Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-07-10
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Rttner.
ITO think that your ladyship' should
actually fall in!'' h replied. Now con-
fess that this was to me the really difficult
part of the job. 1t is quite easy to pretend
that man is dead but not so e.sY to
touch his money | really do not see how
we could have managed at all without
yodr cooperation. Well, you've had no
None at all. :"
Il am to have half"
Il am instructed to give you CO, 900, 1
have the money here for YOU"
i hope you consider That deserve this
sharey"
Il think, DR.. Vimpany. that whatever
you get in the future or the present you
will richly deserve. You have dragged a
man down to your own level"
And woman, too.
"a woman, too! You reward will come,
l doubt not"
eff it always takes the form OF bank
notes | care not how great the reward may
be. You will doubtless, as q good Chris
tian, expect your own reward-1or him and
for you"
81 have mine already" she replied sadly.
"Now, DR.. Vimpany, let me pay you, and
get rid of your company"
lie counted the money carefully and
put it in the bankers bag, in his coat
pocket.
''Thank you my lady We have ex-
changed compliments enough over this
job"
Il hope-I pray--that we may never set
eyes on you again."
81 cannot say. People run up against
each other in the stranGest manner, eSpe-
clally people who have done shady things
and have got to keep in the background"
'EnouGhl-enoughr"
"The background Of the world is very
odd place, | assure you. 1t is full of inter-
esting people. The society has pquancy
which you will find, | hope, quite charm
ing. You will be known by another name,
of course"
II shall not tell you by what name"
''Tut-tut! | shall soon find out. The
background gets narrower when you fall
into misery.'
"What do you mean?"
II mean, Lady Harry, that your husband
has no idea whatever az to the value of
money The two thousand that you are
taking him will vanish in a year or two.
w hat will YOU do then? AS for myself, I
know the value of money so well that am
always buying the most precious and de-
lightful things with it. | enjoy them i'm
mensely. Never any man enjoyed good
things so much rs do. But the delight
full things cost money. Let US be under no
Illusions. Your ladyShip and your noble
husband and l all belong to the back
ground; and in a year or two we shall be-
long to the needy BACKGROUND. dare say
that very soon after that the world will
learn that we all belong to the criminal
background. | wish your ladyship a joy
ful reunion with your husband"
He withdrew, and Iris set eyes on him
no more. But the prophecy with which
he departed remained with her, and it
was with heart forbOding fresh sorrows
that she left Paris and started for Lou
vain.
Here began the new life-that of conceal,
ment and false pretense. Iris put off her
weeds, but she never yentured abroad
without thick veil. Her husband, dis
covering that English visitors sometimes
ran over from Brussels to see the Hotel de
Vile, never ventured out at all till even
ing. They had no friends and no society
of any kind.
The house, which stood secluded behind
high wall in its garden, was in the quiet
est part of this quiet old city; no sound of
life and work reached it: the pair who
lived there SC dom spoke to each other.
Except at the midday breakfast and the
dinner they did not meet. Iris sat in her
own room, silent; Lord Harry sat in his, or
paced the garden walks for hours.
Thus the days went on monotonously.
The clock licked; the hours struck: they
took meals: they slept; they rose and dress
ed: they took meals again--this was all
their life. This was all that they could
expect for the future.
The weeks went on. For three months
LIS cnuNIetl tllS lie. NO news came TO
her from the outer world; her husband had
even forgotten the first necessary of mod
ern life-the newspaper. 1t was not the
ideal life or love. apart from the world
where the two make for themselves a Gar
den of Eden; it was a prison, in which two
were confined together who We're kept
apart by heir guilty secret
They ceased altogether to speak; their
very meals were taken in silence. The
husband saw continual reproach in his
wife's eyes; her sad and heavy look spoke
more plainly than any words-"It is to
this that you have brought me-"
One morning Iris was idly turning over
the papers in her desk. There were old
letters, old photographs, all kinds of tri-
fling treasures that reminded her of the
pasta woman keeps everything; the lit
tie mementoes of her childhood, her first
gOverneSS, her first school, her school
endshps-everything AS Iris turned
over these things her mind wandered
back to the old days. She became again a
young girl-innocent, fancy free; she grew
up-She was woman innocent still.
Then her mind jumped at one leap to
the present, and she saw herself as she
was-innocent no longer, degraded and
guilty, the vile accomplish of vile con-
spiracy.
Then; as one who has been wearing col
ored glasses puts them off and sees Things
in their own true colorS she saw how she
ton to the level of the man who had held
her in his fascination; she saw him as he
WaS-reckleSs, unstable. careless of name
and honor. Then for the first time she
realized the depths into which she was
plunged aud the life which she was hence
lori II doomed to lead. The blind love fell
from her-iU was dead at last; but it left
her bound TO the man by chain which
nothing could break; She was in her righU
senses; she saw Things as they were; but
the knowledge came 100 late.
Her husband made no attempt to bridge
over the arrangement which had thus
grown up between them: it became wider
every day; he lived apart and alone; he
sat in his own room, smoking more cigars.
drinking more brandy and water than
was good for him: sometimes he paced the
gravel walks in the garden in the evening
after dinner he went out and walked about
the empty streets of the quiet city. Once
or twice he venuureu INTO care. slGung
in corner. his hat drawn over his eyes;
but that was dangerous. For the most
part he kept in the sire cts and he spoke to
no one
Meantime the autumn had given place
to winter, which began in wet and dreary
fashion. Day and night the rain fell, max
ing the gravel walks too wet and the
streets impossible Then Lord Harry sat
in his room and smoked all day long. And
still the melancholy of the one increased
and the boredom of the other
He spoke at last. 1t was after break
Iris" he said. chow long is this to con-
tinue?'
"This-what?'
''This life-this miserable solitude and
silence"
''Till we die" she replied. "What else
do you expect? You have sold our freedom
and we must pay the price,
No; it shall end. will end it. car