The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1893-10-04

However, she set herself bravely to
work, not to let any one suspect that she
had secret to keep. Her mother no
ticed the dark rings under her eyes and
concerned herself about her, but she
begged her quietly not to notice her and
went on with her work preparing the
morning meal.
Her great concern was to avoid giving
Robert an opportunity of going alone to
the coppice, and to this purpose she never
let him go out of her sight He was i'll
at ease and evidently wanted to get
away, but as he was afraid that any sus-
picion would Of course defeat his object
he had to constrain himself to fall in with
her purposes whenever and however she
might express them. 1t taxed all her
woman's ingenuity to find suitable ex-
cuses for keeping him by her side, and
once or twice she felt the hysterical lump
rising in her throat to such degree that
it took the greatest effort in her power
to control herself-in fact. had it not been
for the gravity of the occasion and the
issue at stake she would have given
way.
Little do men know Of the fierce bat
ties which women have to fight with
themselves on behalf of those whom they
love and to fight them all alone, I'M
cheered by any sympathy and without
even the meager consolation that in time
those for whom the effort is made will
know and appreciate the magnitude of
the present sacrifice
By and by Robert, realizing that he
was not likely to have q fit opportunity
for looking after the buried money. de-
termined to give it up for the present
and for the day to enjoy himself after
his usual fashion. So presently he
strolled away to join the other idlers at
the wine shop, which was also the gen.
eral and only shop in the place.
When she found herself alone, Marie
had to decide at what time she would
make the attempt. She felt that it must,
if it was to be Of any use. be made at the
earliest possible moment, for she could
see that Robert was bent on the evil
work being done as soon as he could &C
complish it.
She decided that whatever was to be
done ought to be done at once. AS soon
as she found moment when she could
escape her mothers eye he took spade
and ran to the cOpse where the money
was hidden. She did not lose moment,
but began to dig and very shortly turned
up a piece Of canvas tied into bag.
Hastily she unrolled it and took out the
money, which she placed in her pocket,
for she thought her wisest plan to pre-
vent the risk of discovery would be to
wait for favorable opportunity of hid
ing it in some other place.
Her heart was so full of glad exulta-
ton that she had so far been enabled to
save Ter husband from his contemplated
crime that she had not taken any heed
whatever Of the possible consequences Of
her own act 1t was not until she had
placed back the canvas in the hole and
filled in the earth again and smoothed it
over so that it's recent disturbance would
not be apparent that it struck her that
the labor was not yet complete. She
paused in her running, for she was by
this time hurrying back to the house, and
a sudden impulse took her to replace the
money at all hazards. Just then, how
ever, she heard her mother calling her. so
she had to abandon the impulse. She re-
turned to the house with q weight on her
mind which seemed to drag her down.
Her conscience began to torture her
with doubts as to the propriety OF her &C
ton.