People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1894-03-09
BLIND JUSTICE
BY HELEN d. TJATHERS.
CHAPTER !.

CHAPTER |.
The woman flashed across the
court at me a look of scorn, ay, and
of contempt, but Of iear not trace.
And yet |, who had placed her IN
the dock where she stood, |, who
had made those purely disinterested
efforts to hang her, that seemed GER
tain to be crowned with success, felt
that however much | might deserve
her detestation, | in no sense was or
looked the mistaken fool that she
supposed me.
Judith they called her, and a Jud-
it'll she was, with the grand frame
and limbs of a daughter and mother
OF the gods, and like her great name
sake, she too had slain her man,
though not to such heroic purpose
and results.
This woman had no tribe to glOrify
her crime, and only one friend on
earth with heart to be wrung by it,
and that man now stood as closely
as might be, beside her. his comeli-
ness all aged and dimme,l by the an
guish through which she had brought
him - ~s..-
And yet l felt, for the first time,
sorry for my work, when that look
others, in which spoke virile limo
cence, so sure of itself as easily to
afford contempt, flashed upon some
inner consciousness OF mire, leaving
OUTSIDE it the brain and that had al
ready tried and found her guilty.
But, mol had seen this strong,
calm woman in the thrOes of fear and
agony, her not easily moved nature
shaken to its very depths, and no
criminal yet ever had circumstantial
evidence so pitilessly arrayed against
her. | forced my eyes from her, and
fixed them on the counsel for the
prosecution, who had already COM
nenced his indictment against her.
"This woman" ne said, "little
more than a child at her marriage,
had lived a VIGOROUSLY miserable
life with Seth TreloaE though to do
her justice, no blame OF any kind at
tached itself to her conduct as a
wife; and when within the year he
disappeared, leaving no trace, she
remained in her native village, sup.
porting herself by any sort of work
that came in her way. She does not
appear to have encouraged any
lovers; but when seven years had
passed, she boldly announced tina
she felt herself legally free of Ire
loar, and married a man whose char
acter was as good as her former hus
band S had been the reverse. ant
whom she loved with passion NOR,
than equal to that detestation she
had felt for the other. From being
the butt of drunken and bruta
scoundrel, she became the cherished
and adored wife of the best lookin!
and best natured man in the village
and for some brief months tastet
that supreme happiness which i
known only to those persons who il
the past have acutely suffered. PEI
haps so much content irritated tn
on-loOkers, for only cold looks wer
cast upon the two, while the NAL
cious prOphesied that Treloar's re
turn would cut short the pairs fell
city, and affected not to conside
them man and wife at ALL so that b
degrees they became completely isl
lated from their neighbors, and n
living feet save their own eve
crossed the threshold of SmugSler
Role
This house had formerly been th
rendezvous of smugglers who wer
said to have within it some hidin
place in which to dispose of the
stolen goods but though smuggler
went there no more, its bad chara,
ter remained, and its lonely positio
at the cad Of the parish made
feared, so that the rent was me
tri6e, and as Treloar had brougl
Judith back to it a bride, so nc
Judith brought Stephen Croft thith
as bridegroom, and there they DIVE
as much alone as on a desert islam
The woman defed her world, ca
ing nothing, but the man felt h
position keenly, and at last pc
euaded her that it was best to en-
CRATE. and to this she at last We
reluctantly consented.
Six months, then, after the cel
mony that the villagers declared
ceremony, Judith Croft sat one mig
by the fire in the almost empty CT
tage from which she was to depf
On the morrow, with the man W
represented all the sweetness a
happiness she had found in her Ii
She heard steps on the path, t
latch lifted. and we may surely p
the unhappy woman when, spring.
through the dusk, she found hers
clasped in the arms, not of Steph
Croft, but Of Seth Treloar.
OF what passed between them. G
alone was witness, and God ale
knows the truth; when the II
she loved came in an hour later. s
~aa sitting alone By the hearth, v