Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-14

surface that threatens him9 This is at least certain. that he makes clumsy apology for the language that he has used. (Abject wretchD
 ] My lord excuses are interrupted by tho return of the courier with the lemons and hot 1 water. "The countess observes for the first tir,e that the man looks ill. His hands tremble as he places the tray on the table My lord or ders his courier to follow him, and makes the lemonade ill the bedroom. The countess re- marks that the courier seems hardly capable of obeying his orders. Hearing this the man 1 admits that he is ill. He, too, is suffering from cold; he has been kept waiting in draught at the shop where he bought the lemons; he feels alternately hot and cold. and ! he begs permission to lie down for a little while on his bed.
 Feeling her humanity appealed to, the countess volunteers to make the lemonade 1 herself. My lord takes the courier by tho arm, leads him aside and whispers these ] words to him: Watch her. and see that ste puts nothing into the lemonade; then bring it to me with your own hands, and then go to bed, if you like.'
 "Without a word more to his wife or to the baron my lord leaves the room
 "The countess makes the lemonade and the i courier takes it to his master. h
 Returning on the way to his own room he is so weak and feels, he says, so giddy, that he is obliged to support himself by the backs of the chairs as he passes them. The baron, always considerate to persons of low degree, offers his arm. I am afraid. my p or fellow he says, that you are really ill' The courier makes this extraordinary answer: Its all | over with me, sir; have caught my death.' 'sThe countess is naturally startled. You are not all old man. she says, trying to rouse the courier's spirits. At your age catching cold doesn't surely mean catching your deathl' The courier fixes his eyes despair ingly on the countess
 "'My lungs are weak, my lady, he says. I have already had two attacks of bron- chitis The second time a great physician joined my own doctor ill attendance on mo. 1 He considered my recovery almost in the 1 light of a miracle. ''Take care of yourself" {" he said. "If you have third attack of 1 bronchitis, as certainly as two and two make | four you will be a dead man." feel the same inward shivering, my lady, that I felt on those two former occasions-and I tell you again, l have caught my death in 1 Venice'
 Speaking some comforting words, the baron leads him to his room. The countess l is left alone on the stage
 "She seats herself. and looks toward the door by which the courier has been led out. 'Ah! my poor fellow she says, if you could only change constitutions with my lord wha a happy result would follow for the baron and for mel If you could only get cured of a trumpery cold with little hot lemonade, and if he could only catch his death in your placer *@-.+-<
 ''She suddenly pauses-considers for awhile and springs to her feet with cry of tri- uniphant surprise: the wonderful, the unpar- alleled idea has crossed her mind like a flash of lightning Make the two men change names and places, and the deed is donel Where are the obstacless Remove my lord by fair means or foul-from his room and keep him secretly prisoner ill the palace, to live or die as future necessity may determine. Place the courier in the vacant bed and call in the doctor to see hinl-ill, in my lords character, and-if he dies-dying under my lords name"
 The manuscript dropped from Henrys hands. A siclsening sense of horror overpow- cred him. The question which had occurred at the close of the first act of the play as- stunned a new and terrible interest now. As far as the scene of the countess soliloquy, the incidents of the second act had reflected tue 1 the events of his late brothers life as faith- fully as the incidents of the first act. Was the nonstrous plot, revealed in the lines which he had just read, the offspring of the countess l utAu oll0 III tulS CttS0 also deluded herself with the idea that she was inventing when she was really writing under the influence of her own guilty remenl.
 brance of the past? If the latter interpreta-
 ton were the true one, he had just read the
 narrative of the contemplated murder of his
 brother, planned in cold blood by woman
 who was at that moment inhabiting the same
 house with him. While, to make the fatality
 complete, Agnes herself had innocently pro
 vided the conspirators with the one man who
 was fitted to be the passive agent of theil
 crime.
 Even the bare doubt that it might be 10 : was more than he could endure. He left hi. room; resolved to force the truth out of tht countess, or to denounce her before tn. authorities as murderess at large.
 Arrived at her door, he was met by per son just leaving the room. Tue person wal the manager. He was hardly recognizable he looked and spoke like man i'll state o desperation.
 "Oh. go in, if you like!" he said to Henry : Mark this, sir! am not superstition man; but do begin to~believe that crime carry their own curse with them. This hote Is under a curse. What happens in the morn inge We discover . crime committed in thu t, old days of the palace. The night comes, ant Q brings another dreadful event with it-s - death; a sudden and shocking death, in tn, J house. Go ill, and sec for yourself! shal n resign my situation, MT. Westwick; cam
 contend with the fatalities that pursue m
 here!"
 Henry entered the room.
 The countess was stretched on her bed The doctor on one side and the chambermait
 on the other, were standing looking at her From time to time, she drew a heavy stertor ous breath, like person oppressed in sleep ' ing. "Is she likely to diet" Henry asked.
 "She is dead," the doctor answered. "Deat 7 of tue rupture of q blood vessel on the brain . Those sounds that you hear are purely. me . chanical-they may go on for hours" ]: ]: : ]: : }&}j;|!| E a|E9||l| B |, W~ uNW',,yl IN