The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1888-07-19

sepulchrally murmured, "Bismuthl" and the
people roared. She hastened from the stage
brushed past admirers who waited to give
her a last greeting, and reached her carriage
with Greta in it.
She was silent all the way home. She
sought her room ut once, and bade Greta to
leave her alone She sat before her mirror
and regarded the reflection of her face therein
1t was beautiful face pure woman face
And that other woman had as much az said
she was not fit to be the wife of her son!
The man she loved did not care for her
and she had promised another man to be his
wife! She had been used to depict grief and
agony on the stage; now she called the suf-
terings ofart trivial when she thought oi
those OF nature. She felt thoroughly alone
n homeless, friendless creature, whose will
had raised her to where she was, and whose
love told her that she had toiled in vain. She
contemplated her life, it's priyations, its
struggles, until there had come into it u great
light and warmth-her love for the Ameri-
can. And the light and warmth had been as
false to her as any represented on the stage
And she must be as worthless as far beyond
the pale of worthy society as that woman
has let her feel that she was, when she could
accept the good and true Baron Volrath for
her unloved husband. Pride, wounded ten
derness, had urged her to make victim of a
guiltless man. What had her life done for
|
failure? She had befriended many. the poor
blessed her, she was a rising artist, a woman
with ripening intellect; and vet at this hour
she was the meanest, most humliated crea.
ture she could imagine. Humliated! She
started and turned CHASTITY; she had been
selfish-there was a further humiliation for
her-she must set at rest the troubled mind
OF the man who loved her not. Yet why
should she?-why should she not let him
have his share of suffering?
go. God!' she thought, but | love him.
Dare tell him that hungered for a sight of
him? that l. passed by his place OF business
in last evenings dusk and saw him in there?
that, insane as l am at this moment | en-
tered the shop just for parting near look
at him? that once inside realized my posi-
ton, and calling my art into requsitionI be-
came an old woman before him and asked for
a drug: that it was to me he gave the poi.
son which has caused him much anxiety!
l might tell him this tonight; l shall be
away before he knows it; the glamour l have
thrown over him will have paled, and he will
know that l am nothing to him. But he
must not say | caused possible DEATH
She fiercely rang the bell on her dressing
table.
''Greta," she said, ''the carriage?''
at is waiting, fraulein, to take US to the
station"
First must write letter. You shall post
it while put on my hat
She sat down and wrote the note to Clark
which should relieve his mind of all anxiety
over his mistake of the evening before. But
she did not tell him of the feeling which actu-
ated her going into his shop, she could not
tell him that she loved the man who was on
ly infatuated with her an artistic, the man
whom she had in her ''toils'
She stamped the letter and gave it to her
maid to post.
Then Fraulen Lilli put on the gown she
had worn last evening when she had gone out
in rhe dusk. Slipping her hand in the pocket
she came upon the small package Clark had
given her when she asked for the bismuth.
She went over to the fireplace, and unfolding
the paper looked down on the little heap OF
White dust, preparatory to throwing it into
the flame.
Ali the tender days when she had thought
that she was loved as she loved!-the days
when she deemed she had found a heart that
throbbed responsive to hers, and looked into
amans eyes seeing more there than fattery
and misknowledge of the cravings of her
hungry soul. She was called coquette; the
fattery of the world forced her to assume the
character it assigned to her. But had she
coquetted with this man? No, no, a thou
sand times no. And set his mother as much
as told her that he regarded her only as the
| rest did. There arose before her possibilities
of a future with him, of future without him,
till she felt that she grew wild.
| How long she stood thus she did not know.
Suddenly she heard q mans voice in the
adjoining drawing room. Almost with a
shrek she recognized 1.-THE Baron Volrath's;
| he must have started to find her as soon as
he had received her letter. And-whatl An
| other voice in the drawing room-a second
| mans voice-the voice of the man she loved!
For Clark had been overwhelmed by her
letter. telling him of her acceptance of the
baron all that his mother had said concern
ing her was proved true. And he had seen in
her love for himself if ever woman let man
see her love for him! 1t had all been simula-
| ton, art, then
He took the letter to his mother "Forgive
me-" he said. You will understand when
yon have read this
She could say not word; she could only
carry the letter into the privacy of her own
room and have heragony beyond the sight of
| humanity.
Clark was well nigh crazed that day, he
was jeered at for the excitement he had
raised in the city, and people were doubtful
if there had been an elderly woman who
wanted small quantity of bismuth and
who, instead, received deadly poison. He
tiles and the crowds around his shop. And
all the day there was but one absorbing
thought-Lilli. When the night came he
thought of her in the theater, her last ap-
pearance q triumph. When it was about
time for the performance to be over he leftfor
her-he must look upon her just once more
| before she left him forever. But the theater
was dark when he got there; he could not see
her go to her carriage surrounded by the
youth of Munich.
Then rage seized him; he would go to her
house, upbraid her for all her falsity to him.
He tore along the street in which was her
bijou residence. Greta was coming down the
| steps.
"Herr Clark" she cried, II was about to
post this letter for YOU"
A letter! He snatched it from the girl, tore
it open and read it in the light from the hall.
| Lilli had not written why she had not come
| to his shop, but he was a lover, and he read
between the lines-he read all that she had
thought and had not put down in her COM
munication to him. She loved himl
He rushed up the stairs to the drawing
| room.
'Lilli, LilE," he cried, rapturously, "Lill,
Lilli"
A gentleman confronted him. "You are
speaking of my betrothed wife, sir" he said.
Clark with cenched fist looked at him.
You fe!' he thundered The baron strode
up to him. At this moment the door of the
| dressing room opened and the actress with a
face like marble stood on the Threshold.
"Lilli, my loved one" said the baron, and
went to her and saluted her
| For moment Clark gazed stupidity at the
pair. and then without having said q word
| to her went from the room, from the house,
reeling like a drunken man.
"Come" said Lilli. "We shall be late for
| the.train. Come'
"But that mani" queried the baron.
"The American druggist who has made
| Munich laugh to-day" answered she. 81
have frequently met him. he came presum-
ably to bid me adieu!''
81 am glad, soberly returned the baron,
that public life will soon be over for YOU"
"Come she said
In the train she shivered as though from
cold. The baron wrapped rug around her.
| Then she was drowsy
LEAN thy head upon my shoulder" he
| said.
| She would have refused to do SO, but he
! drew her pretty head down to his arm.
You have worked to hard, he said lean
| ing tenderly over her. 'But now you will
soon be at home and at rest"
"Yes," she returned, and closed her eyes.
"Yes,"
He drew her closely to him and
she did not resist. He held his arm
around her. After while he thought her