Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-09-28

\ n = -
her promise, she first looked at her
watch,-it was just half-past seven;
then she turned to the papers, and be-
gan to read them.
A Mortified expression gradually
stole over her face as she read that
| confession. Pity, compassion, and
| shame succeeded each other rapidly in
her mind. Could it be that her beauti-
| full. gifted sister, had done this,-had
married secretly, and never even told
Philip? When she understood it fully,
and found that it was the count who
had blighted that young life, she
| shivered with sickening apprehension.
| That her sister, Lady Lynne, Of whom
they were all so fond and so proud,
could have deceived her husband so
basely!-oh, why had she not told
him all when she found the count still
lived? Pity came after anger. What
had she not suffered!-what hidden
anguish, what untold torture!-and
then, with evergrowing surprise, she
read how she herself had been be-
trayed.
Then he did love me, after all"
she cried; "but it is best as it is. Allan
would have been wretched without
me. Poor Inez! she has been sinned
against as we'll as shining"
Then the reading Of that sad letter
alarmed her. What was coming on
the day which had already dawned?
What did she mean by speaking Of
death and dying?
A dreadful thought flashed across
her for a moment; it rendered her
helpless, and she fell back, unable to
move. What might be happening
while she delayed? Still, true to her
promise, she destroyed the letter be-
fore she quilted her room. She was
hurrying along the corridor when she
met Stephanie, her sisters maid. Ihe
girl looked pale and frightened.
twenty times at my lady's door, and
she has never answered me-
Agathas heart almost stood still
with fear; she knocked, and called
Inez, but no answer came. Then she
opened the door gently, and entered
the room. All that was mortal of
Lady Lynne lay upon the bed before
her, her beautiful face white and still,
the lips forever silent and cold.
Fetch Lord Lynne!" cried Agatha,
with a low cry, as she fell upon her
knees.
1t seemed but a moment, and the
terrified husband stood beside her.
Great Heaven" he cried, in a voice
they never forgot, "she is dead"
Yes, dead and at rest, with a look
upon the exquisite face that awed them
by it's peaceful solemnity.
Doctors were summoned, the terri
fed servants. with loud cries, seek
ing aid, but it was all in vain. She
had been dead for hours.
Il will not believe it," cried Lord
Lynne; "she was not i'll last night
not i'll enough to die. I am mad or
dreaming cannot believe it."
They could not persuade him to
leave the room where she lay; he
would not, could not believe that she
was dead.
1t was not until the first bewilder-
ment of this surprise had passed
away, that they thought of asking
how she died. Alas, the question was
soon answered. There lay the little
poison" and the odor of it still
fingered upon the white cold lips.
Then the weeping, frightened
Stephanie told how her lady suffered
agonies with neuralgia, and how she
took a little opium to lull the pain.
Last night" said the poor girl, "my
lady was i'll with it; she must have
intended to take enough to quiet the
pain, and have taken too much"
So every one believed; there was no
reason to doubt it. The wretched and
unhappy commit suicide; but no care
or trouble, they said, had ever come to
the brilliant and beautiful Lady
Lynne.
The news gradually spread, and a
crowd of people assembled around the
Palazzo Giorni. They spoke in whis-
pers of the terrible accident, Of the
wealth and loneliness Of the lady who
lay dead, of the grief of her husband
and the sorrow of her friends. But
amongst that vast crowd no one whis-
pered that the lady, upon whom Ma
ture and wealth had lavished their
fairest gifts had, by her own hand,
cut short the life that her own folly
had blighted.
Agatha and Lady Florence were be-
wildered by the dreadful shock. Lord
Lynne was incapable of attending to
anything. His valet fetched Sir
Allan Leigh, thinking his masters
friend would best take his masters
place.
bo