Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1899-07-27
Ere the sun set his heart might have

or honor, could he speak to tear the
mask from the beauty which had been
his curse.
God help him! He loved the woman
now-now, with death confronting him
for her fair sake, with dishonor threat
ening to write her record upon his
tombstone; now, when she had seen
him suffer all. with the smile Of TIL
umph on her lovely lips-even with a
love greater than he had yet known for
her. He died for her, and death thus
lost it's sting.
AS for Bertie-ah, he forgave the
boy! He but prayed that heaven might
uEveil to him the truth. Then his hn-
gers closed about the pistol.
''There is no other way?' he SAID.
"None," was the low stern answer.
$50 be it. Yet would ask one favor.
When I am dead, bury your resent
ment with me. Remember me as
was, not as you believe me-"
81 consign your past, your present
and your future to the oblivion it mel
| it's" was the bitter retort.
And, listening Harry Arkwright
| could find no greater pain in any
wound wrought by the cold leads
/ course.
Silently the two men fell apart Five
/ PAGES distant they We're to turn and
| fire, each counting, aloud and simulta-
neously, their measured steps.
| But while they yet stood nearly back
to back, a faint, hoarse scream smote
their ears, and in another instant, she
for whom they fought, pale, GREATNESS
and painting, had thrown herself be.
tween them.
Lord NIontfort caught her in his
arms For a moment he thought that
she had swooned as the lovely head
| lay back upon his shoulders, and the
long lashes swept her ivory cheeks.
But, almost instantly, she lifted her
blue-vcined lids, and her glance, Wild
With some untold fear, wandered from
him to Arkwright, standing, cold and
stern, as if her judge and accuser al!
in one.
Dorothy, my darling!" murmured
Dalrymplc, ''what brought you here!
Come love, come! This is no place for
you. You must not breathe the air this
traitor breathes!"
''Wait-wait moment!' she gasped.
'Wait till my voice comes-both,
both"'
For Arkwright had turned as ii to
walk away. He stopped at the en-
t:eaty in her tone.
Again Lord Montfort would have in
terposed, but by a mute gesture she
forbade him. Then she raised herself
from his support. He would have
drawn her back, but again she resisted
him. and, instead, leaned YEARLY
against the tree whose branches shell
tered them.
II have a story to tell you both,'' She
said. land l want you both to listen.
You both have heard Florence Vane's
sad history. but perhaps you did not
know her WELL She was only 4 child
when Louis Gervase met her, and he
won her childish heart. Her childish
heart, 1 say; for when it died, its
death-throes gave birth to the woman
heart, which was to know yet greater
agony.
"He made to her the world-her
heaven. She would have renowned
for him all on earth except her honor.
BY n trick, he stole that, too. Even the
marriage into which he inveigled her
was false and a sham. Then he de-
serted her.
"She lost her reason, then. In her
madness she shot him, in the moment
of his browning treachery.
''Well, what happened after that mat
tiers little. Suffice it that the world
gave him it's pity-her it's condemna.
ton. Do you wonder that under its
cold lash her heart froze? Oh, do not
Justify her l only wish to lay before
you the barren facts. For her after
course neither heaven, in it's pity, nor
earth in it's cruelty, can give her just
ice. She determined, then, to repay
her debt to the whole world-to make
all hearts suffer as hers had suffered.
''She learned for the first time that
she had in her beauty a potent weapon.
She had no vanity-her purpose was
too deep to admit of vanity-but she
used her power ruthlessly.
Zone man had crossed her path who
neither fiattered nor condemned her.
He used no false phrases; concealed
no truths. He lover her. Sometimes
his honest truth, his frank manhood,
his gentle firmness stole down beneath
the ice of her heart, and sent there a
momentary thrill of womanly warmth
and womanly feeling. He saved it
from death. Yet she steeled herself
against him, and when he held out to-
ward her such happiness as she might
cling to with pure hands, she resolutely
set it aside, and tested her own power
more reckleSSly.
cat last, prince offered her his cor
onet, and she accepted it. AS his wife,
she would hold more surely the world
under her heel, and to crush the world
she would have bartered life itself, for,
through the world she crushed him
him who had made the pitiless wreck
of her happiness. In the moment OF
her triumph she lost it, and again
through him. Once more the man who
loved her tried to save her. HIS
patience was ineXhaustible his love
infinite. Little by little it was re-
storing some of her lost womanhood,
building up some of her lost faith. Let
us not dwell on her after-struggles.
Everywhere the man was stronger
than the woman. Always, as he had
shown, when the cup of triumph was
lifted to her lips he dashed it down.
81 ,l>; oh, 1,o1 CO