Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-21

had ever guessed told him JUS, what the world
believed and just what it asserted. He lett her.
+, and then with quivering nerves and n mind
grown drunk from his new and abrupt anguish,
he let himself drift. as one more victim of its
grim greed, into that black tide of
human tragedy whose sullen course
Il forever flowing through our landscape of
NE Al a certain shop he made a certain pur-
chase. Then he went to an obscure hotel and
hired room there. For an hour he sat writ
ing to Helena. and when his letter was finished
he inclosed within it the other (anonymous)
letter which had dealt him such matchless woe.
PuttlnG both communications into an envelope
he directed them to his wife. After that he
shot himself through the heart and when the
people i'll the hotel discovered his insane deed
ne had been dead quite long time.
The effect Of his death upon Helena was tenn
porarily to unseat her reason. For several DAYS
those who attended her felt that she must either
soon rally from dcmen.ia or else be taken to
an asylum. Then a change for the better came
followed by long bodily prostration that
threatened her life.
All this time she had not seen Oswald Blag-
den. Since tho death of her husband he had
ceased to live in the same house with herself.
When they met (their place of meeting was
here, because Helena had sent for himJ she
looked excessively pale and still showed
marked signs OF physical weakness. His per-
sonal appearance had also greatly changed: his
locks and beard were much grayer and his face
was both haggard and lined.
I'VE mus: not speak very long together"
she soon said 70 him. The doctors forbid it.
"A short time. he said. in revercnt under
tone, as so much better than not at all
II wan: toask you question:" she re-
commenced.
''Me?-What question:
This: When poor Justin and and you were
being babbled about by the busybodIfs and
! gosslps of the world did YOU know that we
were the objects of slander?'
Placid though her look was it somehow made
him recoil. II, he faltercd. why. YES
had heard that foolish folk were talking. don't
you know. couldn't help being aware"
''iOu should not have gone on as YOU did
| then. she broke in. with reproof equally DOM
lnant Ill her gaze and tone. You did wrong
not to tell me-not 20 tell him. You were our
! friend. We trusted you.''
'Ah. with a sudden impetus he exclaimed
! II had spoken 1t would have sealed my own
DOOM You and Justin would have forced me
| to live elsewhere. The price was too costly a
one: could not. would not pay it. Helena. FOR
1 ioved you. loved YOU love you still, with
Hush she said, and in her voice the note of
reproof continued. yet q great and vetning
command went with it. What you tell me is
the confession of dark treacherv. You admit
that you knew of those horrible censures I'M
founded as they were. yet You never spoke.
An, 1t Is almost rs dark treachery," she went
on. las that of the unknown writer of the
loathsome anonymous letter which killed my
poor, foolish JUSTIN, She surveyed him now
with n scCrn which pierced him all the more
because such utter grief was its accompani-
ment You never spoke" she repeated. and
then with few steps that were so insecure rs
10 make him dart toward in fear of her falling.
she turned and sought the door by which she
had entered the room. Just he reached her
she seemed to grow steadier and more con-
trolled of mien. Helena he cried. 1--WE
shall meet again! You don't mean that you
dismiss me from you forever"
Forever" she replied. with one lifted hand
waving him away. You knew. and you might
have saved him! You might have saved him
through me. Her eyes biaZed on Blagden
for an instant. and he saw her lip curl. As if
l, his loving wife, she went on would have
let them say and think those hideous things.
had only known! Then her manner changed
to one of intense sorrow and tremulously tier
ating: Had only known Had only known"
She passed from the sight OF him Asho watched
her and passed from his sight for the last time
in Blagdens life
Soon afterward he quilted New York and his
| subsequent place of abode was never really
known. Some people stated that he went to
live In the Tar west; others that he had re-
| turned to England and had reset.led himself in
| the quiet village not far from Leeds. where he
was born. Bat the precise truth of his where
abouts never actually TRANSFERRED
Meanwhile the pangs of seIf-accusation were
tOrturing Tallmtdge Van Dyke. He would
have realized clearly the cause of Justin Wor-
cester s death. even if an interview with Helena
had not disclosed it to him. But that interview
was an ordeal of the keenest torment, and after
having held ii he kept calling himself in
thought murderer thousands of times. The
fever from which he had believed himself
thoroughly to have recovered came back in q
milder and intermittent form. 1t was one of
those obstinate semi-nervous complaints which
| battle the sharpest vigilance Of science. Tall
madge was not again Frustrated by it, but
dreaGinS such result he sought physician of
great eminence.
The judgment which he heard struck hir, as
deplorably commonplace. Your system il
much run down. Mr.. Van Dyke. the renowned
medical grandee toldhim ''You need thorough
change of air, and should recommend a trip to
ME- Nile WAN '''' 'l' "'''''' p"'''a OH the
Tallmadge was about to consider this coua-
sci seriously when Helena again summoned
him. lou see. she said, as she gave him her
hand. Il AN infinitely better than when Won
met me last. But you'-and then she paused
regarding him with eyes that were two tender
stars of pity.
Il am not well. murmured Tallmadge. "A
touch of my old trouble has returned to me-"
As he spoke he was deeply moved by admira-
tion OF her renewed loveine:s more interest
ing than of old because her never-to-be-forgot-
ten bereavement had cast about her as it were
delicate and indetinable film of sadness, like
! that elusive haze which blends itself with the
| sunshine OF some perfect autumn day.
No. my dear cousin she said. won surely
need less gloomy companionship than mime
Your cOmpanionship is never gloomy" he
replied. with somber sort of gallantry that
she answered by pathetic little smile
"Ah, Helena soon returned, Il meant to ask
your advice. your aid, on a very melancholy
matter. L meant to ask" And here she
broke off. with forlorn shakes of the head but
| no: let us speak of yourself. Have YOU con-
suited any doctor of late. TallmadgeY'
Yes. he said. absently. This melancholy
matter. Helena?' he went on: what is it?' i
kind of morbid desperation drove him 10 pro-
nounce these words. He cared nothing for her
formal and ordinary coincidence WITH respect
to his shattered health. That was all very well
in its way, but it was not she. And Tallmadge.
though racked by sense of his own quiet.
strongly yearned to hear Helena speak on some.
subject. any subject, which intimately con-
cerned herself.
II wanted 70 ask you." she began. after quite
a long pause, whether you DO not think TALL
madge, that | can possibly find out the author
of that Synonymous letter"
He felt his heart stand still for a moment
what" he managed to respond. would be
your motive III making discovery like that?
Her soft eyes flashed and he raw both her
hands quietly clench themselves. II should
SO love to punish him. There's law against
that sort of dastardly thing. or they tell me"
There Is Il law against it-yes."
''Oh. Talmadge, she hurried. Il often feel
, it is not mere revenge that makes me wish to
visit the law on such a being. LISTS loyaltv
to the dead man whom that vile action slew
Think; If some one whom you love very dearly
had been killed by"