Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-08-30

preoccupied manner, while every now
and then his eyes wandered to Mrs.
M, with a curiously fixed stare that
was positively ill-mannered and alto
gether unaccountable. Instinctively I
turned to the same quarter to see what
could be the object of this persistent
scrutiny, but in vain. There, indeed,
was a beautiful woman, dressed to per-
lection, and with those wonderful eyes;
but what right had he to cape at her
like that ? I began to wonder if she or
any other of the guests would observe
As rudeness. I tried to catch bis
eye, but without success. In a little
while lapsed into comparative silence,
and set myself to watch As move
ments more narrowly, as well as I could,
across the table. After time it seemed
to me that the direction of As gaze
must be at Mrs. Ms head, or a little
above it; but there was nothing that [
could see to account for this. To be
sure, she wore, fastened into the thick
top coil of her hair, a ieweled ornament
of some kind that seemed to sparkle at
times with intense brilbancy; but still,
why this repeated and offensive contem-
plation at her own table of a married
woman, on whom, SO far as I knew,
neither A nor [ had ever set eyes
before? Gould these two have been
known to each other in some by-gone
love affair, or was the man gone out of
his wits, OF had he taken too much
drink?
How this memorable dinner struggled
on to conclusion I hardly remember.
The more fdgety got, the more ire
sishbly was / drawn to watch A.
His face wore pale, scared aspect quite
foreign to him, for he was ordinarily a
CHEEKY, common-sense fellow, not easily
disturbed. At length it seemed that our
hostess became aware of the intent OBJ
servation she was being subjected to, and
before the ladies rose from the dinner
table, her handsome features had grown
very white, there was visible trembling
movement in her hands, and her eyes
took an uneasy expression not previous
ly there.
AS soon as wemen were left alone, and
almost before we could reseat ourselves,
A. turned to our host, and in an odd
muff1ed voice announced that he felt un-
well, and begged permission to take his
departure. Mr.. M glanced at me
with puzzled air-"He was so very
sorry. Gould he do anything? And, of
course, the carriage was entirely at Mr..
As service" By this time it was
evident something was really amiss with
A; so made some sort of excuse
that feared had had hard days march
and got soaked, sent out sincere apollo
gies to Mrs. M, and rejecting the
kind offer of the carriage, we found our
selves out again in the moonlight. The
moon was well up, and as we passed the
old ruinous chapel you could see,
through little pointed window in the
gable, the wall beyond half lit up, and
dappled over with long shadows from
the thorn trees alongside We walked
for little while in silence, deliberat-
ing what TO say, whether to be stern or
sympathetic, but decidedly inclining to
the former. Indeed, whether he were
well or i'll, the extraordinary gestures
and demeanor of A that evening,
were unbecoming in the extreme, and,
taking place as they did in the presence
of his senior Office, could not be passed
over. "Mr. A. at length began,
in an official tone, g 1 must ask what is
the meaning" He had been hurrying
on With his face averted from me; but
now, as I spoke, he suddenly stopped,
turned round, and, grasping my arm,
broke in with, So help me God, Major,
the devil stood behind her!" "Thedevil
stood behind her" [ said, in utter
amazement; what on earth do you mean?"
Z" I mean what I say; the devil was
standing behind her all the time" His
voice fell almost to whisper, and he
looked back toward the house, which
was still in sight. could haveno doubt
who he meant by her, but was so taken
aback, that what to go on saying to the
man / knew not. It was obvious he was
under some strange mental delusion.
We walked on. Presently he spoke
again, as if to himself" Behind her by
the mantlepiece, &c behind her chair
=" that fearful things face, those
fendish eyes, my God %
As I said before, l am not supersti-
tious, but it was neither quite comfort
able nor canny hearing these queer ex-
Carnations under the peculiar circum-
stances: III a moonlight walk, dark, UNI
brageous thickets on one side of us. on
the other black, cayernous cliffs, and the
melancholy murmurlng sea.
AS far as my memory serves, we were
still little way from the lodge gate,
when A stopped again an instant,
and said: "Listen! what's that ?" 1
could hear nothing, but in few seconds
came the distinct clatter of a galloping
horse along the drive. Something has
happened to her., whispered A., lay
ing chill hand on mine. "Anything
the matter ?" shouted to the groom
who passed US on the horse. The man
called out something which we were able
to catch, and galloped on. We could see
him pull up at the gate, and woman
come out to open it; but by the time we
reached her, horse and rider were out of
sight. She was standing staring down
the road after them, and asked her if
anything was wrong. "Jesu save us,
Sur!' she exclaimed, crossing herself,
"the man says mee-lady is dead-she
has taken her life!" dead! taken her
life!' was my ejaculation. ''Why, we've