Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1869-06-16

remember and shudder at that fact.
Seeing the watched couple seat themselves
on a small sofa in one corner of the room, she
glided to an ottoman near them, in time to
hear Mrs Blondelle say:
No, Lyon, your wife is not my friend
she is my deadly enemy. She isfercely jeal-
Gus of your affection for me, though it is the
only happiness of my unhappy life And she
will make you throw me off yet
Never no one, not even my wife, shall
ever do that swear it by all my hopes Of"
Sybil glided away. She could bear no
more.
Supper time drawing near, when all the
guests would have to unmask, Sybil and
Beatrix re- exchanged costumes, and went
down to the drawing-room together just as
the last quadrille was completed, and the
company began to march to the supper-room.
As each couple passed into the supper-room,
they took off their masks, and handed them
to attendants, placed for that purpose to the
right and left of the door. Thus, when the
company filled the room, every face was
shown, but 60 Death was nowhere to be seen,
At last the party broke up, Only few OF
the guests remained all night These were
shown to their rooms. and the others having
gone. as fate would have it, Mrs. Blondelle
went into the little reception parlor to meet
Mr.. Berners, who assured her that thence
forth he could never extend to her more than
n brothers affection.
"Then give me n brother kiss she sighed.
"That is not much to ask, and have no one
to kiss me now So give me q brothers kiss,
and let me GO" she pleaded, plaintively.
He hesitated for a moment, and then bend
ing over her, he said:
&c 1t is the first, and for your own sake it
must be the last, Rosap and he pressed his
lips to hers
1t was the last as we'll as the first for at
the meeting of their lips they were stricken
asunder as by the fall of thunderbolt!
And Sybil, blazing with wrath, like spirit
from the Lake of Fire, stood between them /
She looked not human-with her whole
face and form heaving, palpitating, flashing
forth the lightnings of anger!
struck, appalled,.
She waved her hand towards him, as if to
implore or command silence.
81 have nothing to say to you" she NUT
cred, in low and husky tones, as if ashes
were in her throat. But to you!' she said,
and her voice rose clear and strong as she
turned and stretched out her arm towards
Rosa, who was leaning in alright against the
wall" to you, traitress who has come be-
tween the true husband and his wife-in the
morning you must leave the house you have
desecrated for if you do not, or if ever find
your false face here again, | will tread down
and crush out life with less remorse than
ever set heel upon spider! will, as am
Berners! And now, BECOME and never let
me see your form again
Rosa Blondelle, who had stood spell-bound
by the terrible gaze and overwhelming words
Of Sybil, the wronged wife, now suddenly
threw up her hands, and with low cry fled
from the room.
And Sybil dropped her arm and her voice
at the same instant, and stood dumb and
motionless.
And now, at length, Lyon Berners spoke
again.
"Sybil!" he said. " this house is yours !
You must do as you please. But this l tell
you that in the same hour which sees that
poor and friendless young creature driven
from the shelter of this roof, l leave it too,
and leave it for ever!"
If Lyon Berners really meant this, or
thought to bring his fiery hearted wife to
terms by the threat, he was mistaken in her
character.
ooh, go!' she answered, bitterly" go as
soon as you like, Lyon Berners. Goodnight,
goodbye" she said, and with wave
of her hand she passed from the room.
He was mad to have spoken as he did !;
madden still to let her leave him so! how
mad, he was soon to learn
Lyon Berners remained walking up and
down the room some time longer. The
lights were all out, and the servants gone to
bed Yet still he continued to pace up and
down the parlor floor, until suddenly piercing
shrieks smote his ear.
In great terror he started forward and in
stinctively rushed towards Rosa's room, when
the door was suddenly thrown open by Rosa
herself, pale. bleeding from wound in her
breast.
Great Heaven! What is this ~ he cried.
as, aghast with amazement and sorrow, he
supported the CHASTITY and dying form. and
laid it on the sofa, and then sunk on his
knees beside it.
"Who, who has done this % he wildly de-
manded, as, almost paralyzed with horror,
he knelt beside her, and tried to stanch the
gushing wound from which her life blood was
fast yelling.
She opened her bloodless lips. now palling
in death, and gasped forth the words:
ybil--your wife, | told you she
would do it, and she has done it. Sybil
Berners has murdered me- she whispered.
Then raising herself with a last dying effort,
she cried aloud "Hear all SybA Berners
has murdered ine' And with this charge
upon her lips, she fell back dead.
Even in that supreme moment Lyon
Berners' first thought, almost his only
thought, was for his wife. He looked up to
see who was there-who had heard this
awful, this fatal charge.
All were there! guests and servants, men
and women, drawn there by the dreadful
shrieks All had heard the horrible &C.
cusation.
And all stood panic-stricken, as they
shrank away from one who stood in their
midst. .,
1t was she, Sybil, the accused, whose very
aspect accused her more loudly than the
dying woman had done for she stood there,
still in her fiery masquerade dress, her face
pallid, her eyes blazing, her wild black hair
loose and streaming, her crimsoned hand
raised and grasping blood-stained dagger.
"Oh, wretched woman! most wretched
woman! What is this that you have done p
groaned Lyon Berners in unutterable ago
ny--agony not for the dead beauty before
him, but for the loving wife, whom he felt
that he had driven to this deed of despera-
ton
Lyon Berners, do you believe me guilty p
she asked.
He looked up, and their eyes met Ifhe
had really believed her guilty, he did not
now. He answered briefly and frmly'
No, Sybil Heaven knows that do not
hut axnlain this hnrrihla hnsiness-if YOU