The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-09-08

AOt 4uICAIy5 aet0fulng 70 MS WOub.
On the landing be paused to turn the
handle Of the boudoir door for a mo
ment, and then, laughing harshly,
continued his ascent, breathing some
what heavily as he reached the top. AT
last be entered, and she shut her eyes.
AT first N. Deforges noticed moth
ing unusual; then his eyes fell on the
open letter. He approached it and
read it carefully, and its tinsel pathos
seemed convincing.
Then, quite mechanically, he
turned to the bed. There lay his wife,
silent, ~motionless as a carved statue,
not a futter Of the blue-veined lids so
TRANQUILITY closed, not a tremor Of the
bosom on which he placed his hands
with instructive reverence.
"Ma femme he muttered broken.
II ssThank God, the child diedl"
He bent and kissed her, catching
the odor of the laudanum and signing
again. Her skirts we're a trife disar-
ranged, owing to the hurry of the
pose. He r%earranged them in orderly
folds over the little arched feet.
His wife felt a tear trickle on her
brow a moment later. In spite Of her
will, a blush stole across her cheek;
but he did not see, for he turned away
at the instant.
Knowing from his retreating steps
that he was going to the writing table,
she opened an eye ard watched him
out Of the corner, wondering what he
would do, for she felt sure his artistic
instincts would not allow him to
think of the stomach pump.
He had lit a match, and, standing
with his back to her, still, was burn
ing the letter slowly. Having done
this he sat down and took the discard
ed pen, but presently threw it aside
with a little laugh which made her
think the joke had gone far enough.
At the same moment she strove to
rise, and turned the upper portion Of
her body slightly, but suddenlyfound
herself held motionless, as if by the
hand of the death she cheated so we'll,
She parted her lips to utter a cry, but
no sound came, although her intelli.
gence warned her of what was immi-
nent even before he reached toward
the drawer containing the pistol.
The vial, which slipped from her
hand, oscillated a second on the slope
of the Counterpart and dropped on
the fantastic rug below, but the slight
noise did not distract his attention,
and she could only watch with pant
ing breath the man coolly loading the
revolver.
Would nothing happen? Would
God permit this? Would he allow a
little home to be wrecked because
because a man was unreasonable? 1t
VS. cruel - infinitely, u~nutterably
cruel-and alasl also so u~nutterably
absurd that the sense of it wrung her
with internal laughter, that caused an
actual physical pain, as laughter
sometimes can.
An awful drumming Numbered
through her ears, a mist grew before
her straining eyes, the attentive figure
opposite faded gradually; but all the
while she understood how wildly
everything would spring into relief
when the pistol shot would break her
trance.
At the same time she became con
scious Of ~intolerable discomfort
caused by something touching her
face with light, persistent contact.
The tentacles of some crawling thing,
her Imagination told her, and the n
noyance was magnifed with incon-
ceivable rapidity.
1t was really the delicate spiral of
one of the feathers trimming her high
ruff gently agitated by her spasmodic
breathing, but had it been the most
.loathsome thing that ever buzzed
about ar African swamp, she could
othaveliftedahan to brush it away.
In a moment it seemed that her
body had become one mass o.. creep
ing torment, and under the stress of
the idea the mist curved from before
her eyes and she saw her husband
wheel sound the chair as he had been
accustomed to do Of evenings when
she was suffering from the great after
thought concerning the locking of the
hall door, but he did not look towards
the bed. He was gazing s~teadfastly
at the pistol, and he slowly raised the
hand which held it.
She made a last frantic internal
struggle, but her tense body did not
move the fraction of an inch, though
h.. G,o-4sz