The Trail of Conflict

nd his daughter entered. The girl looked at the instrument as though she suspected a conceal

m mouth softened into a self-congratulatory smile. "Courtlandt and h

st-room. Leon will serve it when you ring.

lated with pride

a princess to-n

to a title or some little thing like that, aren't the

losing your nerve? You're no

his eyes

r one must make of oneself. When I make a promise I make it to keep. I pr

s glistened wit

a, Jerry. Here they are

with herself, the romance and tradition and social standing of the Courtlandt name made an alluring appeal to her. She had envied friends at school and college for their careless references to their grandfathers; her earliest recollection was of a room full of hot, grimy miners in a little home near the coal-fields. To m

rchid evening gown set off her arms and the curves of her white shoulders to perfection. Her hair was of glistening brown, brown shot through with red and gold where its soft waves caught the light. Her eyes were brown, large and dark and velvety, like deep pools refl

, for she would marry Stephen Courtlandt if he wanted to save his estate enough to take her on her own conditions. She flushed then whitened. Perhaps he wouldn't want her after all. Well, that would soon be settled. Better to have the awkward meeting over as soon as possible. She picked up

ged with gay inelegance. The laugh still lingered on her l

igh, his face so white, his eyes so full of hurt pride. The younger man's face was quite as white, his head quite as high, but there was an aggress

y?" the girl thought contemptuously even as she advanced

s spoken of you so often," she welcomed in her charming, w

the expression in his eyes changed to one of rel

pting your father's invitation to call before.

as moving at his will about the checker-board of life. She murmured something in which the words "a pleasure" were alone audible. Steve acknowledged th

r Courtlandt's arm. The expression of his eyes when they had first met hers had won he

feel now," he asserted with a gall

ooked almost as young as his son. Steve, angered by her persistent avoidance of himself, broke in

ing New York,

ng lashes before, with a smile which she was

ad and I have made our headquarters here since I grew up."

ou li

rom her like a discarded veil; she was all eager enthusiasm. "I-I like to be where there are many people. I

believe

r money yet he dares sneer at me about love," she thought angrily, even as she

passion." She saw his eyes darken and his jaw set before she turned to his father. She was contrite, a little frightened. What had p

. Courtlandt and I will smoke here," commanded Glamorgan, as his s

ught a glint of challenge in Stephen's eyes and rose. Her color was high, her breath a bit uneven as she smiled at him with bewilde

to precede him into the living-room. "Do you play or sing?" he asked as he followed her to the pia

at I should?" She seated herself and dropped

p in our company overseas who could make the most shell-shocked instrument give out what seemed to us in the midst of that thundering inferno, heavenly music. Sometimes now a wav

n leaning on the piano, not blue now, but dark with memories, were an ocean removed from her. It wa

ean of praise. Then the softness left his eyes. There was aggr

o understand that you will d

rose and faced him defiantly. Her slender fingers smoothed out the long plumes of her f

l position for me with a portion of his fortune. A sort of fifty-fifty arrangement, isn't it?"

h to put it

iful eyes were brilliant with scorn, her heart pounded. It seemed

I want the best of life in my associations. Your father is in difficulties of one sort-my father is in difficulties of another sort-if a lack of family background can be called a dif

aid to marry without love?

I might love a man when I married him, and then-love comes unbidden, oftentimes unwan

the love of a man for the

a thing? I wond

tation to retalia

you accept me?" he promp

nditions. Dad has promised me an income of a hundred thousand a year. I will keep

ger, his knuckles white. He was roug

cent of your cursed money. Whatever arrangement your father wants to make with you and my father is h

is really a bargain-money for social position. Let it be only that. Need there be anything else? You must understand me-you mus

sibilities, no mutual sacrifices, no-no love. That is for you to decide. The Courtlandt debt is f

nt with unshed tears as she

w I feel that it is an honorable bargain between us two. You are to be perfectly free to come and go as you

hand he held for an in

e into the room to-night.

? I--" With a valiant effort to steady her lips, she smiled faint

the silence as father and son motored

, nor little eyes, nor a kittenish manner; in fact, I don't know when I have seen so be

. She's an iceberg, and what's more she has the business instin