ONFESSIONAL CLUB 90

X. FAUVETTE 103

XI. THE EVIL SPIRIT 111

XII. X K C 115

XIII. TERROR 128

XIV. POSSESSED 142

XV. DR. LEROY 149

XVI. IRRESPONSIBLE HANDS 161

XVII. THE HOUR OF THE DREAM 169

XVIII. PLAYING WITH FIRE 179

XIX. PRIDE 192

XX. THE MIRACLE 199

XXI. THE TRUTH ABOUT WOMEN THAT NOBODY TELLS 210

EPILOGUE 252

"_Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues
of life._"

PROVERBS, _Chapter IV, Verse 23_.

POSSESSED

(_June, 1914_)

SCARLET LIGHTS

This story presents the fulfillment of an extraordinary prophecy made
one night, suddenly and dramatically, at a gathering of New Yorkers,
brought together for hilarious purposes, including a little supper, in
the Washington Square apartment of Bobby Vallis--her full name was
Roberta. There were soft lights and low divans and the strumming of a
painted ukulele that sang its little twisted soul out under the caress
of Penelope's white fingers. I can still see the big black opal in its
quaint setting that had replaced her wedding ring and the yellow serpent
of pliant gold coiled on her thumb with two bright rubies for its eyes.
Penelope Wells! How little we realized what sinister forces were playing
about her that pleasant evening as we smoked and jested and sipped our
glasses, gazing from time to time up the broad vista of Fifth Avenue
with its lines of receding lights.

There had been an impromptu session of the Confessional Club during
which several men, notably a poet in velveteen jacket, had vouchsafed
sentimental or matrimonial revelations in the most approved Greenwich
Village style. And the ladies, unabashed, had discussed these things.

But not a word did Penelope Wells speak of her own matrimonial troubles,
which were known vaguely to most of us, although we had never met the
drunken brute of a husband who had made her life a torment. I can see
her now in profile against the open window, her eyes dark with their
slumberous fire