The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-09-15

v she resumed. Failing in his attemI
c 10 kill Beryl, the mailman came TO m
with plan 10 kill you, Jaffray, and
; but you remember the scene that morn
> ing which you interrupted. / knew the
that every door of hope was shut agains
me, and when he had gone went up {
my room and tried TO think out the bes
|, course. Do you know what determine
me? Can you guess?"
She paused just an instant and locke,
at him as If hoping that he could reat
her thoughts, but before he had time t,
answer she continued:
mo, you will not guess after what
have said and what has happened.
wanted 10 find some way out of the
troable which would have left some OF
your love for me remaining. / thought
TO kill myself, but knew that then the
man who is dead would have told Won
all my guilt and have tried TO trade on
the knowledge till the thought of me
worSd have been hateful to you. tried
10 tell you that afternoon, but the words
were chilled on my tongue, and could
not Then / saw no hope but to go away
and so prove TO the man who was thus
between us that he could no longer
profit by his secret, and / planned it
easily. DE wrote 70 me that afternoon
telling me to meet him at night at 9
O'Clock near that cottage where he seems
to have met his death. Then Beryl's
letter came, and you know that it was
TO ask me to 60 70 her, and il formed
just the excuse wanted. left word
that was going to LEICESTER Court, and
Grove over there, stopping just short
of the house and telling Robbins that |
was uncertain what time | should re-
turn, and that one of the Court carriages
would take me back, and as soon as he
was gone walked back You know the
lonely path across the fields. | came
that way and did not meet any one the
whole time.
Did You go 70 that cottage that
night" asked Jaffray when she paused,
but Beryl sent warning glance that
be should let her tell the whole story in
her own way.
YES, met him there 1t was before
9 o'clock, and we walked back along
the path had come, stopping every
now and then. / lied to him in one
thing, knowing him-I told him that |
you knew everything, Jaffray; that I |
was fugitive of my own free will, |
that never again should he or you set |
eyes on me, and that, though he had |
beaten me, the victory should be as grit
and ashes between his teeth. tainted
him with the blows that you had show
cred on him in the morning and mad
dened him with jeers at the failure of
his plans. What did not let him even
guess, however, was that my heart was
SICK and my spirit bruised to death. We
parted, blasphemous oath on his side
and curse on him from me, and set
my face TO the darkness and plodded ON
through the night, alone with my grief
and my knowledge that the sun could
never rise again in all my life. One
single, solitary ray of comfort in il all
had-that perhaps you would never
learn how false / had been and so come
to curse me for il. -
Her hearers had listened breathlesslv
70 TINS part of the story, marking every
syllable, and when she stopped they
could not understand her. Sir ,Jaffrav
himself had seen her hours later than
she said close to the cottage.
Where did you go. Lola, and where
and what time did you leave that mann"
be asked hurriedly and in some excite.
nent.
was with him probably an hour.
lot more, and l left him to walk
'tralght TO Branxton, in order to catch
he mail that stops there at 3 in the
morning. l did that We parted about
wo miles from the cottage, l should
hink, on the field path that runs from
mere TO the main road to Branxton
md close to the road. "
Il am bewildered," he said again.
II am under the impression that I ]
aw you close to the cottage in Ash
rec wood at time past midnight that
light, is 1t not possible for me to be 9
ight?'' S
What do you rnean-that I was nv l
nat ruined cottage after the time I tell
ou?'' r
Let me make this clear" he ex.
laimed. when found you had gone. j
rode first to Leycester Court. That u
'as directly after dinner. I came back.
oping you might have returned, and
len they gave me your letter. When n
ad pulled myself together, / started off b
hard as / could gallop to Mrs. Will v
ers' house. hoping against hope that O
ou might have gone there. Finding I
he place closed and hearing, of course h
lat you had not been there, rode 81
gain to the Court, but did not rouse
> and then came OH home. 1t was v
len long way past midnight, and as "
got to the corner of Ash Tree wood b.
the path which leads from the cot. re
ge, some one came to the gan in tho
Edge whom | took to be you. / called W
you by name, but there was no an.
yer, and when had quieted nv horse. a
hich had taken fright at your appear. h,
ice, l tried in vain to follow. Is il inn. tr
'ss,ble that you can have been there at
at timer"
impossible? Absolutely! You know m
distance |