The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-09-01

He saw how white that face " as and how 1t.
wnsr watched Dallas Coke as he pour ed out
his invectives on his devoted head. There was
something in that part of the courtroom from
which he could not take his eyes, and the
longer he looked the surer he was that he was
gazing at the white face of Julia Tarpon.
He heard Dallas Coke to the end of his bitter
harangue. As that celebrated lawyer sat
down silence fell over the scene, and the
face Harold had been watching seemed to lift
above those by which it was surrounded.
Suddenly someone called out, Make way
for this lady !" and all who turned saw Julia
Tarpon standing erect on the bench. There
was not the vestige of color on her Grecian
countenance; it was like one of Phidias's cold
cut marble figures, and when she came down
and advanced toward the tables in front of the
bench, she looked at no one, but with the cold,
naughty tread OF q conqaeror came and stood
within the bar.
The judge leaned over the judicial desk and
fastened his eyes upon her. No one had men,
toned her name; she had not been announced,
but something seemed to tell him that this was
Julia Tarpon, the woman who had come across
the sea to testify, yet who had gone away with
her lips sealed against the defendant.
Julia Tarpon had halted within arms reach
of Dallas Coke, and he was staring at her with
something of cynical smile as though he re.
garded the victory won and beyond danger of
The sheriff will give the lady chair"
said the court at last, but Julia waved that dig
nitary aside as he came forward with one of
the old-fashioned court-chairs in his hands.
81 am Julia Tarpon, may it please the court"
said she i'll strange voice, as she fixed her eyes
on the judge. I shall keep my pledge, mas
much as shall not speak concerning the events
of the past year. came back to deposit with
this court paper which may be opened at its
leisure"
AS she spoke her hand came up, and she
leaned toward the bench with q roll of papers
clutched in the white fingers.
"What is that?" demanded Dallas Coke.
He had turned on Julia with face more
the face Of fend than mans. The thought
of defeat stunned him.
Julia Tarpon turned on him, and, holding
the document before him, said, coolly:
at is the confession of foolish woman"
Dallas Coke sat down with the laugh of the
courtroom in his ears.
Slowly Julia Tarpon turned toward Harold
Jordan, and looked him in the eye. After
awhile the young man bounded to where she
stood, but she shrank from him. and in another
instant had fallen at his feet unconscious.
There was an uproar in Judge Syphers court,
and the young woman was carried into one Of
the jury.rooms and resusctated.
As she came back to life, with her hand held
by the young DEFENDANTS she said, slowly:
~ WAS LIMA WIN UIOuBu1 NO UhCAs COuiu
not keep this awful secret when / looked in
upon her waiting for the verdict which my 81
lence was making for her husband. Harold,
the rumors about my continental engagement
weren't true, and when heard that you had
married her all my love turned to hatred, and
sealed my lips. But one look at your child
wife broke the foodgates of the old love, and
and-Harold, let US be friends again!"
The confession Of Julia Tsrpon was as start.
ling as the trial had been. It proved beyond
doubt the genuineness of the will which gave
Nathan divers wealth to Harold, but it also
cleared his skirts of fraud, and all through the
unsealing of the lips of Julia Tarpon.
After all was settled, there stepped aboard a
liner a woman whose face was vailed. and her
last farewell was to young wife, who leaned
on the arm of the late defendant in the will
case and Gen. Van Dyck's client.
And when the vailed one turned towards the
ladies' cabin her hands closed and her lips said
almost inaudibly:
"'Twere better 10 have loved and lost,
han In hav at all