THX COttmiKl.
s
THE DEVIL DISMAYED.
(Continued From Last Week.)
He drove back to his rooms and found
a wire awaitiug him. Tearing Iho en
velope hurriedly he read half aloud:
. "My aunt baa rallied and wants to see
you. Come immediately. V."
' Gerald scrutinized the paper and found
it had been delivered early in tho even
irg. Vera must have been expecting
him for hours. He pulled out his watch
and found it was 5 o'clock. Ho would
tako a tub and go directly to tho sta
tion there might be an early train.
Two hours later he found himself
being driven along the country road that
led to tho house where Vera was stay
ing. In spite of his perturbed spirits he
was impressed by the beauty of the May
morning. He seldom caw nature at that
early hour, and tho sweetness of the
earth appealed to him. It was like
Vera fresh and fair and giving of her
wealth of treasure abundantly. Could
he go on and bring an ugly blot into her
life, he who loved her so dearly? For a
moment he wavered, then set his teeth
and drove on. He would make a clean
breast of it and go away, at least she
would see that he was not wholly with
out honor.
A few moments later he found him
self trembling as he waited for Vera in
the drawing room. In the solemn hush
he knew that the shadow of death hung
oyer the house.
She came in presently through a door
behind him, and he felt her arms about
his neck before he realized she was
there.
"Gerald! Gerald! How good it is to
see you!''
Ho drew her into his arms.
"Am I in time, dear?"
"I do not know; she has sunk again,
but the nurse will call me the moment
she is conscious. She took a sudden
notion that she wanted to see the man
I am going to marry. You know she is
queer, dear, and she has not been out of
the house or seen any one for many
months." She drew herself out of his
' arms and put her hands on his face to
look at him.
"Gerald!" she exclaimed, noting for
the first timo the drawn haggard ex
pression, "you are ill! What is it dear?
You should not have come!"
He held her hands fast in his and
looked at her steadily, the pain in his
eyes deepening until she grew dim be
fore him.
'I came, dear one, because you sent
for me, but I should have come anyway
as soon as you would let me, because
because dear" his voice faltered "a
man cannot be altogether cowardly who
loves you."
"Cowardly! You, Gerald! I do not
understand!"
"But I must make you, dear, though
it tears the heart out of me to give you
pain."
"You could not give me pain, dear
heart, only the greatest joy and happi
ness." Her eyes were like two great
tars shining into his troubled soul. He
put her into a chair and knelt down be
side her, putting his head in her lap
like a tired child.
"I love you, dear. Only you and I
know how much"
"And I love you best," she interrupted
kissing his bowed head and and bruih
ing back tho hair from his forehead
caressingly.
"It ought to make mo the strongest
man in the world, instead of the most
unworthy."
"Gerald! You shall not say such
things! Look at me, dear; something
dreadful has happened that makes you
morbid and unlike yourself. Tell me
.about it."
He lifted his head and took her hands
into his as though the touch of them
;grve him courage.
"Last night, sweetheart, when you
"Don't tell me now, dear, if it paint
you so."
"I wbb at the club," Gerald said, tight
ening his hold on her hands, "playing
hard and fast. Some demon possessed
me and seemed to be laughing with de
light at having captured me again. It
was my strongest passion. . Vera, until I
loved you; and after that I struggled
against it.sometimes succeeding, of tener
not, until a month ago, when I thought
I had routed the enemy. It was all
your wonderful influence, though you
did not know it, dear."
"Why did you not lot mc help you all
those weeks when you wero struggling,
Gerald?"
"Because I did not want to sadden
you, and I meant to mako a good hon
est fight and win. I made the fight,
dear, but I have lost everything."
"You moan that last night the temp
tation was too great, and you suc
cumed?" "More than that. I lost my hold on
myself, and gambled liko a man who
stakes his all. And I did stake mine
beforo the night was over. I am ruined,
Vera." He dropped her hands and got
upon his feet facing her the while.
"I have no right to touch you or kneel
at your feet craving sympathy. I have
no right to you do you understand,
Vera?" Ho spoke fiercely in his desire
to convince himself how utterly outside
and apart from him he had put her by
his folly.
The girl looked through the open
door out in the garden beyond. The
tall, old-fashioned flowers, heavy with
the dew, were nodding to her, but all
the color seemed to have gone out of
them.
"I do not seem to understand, Gerald,
dear," she said, quietly, though she
longed to cry out with the pain that was
consuming Lor. "Do you mean you
mean you have done a dishonorable
thing?"
"No, dear, except in so far as it affects
you and me; not from the world's point
of view. I have ruined myself in your
eyes and ruined myself financially.
There is not much else left to do," ho
added, despairingly.
The girl bhuddered and put out her
hand.
"Gerald, come here."
He dropped down beside her again.
She laid her hands on his shoulders.
"I loved you this morning, and yester
day and the day before that, and many
many days before that," she said slowly,
and her voico broke a little. "You
would not have me stop loving you all
at once?"
Gerald could not answer, and, as if
she understood, she went on: "The
man that I have been loving all this
wbile is here now, full of penitence. Do
you think I thought you beyond all
temptation? None of ub are. The good
and evil instincts are waging war in all
of us, dear; it is only a question of tem
perament and degree."
"Vera, how good you are," the man
said, huskily.
"Not good, dear, but understanding.
You have been fighting valiantly, but
you were taken off your guard, and it
is so easy to slip down! 30 very, very
easy!"
"Vera! You are pitying me!"
The girl took her hands from his
shoulders and brushed away the tears
that were filling her ees. In the hall
she could hear footsteps and rose to
meet the nurse at the door.
"Mrs. Bancroft is sleeping quietly. I
thought you might be getting anxious
about her."
"Thank you," the girl said, and came
into the room again.
Gerald was standing by the open win
dow, but he turned toward her and she
could see that the expression of his face
had changed; the lines were resolute.
Vera, darling, I have been trying to
think. This morning early I wss filled
with the blackness of despair. Then I
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