edna

She is associated with a set that is always in the lime-light,” explained Miss Van Arsdale, lowering her voice to a cautious pitch. “It makes its own lime-light. Anything that they do is material for the papers.”"Yes; but what has she done?”

“Disappeared.”

“Not at all. She sent back messages. So there can’t be any mystery about it.”

9L0-827 Exam
“But there might be what the howling headlines call ‘romance.’ In fact, there is, if they happen to have found out about it. And this looks very much as if they had. Ban, are you going to tell your reporter friend about Miss Welland?”

Banneker smiled gently, indulgently. “Do you think it likely?”

“No; I don’t. But I want you to understand the importance of not betraying her in any way. Reporters are shrewd. And it might be quite serious for her to know that she was being followed and hounded now. She has had a shock.”

“The bump on the head, you mean?”

“Worse than that. I think I’d better tell you since we are all in this thing together.”

Briefly she outlined the abortive adventure that had brought Io west, and its ugly outcome.

“Publicity is the one thing we must protect her from,” declared Miss Van Arsdale.

“Yes; that’s clear enough.”

“What shall you tell this Gardner man?”

“Nothing that he wants to know.”

“You’ll try to fool him?”

“I’m an awfully poor liar, Miss
9L0-827 Braindump Camilla,” replied the agent with his disarming smile. “I don’t like the game and I’m no good at it. But I can everlastingly hold my tongue.”

“Then he’ll suspect something and go nosing about the village making inquiries.”

“Let him. Who can tell him anything? Who’s even seen her except you and me?”

Gardner, his name is. A nice sort of fellow. I showed him some nonsense that I wrote about the wreck.”"You? What kind of nonsense?”

“Oh, just how it stru

9L0-624 Braindump ck me, and the queer things people said and did. He took it with him. Said it might give him some ideas.”

“One might suppose it would. Did it?”

“Why, he didn’t use it. Not that way. He sent it to the New York Sphere for what he calls a ‘Sunday special,’ and what do you think! They accepted it. He had a wire.”

“As Gardner’s?”

“Oh, no. As the impressions of an eye-witness. What’s more, they’ll pay for it and he’s to send me the check.”

“Then, in spite of a casual way of handling other people’s ideas, Mr. Gardner apparently means to be honest.”

“It’s more than square of him. I gave him the stuff to use as he wanted to. He could just as well have collected for it. Probably he touched it up, anyway.”

“The Goths and Vandals usually did ‘touch up’ whatever they acquired, I believe. Hasn’t he sent you a copy?”

“He’s going to send it. Or bring it.”

9L0-827
“Bring it? What should attract him to Manzanita again?”

“Something mysterious. He says that there’s a big sensational story following on the wreck that he’s got a clue to; a tip, he calls it.”

“That’s strange. Where did this tip come from? Did he say?”

Miss Van Arsdale frowned.

“New York, I think. He spoke of its being a special job for The Sphere.”

“Are you going to help him?”

“If I can. He’s been white to me.”

“But this isn’t white, if it’s what I suspect. It’s yellow. One of their yellow sensations. The Sphere goes in for that sort of thing.”

Miss Van Arsdale became silent and thoughtful.

“Of course, if it’s something to do with the railroad I’d have to be careful. I can’t give away the company’s affairs.”

“I don’t think it is.” Miss Van Arsdale’s troubled eyes strayed toward the inner room.

9L0-827 Dump

Following them, Banneker’s lighted up with a flash of astonished comprehension.

“You don’t think–” he began.

His friend nodded assent.

“Why should the newspapers be after her?”

Her hostess threw a coverlet over her and returned to her own room.

When light broke,
9L0-624 there was no question of Io’s going that day, even had accommodations been available. A clogging lassitude had descended upon her, the reaction of cumulative nervous stress, anesthetizing her will, her desires, her very limbs. She was purposeless, ambitionless, except to lie and rest and seek for some resolution of peace out of the tangled web wherein her own willfulness had involved her.

“The best possible thing,” said Camilla Van Arsdale. “I’ll write your people that you are staying on for a visit.”

“Yes; they won’t mind. They’re used to my vagaries. It’s awfully good of you.”

At noon came Banneker to see Miss Welland. Instead he found a curiously reticent Miss Van Arsdale. Miss Welland was not feeling well and could not be seen.

“Not her head again, is it?” asked Banneker, alarmed.

“More nerves, though the head injury probably contributed.”

“Oughtn’t I to get a doctor?”

“No. All that she needs is rest.”

“She left the station yesterday without a word.”

“Yes,” replied th
9L0-624 Dump
e non-committal Miss Van Arsdale.

“I came over to tell her that there isn’t a thing to be had going west. Not even an upper. There was an east-bound in this morning. But the schedule isn’t even a skeleton yet.”

“Probably she won’t be going for several days yet,” said Miss Van Arsdale, and was by no means reassured by the unconscious brightness which illumined Banneker’s face. “When she goes it will be east. She’s changed her plans.”

“Give me as much notice as you can and I’ll do my best for her.”

The other nodded. “Did you get any newspapers by the train?” she inquired.

“Yes; there was a mail in. I
9L0-624 Exam had a letter, too,” he added after a little hesitation, due to the fact that he had intended telling Miss Welland about that letter first. Thus do confidences, once begun, inspire even the self-contained to further confidences.

“You know there was a reporter up from Angelica City writing up the wreck.”

Miss Van Arsdale laid hold on her shoulders and shook her hard. “Listen to me, Irene Welland. You’re on the way to hysterics or some such foolishness. I won’t have it! Do you understand? Are you listening to me?”

“I’m listening.
9L0-623 Dump But it won’t make any difference what you say.”

“Look at me. Don’t stare into nothingness that way. Have you read this?”

“Enough of it. It ends everything.”

“I should hope so, indeed. My dear!” The woman’s voice changed and softened. “You haven’t found that you cared for him, after all, more than you thought? It isn’t that?”

“No; it isn’t that. It’s the beastliness of the whole thing. It’s the disgrace.”

Miss Van Arsdale turned to the paper again.

“Your name isn’t given.”

“It might as well be. As soon as it gets back to New York, every one will know.”

“If I read correctly between the lines of this scurrilous thing, Mr. Holmesley gave what was to have been his bachelor dinner, took too much to drink, and suggested that every man there go on a separate search for the lost bride offering two thousand dollars reward for the o
9L0-623 Exam
ne who found her. Apparently it was to have been quite private, but it leaked out. There’s a hint that he had been drinking heavily for some days.”

“My fault,” declared Io feverishly. “He told me once that if ever I played anything but fair with him, he’d go to the devil the quickest way he could.”

“Then he’s a coward,” pronounced Miss Van Arsdale vigorously.

“What am I? I didn’t play fair with him. I practically jilted him without even letting him know why.”

Miss Van Arsdale frowned. “Didn’t you send him word?”

“Yes. I telegraphed him. I told him I’d write and explain. I haven’t written. How could I explain? What was there to say? But I ought to have said something. Oh, Miss Van Arsdale, why didn’t I write!”

9L0-623 Braindump
“But you did intend to go on and face him and have it out. You told me that.”

A faint tinge of color relieved the white rigidity of Io’s face. “Yes,” she agreed. “I did mean it. Now it’s too late and I’m disgraced.”

A faint tinge of color relieved the white rigidity of Io’s face. “Yes,” she agreed. “I did mean it. Now it’s too late and I’m disgraced.”

“Don’t
9L0-062 Exam
be melodramatic. And don’t waste yourself in self-pity. To-morrow you’ll see things clearer, after you’ve slept.”

“Sleep? I couldn’t.” She pressed both hands to her temples, lifting tragic and lustrous eyes to her companion. “I think my head is going to burst from trying not to think.”

After some hesitancy Miss Van Arsdale went to a wall-cabinet, took out a phial, shook into her hand two little pellets, and returned the phial, carefully locking the cabinet upon it.

“Take a hot bath,” she directed. “Then I’m going to give you just a little to eat. And then these.” She held out the drug.

Io acquiesced dully.

Early in the morning, before the first forelight of dawn had started the birds to prophetic chirpings, the recluse heard light movements in the outer room. Throwing on a robe she went in to investigate. On the bearskin before the flickering fire sat Io, an apparition of soft curves.

“D–d–don’t ma
9L0-062 ke a light,” she whimpered. “I’ve been crying.”

“That’s good. The best thing you could do.”

“I want to go home,” wailed Io.

“That’s good, too. Though perhaps you’d better wait a little. Why, in particular do you want to go home?”

“I w-w-w-want to m-m-marry Delavan Eyre.”

A quiver of humor trembled about the corners of Camilla Van Arsdale’s mouth. “Echoes of remorse,” she commented.

“No. It isn’t rem

9L0-623 orse. I want to feel safe, secure. I’m afraid of things. I want to go to-morrow. Tell Mr. Banneker he must arrange it for me.”

“We’ll see. Now you go back to bed and sleep.”

“I’d rather sleep here,” said Io. “The fire is so friendly.” She curled herself into a little soft ball.

Deep in work at her desk, Camilla Van Arsdale noted, with the outer tentacles of her mind, slow footsteps outside and a stir of air that told of the door being opened. Without lifting her head she called:

9L0-008 Braindump
“You’ll find towels and a bathrobe in the passageway.”

There was no reply. Miss Van Arsdale twisted in her chair, gave one look, rose and strode to the threshold where Io Welland stood rigid and still.

“What is it?” she demanded sharply.

The girl’s hands gripped a folded newspaper. She lifted it as if for Miss Van Arsdale’s acceptance, then let it fall to the floor. Her throat worked, struggling for utterance, as it might be against the pressure of invisible fingers.

“The beast! Oh, the beast!” she whispered.

The older woman threw an arm over her shoulders and led her to the big chair before the fireplace. Io let herself be thrust into it, stiff and unyielding as a manikin. Any other woman but Camilla Van Arsdale would have asked questions. She went more directly to the point. Picking up the newspaper she opened it. Halfway across an inside page ran the explanation of Io’s collapse.

BRITON’S BEAUTIFU
9L0-062 L FIANCEE LOST

read the caption, in the glaring vulgarity of extra-heavy type, and below;

_Ducal Heir Offers Private Reward to Dinner Party of Friends_

After an estimating look at the girl, who sat quite still with hot, blurred eyes, Miss Van Arsdale carefully read the article through.

“Here is advertising enough to satisfy

9L0-062 Dump the greediest appetite for print,” she remarked grimly.

“He’s on one of his brutal drunks.” The words seemed to grit in the girl’s throat. “I wish he were dead! Oh, I wish he were dead!”

Miss Van Arsdale laid hold on her shoulders and shook her hard. “Listen to me, Irene Welland. You’re on the way to hysterics or some such foolishness. I won’t have it! Do you understand? Are you listening to me?”

A beast? Just for reminding you that the Atkinson and St. Philip station-agent at Manzanita does not include in his official duties that of presuming to fall in love with chance passengers who happen to be more or less in his care.”"Very proper and official! Now,” added the girl in a different manner, “let’s stop talking nonsense, and do you tell me one thing honestly. Do you feel that it would be presumptio9L0-008 n?”

“To fall in love with you?”

“Leave that part of it out; I put my question stupidly. I’m really curious to know whether you feel any–any difference between your station and mine.”

“Do you?”

“Yes; I do,” she answered honestly, “when I think of it. But you make it very hard for me to remember it when I’m with you.”

“Well, I don’t,” he said. “I suppose I’m a socialist in all matters of that kind. Not that I’ve ever given much thought to them. You don’t have to out here.”

“No; you wouldn’t. I don’t know that _you_ would have to anywhere…. Are we almost home?”

“Three minutes’ more walking. Tired?”

“Not a bit. You know,” she added, “I really would like it if you’d write me once in a while. There’s something here I’d like to keep a hold on. It’s tonic. I’ll _make_ you write me.” She flashed a smile at him.

“How?”

“By sending you books. You’ll have to acknowledge them.”

“No. I couldn’t take them. I’d have to send them back.”

“You wouldn’t let me send you a book or two just as a friendly memento?” she cried, incredulous.

“I don’t take anything from

9L0-008 Dump anybody,” he retorted doggedly.

“Ah; that’s small-minded,” she accused. “That’s ungenerous. I wouldn’t think that of you.”

He strode along in moody thought for a few paces. Presently he turned to her a rigid face. “If you had ever had to accept food to keep you alive, you’d understand.”

For a moment she was shocked and sorry. Then her tact asserted itself. “But I have,” she said readily, “all my life. Most of us do.”

The hard muscles around his mouth relaxed. “You remind me,” he said, “that I’m not as real a socialist as I thought. Nevertheless, that rankles in my memory. When I got my first job, I swore I’d never accept anything from anybody again. One of the passengers on your train tried to tip me a hundred dollars.”

“He must have been a fool,” said Io scornfully.

Banneker held open the station-door for her. “I’ve got to send a wire or two,” said he. “Take a look at this. It may give some news about general
9L0-008 Exam
railroad conditions.” He handed her the newspaper which had arrived that morning.

When he came out again, the station was empty.

Io was gone. So was the newspaper.

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