The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-10-07

CAUSE 90 not sleep IN hOmo) 10t l
knew she had understood me.
She threw a stone into the incoming
ware In her turn, then she spoke slowly
and carefully:
care you going back to your wife 2"
she said
WHO told your" said 1. not having
voice for more.
tine princess / think. The morning
you came ioto the studio and she was
there"
seldom entered Suzon's house.
One morning l had gone to ask her
about photograDhing a picture. | re-
membered, and Princesse Mathilde was
there.
"What did she say? l asked.
"Preciselyf She said what a very
handsome man you were, and what q
sad story yours was" -
"Ah!" l said stupidity.
'Where is YOUR Wife7" Suzon spoke
with careful civility. II suppose you
will join her in Romeo"
my wife, medemoisells, is. or rather
was, in a mansion de sante. She suffers
from incurable homicidal MANIA"
II beg your pardon" said my COM
rade, softly, and held out her hand to
me.
l took it as it was offered and let it go
again.
She did not ask me any more, nor did
/ tell her. OF what use was it to say
that three times had that woman tried
to murder me, when crazed by drink,
till her own people had had her shut
upf Or why should say to my bon
gsrcon that 1 had only that day re-
ceived letter from the doctor at the
\ In Eel that yryffo h cd
escaped and he did not know where
she was; could l tell him of any haunt
in which she was likely to be found?
| saw no sense in telling all this to
| Suzon. When a man at the age of %
marries a woman thirteen years older,
and finds out soon after that besides
being addicted to drinking she is of un.
sound mind, and makes pleasing at
| tempts to murder him, she and her do
| iugs are not subject on which he is
likely to dwell. So held my tongue.
never thought she could find me
out in my pleasant land, though she
had been there once with me, long ago !;
l never thought that in her mad hatred
she would remember how invariably
shpent the spring months there after
my winters work. But l fancied l
should find her in Rome
What are you going to do?" l
asked Suzon.
Work" she said quietly.
| She never spoke of it, but l knew she
painted for her bread. and that she had
no idea of saving money, but lived from
hand to mouth. So l was anxious
about her. l could not trust myself to
think about it. l would keep an au
curant with her doings; that was all
could DO for her, though l knew she
was horribly poor, and the life of a
beautiful woman in Paris is not easy in
that case.
1--WE will have one more walk before
/ CO." l said to SuZon, and she said
Eyes"
So the next day we walked up the
terraced high road, up and up till we
reached the olives and the wheat, and
then the bean fields, and wandering on
at our sweet will, we were happy and
innocent, God knows.
We sat down at last on the long grass
at the edge of the cliff oVerhanging the
sea, where little wind came up to US.
We did not speak of its being our last
day; we talked as usual, comrade to
comrade, while nightingale somewhere
about kept trying his voice in broken
ecstasies.
1t was like heaven.
lay on the grass; Suzon not far off,
read Leopard aloud. Why she choose
that Philosophie de desespoir, she who
had still, la joie de vivre, do not know.
But presently ceased to hear her
voice.
I do not sleep at night, and, like all
people who have insomnia, am utterly
unable sometimes to keep from falling
into deep sleep, especially in the open
air.
And so 1 did that day.
And while l slept that woman must
have been creeping up to US. For l
startled, dazed from my sleep to see
Suzon struggling in the grasp of a mad
woman on the very verge of cliff.
Of course l knew who it was. 1 was
on my feet like fash, but not in time
for before could reach her saw m y
comrade flung out over that awful
height
And then two men who had been
working in the fields came running
and caught my wife. l did not wait to
hear them tell how they had seen her
creep up on me, not seeing [ was not
alone; how. just as she held the knife
at my back, SuZon leaped like cat
and caught it from her hand, and how
that she devil had turned on her. All
that 1 heard afterward. Now l ran
down that zigzag path to the shore and
kneIt by my little comrade.
thought she was dead, for nearly
every bone in her body was broken and
her eyes were closed in stupor..
CROPPED for her heart with my hand
l who had never touched her. She was
alive, for l felt it stir, and then she
opened her eyes and looked at me.
She knew me, but she did not, l
think, remember where she was or
what had happened The poor lips
tried to speak and failed.
TRY again, my darling, ma cherie ~
I cried. Tell NE, are you in pain ?"
I did not think she was, for her back
was broken.
'Say it again." she whispered.
WHAT" wondered In despair
1 called her by every name 1 had for
her and had ever used, except to my
own soul.
Ma cherie, ma rose blonde, mon
amour"
What you said-I was always-to
you'll" she gasped fretfuily.
mon carmarade, mon bon garcon, +"
said, hardly able to get out the
words