Part 26 (2/2)

”Right you are,” exclai heartily ”I'm one of those surplus-steaing in the futility of blowing off steahtn't to do it publicly--creates false impression Got to have a wife--no one else but a wife always available and bound to be discreet Out with you I'm too busy to talk--even about myself”

”You will marry her?”

”Like to see anybody try to stop ht from the chair, thrust hiht, in a more hopeful fraet back her respect--andI deserve”

CHAPTER XVI

A FIGHT AND A FINISH

In his shrewd guess at Margaret's reason for dealing so su wasmotives He had sloakened to the fact that she was not a mere surface, but had also the third diuishes persons froet at what shewhat she did, he fell into the co no allowance for the sweeter and brighter side of hu in her that, in happier circumstances, the other side would have beenwith Grant was a desire to be wholly honorable with Craig She resolved to burn her bridges toward Arkwright, to put him entirely out of her roeary of Craig's harping on her being the aggressor in the engageainst hiun to revolve Arkwright as a possible alternative Craig's personality had such a strong effect on her, caused so many moods and reactions, that she was absolutely unable to tell what she really thought of him Also, when she was so harassed by doubt as to whether the engage, when her wholehim within the swoop of the matrimonial net, hoas she to find leisure to examine her heart? Whether she wanted him or simply wanted a husband she could not have said

She felt that his eccentric way of treating the engageht in reserve But she was finding that there were limits to her ability to endure her own self-conteed self-respect Possibly she ht have been less conscientious had she not coly pale and shadowy personality, a ue expression of well-bred amiability, male because trousered, identifiable chiefly by the dollar mark

Her reward see was all devotion, was talking incessantly of their future, was never once doubtful or even low-spirited It was simply a question of when they would marry--whether as soon as Stillwater fixed his date for retiring, or after Craig was installed She had to listen patiently to hours on hours of discussion as to which would be the better tih fro could have been less i him to waste his life and hers in the poverty and uncertainty of public office, struggling for the applause of mobs one despised as individuals and would not permit to cross one's threshold But she had to let him talk on and on, and yet on In due season, when she was ready to speak and he to hear, she would disclose to him the future she had mapped out for him, not before He discoursed; she listened At intervals heway; she endured, now half-liking it, now half-hating it and hi, passive, as becaestion of her real thoughts upon her surface

It was theafter one of these outbursts of his, one of unusual intensity, one that had so worn upon her nerves that, all but revolted by the sense of sick satiety, she had co herself in the too costly luxury of telling hiht of him and his conduct She was in bed, with the blinds just up, and the fair, early-su itself to her sick heart like Paradise to the excluded Peri at its barred gate ”And if he had given”I do believe in hi defeat But how can I--how CAN I--when he makes me the victim of these ruffian ht who said that every ht to have tives Not that at times he doesn't attract ne one does not wish it by the cask A glass now and then, or a bottle--perhaps--” Aloud: ”What is it, Selina?”

”A note for you, ma'am, from HIM It's marked important and immediate

You told me not to disturb you with those marked important, nor with those marked immediate But you didn't say what to do about thoseherself out at full length, and snuggling her head into the softness of her perfuht it thus far, let me have it”

Selina laid it on the silk and swansdown quilt and departed Margaret forgot that it was there in thinking about a new dress she was planning, an adaptation of a French model As she turned herself it fell to the floor She reached down, picked it up, opened it, read:

”It's no use Fate's against us I find the President iseood-by I shall keep out of your way

It's useless for you to protest I aet me”

She leaped froown only, rushed to the telephone She called up the Arkwrights, asked for Grant ”Wake him,” she said ”If he is still in bed tell him Miss Severence wishes to speak to hiitated voice was co over the wire: ”Is that you, Rita? What is thewill it be?”

”An hour I really must shave”

”In an hour, then Good-by”