The Penn's Grove record., 1888-05-05
gold vases; the clock licked ominously;

gold vases; the clock licked ominously;
still Lady Harcourt did not appear. l
think q sort Of paralysis must have
seized me; yet l remember that l felt
satisfied that the end had come. !
knew by some strange foresight. that
the curtain had fallen on the tragic
little comedy l had played at the old
hall. with the woman who society had
declared would one day shock or startle
every one. knew that 1 should never
lift my head again to find her black
eyes glowing from behind the tea urn.
1 had not been unhappy with Zobeide,
but 1 question il 1 was in q state to
know the quality of happiness she gave
me. 1 had grown to think the thoughts
she gave me, that was all.
81 simply told Celeste, my Iady's
maid. that I would 60 to her apart
ments; but Celeste, with the desire
probably to save me a detested sight,
ran up the polished stairs, her little slip.
pers making a loud noise in the silent
house.
"With q shrek Celeste staggered
halfway down the stairs, her face like
chalk, her eyes wildly staring.
"'Oh, monsieur don't 60 in, If you
value your lifeI
81 pushed her aside and entered
Lady Harcourt's boudoir, hung with
the pale green silk curtains she had
chosen because 1t would remind her of
the jungle where we first met. The
old overpowering, indefinable odor met
me at the threshold, but I stepped
across her tiger-skin rug and felt every
vein in my body ~congealing with nor.
Tor.
my wife's little gray silk bonnet
and scarf lay on the floor near the sofa
where she reclined, her hair, unbound,
streaming In disorder over the NOISY
green carpet. She was quite dead. but
had, perhaps, breathed her last only a
moment before l found her.
son the bosom which had pillowed
my head 30 often lay the head of a
monster boa. His Ioathsome body
wrapped tightly about the luckless girl
had squeezed her to death. In a fer
vOr of gladness over her return or mad
s from hunger he had killed the
woman who fondled him when not
with me.
81 managed to retain my senses
somehow, and left the room, so per-
meated with poison. Down stairs once
more, I breathed freer than for many
days. I leaned out Of the window and
looked at the old stars which had
twinkled through every hour Of my
miserable misspent life. I realized all
at once how base and inactive I had
become, a dreamer, but was l to blame?
The old butler kindly led me to my
room, begging me to drink Of the glass
he forced to my lips, saying that all
should be done well.
81 drank. and, throwing myself on
the bed, 1 lost my mind In a dreary
and dreadful maze which melted into a
long sleep. 1 knew in that sleep that
the python had been strangled and the
rumor gwen forth that Lady Harcourt
had fallen dead from heart disease.
1.-THE end Of it all came, Of course.
and 1 went through it properly, l
heard afterwards; but I think my body
had acted without soul for once.
~ went to Switzerland-a place
happily free from snakes, where l re-
covered my old mental poise, and got
back to a point where l could reflect
upon all that fearful time which seemed
a sort of heaven to me while 1t lasted
my strange irresponsible life with
Zobeide, a charmer of serpents, a ruler
Of menl
snow you know, Strahan, why I do
not cart to look on such sight. 1t I'M
nerves me to look on a boa more than
to meet a wild beast face to face.
Don't laugh"
laugh I was never further from it
at any moment of my life!
Harcourt's experience only strength
ened me in my theory about the sympa-
thy between snakes and-some people.
1t is always a woman who charms
snakes, you know; never a man. I
wonder WhyY