Romance Island

und the place; it was in the row of old iron-balconied apartment houses a few blocks south of Washington Square, and No. 19 differed in no way from its neighbours even to the noisy children, wit

as confident would lead to further information about her. This address, he added, he preferred not to disclose to the police, but to Mrs. Hastings or Miss Holland herself, and he begged leave to call upon them if possible that day. He despatched the note by Rollo, whom he instructed to deliver it, not

Hastings and Miss Holland were not at ho

id you go to the doo

ffly, "the elevator boy t

"that a valet and a gentleman

to their door. If they are not in, wait in the lower hallw

ck by tea-time, si

til they return. At three. Or si

r, for a man to trust to his own judgment, sir, asking your pardon.

ly by the open fire to await Rollo's return. It was after three o'clock wh

Were they civil t

s civiler than many people's language. There's a great deal in manner, sir," declaimed Rollo, brushing his hat

relief. They would see him. A refusal would have delayed

l how your suggestion will be received by her, though it is most kind. I may, howev

truly

A HAST

ressed and drove to the Boris, punctually sending up his card at

replace was set a panel of the same stone, which, by the thickness of the tiles, formed a low shelf. On this shelf and on tables and in a high window was the strangest array of objects that St. George had ever seen. There were small busts of soft rose stone, like blocks of coral. There was a statue or two of some indefinable white material, glistening like marble and yet so soft that it had been indented in several places by accidental pressure. There were fans of strangely-woven silk, with sticks of carven rock-crystal, and hand mirrors of polished copper set in frames of gems that he did not recognize. Upon the wall were mended bits of purple tapestry, embroider

at almost ministered of itself, a work-basket filled with "violet-weaving" needle-work, and a gossipy clock with well-bred chimes. St. George was enormously attr

ather than molded in features. Her plump hands were covered with jewels, but for all the richness of her gown she gave the impression of being very badly dressed; things of jet and metal bobbed and ticked upon her, and her side-combs were continually falling about. She sat on the sofa and looked

always say, 'Olivia, nothing need occur to vex one. It always happens because of pure heedlessness.' Not that I accuse my own niece of heedlessness in this particular. It was the elevator boy who was heedless. That is the trouble with life in a great city. Every breath you draw is always dependent on somebody else's doing his duty, and when you consider h

glasses, tilting her head high to keep them on her nose and perpetually putt

said. "I went up to the Reformatory i

didn't tear your eyes out. Did they have her in a

eeting at the moment," St.

done through necessity or design.' Nearly everything is a trick. Every invention is a trick-a cultured trick, one might say. Murder

id not say one word. But she wrote something

any one face to face, but these juggling, incantation individuals appal me. I have a brother who travels i

quickly, "you have a b

ow how many years. We have a great many stamps. I can't

niece, Miss Holland's fathe

y; "I have only one brother, and it has

this may be most important. Will you tell me w

ouldn't begin to pronounce the name, I dare say. It was

eorge quiet

ure," resumed Mrs. Hastings, "do, p

produced

l not know the street. It is 19 McDougl

" his hostess demanded, "

name is, I suppose, the name of a person. I have made sure that there is such a number in

d. Only I know that he would have gone straight to Bitley, or wherever she is, and held a revolver at that mulatto creature's head, and commanded her to talk English. Mr. Hastings was a very determined character. If you could

announcement of his name, a man of sixty-odd years, nervous, slight

s about this frightful mulatto creature. This is Mr. St. John. Mr. Frothingham is my lawyer and my brother Otho's lawyer. And so I

ain brakemen call out stations. St. George responded as blithely to this name as to his own and did not correct it. "And what," went on the lawy

nts of the morning and placed the s

a confession," the lawyer observed, adjusting his

Hastings that some one ought to go to this address at once and find out

with no explosion, like a bad Roman candle. He did this now, and whatever he meant to say was lost to the race; but he lo

I ought. Suppose, Mr. Frothingham, that we both go. Dear, dear! Olivia always sees to my shoppin

he was tinglingly aware of her presence. Even before Mrs. Hastings heard her light footfall, even before the clear voice spoke, St. George knew that he

aid. "I want to know to what plac

n her hat and an orchid on her white coat. Mrs. Hastings, taking no more account of her presence than she had of St. Geor

rrecting the name entirely unintentionally, "my niece, Miss Holland. And I'm sure I wish I knew what the necessary thing to

lawyer, clearing his throat, "of a c

d turned swiftl

e asked, and the lawyer passed b

orge replied. "She gave me this name and address. We have been say

sed lips offered the paper. Miss Ho

est is in this woman?" she asked

u have courteously given them every assistance in your power. But the police have also been very ably assisted by every newspaper in town. I am f

ht away the chain of her eye-glass and sent it dangling i

he said, "

eorge

newspaper reporter like that fearful man at Palm Beach, who put me i

rothingham, his long, unclosed hands working forw

dyeing her face and throat, her manner a bew

wspaper representative. Therefore, we are unfortunate never to have met

as all so unexpected and so dangerous, and sh

elf, Miss Holland," he said simply, "

ly from one to another, her fo

r telephone had a private number, and all the papers had instructions never to mention him, even if he was murdered, unless he took down the notice himself. Then if anything important

nscious. But Miss Holland understood how grave it was, for there are women whose intuition woul

liked her smile. It was as if she were amused, not absent-minded nor yet a prey to the feminine immorality of ingratiati

aceful sanity in a voice that was without nationality. She might have been the cultivated English-speaking daughter of almost any land of high civilization, or she might have been its princess. Her face showed her imaginative; her serene manner reassured one that she had not, in consequence, to pay the usury of lack of judgment; she seemed reflective, tender, and of a fine

c; and she is not a fanatic or a mad-woman. She is, of her race, a strangely superior creature, and I fancy, of high cultivation; and I am convinced that at the foundation of her at

olice said that she was a great brutal negress, and I thought she must be insane.

acidly, "became very much involved in t

t the lawyer to console him for her total neglect of his comment, "in McDougl

location, and Mrs. Hast

aid, "I think it is frigh

ment. "Aunt Dora, I'm going to do more: I suggest that you and Mr. Froth

, "it's in the very heart of the Bowery-

trate words emerged in the fanta

rs. Hastings," St. George explain

, "he always said to me: 'Medora, do only the necessary thing.' Do y

ventured St. George, "is

o make non-partisanship seem a ta

mand," he said, waving both

nly a few blocks from Washingto

tings br

," she said, "people whom I think a great deal

a. The brougham has been at the door since I came in. We may a

ely, longing to cry: "Willing! Willing! O

ow, smote her hair to a glory of pale colour, and St. George's eyes wandered to the glass through which the sun fell. It was a thin pane of irregular pieces set in a design of quaint, meaningless

ass," involuntaril

astically. "My father sent it. He sent

ved St. George; "it is like lace and preci

, searching look that St. Georg

ng of my father?" s

me that he is abroad-in the South Atl

m frightfully worried. Ah yes, the glass is beautiful. It was made in one of the South Atlantic islands, I

what it mea

people in one of the islands,

m, frowning at the glass, "have little significance, standing

lked from the town hall to the Cathedral in Lichfield, "in linen gowns, and

long at

r false mulatto, ought to s

a little, once, every time she laughed, an

rs. Hastings came fluttering back. Mrs. Hastings fluttered ponderously, as humblebees fl

n, closing the door, received St. George's reply to Mrs. Hastin

t one must avoid is heedlessness, don't you think? Didn't Napoleon say that if only C?sar had been first in killing the men who wanted to k

nded her, his long gloved hands laid trimly a

lem faded from

you were so admirable at cross-questi

gly, "Aunt Dora, this is an advent

the last six hours and thinking unenviously of Amory, rockin

e thought victoriously, as the carriag