Pictures and the Picturegoer (April - September 1915)

PICTURES AND THE PICTUREGOER 208 Week ending JCne to. 1915. Illllilllllllllllllll!llllllllll!llillllll!l!!illll!llllllilllllll!llilllllllllllllllllillllllllin ■ Tk Adapted from the Essanay Film by IVAN PATRICK GORE. Jlilllllllll]] P\A\ID. whatever is the matter? \_J For the lasl ten minutes yon have not been paying the slightest attention to what I've been saying." VVrilli a violent start David Fleming tore his eyes away from tin curtained doorway through which came the sounds ol music and the merry laughter of his sweetheart's birthday guests. I 1 eg your pardon, Lalia." he stam1 mered, avoiding her eyes. " E'm all right." At the expression on his handsome tact', which had suddenly become drawn and haggard, her petulance at his inattention gave place to alarm. " David, dear, won't you tell me what makes you so nervous to-night ? " "Nervous!'' he tried to laugh; hut the sound only increased Lalia's fear — " absurd yo.i are fancifulmy clear. I ," he sprang to his feet and laid a hand that trembled violently upon her shoulder. " 1 must go home, dearest. Oli. I'll come hack, but there's something something I've forgotten." Ignoring her protestations and entreaties,he hurried through the laughing' crowd, and, snatching his coat and hat from the hands of a manservant, left the house. Once in the cold night air, a feeling of faintness swept over him and lie clung to the railings for support ; t Inn. pulling himself together, he stag-. <>ered rather than walked in the direction of the home he shared with his widowed mother. " I must do it," he moaned from between his clenched teeth, " I must or I shall go mad." The Taint of Heredity. Arriving at the house, he came face to face with his mother. " Why. Dflvid, boy ! " she exclaimed in surprise. •' whatever brings you home so early ? " " Nothing much, dear," he answered, trying to speak calmly; "I forgot something, that is all. I thought you'd have been in bed hours ago. I must hurry up and return. You see, I promised Lalia I'd be back as soon as possible. Don't sit up for me, dearest."' Turning abruptly away, he left the room and ran swiftly up the stairs. The anxious expression on her face grew a> she listened to his steps; then with a whispered prayer upon her lips she crept softly after him. Once in the privacy of his own room David hastily flung off his great-coat. "'Just for a moment." he muttered. " 1 feared that she suspected. Poor lit t If mother, she must never know, for if she did I fear the knowledge would break her heart." Crossing the room, he drew aside a heavy picture and revealed the metal door of a small circular safe skilfully let into the wall. Opening it hastily, he drew forth a small case and. almost bugging if in his trembling grasp. turned to the table; then, having procured a glass of water, he opened the case and sat for several moments gazing lovingly at its contents, " There you arc. mj beaut] ." he mur ■11 niuied. moistening his dry lip-, "and to think that some people corse you and look upon those who worship at your altar as being next door to criminals. Ah. but they are fools; poor fools who know nothing of the joy you have the power of bringing to the faithful." Taking up a small phial he dropped one of the tiny pellets it contained into the water, then, seizing the small, beautifully made hypodermic syringe, filled it and bared his wrist. Slowly, as though seeking to find a double pleasure in delaying the supreme moment, he pressed the needle into his flesh : then lie felt his hand seized and. with a cry, he staggered to his feet. " Mother ! mother '. " "' Merciful heaven." she sobbed. " so it has come to this! No. David, you shall not ; yon shall not. I say ! " Firmly grasping his hand, she drew it away from the deadly syringe which in the first shock of his surprise he had flung upon the table ; then, as he broke down utterly and sobbed like a child. she wrapped her arms around him. "I tell you, mother," he answered hoarsely. " 1 cannot live without it. It is life itself to me." " You must fight against it. dear." she said, " tight hard before it is too late for you to escape the fate that was your poor father's." David looked at her with horrorstricken eyes. " My father's ? " -i Yes, dear,'" his mother answered. " Oh, boy. boy ! All my life I've tried to keep you from learning the truth about his end. He contracted the habit before you were born. At first iusecret, for, when the craving was not on him he was bitterly ashamed of his weakness : but as the Mend's power grew he cared not who knew or to what device he sank so long as he could get the drug, until at last he was hopele--ly ruined both body and soul."' As she spoke memory conjured up a vision of the man who years before had sat where their only son was now sitting. Again she saw him foaming at the mouth. heard him gibbering inarticulately as he pleaded with his attendants for just cue dose more, to be left alone to add another link to the chain that daily. hourly was dragging him slowly to destruction and the grave. "David." she whispered, placing her cool hand upon his fevered brow ." you must be strong, you must light and pray every clay and night lest his awful fate be yours, (lo to Lalia and tell her the truth."' "Lalia!" he gasped, "I dare not mother. You know not what you ask !" "You must; it is your duty, however hard. Tell her all. and. please heaven. the love '^' the two women who would give their lives to make you happy will help you to defeat the liend that has you in his power. Go now. boy. 1 will wait here for your return." Slowly l)a\id luniol on his heel and left the room, while, with a whispered --. prayer upon her lips, his mother s;1nk into the chair he had vacated. When David arrived back at Lalia's horn her guests were on the point of taking their departure. One of them Stamford Black smiled evilly as he turned f where he stood at Lalia's side. "Ku'lxa. Fleming, old man!" he exclaimed, hoping that the heartiu — he managed to throw into hi illd help to hide the hate that he ki shining in his eyes. " wherever have . b?en! We'd almost come to the exclusion that you'd given us the slip, hadh't we. Lalia ? " David winced at the familiar .,his sweetheart's name. " Indeed." he answered curtly. '" M Feutou knew that I would return."' Then he deliberately turned his hi shoulders on the other man. "Lalia, dear. I must speak to you at once." As she took his arm and they passed out of the room Black's dark eyes followed them. " Like father, like sou,"he muttered: *" I really begin lo think there i something in heredity after ail. If there is—well. Master David wont stand in my way much longer. ■ Curse him Exiled for Love's Dear Sake. Meanwhile, in a shaded alcove, Lalia faced her lover, noting with a heavy heart the white tenseness , ,f his fee ! and the trouble in the eye which usually. for her. held nothing but smiles. "David, dear." sh "do tell me what is wrong. Trust me, dear. and. remember. I have a right to know." ■• Y'es. you have a right to know," he answered hoarsely, "and 1 promised my mother that before the night was von should." " What is it! You are frightening me, dear." Slowly he pulled back the plee his coat and pointed to the tiny punctures on his wrist. "That." " That ? " " Y'es. that is why I left you to-nighl why times innumerable 1 have to leave the office, the theatre, anywhere 1 am or anything I may be doing, and hurry home. That is' the dread seerel thai threatens our happiness, and will most surely destroy it unless you will help me to b ! strong." Then into the girl's horrified ears he poured the story of his shame until as the true significance of lhs haltingworda dawned on her she shrank back with a heartbroken cry. " Don't Lalia. don't." he pleaded brokenly; "for God's sake. don't desert me now. Don't take back the priceless gift your dear love has made me master of: don't turn away from me with loathing and disgust. I want your love, the strength it gives me. more than ever now for. without it. nothing on earth can save me from this hideous thing that has me safely chained." In a second her arms wen round his neck, her tear-dimmed eyes looking into his own. " Forgive me. dear, " she win