The Winslow mail., 1897-12-18

begun to develop an unaccustOmed
piayfulness.
She did not leave him long in error.
DO not touch mer she said in voice
which, though it trembled with excite
ment, showed the decisiveness 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 che been capable
either of seeing or understanding, but
she had. become a mere automaton,
governed by long-suppressed emotion.
81 cannot bear itv' she repeated. 81
do not love you. / have never loved
you. have tried to learn. l cannot.
[ have tried to become true and duti-
full wife to you. I cannot. have tried
to forget the only man l ever loved.
cannot There must be an end of it ALL
and it must come now"
''Virginia!' said the Governor, help
lessly. "Virginia-''
do not stop me!' she went on, with
increasing rapidity. 81 am rot insane,
though l am near it. am good wom-
an, sir. At least, l have nothing with
which to reproach myself, except the
shame of having allowed them to make
you believe l love you. 1t was all my
mothers fault and yours. Why did
you follow me? Why did she force me
on you, when 1 did not love you, when
T 40
ceased to wish to love your
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. 81 will
tell you everything, everything, the
whole miserable truth that is killing
me. love John Endicott. l 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 a 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 that 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 an
effort as no one person ever makes
twice in a lifetime, as very few ever
make at all. A moment later, over
come by the inevitable reaction, she
had rushed sobbing from the room,
leaving the Governor still standing at
the mantel, immoyable, as he had stood
since she began.
He had made no attempt to follow
her. She had gone only few minutes
when he stood upright, threw back his
shoulders, walked twice up and down
the room and then took his seat before
writing desk, drawn close to a win
dow overlooking the river. Settling
down in the chair with his elbows on
it's arms and his hands locked across
his breast, he looked steadily out or
the window, motionless, as the CLOCK
on the mantel struck the hours, one
after another, until the small, square
window panes began to grow luminous
with the dawn. Then he rose, and un-
locking a drawer in the lower part OF
his desk, took out a mahogany DoX
with silver-mounted corners and
heavy silver plate in the center CT the
lid. He unlocked it deliberately, and,