Photoplay (May 1921)

38 Photoplay Magazine "But not for yourself?" sharply. "Good Heavens, Julie, have you no ambition? And Dick! Think of the prestige it will give him as hu grows up." "Yes," she hastened to admit. "It means a great deal to Dick, and I am proud of your ability. You know that. And I want to help you, but there seems so little the wife of a statesman can do for him. You know, Hubert, I'm not the advanced type of woman." "No. You're the kind who should have married a man on a farm or in the woods, and settled down in a cabin. You'd have a fire on the hearth, a geranium in the window, and the supper table always ready when he came in," he chuckled, not illnaturedly. Her head dropped so quickly that he did not see the swift anguish spring to her e^'es, and he went on, imperativeK', yet with a certain note of entreat\'. "Lord Stanhope, of the Foreign Office, has arrived in tht city. He is here for the e-Xjiress purpose of recommending for appointment the man best fitted to act as governor-general. I have asked him to spend this weclc-cnd with us He will come tomorrow evening. I want the best people of the city here to welcome him and everything must be perfect! Saturday we will have an all-day hunting party and I wish you to go with us. and to be your most charming self. That is all. He will leave the following morning — with his mind made up to give me the appointment, I hope. You can help me tremendously, if you will. Julie. You see that.''" "Of course I do." The type of woman who finds her hajipiness in .service, she was eagerly sympathetic now, thrilled with the thought of doing something to help. Smiling, she rose: "I'll go at once and begin writing notes of im itation. You must send me in a list. It would be dreadful to forget an important .somebody. Then I'll begin to plan the decorations and the food, and have a suite made ready for his Lordship. Oh, there's a great deal to do, but you needn't worry. Put your mind on your man-sized problems and leave the hos])italily business to me!" All that day, and the next, Julie was busy with preparations for the great event. The honor and the glory of Lord Stanhope's visit meant nothing to her, but to be trusted and used by her husband to lurther his ambitions meant much. Y'et a keen student of human nature watching her would have seen that she worked as a woman who strove to atone and ap])ease rather than as one who exults in a service of love. When eight o'clock came and Julie stood beside her husband • — very lovely in a gown of silver tissue, with a single, perfect string of pearls — he glanced down at her with rarely appreciative eyes. "You, and the house, are perfect !" he declared. "Beautiful, simple, yet dignified. Nothing overdone. And everyone who should be here is here! I thank you, Julie!" Before she could answer there was a stir at the door, a parting of the uniformed guards, a little ripple of applause, and the great man, in a circle of his aides, was taking the few steps necessary to bring him within reach of his host's outstretched hand. He broke face wliK A few Steps — a few seconds of time. Yet in the brief interval Julie Randolph had become a frozen, staring ghost of a woman. Another second and Lord Stanhope was a dumb, immovable spectre of a man, gazing down at her, with her hand in his. The guests in the immediate vicinity crowded nearer, with a crowd's instinct for scenting a mystery. Hubert Randolph, puzzled and half affronted, spoke with a crisp incisiveness under his smiling courtesy. "Is it possible that you two have met before?" Lord .Stanhope came back, with a visible wrench, to the exigencies of the occasion. "No," he said, "but the lady greatl}' resembles someone I knew years ago. I am sorry that I startled you with my foolishness, Mrs. Randolph." \\'anl>-, she smiled up at him and joined in the conversation. The tension relaxed, the dancing began, and Julie was in Lord .Stanhope's arms, waltzing to an old English air, whik Hubert Randolph, watching their perfect step, the whitcne.ss of Julie's face against Lord Stanhope's shoulder, frowned and wondered and liided his time. It was three o'clock in the morning when the last guest dei)arted. Ten minutes later Hubert Randolph tapped at the door of his wife's rooms. She admitted him. silently, and stood, white and tense, waiting for him to speak. "Now that we are alone," he began slowly, "suppose you tell me just what was the' cause of your agitation — and Lord .Stanhope's. It may be useful to me to know." "Hubert," she said, j coming close to him and laying a trembling hand on his arm, "the thing of which you ask is dead — and buried. I have been a faithful wife to v'ou. I beg you to let the w hole matter drop." ".So-o.''" he meditated, studving her quivering face. "It is deeper than I had imagined. No, you nuist tell me. And in order to be per-' fectly fair, let me tell you that I saw, from the balconv', that little meeting with his Lordship, by the fountain. Oh, you were discreet. It was short, and it was quite evident that vou sent him about his business. But I must know, or how can I handle liini and make sure of the appointment?" "You care more for your own ambitions than jou ever did for me," she flamed suddenly. "Well, work out vour schemes, but I shall tell you nothing." "Then he will," Randoljjh said, and started for the door. Innncdiateh', she was before him, hands outstretched to bar the way, her whole frame a-quiver with fear. "You mustn't!" she sobbed. "I can't bear it' I'll tell you myself, Hubert. You will see that it was not my fault." "Now you're reasonable," he apjiroved. "Come, sit down. May I stnoke? There, there, take your time. I know you're the soul of honor." She winced at the words, but found her voice and began "You know how you found me that night, half dead in tht snow. I told you I had started to apply for the school at Little Beaver, when the storm overtook me. That was true. What I did )iot tell you was that I was going there because I had beer deceived, betrayed by an Englishman {Continued on page 106, off suddenly and tent forward, peering into Ker K went dead white under his pitiless scrutiny.