The Salamander

g down, the sensation of escape sparkling on her delicate features. She was so delighted a

nnounced 'Miss Baxter's car' you could have h

believed, that the luncheon was a he

, did you?" he said, noticing th

, n

enue, or

th f

; it's tur

dge in the avenue, and Stacey, solicit

y turned he would have been surprised at the mischievous, gay little smile that constantly rippled and broke about her lips. Indeed, she was d

herself caressingly, overjoyed at the idea of two men of such

e him into fruitless alleys, to entangle and mock him, with an imperative desire to match her wits against his power, and teach him respect through discomfiture and humiliation. Sassoon d

ng aside the artifices and subtleties that arrest others. She would make no mistake with him-knowing just how little to venture. And yet, always prepared, she m

ferent, too absorbed to lift his eyes and study what sat by his side. She did not know all the reasons why he so antagonized her, nor whence these reasons came ... yet the feeling persisted, already mingled with a desire to know what was the histor

n is to drink!"

that, Dodo?"

n her absorption, she

d and run up Broadwa

nd, nor did she see him quite clearly. Why was he there? To observe simply, with that tolerant baffling smile of his? What did he want in life? Of her? He had been interested; he h

had a feeling that he would be too strong for her. She had felt in him, each time his glance lay in hers, the reading eye that

perience. It seemed to her as if she had taken a great step-that opportunity had strang

y. Whatever their cynical ideas of conduct, she felt a difference here. They were men of power, with an object, who did not fill their days with trifling, but who sought pleasure to fling off for a moment the obsession of ambitions, to relax from the ty

Why not? I have a feeling-" she said solemnly to

sea of her imagining. But to-day it was a little different. The feeling was more profound, calmer, more penetrating

resounding profoundly, penetrating the soul of the multitude. The gray sluggish currents in the thoroughfare quickened, stirring more restlessly, apprehensive, caught unawares. Little gusts of wind, scouts heralding the chill battalions piling up on the horizon, drove through the city clefts

aters, the great hotels, the rocket-rise of the white Times building, towering like a pillar of salt in accursed Sodom. But her mind did not penetrate to ugliness. The febrile activity, the glistening surface of pleasure, the se

sight of the theaters, even, with their cold white globes above the outpouring matinée crowds, brought an impatience for the garlanded night, when elega

s, spying her with thousand-eyed envy; and everywhere darting in and out, dodging the gray contact of the mass, alert, light, skimming on like sea-gulls trailing their wings across the chafing ocean, the luxurious women of the city sped in rolling

deliciously cradled, her eyes half closed, her nostrils drawing in this frantic air as if it were the breath of an enchanting perfume, she let her ima

de or pa

from her castle-building, she laughed at

spirit

o-

pressing about her, claiming her for its own. There were no restaurants or climbing

round; but the earth was warm, pleasant, with a fragrant odor, the air soft and the evening descended in a glow. Now there was a difference. Over all was the dread sense of change. Each tree stood alone, aghast, against the sky, the ground bleak, bare, the leaves wandering with a

she thought-no; but of that specter which some day, inexorably, would rise from a distant horizon, even as the wind in an hour goes round to th

nly, clutching her

o c

es

t a coat

go

rea

es

ea

Go

all things filled their appointed time. What she had was given but for a day-all her fragile armament was but for a day. Not much longer could she go blithely along the summery paths of sum

using the very words that Winona had uttered. "Not much

odo?" sa

rri

culous, after what she had felt, that

change y

t of sorts-a co

files of lights rose on the avenue and down the fleeting side streets, miraculous electric signs burst out against the night, a myriad windows caught fire, and the city, which a moment ago had seemed flat, climbed blazing into the air. They were again nearing the great artery, which changes its na

andles for the guests who went fleeing home. Of plunging temperament, she had a horror of these rare depressions, striving frantically against the realization of what must be, and striving thus, always suffering the more keenly. In seeing all this fugitive world, flat shadows driven restlessly as the shorn splendor of the streets, she asked herself of what use it was after all, to be young, to be attractive, to go lau

d the door she entered a region of obscure shadowy forms, faintly lighted by the reflection of a street lamp below. Across the windows on the avenue was the cyclopean eye of the Metropolitan tower, which she saw always every night wi

luminous pathwa

hought. "Am I like Winona? Am I get

ep toward it. All that she had planned as a choice for the evening no longer interested her. She was in another mood. She flung down her thin

hy he had gone so abruptly to his questions, confident in the test he h

er impatiently. Which of the four had come, as she had determined? The first bore the name of Harrigan Blood, the second Albert Edward Sassoon. She stood staring at the last, the

wrapped herself up in an ulster, took an umbrella and went out, though by the wide-faced clock in the skies it was scarcely six. Before, she had sought to break away, to

k, a baked potato. Not many were there yet. A young fellow without an overcoat, stooping already, pinched by struggle, came and sa

not no

gale, and a little of Lindaberry. Why had she succeeded w

arrigan Blood. He would not seek her out; nor would Massingale. All her castles in the ai

e spattering rain-drops, that seemed to rise from the glistening sidewalks. The young m

taxicab was turning in the avenue, having just drawn away. As she went slowly up the inte

sn't come, I'll

n she felt the slightest diminution of her self-respect in situations labeled with the appearance of suspicion. Her ideas of morality and conduct were not even formulated. They existed as the sense of danger exists to a pretty animal.

e had been absent. She went to it without expectation. It was from Massingale-

t an extraordinary joy and confidence, the alertness of a young animal, a

to take her to the cabaret party. She dislike