The evening world. Newspaper, February 11, 1916, Page 17

A New York [MARREAAAAR A haa daa nd (Coppright, 1915, by J. 1B, Lippincott Oo.) E CHAPTER X. (Continued,) The Guitar of Alenya of the Sea. had meant that day to be @oon; now he knew that it would never come in the way he had fancied. And the loss of an ideal hurt. Masterson had told him the truth; there was no escaping the logical in- ference to be drawn from ft. An- thony wasted no energy in trying, in- If still more in band. meking iB chanone Sn the ont in 1e department. For Anthony did not Content himself ti the trucking system. He had inh co-operation. Anthony found hla salary increased. When returned, after bis iliness, he was position, upstairs, ‘The evenings in the little red house ‘Were no longer entirely devoted to play, after that night spent abroad, driancé took to keeping a book of records, in the form of cryptic notes > and columns of s. “Chauffeur's accounts,” he caled them, when Elsie questioned; and she laughed accept- anoe of the evasion, forbearing to tease hin. with curiosity, Long before there had arrived the replies tthe letters of announcement he and Elsie had written to her par- ents, and Adriance had been touched Wome by the serious, graciously cor- dial weloo: extended to the un- ‘w. He had promised Rimeeif, and Elsie, that some time visit to Louisiana should be pata Since that she had described the neighborhood, the countryside and people, with her knack of vivid word- ske*ching, until all lay as clearly be- fore him as a place seen. Now he _— Ned this with a new considera- tion. “Do you remember the old house and poate that you once told me about?” he asked her, one Sun- d morning. “The deserted place, that had been for sale s0 lo! Do ‘you supose it is still for sale “It was, the jast time Virginia wrote,” she replied, regarding him queationingly. “She spoke of a pic- nico held there under the old trees.” (Ic I-—well, was crowded out of hete, would ‘you be content to try life down there? I remembered yoster- day that I own some rather valuable stuff left me by my mother; nothing very much, just jewelry she had as a ned I do not like the tdea of selling it, but If I am forced into a corner it would buy such a place for us. I have some ideas I would like "hia set down the salad bow! with which sho was busied; her rain-gray ae, grave, she considered her hus- “Ot what are thinking, Anthony?” ae 4 Adriance looked away. Even to her, he could not bring himself to speak of his lost confidence in his father or to say whom he now feared 3 an enemy. Mr. Adriance could not divide Anthony and his wife without their consent, but he could make it bitterly hard for them to live to- gether. Anthony had known of men who had Incurred his father’s enmity, the memory was not reassuring. Before his interview with Masterson, be would have ridiculed the idea of Such a situation between his father and himself; now, he was uncortain. “Put on your hat and coat,” he evaded the question. “Come for a walk; I want to show you some- thing.” “And our dinner? she demurred, one, mind it. We will eat scram- * ing, she complied. “What I going to see, An- thony?” “A house," briefly. The wal took them quite away from the neighborhood of such smail cottages as their own. In fact, the house before which Anthony finally halted was standing so much away from the others as scarcely to be called in @ neighborhood, at all. It stood out on a little «pyr of wood- land and lawns of its own, “There!"' he indicated it. “Pretty?” Elsio looked, with a satisfying seriousness, The house was so new that the builder's self-advertisement still jostied the sign offering for sale: “this modern residence, all improve- ments,” “I love it,” she pronounced, “Those white cement houses are adorable; it looks as if it were made of cream candy, What deep porches, like caves of white coral; and how deli- clously the light gleams in those cunning, stained ¢) windows! [ @uppose they are set w It is a nice size, too; large enough to be quite luxurious, but not so darge as to be appalling, How did you happen to notice it, dear!” “I took this road for a short out one day, Look what a view you have up here, One must see twenty miles up and down the river, and over half New York. But tt is open to inspec- tion; let ua go in.” if we were considering buying it," he fell in with the sport. “Yes, and we will be very critical indeed; fiad flaws and finally reject it, » Anthony, it does not at ali @empare with our present residence,” the stairs? Women’s Love for One Man By Eleanor M. Ingram was of Arabia: © or no Sunday. Story of Two ARRAN ARAN “You'll do,” he approved, drawing up the broad, lazily low steps. It really was an enchanting hous; @ house that developed unexpected charms to the pair who wandered through its empty, echoing rooms and halls. It indul, in nooks and inconsequential little balconi it displayed a most inviting window , seat haif way up the stairs that could tat only have been designed for lovers, “But none have been there, yet,” Elsie observed, lingering on the stairs to contemplate this last allurement, “Just think, Anthony, that is a mere debutante of @ house with its ball book all unfilled. No one has sat be- fore ite hearth, or nestled in ite win- dow seat, or opened its door to let in love or give out charity, It is an Undine house whose soul has not yet entered its cool whiteness, Oh, I hope the people who buy it are both foir and and respect ite innocence!” make you want something?” “Yes,” ghe promptly returned, look- ing over her shoulder at him as she descended. want something that I saw in the Antique Shop yesterday. ‘Will you buy it for me?” “That depends. What is it?” ‘A guitar, A guitar that might have been made to go with our ivory and jade chessmen, for eome heavy- Mdded slave-girl to touch while her master and his favored guest moved the pieces on the board. It is El Aud all opalescent inlay of mother-of-pearl, pegs and frets marked with dull color, I am quite sure it belonged to some Eastern princess; perbaps Zaraya the Fair or Alenya of the Sea. It will sing of courtyards in Fez, where fountains splash all the hot, still days; of mid- night, in the Alhambra gardens, and the nightingales of lost Zaha! And the antiquarian person will sell it for five dollare!'"” Adriance threw back his head and laughed, beguiled from serious joughts. ew hnat a peroration! We will buy the thing on our way home, Sunday That is, if you can jay it for me, and if it will come ‘est enough for the sleepy, creepy song about Maitre Raoul Galvez that should never be sung between mid. dawn? I havo never hoard Promised. “and Iso the song with which Alenya o' the Sea charmed the king from his sadness.” i “Tell me first who Alenya was.’ a Lightly, but with do. termination, he drew her across the threshold of the room that opened bestde them. Opposite its rawly now, rose-tiled fireplace he pushed a tool chest, forgotten LA —, a, ‘kman, and spread ove: ‘wont fairly comfortable " he bade. “You're tired, anyhow; and I have a fancy to ees you here.” ‘Surprised, but yielding to his whim with that comilal readiness he loved in her, Elsie obeyed. Adriance estab- lished himself opposite, on the com- paratively clean tiles of the hearth. “Shoot,” he commanded, lazily and colloquially imperious. “Your sultan Ustens.” She made a mutinous face at him and slowly removed hor hat, laying it beside her upon the chest. "Her gaze dwelt meditatively upon the broad ray of sunlight that streamed across from the nearest window and gilt- tered between them like a golden sword. Watching, Adriance saw her eyes grow reminiscent. every well, I will try to tell tho story as my father once told it to me, But whether be drew it from those strange histories in which ho 1s so learned, or whether he drew it from his own fancy, I do not know, For he was more post than professor, and more antiquarian than elther— and more dear than you can know until you meet him, Anthony.’ Now imagine yourself in our neglected old garden, and listen. “Long, long ago, before the beauty of ‘a brought the Moors across Gibraltar Into Spain, there lived in the East a king named Selim tho Sorrowful. The name was his alone. His kingdom was as rich as vasti his people were content; it seemed that all the country laughed except its ruler. Upon him lay @ vague, sinister spell, and had so lain from the hour of his birth. “For always he grieved for a thing unknown, a want undefined and un- satisfied. Royalty was his, and youth, and absolute power, yet, he- cause of this great longing of hie he moved like a beggar through his splendor and knew hunger of the heart by night and day. Wise men and temples were questioned in vain, rich gifts vainly sent to distant ora- cles; none could tell the king's de- sire, or cure it. And his dark, wist- face came to be accepted by his asa thing usual and royal. “One day, when the king walked alone In his garden by the sea, a strange mist crept over the land and water, silvery, opalescent, wonderful, He stood, watching. Suddenly a gi- gantlc wave loomed through the haze and swept curling and hissing shoreward to his very feet, where it broke with a great sound, When the glittering foam and spray fell away again, a girl was standing on the sands before him; a girl clad in the floating gray of the mist, girdled and crowned with soft, dim pearls. Her lustrous eyes were green as the heart of the ocean, and when the King gazed into them his sorrow shrank and fled “Who are you, desire of mine? ed Selim, ‘Alenya of the Sea,’ she answered him, and her voice waa the lap of waves on a summer night, “Then the king took her tn his and bore her to his palace,” And she cured him?” “Better! She satisfled him, Never was a change more marvellous; tn all the kingdom there was no man so happy aa Selim the King. Day and night, night and day, he Mngered by the sea-maiden, Riotous prosperity came to the land, the fields ytelded double crops; it seemed that the @ very sunshine of rms king's smile wi the South, “But by and by superstitious dread fell upon the people, and the jealous priests fostered it, Strange, strango and weirdly sweet was the music that drifted from Alenya's apartments. There came @ day when the country demanded that Selim put away the GET OUT oF THis ROOM ORI'LL THROW YOu OUT | RT oF THE FIGHT. IT WAS TERRIBLE | | CANT STAND IT! OSE JOHNS TraT bie DOWNSTAIRS HAD IN AWFUL FIGHT MAM HEARD fT TH THE SHE | NEVER DID LIKE HER Loos | SHE HAS an Evi €ve How TERRIBLE! 'rNow THen WELL I MusT Cee) RIGHT § 1D You KNOW MRS JOHN COoneD HER MUSBAND AND THREW PART oF Him OUT OF THE we WINDOW 2 Su 4 Traaic END! 1AM GLAD To JOHN ALIVE! HEARD YOu HAD RiLced Cal INDOW . HREW HIM Our Rouau | ALWAYS THouGuy SNE WAS CRAZY AFTER Ean a ARLA NG LIC Se = evil enchantress, or die. One month they gave him for the choice.” “The men of the East were poor love! commented Adriance, “He banished the sea-princess?” “Not at all! He chose death, and @ month with Alenya." “Well, if ho lived one month ex- actly as he willed, he had something.” “Very true, cynical person, But never was such month aa bh when the lonely man still possessod his love and the wearied king had found an excitement, Intensity is the leap of @ flame, and cannot endure. When the end of the four weeks came”— #be paused, her dark ttle head ulted back, her regard inviting his hazard. “They died “Alenya sang to the king for the lust Lime, There is no reoord of that lost music; It 19 so sad that if it wero written the paper would dissolve in tears, When it ceased the king slept, and Alenya flitted back to the sea and mist, alone, Later came the people and awakened Selim with their re- Joicing, but he stared in cold amaze- ment at the pageant of their return- ing loyalty. He had forgotten all.” Forgotten?" “Yes, for Alenya's last song had swept her image trom his mind. From his mind, not his heart; he was again Selim the Sorrowful, yearning for the desire he did not know, “Often, often he wandered along the shore, suffering, uncomprehe: ing. It is writen that his reign w long and wise, But on the night ho died his attendan found the print of @ small, wet hand on the pillow where rested the king’s white head.” After a moment Adriance rose. "So he could not keep his own when. he had it!" he said. ‘Thank you, Madame Scheherazade. Now come outside and I'll tell you why I wanted you to sit at that hearth, for luck.” Laughing, she followed him, carry- ing her hat in her hand “Why, Anthony?’ “Because I wanted this place for our home,” he answered, She uttered a faint exclamation, genuinely dismayed, “Want {t? Why, it must be worth ten thousand dollars, Anthony! See, it even has @ little garage. And one would need servants; a matd-of-all- work, at least," “Yes, I am working for all that. A while ago I thought I was certain of it. Now, Iam afrald not. But you are not going to live the way we are now for much longer. Either I shall win my game, and bring you here, or we will go South and try a new nture. aa Amazed and hushed, she met his steady, resolute Baz. She had not Slimpsed this purpose of his in all their intimate life together. “Do you—care-to tell me about it she wondered. “And, you know I am quite, quite happy as we are; as I must be happy with you always, win or lose, my dearest dear.” Tho place was quite deserted; he kissed her, before the blank windows of the house that never had been lived in, “T know,” he satd. “As T must be with you, and am! But I will wait fo fail you the rest, until I oan tell She accepted the frank reticence, They walked home more quietly than they had come, each busted with thought, But Adriunce did not forget to stop at the antique shop for the guitar. ‘The proprietor lived in the rear of the shabby frame bullding and will- ingly admitted his two customers, after examining them beneath a ) raised corner of the sun-bleached green curtain. “Tho guitar?” he echoed Adriance's eee; “For madame? But cer- tainly!” He produced the instrument from the window with deferential alaority. He was thin, bright-eyed. t is a good guitar,” Elsie ap- proved. ‘And gay, with all this mother-of-pearl iniay and the little colored stones set in the pegs! But these wire strings must come oft, Anthony, They are too loud and too harsh.” “It ts so, madame,” the old man nodded entire agreement, before Adriance could speak. “The guitar was used on the stage, where lo ness!"—— Ho shrugged. “Never would you guess, madame, who brought that instrument In to mo last week.” “No?” Elsie wondered, politely, in- terested. “It was that enormous Russian who formerly rode beside your husband in the motor wagon, madame, Ho has not a head, that Michael, but he has # heart. About the cines he fs mad— the moving pictures, I would say. Well, then, into the poor boarding house where he lives came an actress. She wae out of work or she would not have been there, bien eur! Tho ultar was hers, Michael brought it here to sell for her. I believe she ts slck, Because she is of the stage, he 1s @ elave to her.” “He 1a in love?” “He, madame? It has not oven oc- curred to him. He would not pre- sume.” “Poor idealist!" said Adriance. “We will take the theatrical guitar, but wrap it up ‘so I can get home with- fhed nor forgot. eat across the whe much int who hi last played her decorative instru- me! “Ie tt my guitar, truty, Anthony?” she questioned at last. Tt certainly isn't mine,” he retort- y. od _teasingly. She made a grimace at Mim. But he also made @ resolve. CHAPTER XI. Russian Mike and Maitre Raoul Galvez. UBSIAN MIKE tived {n a settie- ment 1orhaps a mile back from the river road, He usually passed the Adriances’ house each morning, a few moments eariler than the Mghter-footed Anthony set forth, whose swinging stride oarried him two steps to the big man’s one. Elsie had long since made acquaintance with her husband's assistant, During the bitter weather she frequently had called him from the snow-piled road to warm his slow blood with a cup of her vivifying Creole coffee. The Monday morning following the purchase of the guitar, ahé knew just when to run down the path and find the bulky, lounging figure passing her gate, At the sight of the girl in her iliac- hued frock, a drift of white-wool scart wound about her shoulders, her dark little head shining almost bronse in the bright morning light, Mike came to a halt and awkwardly Jerked at his coarse cap, It bad flaps that fastened down under his chin, 80 that he was embar- rassed equally by the difficulty of re- moving his headgear and the incon- venance of remaining covered. But Elsie's smile was a sunshine of the heart that melted such chills of doubt 4s she came up to him, wod morning, Michael. Thank you for bringing back my kitty-puss, Saturday night. She will run away, somehow.” “It ain't nothing, ma‘am,” be a precated, confused, yet gratified. “It was very Kind, Michael,” ehe considerately lowered her eyes to her breeze-blown soarf. “Yesterday Mr. Adriance bought a guitar for me, from the antique shop. We heard where it came from—how you brought it. Will you tell the lady who owned It that I should be sorry to keep a thing she might miss? Tell her, please, that { hope she will soon grow well, and when she is ready I shall be happy to return the guitar to her. We will just play that she lent it te me for & while.” His rough face and massive neck slowly reddened to match his fiery bal fou, he stammered, in- articulate, His mittened fist wrung the nearest fence paling. “I ain't—! Thank you, lady.” Mischief ourled Elsie’s lips petals, as she contemplated the di comfited @iant. “Is she very prett: » Michael?’ “No, ma'am" was the unexpected avowal, ‘Not ‘less she's dolled up for actin’, She's nice, just, I guess inany ain't like the swell one Andy used to work for; dolled any time,” “Andy? Mr, Adrianoe? He never worked"—— “For an actress; yes, ma'am,” fin- ished Mike, calmly assertive, “He treated her to tea, the day after Christmas, when we was sent over to New York. Ain't you seen her? Swell blonds, with awful big sort of Heht eyes an’ nice clothes on?” He leaned against the frail old fence, wad) reminiscently, “She ind of perfumery!—— nh nobody else ain't “He treated her to tea?” Elsie faintly repeated, She did not intend an espial upon Anthony; the question was born of pain and bew!iderinent, “She ast him to, ‘They went to a in’ place an’ I watched the truck, Tony, she called him.” Mike ponder- ously straightened himself and pre- pared to depart. “I guest I'll get to «, ma'am.” sie nodded, and turning, crept back. Adriance had appeared on the threshold of the cottage, his dog leaping about him in the daily dis- appointed, datly renewed hope of ao- companying the worshipful master. He was whistling and fumbling in his pockets for a matoh as he stood, But he was struck dumb and motionless by the change in the pale girl who turned from the gate, She seemed al- most groping her way up the path. “Elsie!" he called, springing down the steps, “Why, Elsie?” ‘To his utter dismay, she orumplod into his extended arms, her eyes shut. Ho gathered her to him and swept her into the house, himself sick with absolute panic. Illness was 90 new to them; he did even know of a doctor nearer than tho stately and important family physician in New York. He felt the world rock beneath his feet; his world, whioh held only hin wife, Trembling, be laid her on their bed and knelt beside it, her head still on his arm, “Elsie!” he choked, his eyes search- ing her face. ‘Giri!’ “Perhaps it was the misery tn his Tolce, Perhaps the anguish of to with which he clasped her, but she moved in his arms. “Yes,” whisper: “I-1 shall be well, in @ momen: “You're not dying? Not 1n pain? What can I do?” No, no. Watt a little, Put me down; I must think.” He obeyed, settling her among the pillows with Infinite tenderness. He dared not kiss her lest he disturb re- covery, but he carefully drew the pins from her halr and amoothed out the thick, soft ripples. He had a vague recollection of reading some- where that @ woman's locks should be unbound when she swooned. It was in @ novel, of course; still, it might be true. And there wae one Panacea that he knew! Elsie did not open her eyes, but she heard him rise and hurry into the other room. ‘The giddiness had left her now, and she could think, Of course sho had recognized Mike’ portralt of Lucille Masterson, Bhe had seen the other woman, lovely, im- pertous in assured beauty; almost had breathed the rich odor of her Essence Enivrante—which was not Fronoh at all. but distilled in an upper room on Forty-second Street where individual berfurnes were composed for those who could pay well. Anthony had gone to her the day after Christmas! Lying there, Elsie recalled how she and Anthony had mone together to churoh in Yuletide mood and knelt hand in hand in the bare little pew as simply as childrent eause they had found each other.’ And then their first Christmas dinner in thelr holly-decked house, when the Puppy had sat In rolypoly uneteadiness on Anthony's knee, regaled with food that abo widaheve alain him, while she laughed remonstrated and abetted the crime, The day after all that, the day after he had given her the garnet love ring, Anthony had gone to Mra. Masterson? Her reason cried out against the ab- surdity. Yet, he had gone. The clink of china hurriedly moved in the next room had ceased. Adriance came to the bedside, leaning over to silp his arm carefully under the pillow and raise the girl's head. In his other had he held @ cup of hot tea, the only medicine he knew, All his wifo's heart melted toward him in his helpless helpfulness, Sud- denly she remembered that he had y come back to her from that meetiny He had seen the invincible Lucille, yet had returned to glorious content with his wife ‘The ordeal ahe long had foreseen and dreaded was over. Sho opened her eyes and looked up at him quietly, Wonea like @ man who had been He Ul and bis gage devo ber, en- folded her, “What was it?" he asked unstead- ily, “What is it?” “Anthony, why did you not tell me that you met Mrs, son?” ehe put her quiet question, “Why did you leave me to hear it from Mi- chael 2 Startled, he @tti continued to look down into her eyes with no confusion in his own, “I suppose I should have told yor he frankly admitted, jut it wasn't of any importance, and I—well, I out such @ poor figure that I dodged ex- hibiting {t to you. The woman caught me on the avenue and fairly bullied me into @ tea room, with my collar wilted and oMy hands, I think she did it out of pure malice, had nothing to say, after all. But— surely that did not make you ill, Elsie?" “You never thought that I might mind your going?” “Why?” he asked simply, “What {9 tt to me? You don't, do you?” She put up her hands and clasped them behind his head, “Set down the tea,” she laugh tears in her mockery, “or wo wil Pil it between us. Did you think me an inhuman angel, dear darling? No, I don't mind; but'I did.” ike that?” amazed. “So much?” ‘ou keep remembering who Malt’ Raoul Gaives raised,” sho warned, her ps ogainat his, “I'm mighty Jealous, m he stammered ‘But TI love you,” clumsily, “That woman—she looked ee potent,” Mr, Goodwin like a vixen! Poor Fred!" Their first misunderstanding was passed, and left no shadow. By an by they drank the cold tea together, and Elsie persuaded her nurse to go to tho factory a# usual. “I was not sick, just full of bad- ness," she conscientiously explained. “Although tt might not have hap- pened if I had been altogether just tho same as usual, Cg Ae ‘They talked over the affair at more leisure, that evening. But they could find no reason for Lucille Masterson'’s insistence upon that brief interview with Anthony. My 4 had she forcod him to attend her? He could honestly assure Elsie that Mrs. Masterson had made no attempt to win him back to his former allegiance; rather, she had taunted and antagonized him. As ® caprice, they finally classified and dismissed the episode, What they did not dismiss from their thoughts was the conversation they had held in the new white house, the day they had bought be se They did not speak of Ant ‘3 ambitions, but Elsie came to speak often and with freer enthusiasm of her native Loulsiana. Her husband saw through the Innocent ruse with keener penetration than she reco; nized, and so far it failed. He wu derstood thi ee was qaantesty bef paring to make easy for him way of retreat, in conse he lost his fight; preparing to convince him that ‘was the way sho most desired to go. He loved her the better; and was the more obstinately determined to force hia own way. CHAPTER XII. The Challenge. JACH day found Anthony less willing to leave the place he had chosen. He did not want to abandon the work commenced in the factory; he had attained an active personal Interest In his progress there, He was well aware that he would soon know more about some possibilities of the mill than gid Mr. Goodwin himeeif. His father never had concerned bim- self at all with such matters, Mr. Adrianoce was the converging point of the many lines forming a widespread net of affairs in whioh this factory was but one strand. He did not even find time to notice Mr, Goodwin's advancing years and the desire for retirement the old man was too proud to voice, But the strand whose smallness was disdained by the @reater Adriance might well prove able to support the lesser, An accident still further determined his wish to remain, One day Mr, Goodwin came down to the lower room, occuiped the chair in Adriance's enclosure for @ quarter-hour and Watched the proceediigs. These occa- sional visits had © much to estab- lish firmly “Andy authority, yield- ing as they did the manager's sano- {ion to the new order of things, But this time Mr. Goodwin had something to say to the young man whom he and Cook had grown to regard as @ fortunate discovery of their own, “Andy,” he began, using bis niok- name as AAriance himself had sug- ‘ested on observing the positive re- fictanoe with which the old gentle- man handled familiarly the revered name of tho facory's owner; “And; to-morrow there will be at the offloe of Mr. Adriance in N. York City; I shall be present.” He cleared his throat importantly, shall have pleasure in mentioning the excellent, really excellent, work you have done here, 1 shail mea- ion you personally.” Anthony carefully put down the Papers he held and stood still, trouble darkening across his face. He saw what was coming, and he saw no way to stop it, He did not want his father to learn of his presence here from an outsider, or at a public mecting, He wanted to tell Mr, Adrinnce his own story, with thelr kinship to help him, He wanted to nt It possible that him the sim- asked, or try to ce the monstrous wrong of a sep aration between man and wife, if h understood, But tf the bare fact that Tony was secretly in his om- ploy were flung before him, Mr, Adri- ance was quite capable of regardin this a8 an added defiance and ven mockery of himsclf. Mr. Goodwin's speech flowed placidly on: “Your abilities are really excep tional, exceptional; I am sure th will be suitably appreciated. You doing much better work than Ra some, I shall advise that I be « lowed to create a new position for you at a new salary, I should like you to supervise the entire shipping department on this floor, not merely trucking.” ° You are very good." Adriance murmured; “T ain not quite ready perhaps for that the time the next meeting ts held” “IT have sald that you were com- reminded IF YOU SHOULD LOSE YOUR 108 What would you do? It's safe to say you wouldn't follow the same strange course as did the hero of THE LAIR OF THE SUN DOGS By BERTRAND W. SINCLAIR THIS WILL ee NEXT WEEK'S COMPLETE NOVEL IN THE EVENING WORLD It Is @ Love-and-Mystery Romance of the Frozen North The author also wrote “North of Fifty-Three” and “Roaring Bill Wagstatt,” which were so popu- Jar with Evening World Readers, “THE LAIR OF THE SUN DOGS” ts Perhaps His Very Best Nevet pr nanos, “I am accus- to judge such matters, recollect. I am quite sure Mr, dar ance will feel pleasure that @ @on- nection of his, @ distant connec- tion, should thus distinguish bimself from the ordinary employee,” Manes gg ho ba. yg nance cal t jm sel stumbil and colored before the astonished eyes of the other, “I mean to a family influences cannot help me that way. Can you place the matter before Mr. Adriance without using my name?” The older man chilled in errors amazement. took uncertain, “Certainly not,” he ae “Why should I do so ~*~ thing?” ie 4 That silence persisted u A ‘Throwgh the breach it made tetekied a thin stream of doubt, which grew to a full current of Te Still Adriance could find to reply, and the situation became more than embarrassing, Mr, Goodwia at last arose. “T regret that I made this ape tion,” he said. “Of course it ‘Rot in my calculations that you had “ay- thing to conceal, especially from Mr, Adriance, We will of course drop the matter for the present.” “You mean that I may continue here as Tam “I hope so. You will comprehend that it becomes my duty to $1,o%8 matter before Mr, Adriance. It isnot right that I songs Fog ry! in 7 name a man who fears to have presence here known to his employer, { will bid you good morning.” ~ This condition was worse tham the first. Recognising himself as cor nered, Adriance cast a hurried glance around him, found no one within ear- shot of his little inclosure, and took a step toward the man about to i him, “Walt! Mr. Goodwin, I am Tony ariance.”* Adriance. Ra Bd old gentleman stared at y. “My father does not know that I am here, no one knows except my ping aly gd ae eit down again and Haten mer?” Stl Mr. Goodwin stared at him, dumb, Smiling in spite of his vexa- aiulotly *ronted thé serutiny. fe was ut t " quite "aware th: in bis working clothes, his ha Risers - Ro winter of manual labor, dark with the tan of months of wind and sun, he hardly looked the part he claimed; that is, if Mr. Goodwin knew anything of the former Tony Adriance. ef But he kept the candid honesty his eyes open to the other's reading, and waited. Perhaps if those rather unusual blue-black eyes be and his father bad in common had con- fronted Mr. Goodwin in the bright- ness of daylight he might before this have been identified. At any rate, they convinced now, even In the de- coptive light. “There is @ resemblance,” mur- mured Mr. Goodwin, “To my father? Yes, I think #o; I have been told 4o. “But—why ?"—— One of the usual interruptions called Adriance aw: reply. The old the other man, "L married without consulting my father, last autumn,” he said, quietly, “Will you dine with me to-night, Mr, Goodwin, at my own house up the hill, and let me explain to you what T am doing and poe A am doing it? If you have any doubt of my Identity, you may easily fix it by asking my father when you see him to-day whether his son ts at home or not.” Mr. Goodwin found his volce with’ some dimficulty, “No, I would prefer to before I see Mr. Adriance, to my private office now; Manage here for an hour witho: IT am astounded, even Andy—Mr. Adrianoe”—— « ‘Tony,’" suggested the othe: with his sudden smile, So while the indignant Cook strug fot Fith, double duties, Adriance and r. Goodwin sat opposite one an- other in the latter’s private office and held long converse, With the exception of the Master- won side of the affair, Adriance the story without reserve, to win Mr. Goodwin's ‘al- lence, but he actually won more than. win was extited and Interestea win was excited an aa had not been for years. When A@ri- ance concluded the other was quite the most agitated of the two, “You will not tell my father to~ day of my presence here, you will give me time to do #o myself? “I wil! do better,” Mtr. Good win, much moved. “T will help edept you, as it were, Mr, oI ance”—— “Tony.” “Tony, I will train you te me here. I wish much to retire, ap I have told you. My wife have no children—have long heped to travel; we have even ‘select the places we would visit and the we would prefer to take. It has might say, our dream for years: but Mr. Adriance would not listen to my desire to leave, He declares there y one he could trust in my _ tS } colored the thin old face, “His € m flatters me: but now I will give him a successor whom he can trust. It is very suitable that you have this position, I will say to him, as you wish; but do you enter my office here and study the mente ment of this concern with me, I myself take charge of that.” “Of course you know T can find no is of sufficient gratit Mr. lwin. If you will indeed Lad you shall not find me lacking eo have vemphed use tar ‘They have re ready,” said his senior Me (Bo Be Continued.) diliieall