Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-03-01

are all sorry for her here. There haint enc Of
4 US but is sorry for .Ianey. She never was bal
'un. but she was handsome ana unfortnit, and
| she's seen a sight o. trouble. She doent say
face us, but she Knows we feel friendly to'rdS
her, yaney does, aud she knows we feel friendly
Roger" broke out abruptly. scarcely know
The old man hooked up at me, rubbing his
/ weather beaten forehead, As If I puzzled him
! "Yes'm." he aid, .shis name it,. Roger Leith,
| and its named fr-'
did no. stop g hear the rest. For moment
I Staggered 70 INV feet, biindly clinSing to Ralph
Gwynne, who had risen too. ssCome away"
said; "takc me away somewhere-farther down
A the beach-anywhere out of sight"
He did not speak to me, nor TO him, until he
had half carried, half dragged rue to the ycry
| rock shelter where We had sat the day he handed
me my husbands letter, and there dropped
! upon the sands, hiding my wretched face in my
! hands.
"Teli me the truth" painted; '.ten me-yOu
| knew this"
| He looked down at me with some yague pity
| in his eyes. and though L knew that he would
| have forged a lie to suit his purpose, knew
that this was no lie, that he believed il even
more steadfastly than did.
Yes" be answered, al knew it."
land came to prove It 10 nle.:'
ssYes,-
huSh tuCH Ntldt Il itI never knbNn b-isle
i knew that even in my misery had Knocked
| myself with delusion. knew that had nev n
loved this man, even az fahcied did, through
| the contrast of his warmness with my husbands
GOODNESS; 1 knew that through all had been
weaker than the weakest Of women, for loved
my husband, and loved him still.
l broke into low, wretched, hystericsl
''You might have spared me this mach,"
said. ''lf my ignorance was not bliss, il
folly to be wiser than waste knos more of
! INV humiliation than 4 did ~
sit would have been folly TO let Won add 70
the humiliation by relenting towards the man
who has trampled you in the dust" he said pas
| Sonately. al swore that you should not send
| this letter-am TO keep my OATH
held out my hand for it,
mol" cried out Sharply, ''give it to me-"
lie handed it to me, and as L touched il the
| remembrance of what it contained and how
had been daped, rushed upon me with the force
of a whiTlwnd. tore il into a hundred pieces,
and scattered il on the sand.
ttThere," said, lit Is gone forever"
He came and bent over me little later. rs
sat with my face buried In my hands, AID he
| touched my shoulder, for did not look up at
him.
shook his hand OF quickly, for his touch an
gered me, but had made up my mind
"les," answered him, 81 will listen"
sat crouched before nv window, feeling ccid
and sick and weak, but still with my mi nd full
| Of my desperate resolve. had written my fare
|
table. i had written my farewell letter to Lis
beth and told her all, in the faint hope that Lis
beth would believe what no one else on earth
would believe, i'm the faint hope that Lisheth
would believe my solemn word, when told her
that even at the worst, should not be SO ut
| teriy lost AS the world would deem me. had
laid my things all back into my trunks even to
the merest triHe. The very dress 1 wore was
one had myself purchased. had not retained
IN my posse ssion single thing my husband had
ever given to me-not even the sapphire ring
that had been the pledge Of our betTothal. md
now that all my preparations were made, was
waiting at my opened window for the signal
that was to come for me from the beach below
mad thrown myself adrift on the broad ocean
of chance, and the waves might fling me upon
what shore they would, for the momentary pas
sion OF misery had settled into passiy despair.
when women lose all, as | am doing" had
said to Ralph Gwynne that night, ''they gene
taIy nave something at stake, some love or
nope, but have none: had risled all had TO
/ risk, and lost all L had to lose You are cling
| ing TO a mad hope if You think to win me, even
| IN the course OF time. tell you shall never
| love you. l will leave England with you not
because love you, but because love my hus-
band, and cannot bear to his face again. !
VIII De honest with you. take all TO give moth
/ ing. III You love me enough TO help me, well
and good; If not, leave me here and viii 20
| ont into the world alone.
And he had held to his purpose and agreed
! Of course he did not believe nae strong enough
| to battle against his stubborn persistence. and
or course he was false in protesting to be honest
but knew my own steady strength of obstin-
/ Chuuiduct. lie UIu not And here,
| the dim moonlight that streamed throu Oh the
curtain Of sea fog into my window, was wait
ing for his signal, and Lisbeth was sleeping in
| the next room with her baby on her breast, and
her little children near her. 1 thought OF the
abasement had seen in the handsome girl
| face few hours before, and thought of the
child who had looked at me over his mothers
shoulder in his fearless baby way.
"Roger's baby-Roger's!
I hid my face in my hands, sitting the low
cry that burst from me. remembered the one
iUhf nfvr bah spfl, rf,a,,
the deliriOus mists had cleared away from my
brain. and had seen my husband bending over
the tiny form that lay upon the white pillow.
eff my baby had lived" said aloud, ..if my
baby had lived, 1 might have been like Lis
got up after this and walked across the floor
ing what he would say when Lisbeth gave him
the letter, and whether there would be q shadow
OF self rsProach in his mory of the past. 1
had vague feeling that it could not last long,
but asked myself q hundred times how my
husband would spend his. He would not mourn
might make him happy; but even in this, NV
worst and most reckless mood, my heart cried
ont aloud at the thought. I had ceased pacing
again. had even waited in the chill moonlight
an hour when the signal came, and rose with
a fierce pslsati0n of the heart to obey its sum-
folded it around me; went to the table where
my husbands letter lay, and bent over and
Kissed Tiny last farewell. / caught glimpse
Of my face in the glass as did 50, and saw that
there was great hollow, purple ring about my
eyes, and a deadly palor on my cheeks. laid |
my husbands letter back and crossed the room
to the door; as laid my hand upon the key
heard light fOOtstep i'm the corridors, and as
turned the handle and stepped out, I started
backward with low cry, for 1 stood face to |
We looked at each other breathlessly for an |
instant, in dead sience-I at her with wild,
intense, unreasonable longing for some hope
that might rescue me, even at this late hour
she at me with nothing in her tender, dilated
eyes but pity and wonder and love- Then she
broke the strange stiffness In hurried, terrified
voice.
"Gervase," she said, "Gervase, what does
this meany'
met her gaze steadily. do not think was
in my right senses.
81 am going away said, and my voice
sounded strange and unnatural, even to my
self.
Another moment, and she caught me i'm her
arms as If had been q child, and 50 drew me
into the rOOm and closed the door.
Her face was white as death. She was woman
enough to read at glance how matters stood,
but her purely healthful nature could not at |
once comprehend recklessness SO desperate.
"What do you mean?" she demanced-ssI /
cannot believe-where are you going?"
answered her as steadily as before.