The Mask | Page 3

man to you? He's your fencing master, I know, but that's no reason for making a friend of him. I never understood why you associated with him. He is so different to you."
Her husband smiled. He adored his wife and admired the sex in general, but, like most men, he had never had much respect for women's judgment. Women were made to be loved; not to discuss business with. Indulgently he said:
"My dear, you don't understand. I have important financial relations with Keralio. I don't care for him myself, but one can't choose one's business associates. He and I are interested in a silver mine in Mexico. Thanks to him, I got in on the ground floor. One of these days the investment will bring me a big return."
His wife shrugged her shoulders. Incredulously she retorted:
"Not if Keralio has anything to do with it. I don't trust him. He has deceit and evil written all over his face."
Amused at her petulance, Kenneth jumped up impulsively and took his wife in his arms.
Abandoning herself willingly to his embrace, for a moment her head fell back on his broad shoulder, and she smiled up at him. From her soft, yielding form arose that subtle, familiar perfume, the intoxicating, vague, indefinable aroma of the well groomed woman that never fails to set a man's blood on fire. Bending low until his mouth touched hers, he kissed her until her face glowed under the ardor of his amative caress. But to-day she was not in the mood to respond.
"Don't--don't!" she panted, striving to free herself.
"Admit that you're foolish or I'll do it again," he laughed.
"Perhaps I am. It's selfish of me to make it harder for you to go away."
The butler re?ntered the room with the finger bowls, and she quickly disengaged herself. To hide her confusion, she turned to the servant:
"Did my sister go out, Robert?"
"Yes, m'm," replied the man respectfully. "Miss Ray told me to tell you in case you asked that she had gone shopping and would be back soon."
"Where's Miss Dorothy?"
"The fraulein took her to the park, m'm."
"When fraulein comes in, tell her to bring Dorothy upstairs."
"Very well, m'm."
The butler went out and Helen turned to her husband. Anxiously she said:
"I've been a little worried about Dorothy lately. She's not looking well. I think she needs the country."
Kenneth looked up quickly. Next to his wife he loved his flaxen haired little girl better than anything in the world. There was a worried look on his face as he asked:
"What does the doctor say?"
"Oh, it's nothing to be alarmed at. Only she's growing fast, and needs all the air possible. I'm thinking of sending her to Aunt Carrie for a while. You know she has a beautiful place in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She would be out in the air all the time."
"Yes--that's a good idea. Send her there by all means. Write your aunt to-night."
Helen glanced at the clock. There wasn't any time to lose. Turning to her husband she said quickly:
"You had better come upstairs and finish your packing, dear. Your trunks aren't nearly ready and the expressman was ordered for three."
Recalled thus abruptly to the day's duties, he turned docily and followed her upstairs.
Beautiful as was the Traynor home below, it was in the library in the second floor that Helen always felt happiest and most at ease. Up the broad, thickly carpeted stairs and turning to the right as the landing was reached, they entered the library, a room of truly noble proportions extending the entire width of the house and with deep recessed windows and low seats, overlooking the park. The furnishings, though simple, were rich and luxurious. The woodwork was of black Flemish oak, the ceiling beamed with a dull red background. The upholstery was a rich red plush throughout, with deep seated armchairs, and sofas built close to the wall wherever space permitted. In the corners, numerous electric reading lamps could be turned on or off at pleasure, constituting ideal nooks for reading. The furniture, apart from the red plush armchairs, was of black Flemish oak to match the woodwork, with an immense richly carved black oak dark table in the center of the room, lighted by an electrolier of similar size and design to the one in the dining-room.
It was in this room with its atmosphere of books so conducive to peace and introspection that Helen loved to spend her spare time. The walls were literally lined with tomes, dealing with every branch of human knowledge--religion, science, philosophy, literature. Here when alone she enjoyed many an intellectual treat, browsing among the world's treasures of the mind. Even when her sister had a few intimates to tea, or when friends dropped in in the evening, they always preferred being in the library to anywhere