The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1890-01-31
CHAPTER =,
VII f' ~
YUE LASr RLNW EAII


The wind was sweeping in wild gusts
V the lawn. bending the trees before
it, flashing the sea below into a boiling
foam; the clouds hung low over the
horizon, and seemed TO mingle with and
Join the inky black waves that came
tumhling along in their uncouth play.
when Philip st. John crossed his own
threshold and passed at once to the IL
brary.
How dull and chcerless it looked, des.
pite the bright fire that burned in the
CRATE. There was a II of emptiness
about the house. a feeling impossible To
bring to the bar of reason. but that
made him Shiver as he entered.
Janet met him in the hall and follow
ed him TO the room, and his first ques-
)tion took away the little presence of
mind She had left.
Where is your mistress?' he said,
with a force of quietncss that told ever
her that he was anxious. is she i'll:
Tell me at cnSs?'
Janet sank into a chair, trembling
from head to foot.
"Oh, how shall ! tell you sir?" she
said. covering her face. What shall J
say!2
For an instant such deadening fore
boding came overhim as seemed to take
away all power OF speech.
Had Erica died ali alone in his alb
sence. and they had feared TO tell him?
He took one stride TO the door. stung
with that thought his impulse to spring
upstairs and turn suspense into GER
woman caught bis hand. and her look
stopped him.
I'm Heavens name" he said, with
such imperious %sternness that shs
shrank back in fear; speak. and tell
me the truth. / am in 10 mood for
trifing.n
The mistress is not upstairs" she
answered. hraced into something like
courage by the force of his command.
"She isn't here, sir, at all. She has
gone"
And then she burst into bitter weep
ing.
"Gone!n he exclaimed, staggering
back as if struck. Gone The word
Where-out over the rocks: wandering
on the cliffs; perhaps gone back to
Scotland? But in an instant he had
mastered himself with a fierce effort.
Blow on blow! Could he bear two such
shocks?
He pressed his hand on the woman's
shoulder. and at the sound of his voice
her tears ceased.
you will tell me the truth without
any more delay, without idle tears.
without softoning or prevarication." he
said, and she knew that she must obey.
Few would have cared to brave Philip
st. John when he spoke in that low,
hard tone, when that steel-like CLEAN
came to the brilliant eyes.
Il am waiting.n
| Tlap in low hurrinJ opnopfc cha fo1I
him all. How that Bridget had heard
Erica's and a strangers voice talking at
the south gate, and ending with the
night she had left her home. Since
Janet had written, II fisherman had told
her that up the coast a little way he had
passed an open boat some distance off,
and that a girl and q MAJ were rowing;
lie fancied there was another form in
the boat, but it was too dark to distin-
guish. She acknowledged that she had
been cowardly in not seeking to know
who it vas in the garden that night.
But what could she have done?
81 found this scrap of paper, sir,n she
concluded, timidly putting into his hand
the line Arnold sent to Erica on the
r~ace-course. and his hand closed round
it like a vice. And then he glanced at
it, taking in those fatal words. II saw
it, sir, on her ~dressing-room floor, and
no one has seen it but me-"
His very life seemed to cease for a
second in that supreme effort to keep
calm to her eyes.
Leave me- was all he said, and then
he was alone.
Aye. alone, with his shattered love-
with his love hurled back on his own
heart. his faith broken to atoms, his
honor thrown down, tramplcd in the
very dust.
~ b Continued