The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-05-13

willow all my life for creature who
defrauded me into mock .marriagol
deserted me and his child--left us toI
starve or to worse?"
| 'sBut how could you marry another
man? How dared you? Did you tell
him the whole truth? Mr.. Norcross, II
mean"
Mrs. .Norcross laughed again. There
was none of the silvery lnerriment in!
the sound that the guests downstairs
had heard before this person had in
truded like a deaths head at her feast.
It was CHASTITY sort of laugh, and,
leaving her seat, she began pacing the
narrow dressing-room with long rest
LESS strides. Suddenly she turned
hercely on Nora:
"Why did you come acre, Nora Hem.
way? Why did you come here to spoil
my beautiful, bright, gay life? The
child would never miss me. She did mott
need me. l heard you had married that
stupid John Lorimer and gone away to:
the country to live, and was glad.
'Glad, Mellie?"
Eyes, glad! glad! glad! For Eugene
| Norcross never would have made me hisl
wife. if he had not believed was abso-:
lutelv alone in the world. And wrote to;
you, throwing myself on your mercy. q
told you that my past must be a dead ano.:
buried past. begged you to help me
make it so. 1t was to avoid just such
mischances as this that wrote that let
ter. I told you all about the money
had put in the bank for the child. You
might have let me be happy, Nora. God
knows / have suffered enough in the
past
GLOW can one be happy living lie,
Nellie? How can you be happy without
letting him know all about Sibley Fair
banks? You were innocent then
Amelia, bnt you are guilty here--horri-
bly, guilty" 49,
"Do you want me to kill you, Nora?
feel equal to it--quite equal to it-you'
wretched, pulling moralist!'
She stopped in front of her sister,
quivering from head to foot with pas.
sion. Every vestige Of color had fled.
from her beautiful face, leaving it,
drawn and CHASTITY. Her small, jeweled
hands were clinched until the pink nails
penetrated the soft flesh. AS she stood
with her back to the chamber door. She
looked quite equal to carrying her wild
| words into execution.
Nora, looking at the wildly excited
creature more in alarm than in anger,
became conscious of third presence.
| A dark, stern face was framed monen-
| tarily in the doorway behind Amelia'a
back, then quickly withdrawn. 4
| ''There is some one in there!' she
said, huskily, pointing toward the bed
room-'sone one who has heard our
! talk
If possible, Amelia's face grew yet
paler. She sprang like some beautiful
| panther toward the open door, then
stopped, paralyzed. Her voice sounded
| husky and feeble:
''Eugenel You here?''
II am here, Who is your visitor, Mrs.
Norcross?"
"A poor sewing woman" :
She had disappeared within the room,
and pushed the door after her. 1t did
not close fully upon it's hinges. Nora
sat still, so absolutely dazed and
| wretched that it never occurred to her
to put herself beyond the reach of the
! voices in the next room. Where, in
deed, in this strange house, should she
go?
'You are at home early, Eugene"
It was Amelia's voice. The effort to
make it quite natural and soft was
pitiably apparent to her sisters tortured
| ears. e.
It was not pleasant voice that all
swered her:
Eyes, am at home early. came
home to give my wife some advice"
There was a concentration of wrath in
the voice that set Nora's heart beating
with apprehension.
"Advice for me, Eugene?'
eyes, Mrs. Norcross, for you" Then
followed the rustling of some papers.
''The next time you write letters con-
tanning secrets touching upon your own
immaculate past, be more careful. Mrs,
Norcross. Doubtless your own per-
funed stationery was inadequate to
this bulk but it was a clumsy mistake
to inclose your communication to your
dear Norrie in one of my business en-
velopes. Perhaps you have never no
ticed the explicit printed directions for
us ItGuIu W NuBcuc SOICiOSss, ~ NdlOA-.
delet street, or perhaps, again, you did
not calculate the chances of non-deliv-
cry. Such mishaps are unfortunate"
Another silent moment. Then Anne
liza, in the voice of frightened child:
"And that letter came back to you?"
''And that letter came back to me.'
"And you have read it?''
"And have read it. 4
''Then you know every thing" 7
II know every thing.''
''What are you going to- do?''
In the dreadful silence that fol-
lowed, Nora's sense of honor pricked
her into action. She must put herself
beyond the sound of that disgraceful al
tercation. With her hand upon tho
knob, she paused invo]untarily. Eugene
Norcross was answering his wife's last
question: :sWhat am going to do about
it? BY Cd, what ought to do is