New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1893-01-11

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49,. you, Zoe, can not
- and will not endure
- this state of things
MT9 any longer. If you
49, loved me you would
not defy my wishes
rs you do"
Speaking thus, Earl Dunstan turned
and faced his young wife with look
of sudden and stern determination
written On every line of his handsome
features.
But ali unheeding this, Zoe, flashed
ther dark eyes upon him derisively,
while short, low laugh of knocking
defiance rippled unsteady from her
scarlet lips.
eff I loved you!" she echoed, scorn-
fully. "Well. perhaps you are right
in saying that. have often wondered
at the strange whim which led me to
accept you instead Of"
"Of Fred Hammond, why don't
you say?" he finished, with a bitter
.sneer, as Zoe paused, triAe shocked
at her own temerity. You can't deny
that it was his name which was. on
your lips as it is evidently his image
that fills your heart. Fred Ham,
mond, the fascinating Lothario,
whose attentions to you last night
made you the talk of the rooms, who
was an old lover of yours, as every
body knows, and whom you would
doubtless be willing enough to marry
now were you again free to undo the
errors OF the past. Can you deny it,
81 shall deny nothing" she flashed
out, in q white heat OF passionate
.*corn, her large dark eyes blazing, and
sher very lips blanched to the hue of
ssnowdrift. "You have drawn a fasci-
mating picture of what might have
keen, and it is thousand pities that
it can never be realized. How cruel
you are to remind me that am not
free to undo the past!"
"By heaven, then, you shall be-" he
'retorted, desperately. "From this
AOuL yOu oA1etA AOO 10 LEOuUl0U WlCQ
my presence, nor your actions tram
meled by my TYRANNY as you are
pleased to term my consideration for
my good name. 1 am going to leave
you forever, Zoe, and as soon as the
1aw permits, you will regain your free
y dom, and marry the man you love.
This is all that is left me to do for
your happiness but it is still something.
Thank God that know the truth at
last! If had known it sooner, how
much sorrow might have been spared
us both!"
He stopped, his voicegrowing husky
and broken toward the last, cast one
lingering. passionate look upon the
young wife he had loved so we'll turn
ed away from her without another
word, and then-was gone!
Gone! Zoe, listening to the echo of
mis- footsteps down the hall, down the
broad, shallow stairs, awoke at last
from the trance which had held her
since the first word of that terrible
speech fell on her ears.
hike one awakening from some deep,
strange sleep, she suddenly reused her
self and staggered toward the door,
;passlonate anguish and entreaty.
earle! Earle! come back she cried.
81 did not mean it. You drove me
wild with your cruel suspicious. love
mo one-want no one-but you! III
-. Oh. God!"-as the great front
door below swing to with a heavy
crash-"he is gone-gone forever''
The wild, yearning voice, intense
with the agony of breaking heart,
whose sound, even at first, had scarce
~ gone farther than the white, rigid
lips through which it passed, sudden
:iy failed-died into silence-and Zoe
:Dunstan, the deserted wife, sunk down
upon the carpet like one stricken by a
smortal blow.
Weeks passed before she knew any,
thing more of that terrible daY.
Brain fever had seized upon her. and
st seemed many times as though her
life must pay the forfeit OF her share
an its reckless folly.
But at last she crept back to life,
though for months she was only the
shadow of her former SELF
Brilliant and bewitching, with the
>effervescent sparkle of champagne In
her lovely eyes, and flushing, rounded
cheeks, and dainty, scarlet lips, had
been Zoe Dunstan before that ill-fated
day. Beautiful she was yet, but that
sparkling brilliancy was gone, and a
deathless sorrow looked out from
those marvellous dark eyes whose
witchery had ensnared so many
Ehearts.
When she was strong enough to beal
it, they told her everything; how they
had tried to find her husband wher
they discovered her stricken down by
that almost fatal shock; how they
had searched vainly for him every
where, only to learn, at. last. that 1t
had sailed for Europe on the very day
that he had left his wife and home
how, a little later, the world had beer
startled by the news of an awful dis
&sster-the noble ship on which he ha6
taken passage had been wrecked il
.mid-ocean, and Earle Dunstan's nam.
was among the list of those who wer'
known to be lost.