Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-09-27

to summon . physician, but Luoian
shook his head and directed him to
go to bed. The man reluctantly
obeyed after he had vainly tried to
persuade his master to remove his
clothes and 60 to rest first himself.
Nature is more merciful than men
give her credit for. Like murderous
blows, great agonies SO dull sensibili-
ity that little pain is felt. The terri.
BILE hurt mercifully brings unconscious
ness with it. Some sorrows are 80
heavy that the sufferer is crushed be-
meath the load. He can't even cry out,
q chill almost of death steals ever him.
He Is dead, for real death cannot be 80
horrible.
When Lucien's servant re-enSered his
room the next morning, he was startled
to find his master sitting with his
clothes on just as he had loft him.
He had not stirred from the chair into
which he had fallen upon his return
home after those three hours of mad
pursuit, and then as the man drew the
curtains aside and let the SUMS rays
into the room, he uttered stihed cry
OF horror, for great flecks Of gray
streaked that glorious head of hair. In
q single night grief had wrought this
devastation; in q few brief hours q
speechless woe had set its ghastly fin
ger marks upon this bright page Of hui
mainly. Nor did despair stop there. In
q few weeks the change was complete;
that luxuriant growth of hair-crown
of strong and perfect manhood-was
silvered over to its very roots. But
gradually the paroxysm spent its force
and like came to cure like when Lucien
looked upon the terrible woe now
nestled in that little home and listened
to the lamentations of the old couple 80
cruelty deserted
In a few days letters came from Mad
eleine, both to her parents and to Lu.
Glen, announcing her marriage to
Angelo and promising to return home
in few months, when they had quieted
down and had come to look upon her
action in q calm and reasonable way,
which, OF course, was now impossible.
To Lucien she wrote as follows:
"Oh, Lucien, dear master, will you
ever be able to forgive your poor slave
for thus as, DESERVING s,,t you? All, yes;
thought 1, If his power is 80 great
over me now, what will it be when
am his wife? You know what a wild
and willful child l am. I could not
bear to think OF chains, even though
my love for my master was so great. I
trembled when I pictured myself your
wife. My woman's soul longed to try
its wings, not to have them tied. Dear
master, you are not weak and mortal;
you would not be led by woman. The
world is so beautiful, and l have not
seen it yet. Great and generous soul,
bear with me. could not be satisfied
with being listener to the wonderful
things that happen to the maidens in
your stories; wanted to be one Of the
maidens myself. tired Of watching
to dance and feast myself. Comfort
dear mother and father, oh, beloved
master, with the music of your voice
and the look Of your noble countenance,
and grieve not for the loss Of one who
was not worthy of you."
Lucien read and reread this strange
letter hour after hour, day after day.
1t had two-fold influence upon him,
alternately depressing and exciting
him, but in the end the feeling that
took possession of his soul was q deep
and indescribable indignation. To think
that a woman whom he had loved with
a devotion that went beyond thought
should have been SO ready to abandon
him for such a vain and soulless Great
ure, pulled up with the senseless ad-
miration showered upon him by NOR
bid-minded women. TO think that this
jack-a-dandy should have been 80 easily
able to lure her away; that she should
same amorous glances which Liverino
had darted at his female admirers in
London, Paris, and st. Petersburg;
that he should have been able to catch
her very soul with the chatf of pretty
phrases used by him in a thousand
just such cases. Even by his friends
Liverino was admitted to be stupid
and vulgar, and yet she had found him
sublime; she had fallen in love with
this singing machine, like child with
the soft tinkle of music box. She had
found her ideal in this pretty-faced
minstrel; she had given up all the
world for him, relinquished all other
love for the love that an opera queen
gets from the leading man. Faugh!
And yet, strange to say, resolve as
whom he had clasped for a brief in
slant in his arms, he could not bring
himself to it. The words died on his
lips softly, so gently that they seemed
more like blessing than curse.
A hundred times he sat down and
took up his pen to write, but the hot
hate cooled ere it reached the Quilts
point. He could distill the venom of
despised love, but he could not make it
flow out in black and bitter lines. Had
she ever pledged herself to him? In
spite of her seeming willingness, in
spite OF the solemn compact entered
into for her by her parents, had she
really been transferred to him? Had
any ear heard the divine acquiescence
when Gods blessing had been invoked
upon the betrothal? How could q child
like Madeleine be expected to know
what fidelity meant when she had not
learned what possession was?
Il was man Of 49," argued Lucien,
when swore to cherish and protect
her. For many years had been q
man of the world. I had complete
knowledge of its social and moral re-
sponsibilities. knew what I was do
ing. was the only one betrothed."
But willing in the end as Lucien was
to extend full pardon to Madeleine,