The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-02-09

ne hA9u and lCt acSounOaDte TOT bef
actions.
But row anger got the better Of bis
tender heart.
Heaveni If her words were believed
by otllersl
May, almost his wife now, would be
taken from hint
Anger and loathing took the place of
compassion for the beautiful stranger.
| He shook her of roughly.
II have had enough At this" he said,
in hard. cold voice which May Field
ing would have found it difficult to rec
ognize as his. 81 have given you every
! information, and offered more than most
people would to stranger. will listen
to no more"
And he strobe quickly away.
/ The woman remained only one mo-
n1ent on her knees when she had poured
forth her earnest entreaties, and then
! sprang to her feet
She, too, had changed, and no one see
/ ing that change would have for an in
slant imagined her to be an inpostor.
She had never from the first appeared
to be Sc
Her manner had been resolute and
truthful.
SO my dream of happiness is over"
she said, speaking aloud in the silence of
those solemn woods. II had hoped that
his letter was but the outcome of some
sudden resolve. | could not believe that
he had really abandoned me to my fate,
after all his protestations; after our
years of love; after the birth of our
childl But will not desist in my en-
deavors No. l must go on now to the
bitter end for my little Roy's sake"
Ard with these words she strobe away
after him.
She had scarcely disappeared when
another figure appeared ON tho scene,
that of Clare Raymond.
She looked white and scared, and her
left hand was pressed over her bosom as
if in pain.
Fool that l amt she nurmured.
even now, when Fate is working for
me in every way, | seem TO have no
courage to work things to my own use.
What shall do next? How unravel
this tangled skein without assistance?
And yet my revenge will be but poor
one after ALL If he is married, all is
lost. May Fielding will suffer bitterly;
but SO, also, alasl shall II
Even as she spoke loud, shrill cry
echoed through the woods, cry as of
some one imploring help.
Clare gave one startled look round,
hesitated moment, and then, brave at
last, plunged into the thick plantation
where the two had disappeared and fol-
lowed them.
An influx of visitors had prevented
the proposed pony drive; and Glare Ray
mond, impatient Of disappointment, and
with a mind inflamed by resentment,
had slipped on her walking things and
Quilted the house.
Never for one moment had she i'm
agined that any discovery was awaiting
her in Lockley woods.
But fate plays strange tricks.
She chose that way rs if impelled to
do so against her will, for it was not a
favorite walk of hers.
And she had found-what?
The time passed drearily for May.
At dinner Mrs. Raymond had head
ache, and Clare was pale. silent and al
together ''mysterious and stupid as
May told her laughingly.
After dinner Mrs. Raymond went to
sleep in a capaeious chair in the drawing
room, Glare subsidized into the pages of a
novel, and May, pretending to do SO like
wise, lay ON couch idling with her book
and looking up every five minutes at the
hands of the clock which licked so softly,
SO aggravatingly slowly, as she thought,
on the mantelpiece.
Guy had promised to spend two hours
with them that night; his usual time
was half past when he did not come to
dinner, which at the lodge was served
punctually att.
1t was now half past 8.
"What can be keeping Guy?" cried
May at last flinging aside her book pet
ulantly; ..he was never late before"
Clare glanced over at the speaker with
look which May could not fathom; it
was a strange look, half pity, half tri-
umph.
'.Odd and unaccountable things hap
pen sometimes" she said. '.You see,
Ouf SdAu ne was gong 10 DafCneSLer on
business, and it may have proved more
tedious than he imagined. No doubt we
shall have news of him soon."
There was hooking ring in her
voice, and mocking light in her eyes as
she spoke, which was intensely nIitat-
ing to May.
what is the matter, Clare?s cried the
young girl. ''You speak SO oddly and
look SO oddly. one would imagine that
you were the depository of some weighty
secret in regard to Guy, though l should
scarcely think he would choose you for
such purpoee.
She spoke with an irritability quite
foreign to her nature, but she felt an
noyed by Clare's manner and looks.
| "Well, it would certainly not be likely
while her majesty the bride-clect was in
the land of the living" laughed Clare;
''but, really, you must learn to be rea-
sonable. Goy may jest about being tied
to your apron strings, but, mark me, he
is the last man in the world to put the
| theory into practice"
/ May was about to make somewhat
angry reply, when a loud ring sounded