Picture Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY light had a lady fair — it was the ought of her faith in him that kept m from turning aside in the face of jmger, from the accomplishment of the ission he had set himself. He bore her ken, when he rode forth — will you ve me yours?" In the tenseness of the moment, :ither was aware that the door across e drawing-room behind them had nened. George Allerton, Lucy's other, stood on the threshold. His outh hung loosely open, while his eyes man on the threshold of the room had turned to go out again, and, in doing so, he had stumbled awkwardly against the door. The girl looked over her shoulder, and her face clouded with quick anxiety : "George! What has happened?" With a little gesture of apology, she crossed the room to her brother's side. Alec, watching, saw her draw back from the boy — he was scarcely more than that — with a gasp of reproach. "That's a lie," he informed George with deadly calm, "you were the one \" ared in glassy fixity out of an ashen ice, and he put forth a hand and utched the open doorway beside him nsteadily. "I have loved you always," the tall, ronzed man before the fireplace was oing on, folding the girl's other hand i his, as she allowed him to do withut protest. ''Long before I ever met ju, I was in love with the kind of oman you are. That is why my life lias hitherto been free of 'love affairs' [-1 was waiting for you. It is for you Ip tell me whether I have waited in ain. In these months that we have mown each other, have you come to ;ire for me, Lucy — just a little?" Aware of the nature of the scene jpon which he had intruded, the young "Oh, you've been drinking again!" he heard her say under her breath. George lifted one wavering hand and passed it over his brow. He made two ineffectual efforts to speak before he could get the words out. ''C-come into the library, Lucy," he stammered thickly. "I — I've got something to tell you." She looked around at the man she had left before the fireplace. He had considerately turned his back, having seen enough to know the condition her brother was in. The girl retraced her steps to his side, her eyes lowered in embarrassment. "My brother," she murmured, "is — is ill. If you will excuse me for a moment? I want you to wait." Then, returning to the pale, wild-eyed youth on the threshold, she followed him from the drawing-room into the. library across the hall. There George dropped weakly into a chair. He and his sister were all that were left of a noble English family — but there was nothing of nobility now in the young man's attitude of hopeless dejection, as he sat with his head bowed on his shaking hands. "You promised me you wouldn't touch a drop again !" his sister began almost sharply., "I know I did,*' groaned George. "I've broken my pledge to you. B-but that's not the worst. I promised Lord Thorne, too, I'd cut out drinking. He — he threatened to dismiss me from my post as undersecretary to him in the colonial office, if I turn up intoxicated again. I — I don't know how it happened this time, Lucy. Ton my honor. I don't! I took one drink before lunch at the club, and — and then another. I must have had a good many after that. For when I waked up in the club reading room it was after four o'clock. And — and the papers were gone." "What papers?" she asked in quick dread. "The — the documents that Lord Thorne had sent me out to deliver to the war office. I had to go back to him and report that they were gone. He — he saw the condition I was in. And I've been dismissed' in disgrace. As an old friend of my father's, he said he would give me forty-eight hours to get out of England, instead of placing me under arrest as a traitor to my country. Yes — the papers were as important as that. If a certain foreign power has got hold of them " "Oh, George, why did you do it?" she cried despairingly. "Because I'm a poor weakling, I suppose !" he confessed bitterly. "I couldn't let drink alone — and now I'm done for. I'm done for, I tell you ! I've got to clear out, within two days. Where shall I go, Lucy? Can you tell me that?" The girl lifted her head, the light of a sudden idea in her eyes. "Yes, I think I can tell you that," she answered firmly. "Wait here till I re^ turn. I may be able to arrange it — I will ask him." She reentered the drawing-room. Alec McKensie rose from the chair before the fireplace, as he heard her foot