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f i 11111 'anuria a r-fHnr irii imnrin 1M1 He nodded. "She left this morn ing." There was c pause. The girl played idly with her parasol. Then "You have been married two years, Will?" she asked. "Yes. And you about the same length of time. Oh, my dear, if we had known how much'we cared for each other!" "Care," said the girl, turning to him. "Will, I will confess that I care for you more than for any man on earth. I would ask nothing dearer than to spend the rest of my days with you?" "And your husband?" "Oh, he is absorbed in his affairs. He is a man of millions what is the love of a wife to him?" "And my wife," answered Dunham, "is shallow, worldly and emotion less." ''Will! What are you saying?" "I should not have said that," he admitted penitently. "I would not have said it to anybody but you. But to think that we have two clear days together! Where are you staying? At the St Regis?" "Yes." "I am there, too. I went there in the hope that you would be there. Did you have any trouble in getting away?" "Not a particle," replied the girl, with a trace of bitterness in her tone. "I told my husband that I was going away for three days. He said noth ing, except to ask me how much I re quired. That is like him; he meas ures everything in terms of money." "Well, money's a pretty good thing to have," said Dunham- "And .now, dearest, I have a proposal to make. Since this meeting is to be a remind er of the days before we were mar ried, let us forget that we we owe anything to others, and bevengaged again, as we used to be." "But it's so so horribly senti mental, WilL" "But isn't that what we came here for?" "Yes," she agreed. She placed her arms around his neck. "Oh, Will, if ' only if we had. never married others, I mean!" The two days passed like a happy dream. They spent the whole time together, at the hotel, on the board--walk, at the places of amusement They boated together, swam, joined in the crowd of merrymakers. But as the third evening approached the shadow of the past seemed to fall across them. They were silent as they sat td gether by the sea that night "Tomorrow it all ends, Will," sigh ed the girL "Yes," he answered. "Tomorrow we go back, I to my wife " "And I to my husband. Oh, Will, if we could spend three days together like this ever year!" - Another silence. Then "Will, did you mean it when you said that your wife is shallow, world ly and emotionless?" "No," he confessed. "I love her for what she is. I want to devote my life fo her, to try to make Her happy. But you is your husband really a man absorbed in his business interests? Doesn't he care for you? How could he help caring?" "He cares," the girl admitted. "I was speaking falsely, dear. He loves me. And so, we have our duties to ward these two." "Yes,-" he agreed. The last few minutes were gone. They rose and sauntered back toward the hotel. In the shadows of the en trance, where nobody was, they ex changed a swift and furtive embrace. "I shall not see you before you go?" she asked. "No, dear. I think that would be best We must take up our lives again with these memories to sweet en them, and without the pain of a newjarting." "You are right, Will, she answer ed. "Good-night, dear," she whisper ed softly. The next morning Will Dunham jMa&lfo&rii -vl. t4-Mrt4-lftilfci