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F LA bf IOUIS JOS H VAN( ILLUSTRATIONS...M COPYRIC 19o9 5g SEPH V CHAPTER 1. A still and sultry dusk had fallen, closing an oppressive, wearing day: one of those days whose sole function seems to reside in rendering us irri tably conscious of our too-close cas Ings of too-solid flesh; whose humid and inert atmosphere, sodden with tepid moisture, clings palpably to the -body, causing men to feel as if they crawled, half-suffocated, at the bot tom, of a sea of r&refled water. The hour may have been eight; it may have been not quite that, but it was almost dark. The windows were oblonks, blck 's night in the yellow walls of O'Rourke's bedchamber in the Hotel d'Orlent, Monte Carlo. I have the honor to make known to you the O'Rourke of Castle Rourke in the county. of Galway, Ireland; otherwise and more widely known as Colonel Terence O'Rourke; a chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France; sometime an officer in the Foreign Legion in Algiers; a wander er, spendthrift, free-lance, cosmopol fte-a gentleman-adventurer, he's been ermed. He was dressing for dinner. The glare of half a dozen electric bulbs dis covered him all but ready for public appearance-not, however, quite ready. In his shirt sleeves he faced a cheval glass, pluckily (If with the haggard eye of exasperation) endeavoring to outmaneuver a demon of inanimate perversity which had entered into his dress tie, inciting it to refuse to as sume, for all his coaxing and his strat agems, that effect of nonchalant per fection so much sought after, so sel dom achieved. Patently was the thing possessed by a devil; O'Rourke made no manner of doubt of that. Though for minutes at a time he fumbled, fidgeted, fumed, it was without avail. , His room itself was in a state of considerable disorder-something due mainly to O'Rourke's characteristic ef forts to find just what he might hap pen to desire at any given time with out troubling to think where It ought properly to be. Something of this confusion, mir rored in the glass, was likewise re fiected in O'Rourke's eyes, what time he paused for breath and profanity. "Faith, 'tis worse than a daw's nest, the place," he adr.nitted, scandalized. "How ever did I-one lone man-do all that, will ye be telling me?" He flung out two helpless baffled hands, and let them fall. After a meditative pause he added: "Damn that . Alsa tian! "-with reference to his latest ad least competent valet, who had but recently been discharged with a flea In his ear and a month's unearn ed wage in his pocket. "For knowing me ways," sighed O'Rourke, "there >was never anyone the like of Danny." For as many as three livelong days +this man had been reduced to the ne cessity of dressing himself with his own fair hands-and that at least~ kthrice daily, who did nothing by halves. And, somehow, mysteriously, his discarded garments had for the most part remained where he had thrown them, despite the earnest ef forts of the femme de chambre to re store something resembling order from - this man-made chaos. For servants all liked well the O'Rourke, improvi dent soul that he was, freehanded to a fault. You are invited to picture to your gelf O'Rourke as invariably he was in one of his not infrequent but ever transient phases of affluence: that is, a very magnificent figure indeed. Standing a bit ,over six feet, deep of chest and lean of flank, with his long, straight legs he looked what he had been meant to be, a man of arms and action. His head was shapely, its 'dark hair curling the least in the world; and, incredibly stained, a trans parent brown, his features were lean, eager, and rendered very attractive y quick boyish eyes in whose warm lue-gray depths humor twinkled ore often than not, though those ame eyes were not seldom thought u1, a trace wistful, perhaps, with e look of one 'who recalls dear mem ries, old friends and sweethearts oed and lost . . . For he had egun to live early in ~life and had uch to look back upon, though for all that it's doubtful if he were more ~than thirty at the time he became in volved in the fortunes of the Pool of FL.me. For the rest of him, barring the re fractory tie, the man was strikingly -well groomed, while his surroundings spoke for comfortable circumstances. On the authority of the absent and re 'retted Danny, who had long served the O'Rourke in the intimate capaci ties of body-servant, confidant and chancel:a of the exchequer (this last, of course, VM.mer tgere happened to be any 'exc.eo1er to require a chan cellor), there was never anyone at all who coulk s3l nor,ey or wear lothes like hinail, meaning the nas te-:. And at tLis U'tne O'Rourke was ostensib1y 4n fuLds and cons.equently Li aped to advantage. His play was a wonder of the Casino; for the mattex of that, his high-handed and extrava gant ways had made the entire Prin cipality of Monaco conscious of his presence in the land. And you fail in the least to understand the nature of the man if you think for a moment that it irked him to be admired, point ed out, courted, pursued. He was, in deed, never so splendid as whem aware that he occupied the public eye. In short, he was just an Irishman, , . . So, then, it's nothing wonder ul that he should seem a thought fini cal about the set of his tie. Now as he stood scowling at him Image, and wishing from the bottom of his heart .he had never been fool enough to let Danny leave him, and calling fervent blessings down upon the head of the fiend who first design ed modern evening-dress for men-he found himself suddenly with a mind divested of any care whatever and at tentive alone to a sound which came to him faintly, borne upon the heavy wings of the sluggish evening air. [t was nothing more nor less than a woman singing softly to herself (hum ming would probably be the more ac curate term), and it was merely the tune that caught his fancy; a bit of an old song he himself had once been wont to sing, upon a time when he had been a happier man. It seem ed strange to hear !t there, stranger still that the woman's voice, indistinct as it was, should have such a familiar ring in his memory. He frowned in wonder and shook his head. "The age of miracles is past." he muttered; I "'twould never be herself. I've had me chance-and forfeited it. 'Twil not come to me a second time. . The singing ceased. Of a sudden O'Rourke swore with needless heat, and, plucking away the offending tie, cast it savagely from him. "The div vle fly away with ye!" he said. "Is it bent on driving me mad ye are? I'd give me fortune to have Danny back! ...Me fortune-faith!" He laugh ed the word to bitter soorn. "'Tis meself that never had the least of any thing like that without 'twas feminine -with a 'mis-' tacked onto the front of it!" And he strc-le away to the window to cool off. It was like him to forget his exas peration in the twinkling of an eye; another mood entirel.y swayed him by the time he found himself gazing out Into the vague, velvety dusk that mo mentarily was closing down upon the fairy-like panorama of terraced gar dens and sullen, silken sea. His thoughts had winged bac.k to that dear woman of. whoni that fragment of melody had put him in mind; and he was sighing and heavy of heart with longing for the sight of her and the touch of her hand. Even as he watched, stark night fell, black as a pocket beneath a porten tous pall of cloud. .. . Far out upon the swelling bosom of the Med Iterranean a cluster of dim lights be trayed a stealthy coasting steamer, O'oukeCagh is Brah-Sund mingwswr.NarrIntehr sRape Caghty his studedth ned low stars. Ashore, endless festoons of colored lamps draped the gloom of the terraces; the facade of the Casino stood out lurid against the darkness; the hotels shone with reflected bril liance, the palace of the Prince de Monaco loomed high upon the penin sula, its elevations picked out with lines of soft fire. The O'Rourke shook his head, con. demning it all. "'Tis beautiful," he said; "faith, yes! 'tis all of that. But I'm thinking 'tis too beautiful to be good for one-like some women I'ne known in me time. 'Tis not good for Terence-that's sure; 'tis the O'Rourke that's going stale and soft wth all this easy living. . . . Me that. ha.3 more than many another to live for and hope for and strive for! ...And I'm lingering here In the very lap of lixury stuffing meself with --'e fond, befuddling mieself with -~ wr.. -'fme that has rougU a )f that on nothing and a glass o nuddy water!-risking me money a if there was no end to it, throwing I away in scandalous tips like an 1runken sailor! And all for the scan satisfaction of behaving like a fool o an Irishman. . . 'Tis sickening-die gusting; naught less. . . 'r thinking this night ends it, though :ome the morning ill be pulling u: -takes and striking out for a healthiel simpler place, where' there's somE thing afoot a man can take an intei est in without losing his self-respeci . . . I'll do just that, I will!" This he meant, firmly, and was gla, of it, with a heart immeasurably lighi ened by the strength of his good rei olution. He began to hum the 01 tune that the unknown woman's voic had set buzzing in his brain, an broke off to snap his fingers defiani ly at the Casino. "That for ye!" h flouted it-"sitting there with you painted smile and your cold eyes, lik the brazen huzzy ye are-Goddess c Chance, indeed!-thinking ye hav but to bide your time for all men t come and render up their souls to ye Here's once ye lose, madam; after thi night I'm done with ye; not a sou c mine will ever again cross your t bles. I'll have ye to understand th O'Rourke's a reformed character fror the morning on!" He laughed softly, in high feathe vrith his conceit; and, thinking cheel fully of the days of movement an< cnange that were .to follow, the son; n his heart shaped itself in word ipon his lips. "I'm Paddy Whack From Ballyhack, Not long ago turned soldier-0 At grand attack, Or storm or sack, None than I will prove bolder-O!" His voice was by way\ of being tenor of tolerable quality and volum( but untrained-nothing wonderful. I was just the way he trolled out th rollicking stanza that rendered it it fectious, irresistible. For as h i paused the voice of the woman tha had reminded him of the song cappe the verse neatly. "An' whin We get the route Wid a shout, How they pout! Wid a ready right-about Goes the bould soldier-boy!" O'Rourke caught his breath, stai tied, stunned. "It can't be-" h whispered. For if at first her voic( subdued in distance, had stirred hi memory with a touch as vague an thrilling as the caress of a woman hand in darkness, now that he hear the full strength of that soprano, bel 'clear and spirited, he was sure h knew the singer. He told himself tha there could be no two women in th world with voices just like that; no another than her he knew could hay rendered the words with so true: spirit, so rare a brogue-tinged a Ithat had been with the faintesi quaintest exotic inflection imagir Iable. But she had stopped with th< verse half sung. His pulses quicker ing, O'Rourke leaned forth from th window and carried it on: "0, 'tis thin the ladies fair In despair Tear their hair! But-' 'Tis divvle a bit I care!' Cries the bould soldier-boy!" There fell a' pause. He listene< with his heart in his mouth, but hear' nothing. And it seemed impossible ti surmise whence, from which one of a2 the rooms with windows opening upo: that side of the hotel, had come th< voice of the woman. She might al well have been above as below hin or on either side: he could not guess But he was determined. Now there was beneath his windo, a balcony with a floor of wood and rail of iron-filigree-a long balcony extending from one corner of the h( tel to the other. At intervals it wa splashed with light from the window of chambers still occupied by. guest belated or busy, like himself, with th task of dressing for the evening. Th window to his left was alight; tha on his right, dark. With hall' his hod: on the balcony, his legs dangling with in the room, O'Rourke watched the opening on his left with jealous breathless expectancy. Not a soun< came therefrom. He hesitated. "If that weren't her room, I'd hea somebody moving about," he reasoned "'Tis frightened she is-not suspect In 'tis me. . . .But how do I knov 'tis herself? . .. Faith! could m< ears deceive me?" With that he took heart of hope an< broko manfully into the chorus, sing ing directly to the lighted window singing the first line with ardor an< fervor, with confidence and with hope singing persuasively, pleadingly, an~ iously, insistently. "For the worrld is all befo-ore us--" he sang and then 11aused. He hear< no echo. And again he essayed, witl that In his tone to melt a heart a Ice: "For the worrld is all befo-ore us--" Andl now he triumphed and was lifted out of himself with sheer de light; for from the adjoining .roon came the next line: "And landladies ado-ore us-" Unable to contain himself, h< chimed in, and in duet they sang i out to the rousing finale: "Th y be'er rayfuse to sco-ore us, Bu+ chltus up wid joy We t:at her tap, we tear her cap 'O, that's the chap For me.' cri:.s she I n't ?.e Lhe darlint, the bould soldier f d rheaj raint 5fies. "'Tis herself," he declared in t an agony of anticipation-"herself and 7 none other! And I'm thinking she'll t be coming to the window now-" f He was right. Abruptly he discov ered her by the reflected glow fr9m a the illumination behind him. He was conscious of the pallid oval of her face, of a sleek white sheen of arms , and shoulders, of a dark mass of hair, but more than all else of the glamour of eyes that shone into his softly, like limpid pools of darkness touched by dim starlight. Inflamed, he leaned toward her. "Whist, darling!" he stammered. "Whist! 'Tis mysel'f-'tis Terence-" But she was gone. A low, stifled e laugh was all his answer-that and I the silken whisper of her skirts as she scurried from the window. He flush e ed crimson, waited an instant, then r flung discretion to the winds, and e found himself scrambling out upon the f balcony. Heaven only knows to what e lengths the man would have gone had D not the slam of a door brought him up standing; she had left her room! s So she thought to escape him so f easily! He swore between his teeth L- with excitement and tumbled, back e whence he had come. Regardless of a the fact that he was still in his shirt sleeves he rushed madly for the door. r On the way a shooting-jacket on the - door, perhaps in revenge for neglect d and ill-treatment, maliciously wound it te 4 R.,' "The Divvie!" He Said Beneath His Breath. s self around his feet and all but threw him headlong; only a frantic clutch at! e the footrail of the bed saved him. t~ Kicking the thing savagely off he e flung himself upon the door and threw t it open. His jaw dropped. e The lift shaft was directly opposite. SBefore it, in morb or less patient wait-. sng, stood a very young and beautiful woman in a gown whose extreme can dor was surpassed only by the perfec tion of its design and appointment both blatant of the Rue de la Paix; a type as common to the cognoscenti e of Monte Carlo as the Swiss hotel por-J ters. But O'Rourke did not know her1 from Eve. "The divvle!" said he beneath his Ibreath.a He was mistaken; but the young! woman, at first startled by his uncer emonious appearance, on instantan eous second thought decided to per Umit him to discover that twin Imps, at least, resided in her eyes. And! when his disappointment prevented hLim Ironri recognizing them, her dawn ing smile was swiftly erased and her; 'ascending eyebrows spoke eloquently enough of her haughty displeasure. Synchronously the lift hesitated at that landing and the gate clanged wide; the young woman wound her skirt about her and showed him a back which at any other time wouldI have evoked his unstinted admiration. Then the gate shot to with a rattle l and bang, and the lift dropped out of Ssight, leaving the man with mouth agape and eyes as wide. A beaming but elderly femme de. chambre on duty in the corridor, re marking O'Rourke's pause of stupefied: chagrin, hoped and believed he need ed her services. She bore down upori him accordingly. I"M'sieu' is desirous of-?" rHe came out of his trance. "Noth ing," he told her with acid brevity. "But, yes," he 'reconsidered with haste. "That lady who but this mo ment took the lif-her name ?" "Her name, m'sieu'? Ma'm'selle Vol. taire." "Impossible!" he told himself aloud, utterly unable to forge any connecting link between the lady in the lift and her whose voice had bewitched him. "But assuredly, m'sieu'. Do I not~ know-I who have waited upon her hand and foot these three days and to whom she has not given as much as! -that." The woman ticked a finger nail -against her strong white ~teeth. "Ma'm'selle Victorine Vol taire," she asserted stubbornly. O'Rourke fumbled in his pocket and! dering golden ten-franc piece, surren deigit to the woman as heedlessly as though it had been as many cen. times. "I'll be leaving me room in fives minutes, now. And do ye, for the love of Heaven, me dear, try to set me things the least trifle to rights. Will ye ncw, like the best little girl in the world?" The b>est little girl in the world, who was~ forty-five if a day, promised miracles-with a bob of a courtesy. But so disgruntled was O'Rourke that hie shut his door in her ince. "'Tis meself thai.'s the tool," hec said savagely encu- ' "tn- .* Mr a - mnment that eve" #" T'"11 eyes on. her pretty " M^d" h1ess fit, I -hrpp r n' mhTmn '1A, lk 517 /...mo % I ' 4 walk: - s,rve t, e abody and a :mosphe: . and comma imp3ressed w;.th personality?" HOw tO tHavo Eye, 1 Clean -n( BRIEF 0TATMENTG FR Milam hasgiven me a great :pp 'te.rd cleared and softened my skin. I. . Ii... - don. Spray, N. C. Milam has restored ry sig.t alnost c. tirely. I was nearly blind when I started its use. W. E. Griggs, Secy. 2nd Treas. We.;tbrcoks Elevator Co., Danv ille, Va. Milan cured me of eczenw ;.iter1 had suffered with it 26 years and despaired of relief. C. H. Williams, salesman for Cluett, Peabody & Co., Troy, N. Y. WHY NOT LOOK, FEEL Ask your drugg;st for six bottles of noney back if ........................ .. .......... . .........,.~ The Famousai The best part of the day is t1 gathered together around the lami The old days of the smoky fireplace place have come the convenient oil stove Therie are to-day, in the United State lamps, giving their clear, white light to m Other lamps cost more, but you cann< gives,~ It has become so popular we ma) American.family." The Ray'o is made of solid brass, with' Ask your dealer for aRayo lamp: or w standard (Inc< Farmei We have just. Lynchburg Turn Smoothing Han S talk Cutter on for inspection. A special price Complete line V gies. Please call Purcell We have the line of firewor) to Newberry. Retail.: UAi 2 CI eVO4 pends almost entirely upon heiath. ng in the ruck? As itnan says have eyes, blood, complexion clean soul that when ycu enter a crowd, id enters with you and every one is lood and Comp:exion M.1 RA~LE PCL.E: I have suffered :Umy life with my cyes.. Snce taking ilm I can read very fine *rnt ar, co em rcr o rk atnih -.itbovt g s Miss Kate Mebane, R. F. D. No. 2. Blanche, N. C. I suffered with a dreadful skin disease from which I could get no relief until I tried Milam. This is the first spring and summer I have enjoyed in three years. Miss Winnifred Poston, 731 Patterso Ave.. Roanoke, Va. and BE at Your Best? MiAoouhbeIguaraxjwe- 146 - M rid bceing ad, eaegn oee.I hi ud te idispnsale Ryo amp ...alone,.more . than 3,0,0 fteeRy 311bCmpan rec vd thfnipnal aoull in lo ws or ha ,0,00o thesc ad ows.a300,0 he bes the taret reiadyam f h >ndm Stck Fnshaomenting.es ntaorsciecrul any uge-i Oimompanypet rseeved frulhtn Plos Dicand ows Te bes thWmreteady