Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-02-23
ASTORY OF BLOOD.
BY NJ. z. pnADDox.
CHAPTER xn.-coNTINUED.

Iut ldlt Ol AolLlll mlNioAs ~ Noo hhOWi ~
the Rue Git lie C9ur that she had been active
amidst the atrocities of the Commune,
shining light in that fiery atmosphere. She
was known TO have carried the chassepot
and the petroleum can, to have been busy
amidst scenes of riot and death. There were
some who declared that she was the petrol
euse who had ridden, dressed as a VIVIAN
.dere, ut the head of that hideous procession
I'm the Rue Haxo, when the priests and the
gendarmes were led to the slaughter, less.
happy in their doom than the Archbishop
and his companions. who were massacred
within the walls Of La Roquette. Certain it
Is that she had been seen more than once in
a WANDERERS costume, and that she was
known TO be one of the fiercest of that hell
fish crew.
Some said that she had been shot down
on the last of the barricades, yonder at
Bellevile; others declared that they had
seen her in gang of prisoners bound for
Satory. No one regretted her; but there
was morbid curiosity in the Rue Git 10
C9ur, and two or three adjoining streets, as
to her fate. Details of her last hours sea-
soned with plenty of blood, would have been
welcome.
The crcmcrie had been closed from the
first day of the barrcades, and had never
reopened. A board in front Of the shop an
nounced that Is was lolicr preSCntelnent
Either la Michel was verify gone TO give an
account of her sins in the land of shadows,
or she was keeping out Of the way, lest she
should be called upon to answer for her
misdeeds before an earthly tribunal. This
was what was said of her in the Tue Git lie
Cpur. Kathleen knew the popular mind
upon this subject and she heard Durand
and Rose discuss the question on one of
those rare occasions when she consented to
Join them at the neat little supper table. 1t
was almost festival for Rose when she
could induce her sister to spend the evening
with her.
II always hated that woman" said Rose,
speaking of Suzon Michel; "a bold bad wo-
man, capable Of any crime"
"a creature of strong passions, no doubt"
answered Durand, terribly capable of evil.
But do not know that she was quite inca
pable of good. These women who feel so
strongly arc rs fitful as a summer thunder
storm; they will adore man one day and
murder him the next But they have the
power TO love as well MS to hate; they have
strength for self-sacrifce as well as for
crime"
~ do not value their love any higher than
their hate" said Rose, who had never for
gotten her early impressions about Suzon,
never ceased TO be jealous and suspicious
of the woman who had dared to love Kath-
leen's lover; their hearts and minds are all
evil their love Is a snare. If she is dead,
well-God give me eharity-let her rest in
her grave; if she is living, God grant that
she and l may never meet"
1t was only a few days after the evening
upon which this conversation occurred that
Kathleen had startling evidence of Suzon
Michel's existence in Paris, at the very time
when peope believed her to be either dead
or in exile.
Those first days of September IN III were
as suitry and thunderous as the last days Of
August. Indeed, it seemed as if the sum-
mer grew hotter as it waned The sun shone
with tropical splendor all day, and at even
tide the atmosphere was thick with heat.
1t was be ween eight and nine, after her
evening watch in a street the Barrirre d'En-
fer was over, that Kathleen went 10 a spot
which she had visited in many a twilight
hour, since she first ga2ed upon it in the dim
early morning on the 18th OF May.
This was the narrow side street in which
she had seen the bloody traces Of her hus-
bands death, at the foot of the lamp-post
That dreadful spot was to her as his grave,
and her coming hither had all the solemnity
of pilgrimage to grave. The street was
dull and solitary-a street Of shabby houses,
shabbily occupied by the working classes.
1t was a new street which had never attain
ed prosperity, and three or four of the
houses were empty, staring at the sky with
curtain'ess windows, and boards announcing
that they were to let. Here and there APP
peared a shop, but shop which looked as
II customers were the exception rather than
the rule.
On this September evening the street was
empty, save for couple of women stand
ing talking at q streetdoor, little way
from the lamp-post by which CASTOR fell.
The house facing this fatal spot was empty,
had been empty ever since Kathleen had
known the street. The windows were cloud
ed with dust; the board announcing its va
cancy had fallen on one side, and hung dis
consulate. The proprietor had, doubtless,
abandoned all hope of finding a tenant I'M
til the evil days had passed, and new birth
of prosperity had come about for this fair
land of France 1t was a dreary-loolling
house in dreary street; a new house which
had grown old and shabby without ever
having been occupied.
haJnleen walked SLOWLY up ana uOWn the
street two or three times, coming back TO
the fatal spot, and standing beside it for q
few minutes with bent head and clasped
hands, and lips moving dumbly in prayer
for the beloved dead. On the last time she
saw a woman coming towards the same spot
looming as If to meet her, woman who
looked to her like ghost Yes, like one
dead, who had come back to life purified
and chastened by the pilgrimage through
the valley of the shadow of death.
1t was Suzon Michel, but not the Suzon OF
old. The fire in the large black eyes was
quenched, the face had lost its brazen bold
ness, the rich carnation of sensual vigorous
beauty had faded from the cheek. A pale
grave face, with serious mournful eyes,
looked at Kathleen, and, recognizing her in
stantly, blanched to the ashy whiteness of q
corpse.
The women looked at each other In ST.
1ence, and then each passed slowly upon
her way. They met and parted without g
word.
Two minutes afterwards, before she reach
ed the corner of the street, Kathleen turned
suddenly, and looked back, wanting Il
speak to Suzon Michel, to question her. she
hardly knew wherefore or TO what end
She thought of Suzon with horror and de-
A. Il t1,oxx hoI