Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-09-18
BETRAYED;
a DARK MARRIAGE
MORN.
4 Romance of Love, Intrigue and
Crime
BY MRS. ALICE P. CARR1sTON.


His features assumed an air of somber
dignity and imposing grandeur.
a slight shade of paleness passed over
the lovely face Of the young woman, and
slight IroWn contracted her forehead.
by an effort, which in a better cause
would have been sublime, she quickly
mastered the rising weakness, and, cold
~ pointing out to her husband the draped
door by which he had entered, said:
VERY we'll, conceal yourself therei"
''YOu will never forgive me?"
You know little OF women, my dear, if
you do not know that jealousy is one Of
the crimes that they not only pardon
but love.
'MY God, I am not jeaIous!"
Call 1t yourself what you WILL but
station yourself therei"
do so?"
81 beg you to do so! Retire in the in
terval, leave the door open, and when
you hear Eugene enter the hall, return. !"
mol" said the Senator, after a moments
hesitation: Asince I have gone so far
and he sighed deeply-~I do not wish to
leave myself the least preteZt for distrust.
If leave you before he comes, I am cap
able Of fancying-"
AThat I might secretly warn him. Is it
not SO? Nothing more natural. Remain
here, then. Only take up a book; for our
conversation, under the circumstances, can
not be lively"
He sat down.
But" he unused awhat mystery can
there be between you two?"
You shall see" she said, with her
sphinx-like smile.
The Senator mechanically took up a
book
She stirred up the fire in the CRATE. and
reflected
As she liked terror, danger and dramatic
incidents to blend with her intrigues, she
should have been content; for at that
moment shame, ruin and death, wee at
her doOrl
But, to tell the truth. it was too muo
for her; and when she looked, in the
midst of the silence which surrounded
her. at the true character and scope of
the perils which envirOned her, she
thought her brain would fail and her
heart break.
She was not mistaken as to the origin
of the letter. This shameful work had
been planned by the private secretary.
To do him justice, however, he had not
suspected the force Of the blow he was
dealing.
OF course he did not really believe in
the ladys virtue; for during the perpetual
surveillance he had never relaxed, he had
not failed to see the eXict nature of the
intercourse between Eugene and Cora.
But it must not be forgotten that he
was himself In love with Mrs. Elliston
self the succession to his masters place.
He had let matters 90 on thus long be-
cause he had not seen how he could very
we'll stop them without making an enemy
of Cora, and that he did not wish to do;
for, notwithstanding her intimacy with
Cleveland, he still loved her, 81 far as
such a creature is capable of loving; and
then there was the vast wealth that would
be hers at her husbands death, and of
this he was perfectly willing to assume
the charge.
But being in Washington, and remem-
boring what he had seen just before leav-
ing the house in New York his jealousy
and hatred of the rival who now had the
field all to himself, got the better of him,
and he determined to act To awaken the
distrust of the Senator toward Eugene, so
as to cause his doors to be closed against
him, and to hasten the lady's coming to
Washington, was, however, all he medi-
tated at that time.
He wrote the letter, dated it a day
ahead, sent it to a confidential friend in
New York to be remailed, and S it reached
the Senator'S hand.
But, like most yillainies of the kind,
this anonymous missive was a more fatal
and murderOus weapon than its base au-
thor imagined
The Senator's young wife then unused
while stirring the fire, casting from time
to time a furtive glance at the clock.
Eugene WOulG soon GLE4h6a HOW COu14
she warn himI
In the present state of their relations It
was not Impossible that the very first
words of Eugene might Immediately di-
fVulge their secret, and once betrayed there
was not only for her personal dishonor-
a scandalOus fall, poverty, retirement
but for her usband or her lOVer-per-
haps for both-death!
When the dOOr-bell rang announcing
Eugene's approach, all of these thoughts
crowded into COra's brain like a legion of
phantoms.
But she rallied her courage by des-
perate effort and strained all her faculties
10 the execution of the plan she had hast
lily conceived, which was her last hope.
and one word, one gesture, one mistake,
or one carelessness of her lover might
overthrow it in a secOndl
A moment later the door was opened
by q servant, announcing Mr.. Cleveland.
; Without speaking she signed to her hus-
band to gain his hiding-place.
The Senator, who had risen at the
sound of the bell, seemed still to hest
tate, but struggling his shoulders, as if in
disdain of himself, retired behind the
curtain which faced the door.
Eugene entered the room care1essly,
and advanced toward the fireplace, where
Cora was seated, his smiling lips half
opened to speak, when he was struck by
the peculiar expression on COra's face,
and the words were frozen on his lips.
This look, fixed upon him from his en-
trance, had a strange, weird intensity,
which, without expressing anything,
made him fear everything. But he was
becoming accustomed to trying situa-
tiOns, and was as wary and prudent as he
was intrepid. He ceased to amile, did
not speak, but waited.
. Raising her right hand, she made a
gesture intimating that he must preserve
silence.
Either she is mad, he said to him
self, or there is some great PERIL
A searching glance into her eyes in
creased his alarm, and a sudden and
heretofore unknown feeling of dread
seized him and almost stilled the beating
Of his heart.