Part 39 (1/2)

”I thought you were ill in bed,” he breathed, astounded

Her answering voice reached him, scarcely audible:

”I'ht in secret at Tilbury by the _Minnetonka_”

”The _Minnetonka_!” heof host of a delicate voice continued ”She's broken, ruined; no courage left Awful fiasco in Chicago! She's hiding now at a little hotel in Soho She absolutely declined to come to my hotel I've done what I could for theby here just now I saw the rocket and I thought of you I thought you ought to know it I thought it was my duty to tell you”

She held her

A heavy hand was laid on his shoulder

”Excuse ent that fired off the rocket? It's against the law to do that kind o' thing here, and you ought to know it I shall have to trouble you--”

It was a police, with his stealthy and conspiratorial air, down the staircase

CHAPTER VIII

DEALING WITH ELSIE

I

The headquarters of the Azure Society were situate in Marloes Road--for no other reason than that it happened so Though certain famous people inhabit Marloes Road, no street could well be less fashi+onable than this thoroughfare, which is very arid and very long, and a very long way off the centre of the universe

”The Azure Society, you know!” Edward Henry added, when he had given the exact address to the chauffeur of the taxi

The chauffeur, however, did not know, and did not seenorance His attitude indicated that he despised Marloes Road and was not particularly anxious for his vehicle to be seen therein--especially on a wet night--but that nevertheless he would endeavour to reach it When he did reach it, and observed the large concourse of shi+ning autoether in the rain in front of the illuminated number named by Edward Henry, the chauffeur admitted to himself that for once he had beeninally, the headquarters of the Azure Society had been a sehness hich the buildings had been transfors which the Society had to search for It had rich resources, and it had also high social standing; and the deferential com girls who gave away programmes in the _foyer_ were a proof that the Society, while doubtless anxious about such subjects as the persistence of individuality after death, had no desire to reconstitute the community on a democratic basis It was above such transient trifles of reforh endeavours were confined to questions of immortality, of the infinite, of sex, and of art: which questions it discussed in fine raiment and with all the punctilio of courtly politeness

Edward Henry was late, in common with soant wooith a difference As on the current of the variegated throng he drifted through corridors into the bijou theatre of the Society, he could not help feeling proud of his own presence there--and yet at the sa, in his Five Toay, the preciosity and the sis of those his fellow-creatures Seated in the auditorium, at the end of a row, he are of an even keener satisfaction, as people bowed and smiled to him; for the theatre was so tiny and the reunion so choice that it was obviously an honour and a distinction to have been invited to such an exclusive affair To the evening first fixed for the dramatic soiree of the Azure Society he had received no invitation But shortly after the postponement due to Elsie April's indisposition an envelope addressed by Marrier hi the sacred card, had arrived for hinore it, and for two days he had ignored it, and then he noticed in one corner the initials, ”EA” Strange that it did not occur to hiht stand, for Elsie April!

Reflection brings wisdoe In the end he was absolutely convinced that EA stood for Elsie April; and at the lastthat it would be the act of a fool and a coward to decline as practically a personal request fro wo to local convivialities, but he had come! And, curiously, he had not communicated with Marrier Marrier had been extremely taken up with the dramatic soiree of the Azure Society--which Edward Henry justifiably but quite privately resented Was he not paying three pounds a week to Marrier?

And now, there he sat, knoatched, a notoriety, the card who had raised Pilgrim to the skies, probably the only theatrical proprietor in the crowded and silent audience; and he was expecting anxiously to see Elsie April again--across the footlights! He had not seen her since the night of the stone-laying, over a week earlier He had not sought to see her He had listened then to the delicate tones of her weak, whispering, thrilling voice, and had expressed regret for Rose Euclid's plight But he had done no more What could he have done?