The Equinox (Volume I, Number VII)

THE EQUINOX \Vith fumbling fingers that trembled with excitement he withdrew the photograph from its leaf and half showed it to the proprietor with a whispered " Comby—ang ? " "Trente sous," said the shopman in his most rapid French. And in English, “We take English money here, sir; ten shillings, if you please. May I wrap it up for you?" But Bugg had thrust it into his inner pocket, and, pressing a sovereign into the man‘s hand, dashed without looking behind him from the shop, eager to put time and space between himself and his compromising position. He hurried to his hotel, not without many a suspicious glance over his shoulder, and packed his bag. He had ten minutes to spare. He locked the door carefully, sat down with his back to the light, and pulling the photograph from his pocket, indulged in a long voluptuous gloat. Then the boots knocked with the news of his cab, and Bugg, nobler than Lord Howard of Effingham, thrust his treasure into his pocket, unlocked the door and cried “Venny!” II. Theodore Bugg, 3 year later, was paying the price of his fall. He had allowed Gertrude to attend Art Classes, although he knew it to be wrong. But he had grown to fear his daughter, and—on such a point especially—he was incapable of fighting her. For there were times when he tried to persuade himself that there was ”nothing wrong in it. ” A brother church- warden had looked a little askance when the news of Gertrude’s “advanced ideas " had come; but Theodore had 54