The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-24

mating! Inc eartn Slook ana tailed under
her feet, the solid heavens melted, the
world, the universe ceased to be in the moment
that her husband doubted her. Nothing re-
manned but nothingness She was nothngness
Life and the world were gone, but she is here
stIll!' And as the gale howled outside. Jasper's
voice had mounted with it in wild wall, and
sunk to as wild whisper.
STOP" said the stranger, in tone that even
Jasper needed ''Will you tell me she is inno-
cent?"
"Will tell you this snow driving outside US is
spotless2 Will / tell you stars shine, suns shed
light and clouds shed rains Will l tell you any
created thing foreign to its nature that white
is blackl Will tell you God does not ride the
storm9 When 1 tell you that will tell you she
is not Innocent Innocent9 The angels that
stand before Gods throne are less white of soul
than she!"
'Then," cried the stranger, then am &C
cursed. Then am of all men most accursed|
And he brought his staff down with mighty
blow upon the old square tile in the hearth at his
feet, and shattered it in a dozen fragments. that
few to the right and left And what was it gilt
tering there at the point of the staff among the
broken bits of the old bevelled brick? The brass
ferrule of the STATE Or a ring, a ring of gold
broad bright band of gold, wedding ring9
The stranger stopped and plucked it from the
end of the staff where it had stuck fast, while
Jasper leaned forward with white face and gilt
tering eyes ''It is the ring!' cried the man; 1T
is the same! 1t is the legend inside that | cut
with my own hand! 1t is my darling's ring-and
I@
care there no currents in the bloodF cried
Jasper starting up with wild gesticulatlon. mo
instincts that warn, heart beats that thrust
the brain to life and recognition? Do you fancy
did not know you when saw you at the door
when l stood talking with the coming storms
Have never seen myself in the glass; Did
Margery tell of you so poorly? Is the charcoal
sketch in the room above so false and weak that
should fail to know you, or can years and
grayness so bury life in their ashes! l have
waited for you, have felt you coming, have
heard steps, one after another, beating on my
temples, on my heart, as you came up the noun
tain! You have come back at last to the house
where you broke yonr wifes heart where You
ruined her life and my life, where you murdered
her and made me a madmanp
"A madman," said Margery, slowly coming
forward from her dark place, and putting her
hand on the shoulder of Jasper, who sank, as
if beneath its weight into his chair again, but
even in that moment turned like dumb animal
to kiss the hand "Mad from the hour of his
birth, mad, who became mad before he saw the
light or breathed the airwhose blood, whosee brain
was poisoned when suspicion, suspicion, thatv
viper broth there is turned the blood black in his
mothers veins, and scared aud SCARED the I'M
born babe she bore"
Hush, hushn said Jasper. ''She has given
back the ring you see. Now she may rest at
last"
AT the moment there came sound-was it
singing, or signing or the murmur of. an eolian
harp, the dying breath of a blast of the gale a
woman's sweet caressing voice9 And as it sob
bed away into silence, they turned with one i'm
pulse to see the portrait the panel, glowing,
trembling, smiling with rosy warmth, fading,
vanishing, gone. and the panel was bare of all
but few brushfuls of paint
ut is her last song said Jasper. "The ghost
will walk no more"
'The ghost will walk no more, said his father.
'The ghost' cried the woman mo one but
he has ever seen the ghost It is the fiction of his
dlsordered brain. And if we too fancy we have
seen strange sights, heard strange sounds, it is
through the force of the mighty will of His
that determines to subject us to His mood All!
what might that will not have done God knows
what companionship he will find now!"
'He will have mine," returned the other, Il
shall never leave him."
What laugh was that which burst from the
mad youths lips! 'Blest companionship," he
cried. 'But shall escape you" he said again
in moment. 1.-THE ghost calls me. /, too,
shall go into the land of shadows. /, too, be-
come ghost" And presently out of the silence
came one wild cry, and then there was silence
again. Had lightning fallen out of the great
snow storm raging on into the black vault above,
had lightning shot down the shaft of the huge
chimney to pierce one heart alone with it's bolt,
or had the spot so long expressing the sad brain
suddenly burst and flooded all the cells with
death-who knowss Only the mad youth sat
dead in his chair.
The woman sprang to his side and threw her
arms about him, the kerchief falling from her
long gray hair that streamed in silver masses
round her. my boy My boy!" she cried.
"My wretched child, haunted by the ghost Of
my youth and sorrow!" But what strange change
was this, which, as she spoke, the shock, the
grief, the pain of pity had brought out upon her
face, what color burning on the cheek, what fire
in the dark eye, what likenes' of the portrait
with all the sadness of it intensifying to horrorl
''Sibyl!" the stranger cried. 'Sibyl! Am also
crazea9 Are there only the dead and the mad
left here? Is it you, Sibyl, my wife" And then
in answer TO her outcry men came and bore her
son from the room, she following.
The day was dawning in the pallor Of the wild
gray storm when she came IN again and stood
before her husband, 'The expiration is over" she
said slowly, 'and turn from the dead to the
living. The long sacrifice is ended. 1t is best
he should be dead. do not weepfo his death,
only for his life My child never knew me for
his mother always for Margery, his maid, his