So, my lady, here I sit in my study, waiting for that most important day

that is shortly to dawn. A full evening, you must admit. A woman with

the perfume of lilacs about her has threatened that unless I lie I shall

encounter consequences most unpleasant. A handsome young lieutenant has

begged me to tell that same lie for the honor of his family, and thus

condemn him to certain arrest and imprisonment. And I have been

down into hell, to-night and seen Archibald Enwright, of Interlaken,

conniving with the devil.

I presume I should go to bed; but I know I can not sleep. To-morrow

is to be, beyond all question, a red-letter day in the matter of the

captain's murder. And once again, against my will, I am down to play a

leading part.

The symphony of this great, gray, sad city is a mere hum in the distance

now, for it is nearly midnight. I shall mail this letter to you--post

it, I should say, since I am in London--and then I shall wait in my dim

rooms for the dawn. And as I wait I shall be thinking not always of

the captain, or his brother, or Hughes, or Limehouse and Enwright, but

often--oh, very often--of you.

In my last letter I scoffed at the idea of a great war. But when we

came back from Limehouse to-night the papers told us that the Kaiser had

signed the order to mobilize. Austria in; Serbia in; Germany, Russia

and France in. Hughes tells me that England is shortly to follow, and

I suppose there is no doubt of it. It is a frightful thing--this future

that looms before us; and I pray that for you at least it may hold only

happiness.

For, my lady, when I write good night, I speak it aloud as I write; and

there is in my voice more than I dare tell you of now.

THE AGONY COLUMN MAN.

Not unwelcome to the violet eyes of the girl from Texas were the last

words of this letter, read in her room that Sunday morning. But the

lines predicting England's early entrance into the war recalled to her

mind a most undesirable contingency. On the previous night, when the war

extras came out confirming the forecast of his favorite bootblack, her

usually calm father had shown signs of panic. He was not a man slow

to act. And she knew that, putty though he was in her hands in matters

which he did not regard as important, he could also be firm where he

thought firmness necessary. America looked even better to him than

usual, and he had made up his mind to go there immediately. There was no

use in arguing with him.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024