Destiny

Mary Burton to remain when her set had gone would have been like reigning in an empty court, for already she had entered upon her dominion and her triumph was secure. New York society h

her, claimed her as it

owned and in state, while before her Life passed in review. This afternoon, however, certain reflect

ave her a view of all her beauty, from the coronal of burnished hair to the satin points of small slippers, she did not seem quite happy. Mary was discovering that nature had endowed her with a brain which refused to accept longer its heretofore placid function o

d come to disposse

agged fringe. Metaled roads ran out in lumber trails where the Adirondacks reared turrets of granite and primal forests. In summer, ease-loving guests took their pleasure here, but when winter held the

stlessness that drove him gave place to something like peace. Among the guests now gathered there was Mary Burton. Hamilton Burton was absent, as he was always absent from the purely social side of the world into whose center he had forced his wa

f flowering vines. Through half-drawn curtains as she lay in a long reclining chair she could see the purple veil of the young summer draped along the distance where rosy fires bu

and spoke to the only other o

sharply, "you may go. Co

by dreams of a small millinery shop in Paris to come with her mistr

hesitation Julie went out and closed the door quietly behind her. The pearl

ton's collar,

w from the envelope

t that was an abbreviated signature. In Andalusia, where his estates lay, his

ery slowly she rose and studied herself standing. The lacy softness of her negligée fell away from her slenderly r

rned impatiently to the window and stood with one arm high above her head, resting on the white woodwork of its fr

m Hamilton, which she had angrily torn into small bits. The duke had called on him, said her brother, and craved permission to pay his addresses to Mar

which she had not then begun to question with analysis. As she looked back she could not recall that she had definitely discouraged any of those titled suitors. Now that her brain had turned on her, forcing

the heart with their honesty and seemed willing to have other eyes look through them into a soul concealing nothing. Though Jefferson Edwardes had been her first flatterer, he had flattered without ulterior motive. She was a ragged child and he a rich young man who might have to die. Suddenly

omewhat weary step, Mary Burton cro

r pavilion cunningly fashioned in the semblance of a Greek theater, her eyes were pools of laughter and h

a haunting sense of pursuit and a secret impulse for flight, so that

e things came romance and its prize of happiness. The woman had them all-except the end of them all for which she had wanted them. They were dulled and tarnished by satiety and she still craved the coming of a lover whose forceful wooing should frighten and dominate her. Never in her life had she known any man upon whom she could not, with her trained self-reliance, set her own metes and bounds. Surely somewhere in the world there must be the sort of love-making that wrenches a woman out of her perfect self-composure and bears her away on its flood tide of power and passion. Perhaps she had been schooled and "finished" until humanity and its wonderful realit

h, as one apart, she could look up

e became conscious of a white-clad figure approaching her, and gave a low exclamation of annoyance. Yet something in the manner of the man's movement indicated that he was, like herself,

hord of memory. "I didn't mean to intrude. I was just hunting for a

urton

e assured him, "because, as it hap

ch piqued the interest of the newcomer and caused him to deviate from his avowed purpose of self-wit

red. "Yet, since I have come a long way, may I not sit

tedly she found herself inquiring, "A

ened in a casual fashion, and aft

ould you look for me whom you never saw before and whom you ca

ss Burton.-There, you

her with a cumulative force. "I have a very definite idea what you

nt mischievously whimsical. "Of course, if you have a bur

rom his pocket and struck a

yes never left her face. In those eyes she felt a strange power of magnetism, for they did not burn as other eyes had burned. They

and she bent impulsively toward him. In his coming just now as th

on your fight with your eve

son Edwardes gravely. "That'

ve been listening to the voice of the hills, but I have been sitting here alone-h

you had forgotten. Of course, I've read of you and I knew that my prophecy was being fulfilled. Twice I planned to leave S

he question. She was weary of compliments, but Jefferson Edwardes

ay that this one was pretty nearly a total loss-and he was I. He threatened to grow into a more odious man, but Providence intervened in his behalf-with disguised kindness. Providence threw him out by

thought you a fairy prince." With a sudden gravity she added, "To one small girl, you opened a gate of dreams, and

and earnest interest-"now that they

We aren't through yet with the little b

restored him with the song of their high-riding winds and the whispers of their pines. They confided to him those things that God only says to man in His own out-of-doors. Your mountains were

was to shake her head

again. It would have been better i

d been crowned, but I shall prefer to think of her as she

he murmured,

ce music reached them softened by the dis

emember an injunction I laid upon

ith a nod of her head. "Does any wom

t wa

tion and found herself coloring like a schoolgirl, so Jefferson Edwardes took up the injunction wh

pnotism in those steady eyes that gave her a sense of vague apprehension. It was an apprehension though that thrilled her strangely with a welcome fear-and a promise. Tides we

. So was Helen of Troy. So w

"did not wield kindly

n she turned and faced

ce the truth. All afternoon I've been sitting alone-hating myself. I am nothing but an artificial little flirt, and I have not obeyed your injunction." She paused, then hurried on with the forced

smiled in the dark,

icial little flirt. You hav

s though at some absurd thought. "Besides, did any woman eve

had a chance to be your real self. You have been surrounded by flat

the words after him incredulously

to give back to you the message your hills gav

he start, save the man who could pass by. Now, of a sudden, every wile of coquetry became a lost art to Mary Burton. She felt like an accomplished and intriguing diplomat, facing an adversary who has no secrets to conceal and no interest in the evasions

you-assume

ments with test-tubes and reagents. Powerful ingredients may be mixed without result because they hold in common no element of reaction. Other ingredients at the

artlingly lifted on a tide against which it was a useless thing to stru

idn't teach me much about. Probably because it wa

r and his voice filled and amplified the brevit

nd a low exclamation broke

her hands and spoke

e I shrined you in my heart-back there-long ago by the roadside. If you are not the woman of my visions, you can be, and I mean that you shall be. You are

ressed his lips to hers, while she stood amazed and unresisting. "Or kiss your lips-like this-would you? With women I am timid, because I have never before been a lover. I

unsteadily on her feet. The man passed a supporting arm about her waist. Finally,

again: "I wonder whether it's the great adventure I've dr

told her. "What I have said and d

ht I understood men. I'm not a schoolgirl any more. Yet I'm as bewi

God for

on his arm. Her voice cam

m not going to be angry until I've thought about it-and thought hard,

toward the house, she broke

-and burned your fingers-wha

e promptly replied. "W

l the new, Mary Burton walked as in a daze, her fingers toying with the gems about her neck. But before she had taken many steps the man laid a h

with all autumn's glory blazing at your back, did I have eyes for trees and skies and landscapes; though they were splendid and profligate in their beauty? No. I saw you-only you! If you had s

him and asked fai

e horoscope; a voice that decreed: 'You shall wait for her,' though I did not unders

before. In the past her ears had heard, but now her heart was listening, and her heart pounded in her breast as it drank in what the man said

inevitable. To me you have been a dream-I have told myself over and over again that it was only a dream, the whimsical imagination of a man who has lived too much to himself-who

?" she

From that first instant my life has been molded-for this. Though I did not then know it, I lived because I had to live. I had to live because it was written that my life should complete itself by l

she persisted, "that I

at I know.

e him, and her words came w

y side. I have yearned to feel something that had the power to lift me out of myself and make me gloriously helpless, something big enough to set my hear

Burton of this moment is to be the Mary Burt

ike. I've been here two days and I know all the secret passages. I'm going to slip into

g to sequester myself in the woods and pray the g