Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1893-06-16

Prescott fostered her dislike TO 81. ives;
she quarreled constantly with Annot
about him. and finally forbade ABuot to
see HIM.
The result might have been fUreseen.
st. Ives contriyed to meet Annot out
somewhere, swore that he loved her too
well to live without her and made her
believe him. Late the following night
a carriage was waiting not far from
Mes. prescott's residence. Annot crept
softly dSNa from her own room and
sole out toward It, and they were driver
swiftly away, An8fOt sobbiag IA a hys-
eorical fright at tie step she had taken.
It had been understood that they
should proceed Immediately to the house
Of a clergyman and be married, but St.
Ives proposed that they should leave
the city for that purpose, and, as It was
too late to render it probable that they
would easily find a clergyman, postpone
the ceremony till morning dawued.
It was far into the next day before
they stopped at a little country hotel
miles from tho city, and Annot, haggard
from ~sleeplessness and red eyed from
weeping, was conducted within.
st. Ives ordered breakfast and went
out afterward, rs he said, to look for a
minister. Annot waited, still very much
depressed and not feeling at all as she
had supposed people did who were about
to be married. Some one knocked.
Blushing guilty, she opened the door;
but instead Of st. Ives and his expected
companfoa, a glided into tie
room, and throwing back her veil
showed a face Of surprising beauty,
and fixed upon the shrinking girl a pair
Of dark, burning Italian eyes.
~Who are you? What do you wantg'
stammered Annot at last, rallying her
self.
The woman's glance softened.
"You are such a child" she said-"so
young. am very sorry for YOU"
"Sorry for me? I-don't-understand
you" AnHot said, wishing that st. Ives
w0ad come, and thinking that this
strange woEAan must be crazy, and then
with a low cry sprang to meet st. Ives,
who had Just entered the room, and
stood glaring at the stranger with en-
ragged eyes.
Banging the door to behind him, ind
pushing Annot from him almost saw
agely, he spoke to the woman with the
dark Italian eyes.
"Have you told herY' he asked.
The woman shook her head.
He laughed bitterly.
"You thought it was GOo pleasant o
task fer me to be deprived of, ehT'
st. Ives turned sharply toward her.
"There's no use in dilly-dallying now,
Annot," he said abruptly. 81 couldn't
deceive you any longer If / wanted to.
I think you and l won't be married this
morningE
Annot dropped trembling and uncom-
prehensive into a chair.
"For the very singular reason" he
went on, that l have already one wife,
and she's too much for me-"
The STR sc woman glided to the side
Of the b~ewlldered girl.
II am his wife, dear" she said almost
tenderly. Don't mind, it might have
been worse, you know"
st. Ives seemed touched by the face Of
white despair Annot lifted at the wo-
mans words.
you're only ten miles from Jaynes-
vile, Annot," he said almost remorse
fully, ''and there's q stage, / believe.
You can go right home and nobody be
the wiser. Here is money to pay your
way"
Annot rose mechanically, and as she
did so the bills he had upon her knee fell
to the floor.
he picked them up and offered them
to her again, as she was tying on her
bonnet; but she left the room without
looking at them or him, and went slowly
out Of the hotel, with her veil down, her
head dizzy, and her heart so heavy it
could hardly throb.
The stage drove up at that moment,
and while it waited she eagerly entered
it, and took her seat, without glancing
toward the single passenger who was
already there. An exclamation caused
her to lift her eyes.
II was too much, too much, that that
face of i%ncredulous surprise should be-
long to Rollin Dracut. But it did. He
caught her as she fell fainting.
She walked from hat swoon to burn
ing fever and the Inconsistencies Of
delirium; and Rollin, supporting her all
the way till they reached home, gath
cred from her crazed lips the whole sad
story, or enough Of 1t to wiring his heart
and make his own brain whirl.
She lay i'll weeks, and he went every
day to see how low she was. Then,
when she was pronounced out OF danger,
he left Jaynesyille without seeing her at
all.
Two years after no came back. He
went to see her as any old friend might,
and he found her so sweetly like the
little Annot who had been his promised
w8eonce, 80 gently penitent for the
past, 90 resigned to any fate that might
await her in punishment, that he fell
more deeply in love than ever, and asked
her to be his wife as though nothing had
happened. Annot had long since walked
to a consciousness Of his worth, and she
did not say no.-C. o. in New Yorh
News.
A Sure Sign.
Little Diek-Papa, how does thunder
sour milk2
Papa-It is not the thunder, but the