Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1916)

The Glory Road 113 not quite reached it, because his aspiration rested on emotion rather than on unshakable inner conviction. He had achieved a loftv eminence but did not stand upon a rock. Now he turned his eves below, and, as he saw the old tormenting picture of life without her, barren, useless, futile, the earth began to slip beneath his feet. He could not endure that picture, and he groaned in the pain and bitterness of its thought. "Oh, 1 can't, I can't." he said. "I must have her." Then with the first relaxation, all his old doubts and disbeliefs and gross materialism rushed up to complete his overthrow. Normally Holt nursed a contempt for mankind, and a belief that humanity in the last analysis serves its personal ends first — that all action is based on the desire to avoid pain or discomfort, whether of bodv, mind or spirit. This conviction returned to him now, and changed his high conception of June's sacrifice into disparagement anil suspicion. He impugned the motive of her act. and denounced her loyalty to Paul as false. "She's sticking to him not for the sake of his happiness, but for her own, because it will quiet her conscience and bring her peace," he told himself. "It'll make her more uncomfortable to love me than to keep her word to him, though she must know that she was a fool to give her word to him in the first place. She's like everybody else, selfish, and doing what will be easiest for herself in the end. "She refuses to free herself, then why should I give her up ? I won't give her up. She loves me, and by that right she's mine. What her decision will be tonight I don't know, but whatever it is, I'm going to have her. . . ." The glow that had surrounded and illumed him, half revealing exalted vistas of beauty and nobility, had faded now to a faint dusk. It disappeared. The innumerable pre-causes of his life had wrought their inevitable effect. XXII A T a quarter to eight that night June ^*" hung on a rusty nail in the kitchen wainscoting the towel with which she had been drying the dishes, and untying her apron hooked it over a similar nail behind the door. Elaine, who was "washing," looked at her reproachfully. "Oh. gOSh, June, you've hurried so, and now you're through! You always beat me whether I wash or wipe I Look at thai 'SgttSting skillet I've got yet!" June teasingly informed her that she must look to lack of practice as tin reason for her lack of speed, and left the kitchen. In her own room she slipped quickly out of her "bungalow set" and put on the dress she had laid across the bed, a suit of thin soft silk, canary yellow in color, made with a short, full skirt and belted jacket. Sin completed the costume with a wide, very soft Panama hat, and a warm silk sweatercoat of rich blue as a protection against the cool of the July evening. In five minutes she was ready, and without hesitation walked through the dining room and into the living room where Elsie sat reading. The latter glanced up and at sight of June's street dress looked her surprise. "What's the big idea, darling? Don't you remember some of the crowd are coming tonight?" June pushed shut the door leading into the dining room. "I'm going to the studio for a few minutes," she said, evenly, "but I won't be gone long." "The studio!" June felt the swift suspicion. "What for at this time of night? You're not working." "I'm going to see Mr. Holt," she replied frankly, realizing the futility of deception. "It's about the new picture." Which was only too true. "I'll be back in a few minutes." "Why can't he come here and talk about it like he's always done?" "Because it's something that has to be settled tonight, and of course with people here he wouldn't talk business." These subterfuges angered Elsie. "Why has it got to be decided tonight?" she demanded. "I didn't know there was any such rush." "Well, there is, dear." June turned away. "Good-bye, I won't be long." Elsie knew now that her recent fears were only too well grounded ; she felt that tonight would see some crisis. Suddenly she stood up. "It's such a grand night, do you mind if I just get my hat and coat and stroll