THE DELUGE By DAVID GRAHAM RtHLLIRS, Author of ~7XFCaSZMr KJQ&JSRSffT /SOS' tytf* BQBBS-TtUSBZL OQM&itVyO CHAPTER X.—Continued. But my vanity was not done with me. i^ed on by it, i proceeded to have one of those ridiculous “generous im pulses”—I persuaded myself that there must be some decency in this liberality, in addition to the prudence which 1 flattered myself was the chief cause. "I have been unjust to Roe buck,” 1 thought. “I have been mis judging his character.” And incredi ble though it seems, I said to him with a good deal of genuine emotion: “I don't know how to thank you, Mr. Roebuck. And, instead of trying, I want to apologize to you. I have thought many hard things against you; have spoken some of them. I had better have been attending to my uwn conscience, instead of criticising yours.” "Thank you, Blacklock,” said he, in a voice that made me feel as if I were a little boy in the crossroads church, believing 1 could almost see the an gels floating above the heads of the singers in the choir behind the preacher. “Thank you. I am not sur prised that you have misjudged me. | eople I did not know and of things I did not care about—I thought then that they were avoiding me deliberately as a flock of tame ducks avoids a wild one 1 that some wind has accidentally blown down among them. I know now that my forbidding aspect must have been responsible for my isolation. How stood idly turning the leaves of a mag azine. I threw my cigar into the fireplace. The slight sound as it struck made her jump, and I saw that, under neath her surface of perfect calm, she was in a nervous state full as tense as my own. “You smoke?” said I. "Sometimes,” she replied. “It is soothing and distracting. I dou’t know how it is with others, but when I smoke my mind is quite empty.” “It’s a nasty habit—smoking,” said I. “Do you think so?” said she, with the slightest lift to her tone and her eyebrows. "Especially for a woman,” I went on, because I could think of nothing else to say, and would not. at any cost, let this conversation, so hard to begin, die out. “Your are one of those men who have one code for themselves and an other for women,” she replied. “I’m a man,” said I. “All men have the two codes." "Not all,” said she after a pause. “All men of decent ideas,” said I with emphasis. “Really?” said she, in a tone that irritated me by suggesting that what I said was both absurd and unimpor tant. “It is the first time I've ever seen a respectable woman smoke,” I went on. powerless to change the subject, though conscious I was getting tedi ous. “I’ve read of such things, but I didn't believe.” . “That is interesting,” said she, her tone suggesting the reverse. “I've offended you by saying frank ly what I think,” said I. “Of course, it’s none of my business.” “Oh, no,” replied she carelessly. “I’m not in the least offended. Preju dices always interest me.” I saw Ellersly and his wife sitting in the drawing-room, pretending to talk to each other. 1 understood that they were leaving me alone with her deliberately, and 1 began to suspect ■ 1 “SHE LOOKED AT ME—JUST LOOKED.'* ever, I sat alone, sullenly resisting old Ellersly’s constrained efforts to get me into the conversation, and angrily suspicious that Langdon was enjoying my discomfiture more than the cigar ette he was apparently absorbed in. Old Ellersiy, growing more and more nervous before my dark and sul len look, finally seated himself beside me. “I hope you'll stay after the others have gone,” said he. “They'll leave early, and we can have a quiet smoke and talk.” All unstrung though I was, I yet had the desperate courage to resolve that I d not leave, defeated in the eyes of the one person whose opinion I really cared about. “Very well;” said I, in reply to him. He and I did not follow the others to the drawing-room, but turned into the library adjoining. From where I seated myself I could see part of the drawing-room—saw the others leav ing, saw Langdon lingering, ignoring the impatient glances of his wife, while he talked on and on with Miss Ellersiy. At last Langdon arose. It irritated me to see her color under that in different fascinating smile of his. It irritated me to note that he held her hand all the time lie was saying good by, and the fact that he held it as if he'd as lief not be holding it hardly lessened my longing to rush in and knock him down. What he did was all in the way of perfect good man ners. and would hare jas-red no one not supersensitive, like me—and like his wife. 1 saw that she, too, was frowning. In an aimless sort of way Miss Ellersiy, after the Langdons had dis appeared, left the drawing-room by the same door. Still aimlessly wan dering, she drifted into the library by the hall door. Ab I rose, she lifted her eyes, saw me, and drove away the frown of annoyance which came over her face like the faintest haze. In fact, it may have existed only in my imagination. She opened a large, square silver box on the table, took out a cigarette, lighted it ani holding it, with the smoke lazily curling up from it, between the long slender first and second fingers of her wtiite hand, she was in the plot. I smiled, and my courage and self-possession returned as summarily as they had fled. “I’m glad of this chance to get bet ter acquainted with you,” said I. “I’ve wanted Jt ever since I first saw you.” As I put this to her directly, she dropped her eyes and murmured some thing she probably wished me to think vaguely pleasant. “You are the first woman I ever knew,” I went on, “with whom it was hard for me to get on any sort of terms. I suppose it’s my fault. I don’t know this game yet. But I’ll learn it, if you'll be a little patient; and when I do, I think I’ll be able to keep up my end." She looked at me—just looked. I couldn't begin to guess what was going on in that gracefully-poised head of hers. “Will you try to be friends with me?” said I with directness. She continued to look at me in that san.3 steady, puzzling way. “Will you?” I repeated. “I have no choice,” said she slowly. I flushed. “What does that mean?" I demanded. She threw a hurried and, it seemed to me, frightened glance toward the drawing-room. “I didn’t intend to of fend you,” she said in a low voice. “You have been such a good friend to papa—I’ve no right to feel anything but friendship for you.” “I'm glad to hear you say that,” said I. And I was; for those words or hers were the first expression of ap preciation and gratitude I had ever got from any member of that family which I was holding up from ruin. I put out my hand, and she laid hers in it. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to earn your friendship. Miss Anita,” I said, holding her hand tightly, feel ing how lifeless it was, yet feeling, too, as if a flaming torch were being borne through me,. were lighting a fire in every vein. The scarlet poured into her face and neck, wave on wave, until I thought it would never cease to come. She snatched her hand away and from her face streamed proud resentment. God, how I loved her at that moment! “Anita! Mr. Blacklock!” came from the other room, in her mother’s voice. “Come in here and save us old people from boring each other to sleep.” She turned swiftly and went into the other room, I following. There were a few minutes of conversation—a mon ologue by her mother. Then I ceased to disregard Ellersly’s less and less covert yawns, and rose to take leave. I could not look directly at Anita, but I was seeing that her eyes were fixed on me, as if by some compulsion, some sinister compulsion. I left in high spirits. “No matter why or how she looks at you,” said I to myself. “All that is necessary is to get yourself no ticed. After that the rest is easy. You must keep cool enough always to remember that under this glamour that intoxicates you, she’s a woman, just a woman, waiting for a man." XII. “UNTIL TO-MORROW.” A week passed and, just as I was within sight of my limit of patience, Bromwell Ellersly appeared at my of fice. “I can’t put my hand on the necessary cash, Mr. Blacklock—at least, not for a few days. Can I count on your further indulgence?” This in his best exhibit of old-fashioned court liness—the "gentleman" through and through, ignorant of anything useful. “Don’t let that matter worry you, Ellersly,” said I, friendly, for I wanted to be on a somewhat less business-like basis with that family. "The market's steady, and will go up before it goes down." “Good!" said he. "By the way, you haven't kept your promise to call.” “I’m a busy man,” said I. “You must make my excuses to your wife. But—in the evenings. Couldn’t we get up a little theater party—Mrs. Ellersly and your daughter and you and I— Sam, too, if he cares to come?” "Delightful!” cried he “Whichever one of the next five evenings you say,” I said. “Let me know by to-morrow morning, will you?” And we talked no more of the neglected margins; we understood each other. When he > left he had ne gotiated a three months’ loan of twenty thousand dollars. They were. so surprised that they couldn’t conceal it, when they were ushered into my apartment on the Wednesday evening they had fixed ui>on. If my taste in dress was some what too pronounced, my taste in my surroundings was not. I suppose the same instinct that made me like the music and the pictures and the books that were the products of superior minds had guided me right in archi tecture, decoration and furniture. I was pleased out of all proportion to its value by what Ellersly and his wife looked and said. But, though I watched Miss Ellersly closely, though I tried to draw from her some com ment on my belongings—on my pic tures, on my superb tapestries, on the beautiful carving of my furniture—I got nothing from her beyond that first look of surprise and pleasure. Her face resumed its statuelike calm, her eyes did not wander, her lips, like a crimson bow painted upon her clear, white skin, remained closed. She spoke only when she was spoken to, and then as briefly as possible. The dinner—and a mighty good dinner it was—would have been memorable for strain and silence had not Mrs. Ellers ly kept up her incessant chatter. I can’t recall a word she said, but I ad mired her for being able to talk at all. I knew she was in the same state as the rest of us, yet she acted perfectly at her ease, and not until I thought it over afterward did I realise that she had done all the talking except an I swers to her occasional and cleverly j sprinkled direct questions. (To be continued.) Studying Human Nature. But in the End the Crowd Drank With Both Bettors. W. H. Milburn and several friends were walking along Sixteenth street the other day when one of them picked up a woman's handkerchief made of lace. “What shall I do with it?” he asked. “Put it on the mhil box at the cor ner and watch some poor woman steal it." suggested another of the party. “it won’t be a poor woman who steals it,” said Mr. Milburn. "it will he some woman of means.” “I’ll bet you it won't be a well-to-do woman,” came from the other. “What will you bet?” “Refreshments for the crowd.” “Done,” said Mr. Milburn. The handkerchief was placed on the mail box at Sixteenth and California* and the men retired a few feet to see what would take place, says the Denver Post. Several poorly dressed women went by and saw the handkerchief, but none made any move to get it. At the end of four or five minutes a stylishly dressed woman came along and noticed the prize. She glanced about her and then took the hanker chief. Around the corner she stepped into her automobile. “There,” said Mr. Milburn, “what did I tell you?" “You win,” said the man that had the other end of the bet. .lust then they heard the woman speak to her chauffeur. “I lost my handkerchief, John,” she said, “but | found it again on that mail box. Wasn't 1 lucky?” “Hold on,” said the man who had bet with Mr. Milburn, when the auto had gone. “I don’t know whether I lost that bet or not.” “To tell the truth, neither do I,” re plied Mr. Milburn. “Then 1 think you both ought to pay the bet,” said another member of the party. And so it came to pass. He Knew Marla. “I could tell you what I think of you in a very few words.” “True, you could, Maria,” responded Mr. Meekman. “But you won’t, Maria, you won't.” STUFFING FOR ROAST GOOSE. Prunes and Chestnuts, German Style,] Make Delicious “Filling.” A goose stuffed with prunes and chestnuts, German style, makes a fine dish. Select a young or green goose. An old bird is strong and greasy, unfit for food. One that weighs about four or five pounds is good weight. In buying, note the fat of the fowl. If j young, the fat is light and clear; that 'in an old bird dark. Before stuffing remove the fat that can be reached from the inside and under the skin. This may be saved and fried out for goose grease, a time-honored sover eign remedy for sore throats or cold In the chest. Wash the bird in«ide and out, and wipe dry. Season on the inside with salt and pepper, then stuff and truss ip shape like a turkey. To make the prune stuffing, soak a quarter of a pound of prunes in cold water over night. Drain, cover with boiling water, and simmer until ten 'der. Wash one cup rice, add the prune juice and enough water to make] three cups of liquid in all, season with a teaspoonful of salt, and cook until the rice is tender—about 20 minutes. Add the prunes stoned and cut in .pieces and a dozen large chestnuts blanched and cut in pieces Blend thoroughly and stuff. Put the goose on its breast on a rack in a dripping pan, dredging with flour seasoned with talt and pepper, and set in an extra, hot oven to roast. When it begins to brown pour a pint of boiling water in the pan, and every 15 minutes baste, dredging with flour, salt and pepper after each basting. Cook an hour and a half, lift out on a heated platter, skim off tne fat in the dripping pan. thicken with a tablespoonful of flour and pour In a cup of boiling water. Stir until smooth and thickened ana If it lacks a rich brown color, add a tablespoonful culinary bouquet. Strain and serve as gravy for the goose. Always serve a dish of tart apple sauce with roast goose or roast pork. MISTAKES OF SALAD MAKERS. Writer Calls Attention to Inharmoni ous Combinations. Salad translated into the American language seems to mean conglomera tion with a mayonnaise dressing. The way natural affinities in the order of growing things are violated in Amer ican salads is fairly (and horribly) in dicative of the way principles of na ture are confused in our social order. Oranges and lettuce leaves, celery and bananas, olives and pineapple, are a few of the original combinations of fered to me in the United States in the name of salad, always with mayon naise dressing and usually with nuts. I like nuts and I have not followed the, teachings of Boston .domestic eco-; nomists without learning their nutri tive value. But I want to know when they are coming. I like to be prepared 'for them—indeed, a normal stomach needs to be prepared for them—and ■when, under its mayonnaise mask, the frightful uncertainties of an American salad have entered my mouth, and. unwarned, I find the supposedly soft mass full of small, hard substances, this is an affront to nature, an abuse of confidence, which I find it exceed ingly hard to condone.—Harper’s Bazar. , HOUSEHOLD HINTS. To bleach a garment hang it on the line during nice weather and let it take dew and sunshine but no rain. Broiled meats are more nourishing 'than fried meats and roasted meats yield more nourishment than broiled ones. Utensils made of the popular alumf num must never be washed with soda or their appearance will be hopelessly ruined. Have the shelves and floors of the kitchen storeroom washed at least three times a week with a solution of permanganate of potash. Cranberries can be made very pal atable with much less sugar by mixing them with about half their bulk of ap ples. Rub both cranberries and apples through a colander. A mother-of-pearl buckle should be cleaned by covering the buckle with a paste made of whiting and water, and when quite dry brushing it off and pol ishlng with a dry cloth. Raw Eggs as a Tonic. Those who take raw eggs as a tonic declare that an egg is spoiled by any kind of cooking. The fresher the egg the better. The most popular and pleasant way of serving the egg is in sherry. Very little is needed in the : glass. Into this the egg is broken, and it is then swallowed whole. One win be surprised how easily the egg tlips down the throat and the pleasant taste it leaves. Some believe that half the benefit of the egg is lost if tht yolk is broken. The best time to take raw eggs is before meals, es pecially breakfast. After taking this diet for a week or two, it should be discontinued for several days and then resumed. Raw eggs are more easily digested than cooked ones. Hard boiled and fried eggs are the most difficult to digest. Tea a la Ruaae. The popular Russian tea—served in tall glasses—can be prepared in many ways, tbe addition of lemon or not tc ;the decoction of tea being a matter of I taste. Some people prefer the substi tution of a few drops of orange flower water to the acid of the lemon, while others flavor with essence of ginger oi a few grains of cinnamon. To Darn Serge. When darning cloth, serge, or tweed, it is best to unravel a strand of wool from the raw edge of a turning, if it can be procured, and use this to mend the material with. A Three-Cornered Tear. A three-cornered tear is best mend ed invisibly with tailor’s mending plaster, which is applied to the back of the material. a ' Roses Very Popular. Roses are positively the most fash ionable flower of the moment and they bloom on felt, silk and velvet frets as beautifully as if it were June. i ■ v TIME TABLE8 FOR CLOTHE8. Gives a Proper Answer to a Stranger’s Suggestion. “I was walking on Pennsylvania ave jnue in Washington one day at high [noon when a nigger loomed up on my horizon coming rapidly toward me,” [said a well-known negro comedian. i“He was wearing the most outlandish [outfit I ever saw on a human being, on jor off the stage. His trousers were [frayed and torn above his shoetops. [He wore a muck-colored woolen shirt, a celluloid collar and a tattered sack jcoat. On his head was a sombrero which looked as if several dogs had been trying to pull it to pieces. But [the crowning glory was a new and im imaculate full dress vest. He had ’pulled back his coat and shoved his thumbs into the armholes of that vest. iAs he came sailing before the wind he .certainly was the most comical figure [I ever saw. I couldn't resist the temp tation to stop him. “ ‘Look here,’ 1 said, what do you mean by appearing at this time of day ;in such a dress? Don’t you know that [you're de trop?' “ ‘De what—what’s that?’ “ ‘Don’t you know that you’re de trop?’ I repeated, ‘that it isn't permis sible to appear in full dress before six o’clock in the evening?’ “The darky drew himself up very proudly. “ ‘Look heah,' he said. ‘I'll have you to know that I don’t ’low nobody to 1 1 " —— rt BOUND TO GO THROUGH GATE. | Colored Man Had One Very Well D«* fined Idea in His Mind. Some twenty-five years ago one of the village characters of Stockbridge. Mass., was an old darky named Horace Bird. Coming home one evening, consider ably fuddled, to his tumble-down "shack” which stood on the outskirts of the village, and was surrounded by a board fence, he found the latch oC the gate broken, making it a matter of considerable difficulty to open the gats from the outside. His wife, a buxom person upon whom he largely depended for support, re lated his subsequent proceedings to me when she brought our washing next day. Said she: “Dat fool nigger he fumble de latch fo’ mo’n ten minutes. Den he heave a big sigh an’ start a-climbin’ de fence, an’ I gits de rollin' pin handy. He gits ober de fence at las’ and bang de gate wide open from de Inside. Den wha's dat crazy nigger do but climb back ober de fence an’ walk in troo de gats jes' like a major gin'ral.” Civilization Doubted. A Rock Island engineer at Hering ton was talking about the duplicity of farmers who bring claims against rail road companies for the killing of blooded stock when, as a matter of fact, the animals were walking scare crows. “About four years ago,” said WORKS FOR INSURANCE REFORM. Insurance Commissioner E. E. Rittenhouse of Colorado, who drafted th« measure striking at parasite companies operated in connection with insur ance corporations, was one of the most active members of the committee of fifteen appointed to divise restrictive insurance legislation. Commissioner Rittenhouse's attention was directed to this abuse by the prevalence of such companies in his home state. He conducted a preliminary campaign which resulted in the retirement of a member of such companies from Colorado. make time tables for my eloas.' ”— Kansas City Times. Merely an Outward Sign. Miss Fluff—The other day at the show I saw a woman carry a man around on her head. Miss Vassar—That, my dear, was merely the physical expression in acro batics of a common psychological ex perience of the sex. Miss Fluff—Dear me! What do you mean? Miss Vassar—That nine women out Of every ten have a man on their minds. The Lost Label. On the bleak heights the miners were preparing their dinner. • Bill,” said a red-whiskered man, “is this here potted turkey or deviled lob ster?” Bill blushed and hung his head. “1 can t tell you,” he faltered. “The label's got torn off the can." the engineer, "before the Rock Island bought the Choctaw, 1 was on an en gine on the Choctaw Northern run above Geary. Gray daylight was just coming on, so as one could see pretty well ahead, and I noticed two horse* on the track* They didn't appear to mind the whistle or the bell and l slowly drew up to them and stopped. The horses, two poor, old, worn-out plugs, were still standing across tha road, and on climbing down off tha engine to drive them away I found that the hoofs of their forefeet wera spiked down to the planks at the road crossing tire track. How’s that for a civilized country?”—Kansas City Times. Collywobs. “What's the matter, my little man?’* asked the kindly old gentleman. “You seem to be in great pain.” “G’on! Yer mixed,” groaned the lit tle boy. “I ain't in no great pain, but dey's a great pain In me, all right.” STILL ANOTHER FLYING MACHINE. i—aaa^MimSmSSM The recent experiments made with the screw-propelled motor cycle in vented by M. Archdeacon, have called the attention of the aeronautical to some equally amazing experiments which Capt. Ferber has been making in Paris with a machine constructed on somewhat silimar lines. Capt. Ferber’s machine is designed to sail through the clouds exactly as shown in the ac companying photograph.—New York World. High Art. There is a certain great cartoonist who is an urdent advocate of spelling reform because he is so poor a speller himself. Hts editors watch with the greatest care the inscriptions he puts oh his work and correct misspelled words almost every day. A short time ago the cartoonist was working on a picture that had to do with the international peace congress. He looked up from hiB board and said to his neighbor: "How do you spell Angelo?” ' “ ‘A-n-g-t-l-o,' spelled the other. How are you going to use it?" “Oh,” the cartoonist replied, “I am making a cartoon about this Angelo American alliance.”—Saturday Even ing Poat. " '3 Way to Millions. Qne of the first acts of a millionaire on returning to his old home in Ohio was to search for a dime that he lost when he was five years old. Do yot» wonder that he became a millionaire. —Montreal Star. „