The evening world. Newspaper, January 28, 1922, Page 18

x t had been proffered, his gift horse had been rejected. He acted promptly. (‘Lady Firth,” he said, “you've been e ‘ j 2 THE EVENING WORLD'S FICTION SECTION, SATURDAY; JANUARY 28, 1922. fwe me,” she begged tragically, “you “It seems to. suit her,” the Consui Adair that"he consented to show him- will not ask her to marry you?" agreed. “Anyway, if she doesnt’ come self. In the presence of others he still , Hemingway promised, from there, that’s where she's going ~ was shy, gravely polite, and speaking “Recause all the men do,” sighed just on account of the good she’s done but little and never of himself; but Lady Firth, “and I never know what morning one of the wretches wop't carry her off to a home of her own. And then what would become of me? Men are so selfish! If you must fall in love,” suggested her ladyship, “promise me you will fall in love with’--she paused innocently and raised baby-blue eyes, in a hwbylike —‘with some one else.” Hemingway promised. He “That will be quite stare Again bowed gallantly. easy,” he said. Her ladyship smiled, but Heming- way did not see the smile. He was looking past her at a girl from home, who came across the terrace carrying in her hand a. stenographer'’s note- book ADY FIRTH foliowed the direc- tion of his eyes and saw the look in them. She exclaimed with dismay: “Already! Already even before the ink is dry on the paper.” She drew the note-book from Mrs Adair’s fingers and dropped it under the tea-table. he deserts me, child,” she “Letters must wait, my declared, “But Sir George’-—protested the gir), “Sir George must wait, too,’ contin- “the Office must British must wait until you have had your tea.” The girl laughed helplessly. As though assured her fellow countryman Foreign Empire ued his wife; wait, the would comprehend, she turned to him. “They're so exactly like what you want them to .be,” she said—‘“I mean about their tea!” Hemingway smiled back with intimate understanding that Firth glanced up inquiringly. “Have you met Mrs. Adair already?” she asked, : “No,” said Hemingway, “but I have such Lady BWrdeen trying to meet her for thirty years.” Perplexed, the Englishwoman frowned, and then, with delight at her own perspicuity, laughed aloud. “L know,” -she cried, “in your coun- try you are what they call a ‘hustler’! Is that right?” She- waved them away. The young people stretched out in long wicker chairs in the shade of a tree covered with purple flowers. On one side of them an orang- outang in a steel belt was combing the whiskers of her infant daughter; what looked like two chow puppies, but which happened to be Lady Firth’s pet lions, were chew- a perch at at their feet ing each other's toothless gums; and in the immediate foreground the hos- pital nurses were defying the sun at tennis while the Sultan’s band played Gaiety success of many With surroundings it was difficult to talk of selections from a years in the past. these home. OR the reasons™tlready stated, ‘t amused Hemingway to volun- teer no confidences, On account of what that same evening Harvis told hirr xf Mrs. Adair, he asked none. o: The discovery that on meeting .a woman for the first time he still could _be so boyishly and ingenuously moved greatly pleased him. It was a most de- lightful So he acted on the principle that when a man immensely admires a woman and wishes to con- ceal that fact from every one else he can best do so by declaring his admira- in the frankest and most open After the tea party, as Harris himself sat in the Consulate, he so ex- pressed himself. “What an extraordinarily nice girl,” that Mrs. Adair! “How ever did a woman like that come secret. tion manner, he exclaimed, “is to be in a place like this It seemed to Hemingway that at the mention of found Harris mentally on guard Mrs, Adair’s name he had “She just dropped in here one day,’ -said Harris, “from no place in particu lar. Personally, | ulways have thought from heaven.” said Heming “It's a good address,” Wy - us while she’s been here. She arrived “four months ago with a typewriting machine and letters to me from our Consuls in Cape Town and Durban. She had’ done some typewriting for them. It seems that after her hisband died, a few. months after they were married, she learned to make her living by typewriting. “She worked too hard down, and the doctor said she must go to hot countries, ths “hotter the better.” So she's worked her way half around the world type- writing. She worked chiefly for her own Consuls or for the American com- mission houses, Sometimes she stayed a month, sometimes only over one stenmer day. But when she got here Lady Firth took such a fancy “to her that she made Sir George engage her ay his private secretary, here evet since.” and broke and she’s been N a community so small as was that of Zanzibar the white residents saw one another every day, and within a week Hemingway had met Mrs, Adair many times, Hemingway had no work #éo occupy his time, and he placed it unreserved!y WITH AN EXCLAMATION OF ANGER, THE OTHER BY THE SHOULDER AND DRAGGED HIM CLOSER. at the disposition of his countrywoma ¥ In doing so it could not be said that Mrs. Adair encouraged him. Of the little colony, Arthur Fearins was the man of whom Hemingway had seen the least, Like himself, Fearing was an American, young, and a bache- lor, but, very much unlike Hemingway, a hermit and a recluse, Two years before he Zanzibar, suls, the had come to He conferred with the Con- responsible merchants, the partners in the prosperous. trading Afier a month of “looking around” he had purchased outright the wood will and stock of one of the oldest of the houses. commission houses, and gsoon showed himself to be a most capablé man of business But, although every one was friendly to him, he made no friends {t was only after the arrival of Mrs with Mrs. Adair his shyness seemed to leave him. Lady Firth decided that if her companion and protegee must marry she should marry Fearing. He was one of the pillars of Zanzibar so- ciety. The trading house -he had pur- chased under his alert direction was making a turnover equal to that of any of its rivals. Personally, Fearing was a most desirable catch. He was well man- nered, well read, of good appearance, steitly and of impeccable morals. O find that the obstacle in the path of his true love was a man greatly relieved Heming- way. He had feared that what was in the thoughts of Mrs. Adair was the memory of her dead husband. . The presence of a living rival in ao way discouraged him. It only was Polly Adair who discouraged him. All that an idle young man in love, aided and abetted by imagination and an un- limited letter of credit, could do Hem- ingway did. But to no end. The treasures he dug out of the bazaars and presented to her, as trinkets he happened at that moment to find in his pockets, were admired HEMINGWAY CAUGHT by her at their own very great yalue, and returned as having offered her only to examine. “It is for your sister at home, I sup pose,” she prompted. “It's quite loveiy Thank you for letting me see it.” Hemingway remarked grimly as he put back a Black pearl into his pocket: “At this rate sister will be mighty glad to see me when I get home. It seems almost a pity I haven't got a sister.” The girl answered only with a grave smile. She admired a polo pony that had been imported for the stable of the boy Sultan. Ingway been But next morning Hem- and proudly rode it to the agency, Lady Firth Polly Adair walked out to meet him arm in arm, but there came became the owner of it and into the eyes of the secretary a look that showed Hemingway that, before it 80 awfully kind to me, made this place So like.g home to me, that I want you to put this mare in your stable.” Lady Firth bad no scruples. In five minutes she had accepted, had clapped a saddle on her rich gift and was can- tering joyously down the Pearl Road. _ Polly Adair looked after her with an expression that was distinctly wistful. Hemingway spid ; , 4 “I'm giad you are sorry. I hope every time you see that pony you'll be sorry, because you have been unkind.” ~ “But you know perfectly well,” she smiled at him reassuringly, “that the reason I do not take your -wonderful gifts isn’t because I don't want them; but it’s because I don’t deserve them, because I can give you nothing in re- turn.” “As the copy-book says,” Hemingway, “‘the pleasure is in the giving.’ And to pretend that you give me nothing, that ts ridiculous! Why, every minute you give me something,” he exclaimed. “Just to see you, just to know you are alive, just to be certain when I turn in At night. that when the world wakes up again you will still be a part of it; that is what you give mo And its name is—Happiness!” returned EK eyes were filled with sudden tears, and so. wonderful was the light in them that for one mad moment Hemingway thought they were tears of happiness But the light died, and he saw to his dismay that she was most miserable. The girl moved ahead of him to the cliff which overhung the harbor and the Indian Ocean. Her eyes were filled with trouble, “I am glad you told me,” she said, “I have been afraid it was coming. J tried to stop you kind” “You certainly Hemingway agreed, cheerfully. “And the more you would have nothing to do with me the more [ admired you. And then I learned to love you. It seems now us though I bad always known and always loved you. And now this is what ye are going to do.” . He wouldn't let her speak. He rushed on precipitately, IT was rude and un- were,” “We are first going up to the house to get your typewriting machine, and we * will bring it back here and hurl it as far as we can off this cliff. I want to see the splash! I want to hear it smash when it hits that rock. It has been my worst enemy. You have been its slave; now I am going to be your slave. You have onlv to rub the lamp and things will happen. And because I've told you nothing about myself you mustn't think that the money that helps to make thent happen is ‘tainted.’ It isn’t. Nov am I, nor my father, nor my fathex's father. I am asking you to marry a perfectly respectable young man. And, when you do’—— Again he rushed on impetuously: “We will sail away across that ocean to wherever you will take me. To Cey. lon and Tokio and San Francisco, to Naples and New York, to Greece and Athens. They are all near, They are all yours, Will you accept them and me?” He smiled appealingly, but most For in her eyes he had read, even as he spoke, her refusal of himself. When he ceased speaking tho girl answered: “If Tsay that what you tell me makes me proud, I am saying too little. But what you ask—what you suggest, is impossible." | raiserably. “You don't way. “I like you very much,” returned the girl, “and if I don’t seem unhappy that it can't be, it is because I always have known it can’t be. I cannot tell you the reason,” she said, “because it does not concern only myself.” like me?” said Heming- “If you mean you care for some “that For you,” he down into the any man. I know 1 know I love you as no ons else,” pleaded Hemingway, docs not frighten me at ail, boasted, “I would go grave as deep as I offer. other man” what The girl backed away from him-ags though he had struck her, “You must not say that,” she commanded. “It is A Complete. Story Every Saturday “ a%