The Globe-republican., 1893-02-24
CHAPTER Ill.
TWO LETTERS.

lWO leUleIS, MI. hdiSudll.
Raymond Marshall took the rendered
missives from the hands of the anti
quated postmaster of Hopedale, thrust
one, an ordinary business missive, into
his pocket carelessly, but the other
his eye frightened and his pulses came
quicker.
From Edna" he murmured, recog-
niZing the handwriting on the envelope.
Something about the reception to-
night. l hope that tiresome Mr.. Brins-
ley is not to be her escort. 1t is too
precious, too sacred to read here"
He reached home and went to his
room with gay song on his lips. The
memory of the girl he loved was al
ways with him, the possession of a
shy, dainty epistie from her enhanced
its sweetness.
Rather bulky, he commented, as he
carefully cut open the envelope, as if
every scrap of paper her hands had
touched was precions. Mr. Marshall
. cruel hoax, surely.
The words died in gasp. With star
Ing eyes Marshall surveyed the letter
before him. Then staggering to seat,
he sat glaring at it with colOrless face
and chilled heart.
A formal dismissal, cold, precise
disavowal of all the past, the cruel
words seemed icy fingers reaching for
his heart, to blight all the faith and
love of his nature with single touch.
Edna had written it-her slanting,
italian style showed in the chirography.
There could be no doubt of that, but
the language!-oh! what did it mean?
Briefly it addressed him as might one
a stranger. Circumstances, the latter
said, had in an hour changed her des-
tiny. All was over between them. 1t
was better so, since fate ordained it.
Remember her as a friend, their brief
Irritation as wayward caprice for
passing the summer months away!
False! Deceitful! will never be-
lieve 1t, painted the petrified Marshall
why! yesterday-the ring 1 gave her,
the pledges we made-oh! this is some
farce, some hidden dream! What is
this?'
Mechanically turning the wretched
missive over and over in his nerveless
hands, Raymond Marshall observed for
the first time that it was comprised OF
two sheets of paper.
And striving TO separate them, he as
certained that stray patches of mucilage
held the lower page to the other. In
few minutes he discened that it could
not have been me intention of the
sender to inclose the second sheet
That was accidental 1t had stuck to
the top sheet and had been folded in
with it by hasty, careless hand.
1t bore writilAy-not Edna's writing.
A dagger seemed driven to Ray Mar
shalrs heart as he tore it free. and the
bold, masc uline chirography danced be-
fore his vision.
If he had been startled before, every
pulse stirred with fierce fire now. The
letter had evidently been received by
Edna the day previous, and was signed
with the name OF the only rival in her
affection to whom he had ever given
a thought Miss Chandler's cousin,
Edna's announced escort of that even.
ing-Barton Brinsley.
The letter Of an accepted lover to the
woman he loved, it betrayed decided
encouragement from Edna. It even
bore a slight ridicule of Marshall's pre-
tensions. Edna had endured this! Edna
had played him false, and while her shy
lips were spending to his ardent ex-
pressions Of devotion her hypocriticai
heart was thinking of Barton Brinsley.
The complication was maddening.
With eyes dashed with the insanity Of
despair the tortured artist. looked up.
He clenched the tell-tale sheets in his
hand as If they were the false heart Of
the girl who had Tilted him. and that of
the man who had stolen away her love.
IL will kill him," ne choked out, his
soul ablaze.
And then, realizing the folly of suca
a sentiment, the right of any man to
hOnorably strive for woman's prefer
ence, with the bitterness of death COM
pretending that tte woman was the
deceiver, remembering his mothers
taunt once made that he had better
marry some one besides "a nameless,
homeless, nobody" he calmed down,
put on his hat, and walked from the
house like one in q dream, his lips
firmly set but sick 1t heart