The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1897-11-04

her at all and thinking that she had
begun to develop an unaccustomed
p.ayfulness.
She did not leave him long In error.
DO not toucL mel" she said in a voice
which, though it trembled with excite
ment. showed the decislveness of long
premeditation. do not touch me. |
cannot bear it,
The Governor stood motionless. with
the puzzled look of one whose intellect
is overcome. She might have pitied
him and receded had she been capable
either of seeing or understanding. but
she had become mere automatoa
governed by long-suppressed emotion.
81 cannot bear itr' she repeated. Il
do not love you. | have never loved
you. ! have tried to learn. | cannot.
| have tried to become true and duti-
full wife to you. cannot. have tried
to forget the only man ever loved.
cannot. There must be an end of It all
and ii must come now."
virginia. said the Governor. help
lessly. Virginia
DO not stop me!' she went on, with
increasing rapidity. Il am rot insane,
though am near it. an a good wom-
an. sir. At least, | have nothing with
which to reproach myself, except the
shame of having allowed them to make
you believe love you. 1t was all my
mothers fault and yours. Why did
you follow me? Why did she force me
on you. when | did not love you. when
| never can love you; when | have
ceased to wish to love you?"
She paused a moment for breath. The
Governor did not move. He had leaned
his elbow on the mantel, and now, with
his hand supporting his chin, he stood
looking at her blankly.
Il will not be stopped" she said.
catching her breath with sob Il will
tell You everything everything. the
whole miserable truth that is killing
me. | love John Endicott. | have never
loved anyone else. never WILL He
does not know it, and he never can
know it, unless you tell him. Now you
know what wretch am, and you
know what you have done to make me
So
| AS she stopped she drew herself up
and threw back her long black hair,
| which had escaped from her comb and
| fallen around her face. As yet the
Governors mind had assimilated hard
| ly anything of what she had said. 1t
| had come upon him supreme calamity
! at the climax Of his good fortune. He
seemed to himself to have died sud
denly and to be striving to wake to
consciousness in another world. The
one idea which shaped itself clearly in
the chaos of his brain was thu / his wife
had never been SO splendidly beautiful
as now, when she stood with head
thrown back and flashing eyes, lifted
above herself by the stress of such al
effort as no one person ever makes
twice in a lifetime, as very few evel
make at all. A moment later, over
come by the inevitable reaction. SHE
had rushed sobbng from the room
leaving the Governor still standing a
the mantel. lmmoyable, as he had stoo,
since she began.
4e had made no attempt to follow
her. She had gone only few minute
when he stood upright threw back hi
shoulders, walked twice up and dow
the room and then tool; his seat befOr
writing desk, drawn close to a win
dow overlooking the river. Settling
down in the chair with his elbows o.
its arms and his hands locked acros
his breast, he looked steadily out 0
the window, motionless, as the cloc
) on the mantel struck the hours. on
after another, until the small, squar
window panes began to grow luminou
with the dawn Then he rose, and III
locking a drawer in the lower part G
: his desk. took out mahogany BIO
with sllver-mounted corners and
heavy silver plate in the center {. I'll
Id He unlocked it deliberately, ant