The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-11-24

Then listen. Il VIII give YOU TWO nun
dred crowns for this house for one
night"
For this house for cne night?" she
repeated.
"For this house, for one night" he
answered.
Then she understood. She was quick
witted; she had lived long in the
house, and knew 1t; she knew without
more that God or the devil had put that
which she sought into her hands. And
her first impulse was pure Joy. The
thirst for vengeance welled up, hot and
resstless. Now she could be avenged
on all; on the hard-henrted tyrant who
had rejected her prayer, on the sleek
danes who would point the finger at her
child. on the SNUG town that had looked
askance at her all these years-that had
set her beyond the pale OF its dull
grovelling pleasures, and shut her up
in that lonely house on the wall! Now
now she had it in her hand to take
tenfold for one; and her face so shone
at the thought that the man watching
her felt touch of misgiving, though he's
was of the boldest or he had not been
there on that errand.
"When?" she said. "When""
Tomorrow night" he answered,
and then, leaning forward and speaking
lightly, but in low voice, he went on:
.It is simple matter. All you have to
do is to find lodging and begone from
here by sunset, leaving the door on
the latch. No more; for the money, 1t
shall be paid to you, half tonight and
half the day after tomorrow"
II want no money" she said.
mo money!" he exclaimed, incredu-
lously.
mo, no money" she answered, in
tone and with look that silenced him.
"But you will do it?" he said, almost
timidly.
81 will do it." she answered. AT
sunset tomorrow you will find tho
door on the latch and the house empty.
After that, see that you do your part!'
His eyes lightened. "Have no fear"
he said, grimly. "But mark one thing.
mistress" he continued, lit is an odd
thing to do for nothing"
"That Is my business!" she cried.
with a flash of rage.
He had been about TO warn her that
during the next twenty-four hours she
would be watched, and that. on the
least sign of any message passing be-
tween her and those in authority. the
| plot would be abandoned. But at that
| look he held his peace, said curtly that
| it was a bargain then, and in moment
left her.
With her secret. But for time it
was not of that or of her vengeance that
she thought. Her mind was busy, in
| stead, with the years Of solitude and
arrangement she had passed in that
house and that room; with the de-
| preston that, little by little, had sapped
her husbands strength and hope; with
| the slow decay of their goods, their
| cheerfulness, even the artistic joys that
| had at first upheld them; with the
| Aloofness that had doomed her and her
child to dreary existence; with this
last great wrong
Yes, let it be! Let il be! She rose on
| the thought, her face set like stone
| In fancy she saw the town lie below
her-as she had so often seen it with the
actual eye from the ramparts-she saw
| the clustering mass of warm red roof:
| and walls. the outlying towers, tho
church, the one long, straight street;
and with outstretched arm she doomed
| it-doomed it with perfect sense of the
| righteousness of the sentence.
| Yet, strange to say, that which wa:
uppermost in her mind and steeled hel
soul and justified the worst,was mo-
her daughters wrong, but the long
years of loneliness, the hundred, nay
| the thousand petty sights of the past
,bearable at the time, and in detail, bu
kntolerable in the retrospect, now hope
was gone. She dwelt on these, and thu
thought of what was coming filled he
with a fearful Joy She thought of them
hnd took the lamp and passed into th'
next room, and throwing the light OF
the rough face of brickwork that CLOSED
the great window, eyed the crack
eagerly, and scarcely kept her finger
from beginning the work. For sh
understood the plot. One man workin!
silently within, in darkness, could de
/ mOl1Sn tnc WILL III an hOuI, thch
whistle, rope ladders, line of men as
eending, before midnight the hous
would vomit armed men, the neares
gate would be seized, and the tow
would lie at the mercy of the enemy.
Presently she had to go to her daugh
ter, but the current of her thought
kept the same course. The girl was SUI
len. and lay with her face to the wal
and gave short answers, venting he
misery in the common human fashio
on the one who loved her best. Th
mother bore II, not, as before, in th
patience that scorned even an upbraic
but grmly, setting down each peevis
word 10 the scorn that was so 500
e. be paid She lay all night besid
her child, and. in the small hours hear
her weep and felt the bed shake wit
her unhappiness; and carried the scorl
farther-farther, so that day, and tn
twittering of sparrows, and the boom
| L.,- l., ,t.tNss sttsf