Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-10-07
ately touch and try the edge Of the In

cately touch and try the edge of the In
strument.
But she was brave woman, and sweet
as life is to most of us it is doubly dear
when another's depends upon it, Must
that bright, curly headed boy learn that
his mother had suffered death at the hands
of q madmanP
"Yours must have been a most uncer-
tain life,' che continued in the hope of
diyerting his thoughts, while she partially
screened her face from the freight and
furtively followed his every expression.
Again the glittering eyes flashed as he
spoke.
"The life Of knowledge condemned by
the ignorant; shrinking and hiding away
by day, wandering solitary, starving and
haunted by night, because would en-
tighten the world. But they ever pursue
me. Hark, did you not hear step?"
He started, half rose and listened one
hand tightly grasping the glittering knife,
the hungry, haunted eyes fixed on the
calm, fair woman before him.
"It is no one shall not be interrupted
for some time" she returned as composed
ly as ever. Recovering himself, his face
assumed a look of cunning that had been
stranger to 1t hitherto.
Often and often had her incompatible
acting and presence Of mind favorably de-
cided the fate of play trembling in the
balance of the first nights decision. Her
very life was ct stake now; she would
make one effort to save it. A glorious idea
thrilled her bewildered brain and steadied
her shaking nerves. Her art, the goddess
she had served and worshiped, should not
desert her now. With an inward prayer
to that higher power which each ono Of us
acknowledges in moments Of extreme peril,
she thought of her role in the new drama.
1t might answer her very need.
She turned with the bewitching smile
that was known half over Europe and
said: Monsieur, one moment, if you
please. Ihave to rehearse new part for the
first time tomorrow, and as it will natu-
rally be too late to do so after my operation
with your permission will go through it
once again before we begin. Please take
my chair near the fire. 1t may perhaps in
terest you to hear me-" With her white
jeweled hand she shook up the cushions
and gracefully waved him toward it.
She stood before him, this beautiful re-
nowned woman, in her trailing, cleaning
draperies and her matchless grace, as she
had stood before kings in the zenith Of
her success, and began to act for higher
wage than she had ever received yet-her
own life
Still she was gaining time. At any mo-
ment now the guests might pass her door
on their way to their rooms to dress for the
evening.
How oppressively the exotics scented the
air! Surely the atmosphere was becoming
thicker. How difficult it was to breathe
The lights were burning DINNER now
nay, the lights in the room were pair Of
dark, glittering eyes-one pair Ten thou
sand that were burning into her brain.
But bewarel His hand is seeking the pol
ished steel blade! She must not let her in
terest flag in her part. She sees the only
thing that is left her to loye-her boy
and hears him ask for his mother. She
sees the child in the play, and stands be-
fore her morciless husband, who now looks
so like her silent guest. She begs, she i'm
plores with the passionate tears and
prayers the part demands, hut her voice
grows louder and louder. 1t rings through
the room and echoes in the corridor, and
yet the man never moves. He sees what
she sees; he feels as she feels. There is q
desperate cry for her own life-one long,
reverberating cry for her childs. Then
hark-a step Two, three, dozens of hur-
rying feet rushing along the corridor and
bursting into the room. With starting
eyeballs and ashen lips che points to her
torlnentor and yells: "Seize him! He Is
madp'
Not tomorrow nor for many tomorrows
did Mme Matilda rehearse the play in
which she subsequently rose to the height
of her genius, for a critical attack Of brain
fever and weary convalescence followed
the visit of her lunatio guest, who on the
night Of that eventful day was safely re-
lodged in a maison dc sante under the
superintendent of the doctor whose name
he had borrowed.-B. E. Stone in New
York Advertiser.