The Place of Honeymoons

and charming. One saw his Italian landscapes as through a filmy gauze: the almond blossoms of Sicily, the rose-laden walls of Florence, the vineyards of Chianti, the po

d been very fond) it was as an inventor. Of what, he rarely told. In America it was all right; but over here, where these inventions were unknown, a wash-tub had a peculiar significance: that a man should be found in his money throu

eyes were unusually clear and happy. Perhaps once or twice, since his majority, he had returned to America to prove that he was not an expatriate, though certainly he was one, the only tie existing between him and his nati

essed the delicate films of thought. He was looking through the bronze, into the far-away things. He sat on his own folding stool, which he had brought along from his winter studio hard by in the old Boul' Miche'. He had arrived early that morning, all the way fr

taken wings and flown away. It was unreal. She had left the apartment in the Avenue de Wagram on Saturday afternoon, and nothing had been seen or heard of her since. At the last moment they had had to find a substitute for her part in the Puccini op

concerned. Singers were generally erratic, full of sudden indispositions, unaccountable whims; but the Signorina da Toscana was one in a thousand. She never broke an engagement. If she was ill she said so at once; she never le

ierge to whom the beautiful American would offer no explanations. The man (who tallied with the description given by the chauffeur) had obtained entrance under false representations. He claimed to be an emissary with important instructions from the Opera. There was nothing unusual in this; messengers came at all hours, and seldom the same one twice; so the c

e was well-known to them both. He had arrived again at seven, Saturday, and was very much surprised that the signorina had not yet returned. He had waited till nine, when he left, greatly disappointed. He was the Barone di Monte-Verdi in Calabria, formerly military attaché at the Italian embassy in Berlin. Su

s blond stranger be who appeared so sinisterly in the two scenes? From where had he come? Why had Nora refused to explain about the pistol-shot? Any woman had a perfect right to shoot a man who forced his way into her apartment. Was he one of those mad fools w

houlder, broke in on his agonizing thoughts. He turned, an angry word on the

the stool. "And where the dickens did you

ot back

h other with the appraising scru

hange any,"

you fully two minutes. What were you

d the Herald

o they are bound to misconstrue it." Courtlandt stooped and righted the stool, but sat

per and shaking it under his fr

as they absorbed the significance of th

he ex

say

s. I know something about singers," Courtland

ything about her,"

e article, folded the paper and returned it,

blond stranger?" Abbott flourished the paper again. "I tell yo

y says that she refused to explain this blond chap

fellow was her press-

she did not want the police to find him. At least

f he is hot-headed at times. Count him out of it. It's this unknown, I tell y

known her?" asked C

e lot. Gentle, kindly, untouched by flatter

ke Bellini's donna; and Irish all over. But for all that, you will find that her disappearan

head!" exploded

I am." Court

o hear her. I couldn't get here in time for La Bohème, but I was building o

I'm D

e and settle down and marry?-and keep that phiz of yours out o

h in where lunatics fear to tread. Come on ov

," tersely. "There's too

ndred against a bottle of pop that to-morrow or next day she'll turn up serenely, with the statement that she

with the Barone? Celeste Fournier's statement? You can't get around these things. I tell you, N

, Abby. You haven't gone and mad

making a fool of m

you? An accepted suitor?

e newspaper into his pocket and slung the stool over his

ly going to s

ckly for you, if I heard that you had v

you hones

e hook into you some day. Where did you pick up the gr

too,

twaddle. Only, I've got a sore head to-day. If

ternals? That there was a man he did not know, hiding deep down within those powerful shoulders, he had not the least doubt. He himself possessed the quick mobile temperament of the artist, and he could penetrate but not understand the poise assumed with such careless ease by his friend. Dutch blood had something to do with it, and there was breeding, but there was something more than these: he was a reversion, perhaps

phic. Indeed, his soul was in mad turmoil. He could have thrown his arms toward the blue sky and cursed aloud the fates that had set this new tangle at his feet. He longed for the jungles and some mad beast to vent his wrath upon. But he gave no sign. He

rtist, "what did you mean by s

ott might catch up to him. "I

occurred to me that

e was Irish, and that when she said a thing she meant it. My boy, the Irish are notorious for claiming that. They often say it before th

hat you are going to set

own and get married, if th

I was

ame house, with the same wo

want, one f

under another name. They envy us millionaires. Why, we are the lonesomest duffers going. We distrust every one; we fly when a woman approaches; we become monomaniacs; one thing obsesses us,

s the part of Marguerite as she loves nothing else. She's been kidnaped, and only God knows for what reason. It has knocked

s Fou

composer. She goes with Nora

ett

arm

hat part of the lake; the

happy. When she sings out on the terrace, suddenly, without giving any one

out knowing what they were singing. I admit all you say i

y day but to-day. I'm all in. I can telephone to the Opera from the studio, and then we shall know for a certainty

out to be the shee

r own way

elephoned promptly. Nothing had been hea

erald," sugges

hat he had arrived that morning? Abbott wanted to fling the receiver into the mouth of the transmitter, but his patience was presently rewarded. The singer had not yet been found, but the chauffeur of the

ing the receiver on the hook

shes. What a pother about a singer! If it had been a great inventor, a poet, an artist, there would have been nothing more than a two-line paragraph. But an opera-singer, one who enter

vil makes yo

after four. "Come over to the Maurice and dine with me to-morrow night, that is, if y

u to dine with me to-n

that I met you in the Luxembourg. Be over ab

ner. "All right. If anything turns up I

. By

ed the artist, alone. "Some woman has ch

tel in Paris free of surveillance. Naturally, blond strangers would be in demand. The complications that would follow his own arrest were not to be ignored. He agreed with his conscience that he had not acted with dignity in forcing his way into her apartment. But that night he had been at odds with convention; his spirit had been that of the marauding old D

ctly to the war-office. The great and powerful man there was the only hope left. They had

the great man said pleasantly. "You wi

mess," frankly and directly. "Innocently en

hat now I can pay

in the newspapers regarding the disappea

es

nd state that I was with you all of Saturday and Sunday; that on Monday you and your wi

an alibi?"

I shall

are in nowise concerned? Pardon the question, but between

rd as a g

s suffi

as been abducted at all. Will you let

d articles. Courtlandt scrawled a

me to

" moo

s into the various waste-baskets yawning about his long flat desk. Next, still avoiding the younger man's eye, he arranged his papers neatly and locked them up in a huge safe which only the ar

It was not possible for him to h

taking you out to th

ave noth

at of mine I carry a thousand secrets, and every one of these thousand must go to the grave with me, yours along with them. I have met you a dozen times since those Alg

espectfully aside to permit a tall young man in a Bavarian hat to enter a compartment of the second-class. What could be seen of the young man's face was full of smothered wrath and disappointment. How he hated himself, for his weakness

"deliver that message which

ersailles to-nigh

o whose face the pieces flew. That gentleman reddened perceptibly, but he held his tongue. The blare of a horn announced the time of departure. The train moved. The two men on the platform saluted, but the young man ignored the salutation. Not until the rear car disa