The morning call., 1891-03-22

a room there. For an hour he sat writing to
Helena, and when his letter was finished
he inclosed within it the other (anOnymouS)
letter which had dealt him such matchleSs
woe. Putting both communications into an
envelope he directed them to his wife. After
that he shot himself through the heart, and
when the people IN the motel discovered his
insane deed he had been dead a long time
The effect Of his death upon ii elena was
temporarily to unSeat her reason. For sew
eral DAYS those who attended her felt that
she must either soon rally from dementia or
else be taken to an asylum. Then change
for the better came, followed by a long
bodily DroStratlOn that threatened her life
All this time she had not seen Oswald
Blagden. Since the death of her husband
he had ceased TO live III the same house with
herself. When they met their place OF meet
ing WAS here, because Helena had sent for
him. She looked excessively pale, and still
showed marked signs of physical weakness.
His personal appearance had also greatly
changed. his locks and beard were much
graver and his face was both haggard aud
lined.
I'VE must not speak very long together"
she soon said to him. The doctors forbid
it,"
ga short time" he said, in reverent I'M
dertone, sis so much better than not vt all"
II wanted to ask you a question:" she
recommended.
ME? What question:"
''This, when poor Justin and | and you
were being babbled about by the busy
bodies and gOssips of the world, did you
know that we were the objects of slander?"
Placid though she was, 1t somehow made
him recoiI, II" he fatered. "Why, yes.
had heard that foolish folks were talking
don't you know? | couldn't help being
aware"
You should not have gone on as you did
then" she broke in, with reproOf equally
dominant in her gaze and tone. You did
wrong not TO tell me-nOt to tell him. You
were our friend. We trusted yon.'
An, with sudden lmretns, he eX-
claimed, ''if l had spoken it would have
sealed my doom. You and Justin would
have forced me to live elsewhere. The price
was too costly one; | could not, would not
pay it, Helena, for loved you, love you
still. with an undying passion! l.
Hush" she said and in her voice the
note of reprOOf continued, yet a great and
vetoing command went with it. What you
tell me Is the confession of dark treach-
cry. You admit that you knew of those
horrible ensures unfounded as they were
yet you never spoke, All, it is almost as
dark treachery," she went on, "as that Of
the unknown writer of the anonymous let
ter which killed my poor, foolish Justin 7"
She surveyed him now with a scorn which
pierced him all the more because such utter
grief was its accompaniment
You never SPOKE" she repeated, and
then, with few steps that were so insecure
as to make him dart toward her in fear of
her falling she turned and sought the door
by which she had entered the room. Just
as he reached her she seemed t. grow
steadier and more controlled of mien
HelenaP' he cried, eve shall meet
again! You don't mean that you dismiss
me 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 mew Her eyes
blazed on BlagdeD. 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" Theh her manner changed to one
OF intense SORROW, and TREMENDOUSLY iterat-
ing, Had L only known. had l only
known" she passed from the sight of him
who watched her. and passed from his sight
for the last time in Blagden's 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 far West; others that he
had returned to England and had resettled
himself in the quiet little vlllege. not far
from Leeds, where he was born. But the
precise truth of his whereabouts never actu-
ally transpiTed.
Meanwhile the pangs OF self-accusation
were torturing Talmadge Van Dyke. He
would have realized clearly the cause of
Justin WorceSter's death even if an inter
view with Helena had not disclosed it to
him. But that interview was an ordeal of
keenest torment, and after having held it 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 mider and inter-
mittent form. 1t was one of those obstinate
semi-nervous complaints, which battle the
sharpest vigilance of science. Tdllmadge
was not again Frustrated by it. but dread
ing such result he sought physician of
great eminence.
The judgment which he heard struck him
as deplorably commonplace. ''Your system
is much run down, Mr.. Van Dyke" the re-
nowned medical grandee told him. "You
need thorough change of air, and should
recommend trip to Egypt, with an entire
winter passed on the Nile"
Tallmadge was about to consider this
counsel seriously when Helena again sum-
moned him. "You see," she said, as she
gave him her hand, 81 am infinitely better
than when you 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 lie was deeply moved by
admiration of her renewed loneliness, more