Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-29
CHAPTER XVIII,

Having made the necessary explanations
to account for her sudden appearance,
Unorna found herself installed in two rooms
of modest dimensions and very simply
though comfortably furnished. 1t was a
common thing for ladies to seek retreat and
quiet in the convent during two or three
weeks of the year, and there was plenty of
available space at the disposal OF those who
wished to do so. 1t could not be expected
that IN q city like Prague such a woman as
Uuorna could escape notice, and the fact that
little or nothing was known of her true his
tory had left a very wide field for the inagi-
nations of those who chose to invent one for
her. The common story, and the one which
on the whole was nearest to the truth, told
that she was the daughter of a noble
of Eastern Bohemia, who had died soon
after her birth, the last of his family,
having converted his ancestral posses
sions into money for Uuorna's benefit,
in order to destroy all trace of
her relationship to him. The secret must,
of course, have been confided to some one,
but it had been kept aitEfulIy, and Unorna
herself was no wiser than those who amused
themselves with fruitless speculations re-
garding her origin. Ii from the first, from
the moment wher as young girl she left
the convent to enter into possession OF her
fortune, she had chosen to assert some right
to footing il the most exclusive ari-
stocracy in the world, it is not impossible
that the protection of the Abbess might
have helped her to obtain it. The secret of
her birth would, however have rendered q
marriage with a man of that class all but
impossible, and would have entirely ex-
cluGed her from the only other position
considered dignlfed for well-born woman
of fortune, unmarried and wholly without
living relations or connections-that OF a
lady-canoness on the Crown foundation.
Moreover. her wild briuging-up, and the
natural gifts she possessed and which she
could not resist the impulse to exercise had
in few months placed herin a position
from which 10 escape was pos
sibie as long as she lived in Prague,
and against those few-chiefy men-who
for her beauty's sake, or ou: of curiosity,
would gladly have made her acquaintance
she raised an impossible barrier of pride
and reserve. Nor was her reputation alto
gether an evil one. She lived in a strange
fashion, it is true, but the very fact of her
extreme seclusion had kept her name free
from stain. if people spoke OF her as the
Witch, it was more from habit and halt in
Jest, than in earnest.
Unorna was familiar with convent life
and was aware that the benedietion was over
and that the hour for the evening meal was
approaching. A fire had been lighted in
her sitting room, but the air was still very
cold, and she sat wrapped in her furs, as
when she had arrived. leaning back in IL
corner of the sofa, her head inclined for
ward, and one white hand resting on the
green baize cloth which covered the table.
She was very tired. and the absolute still
ness was refreshing and restoring after the
long-drawn-out emotions of the stormy day.
Never in her short and passionate lite had
SO many events been crowded into the space
of few hours. She comiorted herself with
the thought that the Wanderer would come
to her, once, at least, when she was pleased
to send for him. She had that loyal belief
in his sincerity, which, even in the worst
characters, is inseparable from true love,
until violently overthrown by irrefutabIe
evidence and which sometimes has such
power as to return even then, overthrowing
the evidence of the senses themselves.
Unorra's confidence was not misplaced.
The man whose promise she had received had
told the truth when he had said that he had
never broken any promise whatsoever.
To be Continued Nert Week.