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THE 60ST OF AN ESCAPADE
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Ob, I should love to go, but I'm
afraid. It would be so drsadf nl if any
one found it out!"
"But why should they? Besides, every
body goes to music halls nowadays; and
then in Paris, you know"
"Yes; but it depends whom they go
with, doesn't it?" and Mrs. Linton
f lanced mischievously at her compan
ion. He laughed in a self embarrased,
haK-flattere-1 way. "You're not com
plimentary, at any rate; but do make up
your mind and asy when you will come."
She hesitated a moment "I con't
know. It's all wrong of course; but I
do so want to go! Hush! here is Pa illip.
ni write to you."
At this moment Mr. Linton joined
them, and after a few general remarks,
Dick Redmayne bowed good-night and
strolled of into the court-yard of the
hotel to drink his coffee in the open.
MWU1 she come, I wonder?" he asked
himself, as he sipped bis cbaase-cafe, and
let his eyes wander idly on the busy
chattering crowd of Parisians who
sauntered to and fro on pleasure bent
Dick had declared to himself ahun-
deed times within the last three weeks
that he was sot in love. A man who
respected himself and regarded his
peace of mind did not fall in love with
ether men's wives, he told himseir em
phatically; yet all the while he was
emwcioaa that he was too keenly alive
to Mrs. Linton's attractions to be be
quite safe. They had met in the Ri
viera; happened to be staying in the
same hotel, neighbors at table d'hote,
and that sort of thing. No man with
eyss in his head could help seeing that
the piquant little dark woman with the
bear of a husband was more than
commonly pretty. The acquaintance
had ripened. Mrs. Linton had pretty
childish ways, and their conversation
had gradually passed from the common
place into the confidential; he knew
that she was a French Canadian,
brought up in the strictest seclusion
and married off hand as soon as she
had merged into long frocks to a man
eld enough to be her father, and who
she scarcely kne. Dick wtf very
sorry for her; the vivacious ana fascin
ating little brunette was a creature
made for "love and laughter,' and ill
mated with the stern, morose man
who apparently took the world, and
all that therein is, including his butter
fly of a wife, au grand serieuz. Tho
Listens were bound for London even
tually, where the husband intended to
winter, having business, he said
which required his presence there for
seme months; but on their way they
were taking in Paris, where, to please
Mrs. Linton, they were to make a
short stay.
"I'm awfully sorry you are going,"
Dick had sid when Mrs. Linton in
formed him of their approaching de
parture. "It will be so dull when you
axe gone.'
"Will it?" She raked her big eyes to
his face with a lock half -mischievous
half serious "There are heaps of other
people left, don'tyou know."
"But they won't be you," he had re
plied significantly.
Ko? Then why don't you come with
nsr
The remark had been thrown out
with a laugh; but, after all why not?
And so it was that Dick Redmayne
fsnnd himself travelling in the wake of
hhnLintons, installed with them in the
.Gcnad Hotel in Paris, and unpleasantly
conscious that if they decided tomorrow
to start for Kamschittka he would
probably pack his portmanteau and hie
him thither also. Nevertheless, he
stoutly declared to himself that he was
not in love with Trinette Linton, only
charitably anxious to amuse her and
lighten a little of the monotony of her
life with her bcre of a husband. To
night Trinette bad inadvertently re
marked that the desire of her heart was
to visit Le Cafe Ambaesadeurs to hear
the great Yvette on her native asphalt e
To broach such a, subject to Phillip
Linton waa impossible. Still, why
should not the little woman's curiosity
be gratified? It would be the simplest
thing in the world to take her there
where was the harm? and the poor
child would enjoy it as much as an es
caped schoolgirl delights in a surrept
itious novel.
For a couple of days, however, Phillir
Linton was constantly at his wife's side.
When she and Dick met in the evening
in the big salon she lookeed tired and
dispirited, and gave melancholy accounts
of mornings spent in museums and
afternoons in galleries, which she
frankly confessed toDickwere places she
loathed.
it was on the third day that, on going
to dress for dinner, he found a small
note on his dresaing.table:
"Dear Mr. Redmayne: Phillip has
gone to Kouen on business; he will iiot
be back till the morning. The museums
have have made me so wicked; don't
say you have an engagement this
evening. T. "L.
Never in his life had Redmayne
dressed at such a rate; iu less than
half an hour he was knocking at the
Linton' salon on the floor below.
Mrs. Linton herself opened it. She
blushed as she saw him standing there,
and drawback a little embarrased.
"Ive just got your note, and'
Ohr she interrupted hurridly, "I'm
afraid it was very silly; please forget all
about it"
"Not at all; it wis charming of you
to write it Now joBt get a cloak or
something, and we'll go straight off
somewhere and have dinner, and then
on to the Ambassadeurs."
The little woman was crimson to the
roots of her hair.
"I dare not."
"Why not? Aren't we friends? Don't
you trust me?"
"Oh, yes yes only"
"There is no only about it Run,
like a good girl, and put something on
your shoulders, and let us go,"
She hesitated a moment louger. Dick
argued in the most elder-brotherly
and prosaic fashion, and it ended of
course, in Trinette looking down at her
black gown deprecatingly, and saying:
But I can't go like this, and my maid
k out for the evening."
"You look charming in that Come
just as you are."
It was the busiest time of the evening
and no one was likely to notice the
black-gowned little figure, hei head
swathed in a filmy lace veil, walking so
demurely by Dick's side.
When they wereseated in the fiacre all
Trinette's spirits, checked a little by
the first shock of the escapade, returned
in full force. She laughed, and chatted
and talked delightful nonsense in the
way which made her special charm,
which Dick always likened to that of a
precocious and pretty child.
"Do you know that it's my birthday
today?" she remarked suddenly; "and
poor old Phillip gave me the loveliest
present. Just look!" and loosening the
lace about her head, she showed him
a lopg chain of perfectly shaped pearls,
interspersed here and there with dia
monds. It hung far down upon her
breast, and was wonderfully beautiful.
Dick's admiration was loud and gen
uine. It's exqukite!" he exclaimed,
"and it must have cost a lot of money."
He said to himself: "I shouldn't have
thought that solemn chap had it in him
to make such presents."
"Wasn't it sweet of him to give me
such a lovely thing!" And then -without
waiting for an answer, she glided of
again to some other subject.
It was a strange evening altogether
for Dick Redmayne the tete-a-tete
dinner, the concert at the Ambassadeurs
with Trinette's little gargles of
suppressed laughter, and small efforts
at being shocked; the snug supper
afterward, and then the discreet parting
on her etage, when he held her hand
"but as a friend might or only a secoad
longer" and felt the glance of her dark
eyes, trusting (and surely something
more?), as they rested on him during
that wbkpered "good night"
It was a unique experience, he told
himself, and only to be accounted for
by Trinette's naive innocence and child
like confidence. But it was no longer
any use reiterating to himself
that he was not in love with her; hk
assertion no longer carried conviction.
As he tossed to and fro he determin
ed that hk only safety and, perhaps
poor child! hers, too lay in prompt re
treat. He vould leave Park tomorrow
to go anywhere out of reach of her dark
eyes, her cooing voice, ber pretty, im
pulsive ways. At last he fell asleep,
only to dream sweet dreams which
turned to hideous nightmare
always by the sudden appearance of
Phillip Linton upon the scene.
Bis servant woke him on entering
with his letters. Dick turned them
over listlessly, when his eye wan caught
by an unstamped one. It was surely in
Trinette's handwriting; he tore it open
hastily:
"For pity's sake, come to me; come
to me; I am in dreadful trouble T,"
In trouble? Since last night? What
could have happened? Had Linton re
turned during their absence? As he
dressed hastily he cursed himself for his
selfish folly in having allowing Trinette's
innocence to lead her into such a sit
uation; for who was there in the
world who would believe the truth of
last night's doings?
She was sitting in her salon, in the
most picturesque of morning wrappers,
when he entered. She had been
weeping, evidently; but somehow it was
not unbecoming, and her dark eyes
looked all the sweetei. He was by her
side iu a moment.
"What has happened?" he asked
hurriedly. "My dear Mrs. Linton,
what is the trouble?"
"My pearls!" she gasped tragically,
''Mr. Redmayne. I have lost the pearls
that Phillip gave me yesterday! Ob,
what shall I what can J do?"
"But it's impossible! You had them
at the Ambassadeurp, I saw them"
"I know; I raksed them directly I be
gan to undress. I would have come to
you then, only it was no late, and I did
not dare.
"But you could only have dropped
them at tbesupper-placeor in the fiacre.
I will go to the Prefecture de Police.
They will turn up: don't cry, my poor
child."
"No they won't! I'm sure they won't;
and Phillip will never forgive me. He
will be angry. Oh, why did 1 go? It was
wicked"
Dick tried to soothe her, to reassure
her; the chain was too valuable for a
cabman or a waiter to dare to retain it;
it must be returned.
"What time does Mr. Linton return?"
"By the 1150. Ob, what shall I do?"
"Be a good child and eat some break
fast I'll run off to make inquiries, and
before you have finished your coffee the
peark shall be here."
Hk inquiries proved futile, as he
feared in his own mind they would.
Nothing had been seen,' nothing had
been found. There was-only one thing
possible to return to the 'hotel and
ascertain if Trinette knejr whence the
jewek had come, and try to procure
another chain at any cost
Fresh tears greeted the news of Dick's
failure, and there was really nothing
possible but to attempt to comfort her
as one would a child only, the child
was a woman.
"But we must not forget the pearls,'
he said at last. "You have no idea
where they came from the name was
not on the case?"
Trinette shook her head mournfully.
"Well I dare say I can get something
like them in the Rue de la Paix. Don't
worry, dearest; you shall have them in
an hour."
"And if 70U fail?'-'
"Bah! I shall not fail."
A few minutes later he was standing
in a jeweler's Bhop describing the sort
of thing he wanted. Yea, they had
something of the kind in stock. Dick
looked at it; the pearls seemed smaller
and the diamands farther apart, than
in the one Irinette had worn;but surely
he would find no Letter substitute, and
how was Linton to imagine it was any
other than the one he had given his
wife?
The price staggered Dick somewhat,
prepared as he had been for a long one
He wrote hk cheque, waited impatiently
during the necessray formalities, and at
last hurried back to the hotel. It was
pastl, despite hk haste, and Linton
would have returned?
Trinette met him on the landing, her
finger to her lips. He held out the case
in silence; she caught it from him
quickly.
At dinner the Lintons were not to be
seen. Dick was restless and uneasy,
and strolling into the ball chatted with
the concierge, slipping in a careless
question about his friends.
"The big Englishman and la petite
dame? They left by the afternoon ex
press for the south."
Dick gasped, and the conversation
"with the concierge came, to an abrupt
conclusion. For weeks he lingered on
at the Grand, hoping Trinette would
write and give some account of her
movements. But nothing came until
months afterward, when in the Paris
column of a London paper he read ofthe
arrest of a pair of clever swindlers with
many aliases, one of which was Linton.
The woman turned upon her accomplice
and gave details of several of their
most successful frauds, among which
figured the story of a palais Royal neck
chain, supposed to be lost, and replaced
by a valuable Rue de la Paix trinket
by an amorous and gullible Englishman
W.
Church Howe was In the city this
week.
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