The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-10-05

agony. She feared to move Ie1t she
should attract the attention OF hen, hus-
band. Her mind was Ia state az chaos.
Her doubts end fears followed each other
with lightning speed, whirling around
in an endless race. There was one dom
inant idea. which every moment came
into prominence. fell away and came III
again. This was how she might devise
some means whereby she might prevent
the hideors truth from being discovered
and yet protect her father from the de
signs Of her husband. for she felt that
they all stood on the brink Of preci-
pice and that false step on her part
might be attended with the most dis
astrous consequences.
As the night wore away the suspense
became unbearable. and having assured
herself that her husband was now really
asleep sho slipped out of bed and sought
help AID comfort by kneeling at the lit
tie Shrine to Our Lady which was fas.
tened in a,corner of the room. Long she
knelt there, and much comfort came tc
her. She stole back to bed with he1
mind clearer AID began anew to revolve
the elf .c,llt problem
BY dcgrees~a light seemed to come tC
her. Tho difficulties became less and
less, az with the earl dawn she sank
into light sleep. having resolved on a
course Of action which, although attend
ed with much trouble and considerable
degree of danger, might avert the trou-
BILE which stared them all in the face.
She was so sure of her own singleness of
purpose that it did not even occur to her
that in her contemplated action there
was to herself certain danger of having
her motives misunderstood in case any
premature discovery of her plans should
take place.
What she had resolved was as follows:
She would go at the first opportunity she
might have without risk of casual dis
covery to the place where the money
was hidden, take it away so as to pre-
vent the temptation to her husband Of
stealing it and hide it somewhere else
until she should have q good oppor-
tunity Of restoringit to her father with
out betraying her husband.
When she woke in the morning from
her troubled sleep, she could hardly real
ize that the events of the night were
actualities and not hideous dreams.
However, she set herself bravely to
work, not to let any one suspect that she
had a 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 ill
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. It 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 lin 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, un-
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 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. y
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. It was not until she had
placed back the canvas in the hole and
filed in the earth again and smoothed it