Reel Life (Sep 1913 - Mar 1914)

9 I' rnrc! Adapted from the Thanhouser Play By CLARA E. POST. Thanhoitser OFT music and the breath of flowers filled the house. The ^1 figure of a girl in shimmering white, a filmy veil floating about her slender figui-e, running lightly up the long stairway and pausing, a dazzling vision at the top — a final picture which the guests at the wedding of Elaine Grey and Count Nicolo Vassalli never forgot. The slender girl, her delicate face, flushed with 'bright color, framed in the mist of her wedding veil — her eyes shining and her lips parted in a radiant smile — leaned far over the ballustrade to throw her bouquet down to the girls among the guests. Then she turned to place her hand in that of her husband — a tall, olive skinned Italian nobleman whose black hair and dark eyes beneath their overhanging brows were in sharp contrast to the blonde beauty of his bride. "Such a perfect wedding!" murmured a woman to the bride's mother and her opinion was echoed by the other guests. No one seemed to notice a tall, young man with clear cut features who turned away and stepped out of the long French window at the further end of the room to a vine covered porch where he was alone. He drew deep breaths of the cool night air and gripped the low railing as if to steady himself. Then, feeling a hand on his arm, he turned to face his senior partner. Colonel Grey — the bride's father. "I know, my boy — I know ; I've known you cared for Elaine ever since that day when I found you looking at her picture on my office desk." "But I've never spoken of it to any one. I knew she loved Vassali and I swore I wouldn't betray my feelings." "No one knows but myself, I .think," said the father. "I hoped that Elaine would grow to love you — I never had a son — but you're as near to me as if you actually were one." "Well — it's all over now. She loves the Count and is happy." "I hope to God she does love him, that it isn't merely a marriage for a title! Aly wife is an ambitious woman and Elaine is only a child. There ! You have my confidence Dick — as I have your yours !" The two men clasped hands silently, then turned and reentered the bright, flower-scen:ed room. Eight months after that memorable evening, Lawrence found the colonel in his private office, one rhorning, reading a letter with a Sicilian postmark. Such letters had been frequent since Elaine Vassali had gone to preside over her husband's ancestral cas le in Sicily, but Lawrence had never discussed her affairs with her father since the night of the wedding, so that he was startled when Col. Grey said : "Dick, I'm worried abort my little girl! For months she has never written to me without asking for money and I've sent it, but now I'm suspicious. These letters don't sound like hers. I can't get rid of the idea that they're net — that they're clever forgeries. I'm haunted by the fear that Elaine is suffering — that she's the victim of some fraud — that she's in great trouble. I can't shake off the impression. It grows stronger. I can't go abroad myself just now. Would you be willing to investigate ma ters over there — for her sake as well as mine?'' Lawrence nodded — and set abort making his preparations — the next morning found him sailing for Sicily. The voyage seemed to him like an ugly dream, but he finally reached the vicinity of Castello Vassali. Cautious inquiries at the American Consulate in Catania decided him upon what seemed the only feasible procedure. As an importer, he had acquired a fair amount of colloquial Italian — and with his smoothly shaven face covered with a black beard, he finally gained access to the castle grounds with the first plausible excuse he could think up. Standing near one of the ground floor