The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-12-12
ment, to regard only the windows behind

. ment, to regard only the Windows behind
I which you slept.
Then, all at once, you yourself stood
before me, you, the phantom of my shat
tered happiness, and you would bid me
still be silent, still shut in the heart that
beats only for you the secret that stittes It'll
l cannot! 1t is impossibleI Speak must.
Gernaine'
Mime. de Lucenay, stupefied by Roberts
appearance and his passionate avowal of A
love that now, through circumstances be
yond their control. it was crime even to
remember, much less to speak of, had step
by step recoiled from him, till both of them
now stood inside the greenhouse door
Scarcely, too, had the words left his lips
when she feverishly seized his arm
Hear, hear! she cried breathiessly
bending her head to listen.
Through the silence of the night the
sand of the lower alley crunched under the
firm, alert step of a mana man walking
lesurely and whistling a hunting air
My husbandT murmured she in a
strangled voice. 'Ah, mailman that yo.
are, Robert, you have ruined us BOTH!
No. said he briefly. he will enter the
salon steps. | still have time
Yes yes, perhaps. But go, go quickly,
wildly.
And pushing him toward the still open
conservatory door she brusquely closed it
upon him and staggered back through the
salle-a-manger 1t was time M. de Luce
nay was entering the salon.
Naturally at sight of his wife, all pale
and trembling, too he stopped astonished.
She explained hastily as well as she could.
ba coz o,,l
little air his step had startled her some
what Nothing serious 1t would soon
pass.
speedy return?'
'''The fault of those cursed wolves. said
he. There was no drive at all. They were
in the trap of their own accord when Re.
nard and arrived. We killed them at
once, without second shot even. But
you were going for air, you say, dearest.
Come, take my arm then. Well go out
together for little while
Willingly began his wife, then stopped
short and sank half swooning into chair
beside her.
1.-THE moon, flashing suddenly from the
clouds that covered it, had shown her plain
~ through the greenhouse door, an instant
AiShoSeA dPs olIC pclC, ctAAlOuS ldcE Vi xlODSrC
de Gedres. One instant visible, the next
moment lost in the night as again the
moon was yelled by the clouds.
"Behold what had happened.
'At the moment when Nine de Lucenay.
terrified by the situation and the coming of
her husband, pushed to the heavy, iron
bound door of the conservatory upon the
colonel, she had closed it so quickly and
Iva I, 81, :.
the frame the index finger of M. de Gedres'
right hand.
AT that moment M. de Lucenay entered
the salon. In spite of his agony Robert de
Gedres had strength enough to restrain
cry, though suffering torture that for
moment made it seem as if he must swoon
outright AS soon as he could, for the pain
and faintness, he sought to extricate his
hand and return as he had come.
But, alasl a crueler pang still warned
him that he was not free to go; that the
iron mountings of the door chung still by
strip of flesh to his broken finger and held
him prisoner.
Again, at the same moment, the raised
voice of M. de Lucenay, proposing to lead
his wife to the garden, reached him through
the glasses, and by the dim light burning
in the salon brackets he saw him extend
his arm and saw his wife rise to accept it, .
I'm one binding flash all the conse-
quences of his mad act were scared upon
his brain, all the drama that was going to
pass, the horrible scandal, the right to JUS
tice that the husband would demand for q
fancied outrage, and this woman, this ire
proachable wife, whom with all his soul he
loved in spite of the barriers between them,
would be ruined, scandalized, possibly
killed, through him, who would willingly
have died to save her,
''To save herl All, a thought had struck
him-he could, he would, save herl
Plumbing feverishly in his pocket, he
drew out his knife, opened it with his
teeth. and with one swift, unhesitating cut
the crushed bone and flesh were through,
and Robert de Gedres, the bleeding stump
wrapped in his handkerchief, disappeared
in the night.
Next morning, at roll call, instead of
the colonel, a messenger arrived from the
doctor, bringing the intelligence that M. de
Gedres had grievously wounded himself
that morning cleaning his revolver and had
gone, by his orders, to recover from the acct
dent at his country seat of Loupe-solange."
AAAAS. oO A<oSClOAACo SUOpHC0 jean Wlp6u
his moist brow
POUNDS, marquise," cried he, drawing
long breath to relieve the tension of his
feelings, that's creepy story of yours, but
if, as you say, De Gedres was SC discreet,
how did you come to know so by the card
all the peripatetics of this adventure?"
The marquise stood up briskly and smil-
ingly.
Jean, my friend,' said she, 1.-The cotillon
and my story both arc ended. Profit by it. q
Be discreet, ask no questions and, above all,
in thy love affairs never let thy finger be
caught by the doorl'-From the French.
Covering Up Truth.
A certain man in Detroit, who goes fish
Ing two or three times a year and brings
home more stories than fish, was talking to
q friend not long after his last trip.
And what did your wife say,'' inquired
the friend, when you told her you had
caught a fish, none less than a pound
weight"
THAT wife Of mine is queer woman
vas the reflective response You know
that statue of truth we have there in the