The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1892-11-23


angel kept tally Of the method she took
TO murder his peace that he might know
IL was murdered. dead. dead. dead, and
not exasper..te her with his patient hope
that IL might recover
Her fortune gave her one weapon. n
savage one in those vulgar hands. - ?
used this power insolently, rs bascr
spirits may. She would have been happy
to believe. what she pretended, that her
husband married her for money. Often
she told him so. Often she approached
him with her own disappointment.
did marry you. she would say,
ito be inefficient and obscure. u mere
nobody I'm the worldy You were to be n
great man, that was your part Of the
bargain. You know was ambitious.
| had Il right to be. You have had
everything to give you success-every-
thing"
Not quite everything" he said sadly.
Not love"
All, miserable woman! AS she grew
practiced in deceit and wrong she hated
her husband more and more.
She maddened herself against him.
She blamed him rs the cause Of her evil
choices.
1T is his fault. not mine" she said to
herself. "Ile ought TO have controlled
me. and then ! should not have done
what makes me ashamed TO face his
puny face. lie ought to have said,
You shall and you shall not instead of
his feeble. Is this wise, Jane? Is this
delicate2 is this according 10 your
nobler naturey ! don't like 10 be pleaded
with. A despot is what ! needed. II he
was half man he would take a whip
TO me-yes. beat me, and kick all my
friends out Of doors and he master in the
house. That could understand"
She maddened herself against him
more and more. She so yielded to an
insolent hate, that she was no better
than mad woman while he was by to
enrage her with his patient. crushed.
and yet alT avs courteous demeanor-
a sorrowful shadow Of the ardent.
chivalric Edwin Brothertoft of yore.
why not kill the craven spirited
wretch she thought, "or have him
killed? He would be better dead, than
living and scorned. Once rid of him,
and | could take my beauty and my
wealth TO England. and be n grand lady
after all Lady Brothertoft, Of Brother
toft Hall! that was what ! had right
TO expect. He could have given it to
me. The fool was capable enough.
Everybody said he might be what he
pleased. Why could he not love real
things-a splendid house, plenty of
slaves. name, title, instead of this
ridiculous dream of liberty Liberty! If
he and his weak minded friends only
dared strike a blow-if they only would
rebel-he might be got rid of. Then
should be free. All, | will have my
triumphs yeti Kings have loved women
not half so handsome!'
And with red, unbushing cheeks she
looked at herself in the mirror, and
hated that obstruction. her husband.
more and more.
a mad hate which she would gladly
have gratitied with murder The air
often seemed to her full of furies
sCourging her on to do the deed. Furies
fitted before her prolTcring palpable
weapons-weapoms always Of strange
and antique fashion, suCh as she had seen
and handled in old museums in England.
She remembered now with what pleasure
she used to play with them, while she
listened quietly'to some sinister legend
and knew how the stain came on the
blade.
Kill himr' the furies cried to her.
II was sound like the faint, distant
cry one hears in benighted forest and
wonders whether the creature be beast
or man.
Not yet, she answered aloud to this
hail in the far background of her pur-
poses.
The postponement seemed TO imply a
promise, and she perceived the circle Of
shadowy furies draw little step nearer
and shout to eacn other in triumph,
mot yet she says, Not yet. '"
So her hate grew more and more akin
TO madness, as every cruel or base pas
sion, even tie silliest and most trihing.
will, if fondled.
She found by and by that the cruelest
stab she could give to the man she had
wronged was through his daughter.
Lucy is all BrothertOft and no Bill
lop," Julia Peartree Smith often said.
Its all wrong: she ought TO take after
her strong parent, not her weak one"
There was kind Of strength incom-
prehensible TO the old taLby. Nor did
she know the law Of the transmission OF
spiritual traits-with what fine subtlety
they get themselves propagated and pre-,
vail over cOarser and cruder forces.
Lucy was all Brothertoft. In her early
days she did not show one atom Of the
maternal character. That made the
mothers influence more commanding.
The child loved the mother with modi-
fcation of the same passion that the
father had folt for "a nature he deemed
his nobler counterpart. The father was
so much like his daughter that she could
not comprehend him until she was ripe
enough to comprehend herself. Crude
contrasts are earliest perceived, earliest
appreciated and earliest admired in char
acter as in art,
So without any resistance Mrs. Broth
ertoft welded Lucy. She let the child
love her and confido in her exclusively
But she hated her. She hated Edwin
Brothertoft's daughter. There was the
girl growing more and more like him
day by day. There were the fathers
smile. the fathers manner, the fathers
voice-even the fathers very expressions
oF auJnn t,napt forever rpnrOarhiuO tha