The Hollow of Her Hand

er Fifth Avenue, in the drawing-room directly beneath the chamber in which Chal

ystanders in order to reach the portals of the house of grief, and who must have reckoned with extreme distaste the cost of subsequent departure. A dozen raucous-voiced policemen were employed to keep back the hundreds that thronged the sidewalk and blocked the street. Curiosity was rampant. Ever since the

with great irritability. Why can't we do the business up, sharp and quick, as they do in England? Get it over with, that's the ticket. What's the sense of dragging it out for a year? Send 'em to the chair or hang 'em while everybody's interested, not when the thing's half forgotten. Who wants to see a person hanged after the crime's been forgotten? And then, think of the saving to the State? Hang 'em, men or women, and in a couple of years' time there wouldn't be a tenth part of the murders we have now. Statistics prove, went on the wise ones, that only one out of every hundred is hanged. What's that? T

under their breath that they wouldn't be pushing people around like that if they didn't have stars and clubs and a great idea of their own importance.

ever shall be, w

of the always-aloof Wrandalls, who up to this day had turned them up at the sight of a vulgar extra, but who now

exchange the latest headlines. "All about Mr. Challis Wran'all's fun'ral!" "H

s. This-or-That, the What-do-you-call-ems and others of the city's most exclusive but most garishly advertised society leaders had entered the house of mourning. It was a great show for the plebeian spectators. Much better than Miss So-and-So's wedding, said one woman who had attended the aforesaid ceremony as a unit in the well-

stood two patrol w

glad that they had not been left out. The real, high-water mark in New York society was established at this memorable function. It was quite plain to every one that Mrs. Wrandall,-THE Mrs. Wrandall,-had made out the list of guests to be invited to the funeral of her son. It was a blue-stocking affair. You couldn't imagine anything more so. Afterwards, the two hundred who were there looked with

who else was there, and each one said to himself that at last they really had something all to themselves. It was truly a pleasure, a relief, to be able to do something without being pushed about by people who didn't belong but thought they

a way by sending word, through Leslie, that she would be pleased if Mrs. Wrandall would issue invitations to as many of Challis's friends as s

band without much thought of respecting him. She was beginning to regard him as something more than a lover when Leslie came, so it was different. When their daughter Vivian was born, she was plainly annoyed but wholly respectful. Mr. Wrandall was no long

her most dearly beloved, Vivian the least desired

de his brother attractive; Vivian, handsome, selfish and as cheerless as the wind that blows across the icebergs in the north. Challis had been born with a widely enveloping heart and an elastic conscience; Leslie with a brain and a soul and not much of a heart, as things go; Vi

as a very proper and dignified g

n secret-a certain admiration for the beautiful, warm-hearted wife of his eldest son. He looked upon her from a man's point of view. He couldn't help that. Not once,

ad not been so admirably centred under its own vine and fig tree, i

ndall was the vi

-disgraced. If it had been either of the others, she could have said: "Go

ou so" at a time when the family was sitting numb and hushed under the blight of the first h

" he had said. His arm was about the quive

er throat. For a long time she loo

ou say such a thing as

and drew her

mean it,"

en sides against him

her," he cri

n. "You who are left to take his pla

s is upset, mamma darl

ply as any of

were quite alone: "She will never forgive you

never cared for me as she cared for C

Leslie, was

t was sure to happen to him one time or

right sort of a wife, this

ub it in on us if she's of a mind to do so. She won't do it,

he, dabbing her handkerchief in her eyes. "Since

erstands us perfectl

speech casting her sister-in-law out of her narrow li

nce," said he, with some pl

e occupants might hear the words of the minister as they ascended, sonorous and precise, from the hall below. A minister was he who knew the buttered side of his bread. His discourse was to be a b

, father, son and daughter, closely drawn together. Well to the fore were Wrandall uncles and cousins and aunts, and one or two c

less. One of the Wrandall uncles, obeying a look from his wife, tiptoed across the room and tried to find a way to subdue the jingling di

ung woman in black, whose pale face was uncovered, and whose lashes were lifted so rarely

sulted, to be sure, in regard to the final arrangements, but the meetings had taken place in her own apartment, many blocks distant from the house in lower Fifth Avenue. The afternoon before she had received Redmond Wrandall and Leslie, his son.

t the guest in the house. The second time he call

ining the body of his brother. He left them alone together in that room for half an hour or more, and it was he who went forward to meet them when they came forth. Sa

ara broke down and wept bitterly. After all, she was sorry for Challis's mother. It was the human instinct; she could not hold out aga

's ear: "My dear, my dear, this has brought u

ars. The Wrandalls, looking on in amaze, saw the smile reflected in the face of the older woman. Then it was tha

herself at the present moment. She was virtually in the hands of those who would destroy her; she was in the house of those who most deeply were affected

he shrank back, a fearful look in her eyes. In th

the little pink divan against the wall. "

ld light still in her eyes.

ped limply to the divan, and dug her fingers into the satiny seat. As if fascinated, she stared over the black heads of the three women immediately

he girl shivered as with a mighty chill when the warm hand o

me," whispered Sa

g his head to Leslie Wrandall,-a man with short side whiskers, and a sepulchral look in his eyes. Then, having received a sign fr

the perfectly modulated

f the Wrandalls; outside, the rabble, those who would join with these

among them; not with any definable interest, but because she happened to be in his line of vision and

irl, curiously fascinated by the set, emotionless features, and yet without a conscious interest in her. He was dully sensible to the fact that she was beautiful, uncommonly beaut

h her guest-her companion, as he had come to regard her without having in fact been

Hetty's trembling knees gave way beneath her. With a low moan of

elt bes

ere in the country. I had my cruel blow that night. It is your turn now. I will not blame you for what you did. But if you expect me to go on believing that you did a brave thing that night, you must convince me that you are not a coward now

e, her hand on the gi

y ar

said hoarsely. "I s

yond the casket, into which they had peered

that I l

ands to her eyes a

you be so mer

. Hetty glanced at the half-averted face with

eal; it had been promised the day before by Sara Wrandall, whose will was law to her. Now she had come to the very apex of realisation. She felt that her mind was going, that her blood wa

a Wrandall's arms, and a soft faraway voice was pleadin

ing the half an hour that followed, he would have known who was the slayer of his br

control of her nerves to a most surprising extent, a cond

id Hetty steadily as they hesitated for an

to open the door," sa

t before her. Then she followed, closing it gently, even deliberately, but not wit

the paler as they went up th

of two persons who, so the saying goes, are the last to find a man out; his mother and his sister. But in this instance the mother was alone. The silent, attentive

home after a fruitful silence, spoke Colo

to be sure to have Maltby in for

you BELIEVED all that h

he snapped. "Th

ead man's character as a son and husband, the tense silence of the ro

od

re than a whisper, that every one in the room caught his or her breath in a sharp lit

ndered if, in a fit of abstraction, he could have done it himself. It unmistakably had been the voice of a woman, but whose? Hetty knew, but not by the

ifting his dolorous eyebrows in lieu of the verbal question. Receiving a simple nod in reply, he announce

n whispered the names of the departing guests, and every neck was craned in the effort to secure

lung to the ornamental face of the tall gate and passed back the word, fo

nded a policeman tapping him

't botheri

own, I

. This was better for the crowd, as her voice was shrille

d, up the carpeted steps. He received a sharp push from

king for the sign that might betray the woman who had brought all this about. They were men from the central office. An

ok with others upon the havoc he has wrought. He has been known to sit beside the bier of his victim; he has been known to fo

reds fell back and glared with unblinking eyes at the black thing that slowly crossed the sidewalk and slid noiselessly into the yawning mouth of the hearse. No man in a

ent singing through the crowd, back to the outer fringe, where men danced lik

the hoarse whisper, lik

back, p

voice, triumphantly,-even gladly.

led the police, l

ne is hi

e come

f my way,

ops was doing th

! No wonder they n

takin' it very hard. I tho

at his

hing! Ouch! Yo

busines

yin' 'Where's my

his city that could ke

dall. I've waited on

have any

. Four plain clothes men were watching her narrowly. She was known to have been one of Challis Wrandall's associates. When she shrank back into t

policemen and the unsatiated mob. They watched the undertaker's

by all save the police. The inquest was over, the law was baffled,

o the steamer to see his si

young Englishwoman at parting. "Take good care of Sara. She needs a fr