A Woman Martyr

ond and third liqueurs had solaced his bei

o," he ro

ld friend, so--following him gently as Mercier stalked gloomily into the theatre and up to the dress circle, which was well-packed with

, when she sought her husband and discovered herself. Throwing off her disguise--she was got up as an old woman--she emerged sweet, fascinating, in a white dress, with her black hair in Magdalen-

to his taste to dally with, had succeeded in inspiring her with so violent a devotion to him that, if he had not pitied, he might have come to loathe her. When she was a mere pretty, stupid schoolgirl, going to and fro to her middle-class girls' school, satchel in hand, he

s of a subtle revenge upon Joan--of int

ife in my arms with my lips on hers," he grimly told himself. "But--Vera loves me--and if I am Vera's lover while I am Joan's uxorious husband, Joan's pride will not allow her to accuse me, ev

d, to restore his equilibrium. As the curtain fell, he left the auditoriu

ng a dark, unsavoury alley, he had pushed open the swing door, had entered a dimly-lit corridor whe

the touring company, an eager little man in shabby evening dress, escorted Vict

er, Miss Anerley

Victor, will you?" cried

matic music now and then from the orchestra--making way occasionally for a stage carpenter in shirt-sleeves, or an actor hurrying from his dressi

med gêne long ago--and she gazed up into his face with eyes transparent, shining, darkly blue as sapphires, eyes so brilliant that in admiring them he hardly noticed the coarse red and white grease paint w

le with looking-glasses the worse for wear under the flaring gas jets. But he shook his head at them. "I'll sit here," he said, perching himself on one of the big dress-baskets under the pegs hung with feminine garments. "By Geo

dark silken hair; slight and graceful, with a child's hands and feet, and a tiny waist; yet the shoulders rising from her blue ball-dress with its gaudy wreaths of pink flowers were softly rounded--and the contour of neck and bust he considered "simply perfect." He ground his teeth and spat vici

l I should like to kis

ve had waxed so strong, all the former boy-and-gi

fear of him in the abandonment of her passionate love which fired Victor Mercier when he was near her. Fierce though his mingled desire of, and hatred

sing. He crossed the room, and, although she laughingly expostulated

y, gazing down into her eyes with

--with you!" she murmured, lifting them, d

. The door was flung open, and a young wo

keep the stage waiting! I beg your

a glass and a wild pat of her hair, r

We all cottoned to her when she got the post. But the stage-manager's got a grudge against her, and that's why I ran off to get her on in time. He'd have fined her as soon as look at her! You see he's taken a fancy to her, and she won't have anyth

it for his "sister" at the stage door. When Vera came out into the dark alley he met her, drew h

d. Then he gave the a