Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1901-05-30
CHAPTER xxv-,Continued..

CHAPTER Nxy-tContinued.'
Angry and outraged. she turned
away. But as the mans impertinence
again REQUIRED to her, it brought a new
and startling thought.
She paused and looked back. The
two men together were entering the
lodge.
Pshaw! Tyrrell was drunk; his words
held only a drunkard's meaning!
A new sense of emptiness and DESC
lation stole over her, as she slowly as
81 cended the stairs and went into the
house.
The long hours of the day wore
away. Occasionally the sound OF voices
and laughter floated upward TO her
own room. where she sat, with closed
doors.
Not even Cora came TO her. The
child seemed changed-alike to love
and dread her. h had mailed her
letter TO Bert!e, but he had neither
come nor sent eSoonse oh, God! If
he should be dead-if she should never
see him morel
All that a happened to her the
previous night appeared a dream. Love
had brought her only misery. 1t could
but bring her misery TO the end, unless
unless Berthe should I'll free to
claim her. Words of love from any
other lips were words, indeed, to her
indeed, empty and meaningless.
But hope was growing gray. 1t had
so little, so little to rest upon Every
DAY they had searched throughout
the rooms she had seen in her dreams
TO find some hidden place where the
papers, OF such m to her, might
he fnlInd n4t1 nx-An,, 49,. - - ---.
fresh disappointment.
Last night she a made one more
attempt N that had been vain like the
rest.
She pushed back the hair from her
heated brow. as these thoughts came
%trooping through her brain. The soIi-
stude of her room appeared peopled with
phantoms of the past.
Il shall go ~mad-verily / shall go
mad, unless relief comes soon," she
thought, and. rising, YEARLY. FASTENED
from the room, as If TO hasten away
from herself.
The library was deserted when she
entered it and passed on Into the little
music room. The twilight was slowly
falling, and the evening shades were
about her.
She stood before the desk where she
had stood h evening previous; but
now there was neither eagerness nor
hope.
She made no effort to discover any Sc
cret hiding place. What need? All ef-
fort had been made, and all proved
futile. indeed.
Suddenly, beneath one OF the brass
knobs. she saw something moving. She
Hooked o closely. 1t was q small
spider weaving its web. She watched
him with q smile upon her lips.
so he weaves his web" she thought.
"Will YOU, too, spider, find your vic
hm?"
4 AS though In answer to her words, a
poor, little frozen fly, which thus far
had escaped the winters frost, came
lduttering near.
Il stumbled into the web. With the
sswiftness of thought the wary, hungry
waiter and watcher had drawn the al
invisible threads about the help
less. fiuttering wings and bound it fast.
Closer and closer he drew, to gloat
upon his coming feast. when Beatrice,
hitherto fascinated by the strange com
'parison she had drawn, broke the spell.
zone helpless thing, at least, shall
.find a friend h aloud;
and. shuddering as she did SO, she
snapped the slender cords which yet
had bound like steel the frail wings, re-
Ieased the little prisoner and brushed
the spider to the floor. where h might
crush 1t beneath her little foot.
But though his prey was lost. his life
WAS spared. Already Beatrice had for
gotten him, for. with the gesture that
nal hurled him to the floor, the brass
Knob on which had been rover his
web, moved.
She pressed it further. 1t flew back.
;The blood surged madly to her brain.
with a low sob OF intense and over
PIONEERING feeling she fell upon her
sknees.
At that instant Randolph Chester en-
tered the room.