Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1922)

36 Photoplay Magazine been unable to drive the hatred of even the name of Wayne from his heart. Moonyeen . . . her last word to him had been a promise to come back. And. curiously enough, she had been able to keep her promise. For quite by chance, one night, John had taken the little marionette — the doll dressed as a "bride — into the garden. Sitting there, he had happened to hold it away from him. And by some trick of the moonlight its shadow had been enlarged and had fallen across the garden gate in a strangely life-like way. It might almost have been the silhouette of a living woman that he saw— the silhouette of his loved Moonyeen ! It was like finding her again. Softly he called her name — and it seemed as if she answered him. IT was in the summer of 1014 that war swept over England. And it was in that same summer that Kenneth Wayne came to the peaceful English village from which his father had fled. He came buoyantly, knowing nothing of the shadow that lay on his name. And Kathleen, who had never heard the story of her aunt's tragic death, met him. And, because youth attracts youth, she liked him very well indeed! It was in a rather unusual way that she met him. It was when her horse refused to cross a ford that he came to her aid. The first meeting might have been laid to fate, but it was Kathleen herself who arranged the second one. She it was who invited Kenneth to a bazaar at the town hall, whither she was bound. And it was there that Kenneth interrupted one of Willie Ainley's proposals — there that they laid the foundation of a friendship that was to ripen into something more. It was unfortunate that John Carteret should learn that the son of his old enemy was in town. And it was even more unfortunate that he should go to the town hall and find Kathleen dancing with Kenneth. All of his bitterness and hatred flared up as he took his niece quite unceremoniously away from her partner. She demanded an explanation, and he had only one answer to give. ''He's the son of his father — that's enough," he told her. And then he hurried her home. Kenneth Wayne was left alone with old Dr. Owen, who was also at the bazaar. In his amazement he spoke his thoughts aloud. "Whatever did my father do to him?" he queried blankly. Dr. Owen, who had been a silent and sympathetic spectator, answered. ''Whatever he did, you shouldn't be blamed for it!" he said kindly. Romance thrives on opposition. And so Kathleen and Staggering toward her, with wild eyes and a twisted mouth, he sneered with something of pathos in his broken voice : "No place tor the rejected suitor! Kenneth did not stop seeing each other. It was Dr. Owen who helped them — who carried notes and messages. He did it with no feeling of disloyalty to his old friend, for he believed that Kenneth should in no way be held responsible for the sins of his father. He was an old man and the past was only the past — to him. To John Carteret the past was everything. But — because it is hard for honest folk to carry on anything clandestine — it was not long before John Carteret discovered which way the wind was blowing. An intercepted note brought the affair to light. It was a note from Kenneth asking Kathleen to meet him, and it enraged the old man. It precipitated a quarrel between him and Owen. And Kathleen, by bringing them together again, was able to direct their attention from the matter of the letter. And so, for a short time, the affair was calmed down. But Kathleen, because she loved Kenneth, could not ignore the note's message. Instead she met him in the garden, as he had asked her to, and there learned from him that he had enlisted with Kitchener's army, and was going to Franco. War — and the partings that are made necessary by war — has precipitated many a love scene. Playfully — but deeply earnest, withal — Kathleen told Kenneth that she didn't believe he knew how to propose to a girl. And still playfully she began to give him instruction. It was while the lesson was in progress that John came into the garden. And it was then, with all the dignity his anger had left to him, that he sent Kenneth away. Even Kathleen's plea that her lover was going to the front did not move the irate old man. He would not even let her say goodbye. And he utterly ignored Kenneth's statement that: "I'm coming back — war or no war. And Kathleen and I are going to be married — with your consent or without it!" It was that evening that John told Kathleen — in Dr. Owen's presence — of her aunt's death and of Jeremiah Wayne's part in it. He told it brokenly — but he spared no detail, though it was like turning a sword in an old wound to tell. And Kathleen listened — with incredulity and horror. He told it to the very end, to Moonyeen's assurance that she would come back. And then, after a moment of hesitation, he went on: "At first I thought that I couldn't bear it," he said, "and then one night as I sat with this toy of hers — " he held up the dainty little marionette, "the moonlight struck the shadow of it on the gate, and she came back to me!" For a moment after he had finished Kathleen and Dr. Owen were silent. And then Kathleen spoke. "If you can love like that" (Continued on page 114)