Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1890-10-04

was entitled as Arthur Haslitt's wife.
OF course, it had been done to show her
husband that money was as naught to
her, after all. But it was Laura Estes
opinion that she might as we'll have
spared herself such self-sacrifice.
Arthur Haslitt was not so easily won
BACK. No, nor so easily won eitherl And
here the woman's eyes grew dark Was
all her scheming to be in vain? Two
years she had been in Paris now, and
Hasl1tt had been there alse But she
"@s no nearer 70 ner goaI. ana wuas
was her goal? Her divorce had been
pending when she first met Arthur Has
lit. She had then and there deter
mined that so soon as she was free she
would marry him. She had never loved
any one in all her cold, selfish life; but
she loved him. When he married Bea-
trice Rowland it had been a blow which
she had sworn to herself nothing would
ever make her forget or forgive. She
would separate them-she would force
him to love her! Women there are as
INSCRIPTIONS as this, and we meet them
every day. They wear smiling face,
and who suspects them?
Mrs. Estes was going to the ball
that night Her maid dressed her as
carefully as usual She wore Jewels in
her hair. Her eyes were clear, her
color lovely. There was no prettier
woman present.
One mans gaze watched her care
fully, ceaselessly. as she moved about
the rooms. He did not approach her
yet; he bided his time, and toward the
close Of the night it came.
Mrs. Estes looked up to see a tall,
grave man standing before her. For an
instant the lovely color fluctuated.
Frank Gordon! My dear cousin,
you here? The world thought you in
Patagonia, or heaven knows where!'
81 have returned. Will you not give
me little of your society?"
He stood waiting. Laura passed her
hand under his arm. Beyond the sup
per-room was a small conservatory; he
led her directly there. She faced him
with a steady smile.
Dear mel how dramatic you look!"
she half sneered.
Gordon paid no heed. He was still
very young man; but there were those
lines in his face that come only from
suffering.
six months ago." he began. 81 met
in South Africa friend of-Arthur
Haslitt. From him heard of his sepa-
ration from his wife. The case was I'M
derstood to be a discovery on Haslitt's
part that his wife had married him for
money. Magnificent fellow as Haslitt
was, no one was surprised, for that one
sensitive point of his, amounting al
most to a mania, was we'll known. On
returning home a month ago, it became
necessary for me to look over a chest of
old papers had left behind on going
to South America. Among them was
little bundle of letters very precious to
me. There were only three or four
short notes and one letter, to be more
accurate. That one letter was gone!"
Yes, Laura Estes nerves were iron;
but this was too unexpected. Her cous-
In looked into the haggard face and
read the confirmation of his suspicion
there.
And you," he went on-"you took it!
No one, they told me, had access to the
house but you. And you sent it to Ar
thur Haslitt The remembrance flashed
upon me that his friend down there in
South America had said something
about letter. 1t was a clever plan
Laura-you always were clever"
He turned and left her a crouching,
ferce-eyed creature, the delicate touch
Of rouge on her lips looking CHASTITY in
contrast with her livid cheeks.
''Mr. Haslitt has just returned from
Europe. He sees no one," said the
clerk, Except on very particular bust
ness"
This is particular business"
A few moments later Gordon was
ushered into Arthur Haslitt's presence.
He knew him by sight, though the
knowledge was not mutual. Could two
years have made the change in him he
saw? Why not? What had the last
three years been to himself?
MY name is Gordon" said the
younger man. Il am a cousin of Mrs.
Estes"
Haslitt bowed.
Frank Gordon" amended the other.
A flash of light went over Arthur Has
lifts face.
"Then think we can have nothing
much to say to each other"
Stay! We have. Much! You re-
ceived letter once addressed to me. 1t
is but right you should see this one as
we'll. 1t has never left me for three
years. 1t was written, observe, after
the first"
The second letter lay before Arthur
Haslitt's eyes-the second letter in his
wife's handwriting addressed to the
same man. For an instant there was
savage impulse upon him to spurn it,
to tread it under foot Then sanity,
some measure of common sense, tri-
umphed. He raised the letter with a
hand that shook.
DEAR FRANK: We have been good friends
ever since we we're children and so I must say
q word to you now. You have been foolish
enough to think that you cared for me in an
other way; but you will feel differently some
day and meantime while can never love you
rs you mean, shall always care for you my
dearest friend. wrote you letter not so long
ago when you first asked me to marry you. Do
you remember In it 1 told you 1 would never
marry any but rich husband was so weary
Of being poor. Now have something very differ
emit to say, and 1 say it that you may know that
It is not poverty that kept me from loving you.
This man, whom 1 first thought of marrying
only for money-this man, Frank, 1 have come so
to love that now should he ask me to follow him
barefoot from door to door through the world.
would go, and think myself happier than any
queen.
II do not say this to hurt you poor boy; but
that you may do me little justice in spite OF
the awful criminal folly Of my past words.