during their honeymoon, w hen ove s voung dream was a Llisstul daily actuality to them both. That proud little head, turned slightly sidewise, was Marianne s head. That round, swelling throat, hers. Ihose iuL, sloping shoulders; me souiy-springing bust; tho perfect arm, taping down to the faultless wrist and hand, were hers all hers. It was not as if a hireling model had furnished afl that entrancing beauty. lie could not call in the aid of the lehow who had "chopped cut" his l'syche. This work must be his alone, lrom the beginning to tho end. So he had settled it r.g ago. The modeling had been a delight, the -11 i I copying was torture, lauem amgonco was not his forte As he sat there that morning, racked with pain, ho was close euodg'.i to tho statute to put out one feveri.-h hand and touch its cold, w bite, unresponsive lineers. He drew his hand back with a nervous laugh. "Confound the thing! If I 'stay shut up with it here much longer alone it w ill give me me norrors. Letter mate a nnisa of it und get it out of sight." Not then though. He had not the re motest idea of lifting hammer or chisel until he felt better. liorang lor a mesenger-bov and or dered in some breakfast. When it came he felt in his side-pocket for the bills that Marianne had enclosed in her letter, and paid lor it. lie would ratner not nave been reduced to tho vulgar necessity of using that money, but as he was, there was po reason w hy it should- mar his ap petite for the breakfast it had procured him. He made a virtuous effort to take him self to tak while dawdling over his late meal, lie had acted shabbily at Lenox's How should he retrieve himself? Tell the girl he was a married man, who, under tho influence of her lathers heady wine had lorgotten himsell and stolen a kiss. Invite a cowhiding from Jeanne's hither? or so play bis cards that the Lenox doors would still be open to him and poor little Jeanne be kept from tears. lainlv tho latter alternative waa the most sensible. "A trillo riskv? Yes; but life without a spice of dancer in it is so infernally slow. lie was pianninsr the next step in his social campaign with careful deliberation, resolving to mako up for past blunders by extreme future caution, when an interrup tion came. Somebody knocked, and in answer to his permission to enter a tall form loomed in the doorway, and the scent of roses was wafted to him. He turned his head lan guidly and then stood up, looking pleased and surprised. "Cniitern? V hy, I thought you had been out of town this montu past. Hold on! let me see if I can find accommoda tion for you and that gorgeous bunch of roses. Mv room is not always in this wrecked condition." "The bunch of roses you will have to accommodate. They are for you, and I m glad enough to get rid of them. With your permission, I'll accommodate myself here in this jolly window seat. 'Tonne? said Randal!, taking up the bunch of roseB his visitor had thrown down on the table with a eh'reot genuine eur prise. "Yes, for j'ou. It's a great thing to be the coming man, rising luminary, and all t.iat sort of thing. there s where you art fellows get the better of us poor limbs of the law, especially when you happen to supplement the artistic temperament with a Ryronic head and a (iaribaldian mustache. Who would ever think of sending me floral tributes?" "That is a fact. You are a lawyer. eaid Randall, looking at him reflectively. Chiltern s nonsense went for nothing lie was an etlusivo boy. A good-na tu red one, however, who, Randall was quite sure, had persuaded his mother to purchase his 1 sycho at n lancy price, Rerhap on the present occasion tie might extract some legal points from the young counsehor. His gravity had a sobering effect on tho laughing boy in the window seat. He fixed his clear, blue eyes on Randa l's pale face with kindly interest. "You look rather seedy, old fellow. Working too hard, I guess. Mother sent you those roses and told me to say that she is going to have a lot of nice girls out at our place next week, and she wants you to come and help entertain them." "Thanks for the roses and for the invitation. ' Oh, as for tho roses, they take the earth out yonder in June, and as for the invitation, the thanks, if you accept, wii come from us." Randall looked at him meditatively. Dolly s attachment lor himself was one o the queerest of his town experiences. His visitor was scarcely more than a boy, i Blender, handsome, manly young fellow who bad been so closely watched a:u warded bv his womankind, that associa tion with Randall Mackaye had Beemed to open a delightful door of escape into the Bohemia for which his inexperienced soul panted. It would have been better for Jeanne Lmox if the rigid cordon of propriety that so chafed Adolphus Chiltern could have been drawn around herinstead. . "I'd like to live this way," said Dolly,

sucking the head of his cane and staring

about him with bright, interested eyes. 'Then you must be naturally a depraved wretch' said Randall, laughing. "I call this living like a dog. Everything's in a confounded mess." The studio missed Marianne a dainty supervision. "If it is," Baid Dolly discontentedly, "it's iving like a free dog. I live like one of those pop-eyed, bow-legged pugs, fileek and well fed, but some woman or other's always got hold of the other end of my chain, and I've got to go just the way thev pull." "How manv 'theys' are there.'" itanuan asked, soothingly. Not that he was very much interested in the answer, but he was meditating putting a legal question to Do.ly presently, and. he wanted to keep turn there until the question had lormuated iuelf clearly to hid own intelligence. "Five," said Dolly, in au injured tone. 'One mother, two aunts and two sisters. What chance has a fellow among such a lot of petticoats?" "Chance for what?" Randall asked, with a certain virtuous eternneBS m his voice that Dollv found impressive. "Chance to make a man of himself." "It depends on w hat sort of a man you want to make of yourself." "Oh, well, I don't want to make a beast of myself. I hate nasty things. And I don't think I'd want to lie,'gamble or drink, even if I were left to my own dovices. Rut, then oh, well, hang it a ellow don't like to have to give an account of himself, you know, five times over." Randall laughed, and Dolly joined in with light-hearted recognition of his own absurdity. Then, with an impulse quite unaccountable to himself, the older man came over and etood where he could look down into the boy's clear, frank eyes. "Dollv. there aro all sorts of chains m this world, and all sorts of dogs tugging at them, but I think, if I had to take my chances over again, I'd like to feel that mv chain was firmly in the grasp of some thingsomebodystronger and better than my own weak self. "Say that over again," said Dolly, in his eager young voice. l want to rememDer it verbatim." "Why?". "Weli, you eee" he ehifted one leg restlessly across the other and back again before finishing his sentence "you see, mother's the best woman in the World. There's no question about that, but she is strait-laced, and she was a little airaia oi you. you know." "Afraid of me?" "Yes, this way, you know. I guesc I have talked a lot of stuff about you and she was afraid I was getting fond of one of those Rohemians, don't you know who have not any moral sense, don t you see. Rut that idea of vours wiu letch her, you know. You're not angry with me! I thought I'd like vou to know, so that when you come out, if mother seems to be studying you, j'ou know, you'll understand." "Yes, I understand," said Randall, ab sently. He was engaged just then in draw ing a contrast between tne piquant daring of Jeanne Lenox and the girlish timidity of Adolphus Chiltern: "You'il come," said Dolly, rising and towering above the sculptor by a whole inch. "You'll come to help me through," he added, urgently, watching Randall's face solicitously. "Mother never has any but the nicest girls out. You know she and the aunts impanel a committee and sit on them. They are going to marrv me oil some day in spite of myself to the wrong girl, of course." He laughed helplessly. "Who, for instance, are some ot the nicest girls that will be with you week after next?" "Oh. I don't know. About a dozen. That's mother's idea of 'making home happy' for me. Mips Jeanne Lenox for one. Ever seen her?" Randall winced ; his answer was lost in Dolly's flow of eloquence. "Now, she's real nice. A regular highstepper, and as jolly as you please. She makes fun for the whole house when she comes." "Then, perhaps, after all," said Randall, impelled to say something, '"the chain will be pulled in the rLdit direction this time." "That chain is Miss Lenox's hand," eaid Dolly with boyish chivalry, "and she won't be pulled about by anybody. Rut, 'pon honor, I never meant to have consumed but five minutes of your valuable time." "My time is not very valuable this morning. T"ve been fighting a headache. Ry-the-way, Chiltern, didn't I understand, from somebody, that you had passed your examination very creditably, and was prepared to practice law this coming winter?" "I don't know about the creditable examination," said Dolly, a pink flush mounting into his smooth, beardless cheeks, "but I am a eol-called lawyer. Have taken desk room with old Judge Hallam Foote. You know I must be under somebody's wing." "Then maybe vou can givo me the law in a certain imaginary case. I don't know that I ought to call it imaginary, either. 1 will be very frank with you, Dolly, of course trusting entirely to your honor for secrecy." "That, of course, without saying," said Dollv, proudly. After a moment's hesitation Randall began: "I have a friend in Vermont who has come to grief in a domestic way re cently." He paused for half a second, perhaps overcome w nth a sense of his own contemptible perfidy. Dolly stood, hat in hand, politely interested. "He had married, from pure love, a woman who afterward turned out to be something of a shrew. She left him on a very slight provocation, and my poor friend writes to me for advice as to what steps to take in the matter." "Does he want her back?" Dolly asked, his blue eyes fixed inquiringly on the pale face before him. "That I am not quite euro about." "Well, it all depends on that," said Dolly, glibly. lie was quite willing to give indeed advice in the matter of this domestic tragedv. "If he wants her back, I suppose all he's got to do is, metaphorically, of course, to go on his knees to her." "My friend is not much given to genuflexion. Moreover, he does not know where she is." ' "Desertion! A clear case of desertion! In that case all he has to do is to summon ber to return a certain number of times, and in case of refusal after five years the law presumes her dead, and he is a tree man free to marry ngain." "A free man! Five years I Jeanne is very young." Randall repeated the words to himself over and over again. Free to enjoy all the nice, soft things fortune was flinging in his way with such unexpected lavishness ! Free to claim his place in that glit tering social circle into which he fitted bo comfortably and po naturally 1 Free if he so willed it to finally mary Jeanne Lenox! To Chiltern his only response was an indifferent "Ah, well, I don't know why I have bothered vou with this tempest in a tea pot, but I was going to write to this friend of mine this morning, and as the poor fel low had asked for my advice, I wanted to be able to give it to him intelligently. Thanks to vou. I can do eo now. Dolly flushed with pride as he held out his hand. , "Glad to be ot the slightest service to any friend of yours. Ta-ta. I can tell mother you will come?" "Don't promise for me, Chiltern. ThanJc her and tell her if I can get away from" my gallery I will be only too happy. "You do look confoundedly done up," said Dolly, kindly. . "I think you'll find a

tonic in our country air, to Bay nothing of the girla." He was gone, and Randall Mackaye tnrned away from the last gaze of his clear young eyes with an intolerable sense of unworthiness weighing him down. He wondered bitterly why Fate had not supplied him with all the good things of this world, and given him a lot of -women to keep him from going astray. "I needed them mon than Dolly did. That boy's soul ia clean to the very bottom." Mrs. Chiltern'a roses were scenting the air. Mra. Chiltern's invitation was tempting him to risk a whole week under the same roof with Jeanne Lenox. Why should he not take each day's luxury as it was offered to him, and stop trying to straighten out the "accursed snarl of Marianne's making?" Always Gome ono outside of himself to shift the burden of blame upon. The bunch of roses recalled a promise forgotten up to that second. Had he not taken Jeanne's roses from heron the night ot Mrs. Itockwood's at-home, with a promise that she should have them back in a more lasting shape? He had left those roses on a bench in.Wasbington equare but these would do quite as well. A few moments later, with a small canvas in front of him, and his water-colors spread out around him, he was transferring Mrs. Chiltern's roses to canvas, and formulating a satisfactory explanation of his tardiness in the matter of Miss Lenox's benefit.

CHARTER XI. "Miss Lenox is difficult this morning, and I am in despair." It looked much more like temper than despair. Florence laid the ivory brush down with an emphatic thud on Miss Lenox's dressing-table, after flourishing it wildly for half a second over the willful little head of her mistress, Jeanne looked at her reproachfully in the mirror. "Florence! I really believe you would like to thump me over the head with that, brush, as disagreeable nursery-maids do spoilt children." "Miss Lenox is a spoilt child," said the maid, folding her arms and looking defiance into Jeanne's reflected eyes. "Florenco!" The pronunciation and intonation were distinctly Sason this time. "I repeat Mademoiselle is extremely difficult this morning." Jeanne leaned placidly forward to scru tinize the arrangement ot lluüy cuns about her white forehead, which she and her maid had just come to grief over. "I am not anv more difficult than usual. I always like to look nice for my own sake and and for papa'e." Florence's thin nostrils dilated with acorn, but no audible rejoinder escaped her bloodless lips. "Rut this morning, Jeanne went on. ruthlessly pulling out a myriad of hairpins and sowing them broadcast over carpet, chairs, toilet-stand, "you seem spite fully bent on making a perfect guy of me. "It is not in the hair; it is in the loss of sleep. Emotion does not make women beautiful, said rlorence, with cairn insolence. "Miss Lenox is not well this morning." Jeanne looked at her In wild alarm. How much did he know? How much did she guess? After all, French maids were horrid things. She drew herself up with the most imposing austerity, and said, slowly : "Florence, I think I want you to go away." Florence shrugged her angular shoulders impatiently. "Entirely awav, Miss? Out of the house? Out of Miss Lenox's service?" "Yes," with an imperious stamp of a small foot; "entirely away, out of the house, out of my service. You make yourself detestable lately." "Detestable! Mon Dieu. I am discretion itself." "Discretion!" "Miss Lenox needs a discreet person near her." "What do you mean?" Jeanne asked with flashing eyes and hot cheeks. "Just this," said Florence, catching the girl's trembling little hands in hers and laying a long, brown, insolent finger firBt on one wrist, then on the other, Jeanne's eye3 dropped in confusion. Cpon the soft, white flesh of either arm a circular reddish indentation was plainly visible. She had worn her bracelets with the antique cameo clasps ttie night before. "Mr. Mackaye had admired them at Mrs. Rockwood's." When he had drawn her toward him in that swift, passionate moment, yonder in the picture gallery, he had held her tightly by the wrists, pressing the sharp, gold clasps into the tender flesh. She remembered now, for the first time, that it had hurt her then but what was that fleeting pain by comparison with the inrushing joy of knowing that he lovod her? She drew the lace of her eleevo quickly over the faint red spot. Florei.ce was smiling into her perturbed face with calm malice. "This child must be quellud," the maid told herself. "Mademoiselle should keep her adorers at a greater distance. Those marks are disfiguring. Permit me. Monsier need not have been so tempestuous." She brought her jar of cold cream and quietly applied it to Jeanne's wrists. The girl Btood cowed and trembling before her. All the dubious tales that Florence had to tell of previous mistresses rushed into her memory with startling distinctness. How could she tell but what Florence might manufacture Borne equally dubious tale concerning herself, in case of a rupture? Plainly it would be best to placate her maid. Poor little friendless Jeanne! A fluttering dove in the merciless clutch of a hawk ! "Florence." she said, resuming her chair in front ot the mirror with the docility of a conquered child, "try my hair again, do ; that's a good girl." Florence took up the comb and brush as if the mysteries of the toilette had never been interrupted: "Then Mr. Lenox does not dismiss nie?" "And Florence," not answering directly, "if you think you can alter that jet mantle to lit your shoulders, you can have it. The one you like eo much, you know." The peace (hus purchased left Florence, the maid, more etrongly intrenched than ever in a position ßhe had never meditated abandoning for a second. While Jeanne Weil, Jeanne had a delightful diversion before her toilette was quite complete. A package and a note were handed in. The package contained the freshest and daintiest of water-color sketches. "My roses 1 look, Florence! Isn't it too lovely?" Fiorence silently regarded the sketch with critical eyes. She was quite sure this art lover of Miss Lenox's was a fraud. Her voung lady had worn full-blown "American beauties" that night, and here was a lot of the Lord only knew what. She doubted whether he had painted them at all. She would make it her business to inform herself concerning monsieur, the artist. All this to herself, of course. Jeanne was fluttering about her desk, There was a note to be answered a note in which Randall Mackaye asked if he might call on Miss Lenox between the hours of 2 and 3. He feared he might be encroaching on her visiting hours, but, under the circumstances, hoped ehe would pardon and receive him. With a tremendous sense of guilt throbbing at her pure little heart, Jeanne devised an errand to her dressmaker which should take Florence down town at the precise time Randall Mackaye should be coming ud town. She had made a hu miliating discover'. She was afraid of

Florence. "As if," she eaid to herself, combatively,

"no one ever received a lover alono before !" So it came about that Florence was safely out of the way when Jeanne received Randall Mackaye in the long parlor, where the rich portieres and the lace curtains at the windows fell in long, straight iolds eo dear to the lovers of privacy. "Not at home to anyone else." Miss Lenox had given this order imperiously to the footman, who had brought Randall's card to her on a salver. Then she swept into the sculptor's presence and, with a great but very shallow pretense of being entirely at her ease, rushed into a shockingly crude but altogether flattering criticism of the watereketched roses. Randall heard her through with a patience which was not as commendable as it looked. Lie was gathering strength for the next act in this ''society drama." "Miss Lenox," he eaid abruptly, and there wae a creditable tremor in his voice, "I came here to say something which had best be said in as few words as poseible." "Y'es?"

They were sitting opposite each other, Jeanne on a low divan, he in a curiously S constructed piece of upholstery, wh made him feel as if he ought to be statioiie in a corner, instead of squarely in front of that girl, whoso clear eyes were rather discomposing. She had dropped them upon her folded hands now, though, and seemed absorbed in contemplation of thel jeweled rings which adorned them, twisting them about aimlessly. "Yes," Randall went on, a trifle more smoothly, leaning forward and touching a floating ribbon among her draperies. "I had no right to ak you to receive me this morning. Rut I wanted to tell vou something; must tell you something, in tuet." Again the faint "Yes?" tremulous and soft from Jeanue's red lips, smote upon the silent room. "I am an in an unmitigated scoundrel, Jeanne Miss Lenox and deserve to be ordered from vour presence as vou would order an insolent lackey who had put au : affront upon you." Jeanne looked at him with disturbed, incredulous eyes. "I do not understand you!" "Of course you don't. How can you? I don't understand mvself." It was stupid, but he was befogged. She leaned forward with a divine pitv in her c.ear young eves. i ou are afraid of papa." Then pity was put to flight by an archly encouraging Buu.e. A ghastly pallor overspread Randall's handsome face. "No I there was nothing for me to tell him. You" "True true! You could hardly tell him that he had entertained a villain at dinner, and that you had been insulted by that villain afterward." "Insulted?" she drew her slim form up to its utmo't capacity. She looked him straight in the eyes. A certain chill had come into her voice. She seemed in a second to have put him at an immeasureable distance. Rut the egotist before had planned every step in this interview carefull' bofore leaving his studio. He was not to be thrown off his cue by that sudden upflaming of her wrath, which only enhanced her beauty distractingly. "Yes, insulted. Is it not an insult for a man in my position, a poor, unknown, obscure modeler of clay and chipper of marble, to raise longing eyes to Jerome Lenox's daughter? Is it not an insult for a man absolutely debarred from even the possibility of asking a woman to be his wife to permit his passion for that woman to override his prudence? Is it not an insult for a man to pour meaningless words of love into a girl's ear and to extort from her avowals that can lead to nothing, as I extorted them from you last evening, my poor little Jeanne?" ' 'Meaningless words'? 'lead to nothing'?" She picked those two phrases out of the speech he had delivered with headlong impetuosity and repeated them over and over auain as if she were trying to translate them into something understandable. "Meaningless words? lead to nothing?" "He repeated them himself with a certain dogged insistence: "Y'es, meaningless words that can lead to nothing." "Why?" she asked him, abruptly, dashing her hand across her eyes as if clearing away a physical mist. "Recause I never can I never intend to repeat one word of all the etufl I poured into your innocent ears last night, until I am in a position to face your father and say to him, 'Jerome Lenox, Dy the help of my own strong right arm I have carved out a position that you cannot look down upon.' It may be a long time before I can do it, Jeanne. Two years perhaps three perhaps longer perharjs never. Until then" He stood up and held out his hand. He considered he had conducted the interview with considerable skill. The girl before him was fluttering and flushing with an access of lovo and admiration. She, too, etood up and held out both hands. She was looking up into his face with shy, true eyes. "Until then?" "Cntil then, good-by. I must not stand in the way of some more fortunate man. I will not hamper you." "LTntil then," ehe said, dropping her eyes and Bpeaking very softly, but quite distinctly. "I will wait. There will be no other fortunate man. What are two years? three? four? You will be great and I shall be proud of you. Leather likes you now." He could have drawn her to him again, lie could have sealed her rash promise with another guilty kiss. Thero was invitation in her attitude. He credited himself afterward with a sternly virtuous purpose. He dropped her hands and turned away from her with a long-drawn, genuine sigh. The trying interview was over, and instead of losing ground with ber he bad taken position on a much higher plane. He was quite safe until his legal shackles should be knocked o!F by the majestic arm of the law. He dropped her hands and turned away, leaving her standing there, with bright, trustful, hopeful eyes turned full upon his retreating figure. " When he got back to the studio his patience was sorely tried. He had to touch the electric button to the elevator a third and a fourth time before ho could discover any motion in the machinery. It descended slowly. As the door finally slid back, a tad, dark woman stepped into the corridor, and brushing swiftly past him, walked rapidly toward the entrance. She had given him one piercing look from a pair of firce black eyes in passing, a look so full of malignity that the sculptor was impeded to ask: - "Who is that woman? ' "Somebody for the janitor," the elevator boy answered. "'Twas her that kept me waiting so long." It was in vaiu that Randall tried to recall when and where he had before seen that tall, spare figure and those peculiarly fierce black eyes. He could not tit them to the woman who, on the .night w hen Jeanne Lenox had driven him home from Mrs. Rookwood's, had opened the carriage door on the side toward the square and seated herself in the coupe, for he had not looked beyond Jeanne's face. Florence had been very busy that morning. She had interviewed Miss Ienox's dressmaker and Mr. Mackaye's janitor, and now ehe was going home flushed with a sense of achievement. TO CQ.NTm fcD &EXX WtiK.l

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