In Friendship's Guise

d out more delicious coffee. Jack Clare was in the highest spirits as he embraced his wife and sallied forth into the Boulevard St. Germ

to him. "I shall be ready by then, Jack,

ted, throwing a kiss. "I will hasten back, dear one. Be sure that you

at mattered it that he had but a few francs in his pocket-that the quarterly remittance from his mother, who dreaded the Channel passage and was devoted to her foggy London, would not be due for a fortnight? The

nd then, or paused briefly to greet a male acquaintance; for the Latin Quarter had been his little world for three years, and he was well-known in it from the Boulevard St. Michel to the quays of the Seine. He snapped his fingers at a mounted cuirassier in scarlet and silver who galloped by him on the P

straight as a die, with a will of her own, and it was either lose her altogether or do the right thing. I couldn't bear to part with her, and I wasn't blackguard enough to try to deceive her. I'm afraid there

nds, in the vicinity of the Opera. He entered boldly and inquired for Monsieur Martin Von Whele. The gentleman was gone, a polite garc

s faded from

Amsterdam?" he excl

own country

o message for

ieur; he departed

lowly down the gay street, the parcel hanging listlessly under his left arm, and his right hand jingling the

him in contact with Jack Clare, who at the time was reproducing for an art patron a landscape in the Luxembourg Gallery-a sort of thing that he was not too proud to undertake when he was getting short of money. Monsieur Von Whele liked the young Englishman's work and came to an agreement with him. Jack copied the Rembrandt at the Hotel Netherlands, going there at odd hours, and made a perfect duplicate of it-a dangerous one, as

he duplicate Rembrandt into a corner of the studio, behind a stack of unfinished sketches. Diane entered from the bedroom, ravishingly dressed for the street in a costume that well set off her per

keep me waiting long. But you look a

briefly, in an

he added. "We are down to our last twen

u won't

Don't be u

nd see, I am all ready

Can I help it that Von

ave no money. Oh, I wish I

to her eyes. She tore off her hat and jacket and das

want for nothing-that you would always have plenty of money. And th

an argot, picked up from her companions of the Folies Bergere, fell from her lovely li

leadingly, as he b

y, and she suddenly claspe

, Jack," sh

s do," h

please get s

w that I

ve lots of friends-th

course, Jimmie Drexell would

a shower of kisses. "Go and get the money, Jack, dear-you can pay it back when your r

s-least of all when that woman was his fascinating little wife. A moment later he was in the str

d lets loose with her tongue, she is utterly repulsive. But I forget everything when she melts into tears, and then I am her willing slave again. I wonde

arture from Paris, might have been found Jack Clare. Tête-à-tête with him, across the little marble-topped table, was his friend Victor Nevill, whom he had known in earlier days in England, and whose acquaintance he had recently renewed in gay Paris. Nevill was an Oxford graduate, and a wild a

lot of women and men, the latter comprising' numerous nationalities, and all drawn to Paris by the wiles of the Goddess of Art. Topical songs of the day succeeded one another rapidly. A group of long-haired, polyglot students hung around the piano, while others played on violins or

said Jack. "I would rather have

ogether," Victor Nevill replied. "You know I leave for Rome to-morrow. I fan

ld chap, and you'll find me reformed when you come back. I've been a fool, Nevill. When my mother died last February I came in

have been

ou can imagine how it goes when

evill, "before you go stone broke

ght sneer which esc

ly. "Diane has spent two francs to

th of marriage," Nev

p!" sai

hey were together at theatres or luxurious cafes, spending money like water, there had been a restraint between them. Of late Diane's fits of temper had become more frequent, and only yielded to a handful of gold or notes. Jack had sought hi

believe she has ceased to care for me. Poor little girl! Perhaps she feels my neglect, and is too proud to own it. I was ready enough to cut work and spend money. Yes, it

boy?" broke in Victor Nevil

k, rising. "It will be a pl

uriously, then laughed

t to-night-who knows when we will meet

k assented, sit

d that he was purposely detaining his companion. More brandy was placed on the table, and Jack frequently lifted the glass to his lips. With a cigar between his teeth, with f

"It is long past midnight. Goo

r fellow. Take c

were all of Diane, and he was not to be cajoled by a couple of grisettes who made advances. He nodded to a friendly gendarme, and crossed the street to a

ns pour tous

d warily about. He stepped into a cab, gave the driver hurried ins

e," he muttered complace

dgings to a house that fronted on the Boulevard St. Germain. Here he had the entresol, which he had furnished lavishly to please his wife. He l

," he

ght of a letter pinned to the frame of an easel. He turne

r Ja

not endure a life of poverty. I love you no longer, and I am sure that you have tired of me. I am going with one who has t

nty bedroom, and his burning eyes noted the signs of confusion and flight-the open and

ay of reckoning comes! But I am well rid of her. She was heartless and mercenary. She never could have loved me-she has left me because

the lace coverings with his finger nails. He wept bitter tears, strong man though he w

ose; he laug

n to her own level," he muttered. "It is