Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-06-09
he aspiration came from the bottom Of
her pure. dnselash heart.
CHAPTER II.


while these scenes were being enact
ID IN the reception rooms at the Brit
fish embassy a very beautiful woman
wal waiting impatiently in her pretty
salon in the Avenue Victor Hugo. A
dozen times she consulted the clock, q
dozen times she moved to the mirror.
to glance anxiously at her W refec-
Eion, then paused, listening for the
sound OF the expected football.
II must arrange all quickly" she
murmured to herself. There is no time
to lose. All! But for his sister we might
marry at once! Hark Is it not his step?
Yes, he is here at last"
The door opened, and she advanced,
her face lighting with a radiant smile.
"My friend" she said, with that Sc
Huctive accent which makes the title
'friend" sound infinitely sweeter than
all our love phrases strung together.
"you are too late. You promised you
would be here before midnight. This
Is not usual with you. Why is it?"
II received a communication" he
answered, (which delayed me-"
She gave him one soft glance, then
said, lightly: mo matter, you have az
rived. We will spend what remains Of
the evening t~ete-a-tete."
"You don't ask what that communi-
cation was?" he remarked.
Truly no." she assented, then turn
ing from him to the mirror in which she
could not her own face and its changes
OF expression, while she busted herself
pretending to re-arrange an errant tress
of hair. "If you wish to tell me l shall
hear all in good time. II not, l shall
conclude you have other things to say
to me which, to my foolish ears, are bet
ter worth attention"
Still he stood aloof. at may inter-
est you to know" he said, chat re-
ceived a letter a quarter of an hour ago
from a person who describes himself as
your husbands friend"
The face the woman saw in the MIR
ror could no longer lie to her. 1t was
visibly contracted by pain and anxiety,
but she answered, calmly:
MY late husband had 10 friends
save the vicious and depraved. The
man must be bold, indeed, to write to
you. Is he begging?"
mo-" retorted Osborne, for it was he,
''he seeks for nothing. But he gives
me some interesting information, for
he tells me that Helga Katiskoff is no
widow, that her husband still lives"
The woman let the tress of hair fall
loose upon her snowy shoulders, and,
turning, faced him.
.uThen," she said, at demand to know
who it is who dares to say that that man
stnl cumber the ground?"
"Do you deny it, Helga?' he insisted.
s.That is the great thing. Have you PROOF
Of his death? Proof, reasonable proof,
was needed by the woman who contem-
plated becoming mistress of an English
home"
II thought him dead" she said, slowly.
sI think so still. To him otherwise
would be to make my life a hell. To
prove him living would be to plant a dag
ger here" and she clasped her hands upon
her heaving breast.
'.And YETI he Said, looking down upon
her as she bent towards him, Il must have
proofs. You should have been the one to
give them to me, though, in my blind
love and confidence, I never thought of
asking for them. Now 1 must seek them
elsewhere, seek them with the knowledge
at my heart that the woman I trusted so
entirely. recklessly sought to deceive her
self If she did not wilfully seek to deceive
me-
Stop she cried. do me justice. You
are speaking as though you accepted this
mans statement as fact. You are pre-
judging the case. 1 was a widow in my
own esteem. 1 had proofs enough to sat
isfy me before we met. Then you came
and told me that your life's happiness was
centered in me. Was it then my duty to
become dissatisfied with proofs that had
seemed ample before? Perhaps-perhaps
it was. But oh; I had not the strength to
shatter your air-built castles even for an
QOlr, by saying, L Clu IOt Sldiu DeSIue
that wretch's death-bed. / do not know
where to look for his grave Your happi-
ness, your peace was more to me than my
own"
Happiness and peace" he reioined.
sternly, +" are not for the man welded to
q woman who has another husband liv-
Ing. Have you considered what my life
would have been should that man have re-
turned in the flesh, after you had become
the mistress of my home. the mother, per-
haps, of children of mine? Helga. Helga,
what can a man think of a woman who
could contemplate an action which might
make such a state of things possible?"
Think of such a woman" she re-
peated. "Why ask me? Go tell your Sis
ter. Ask her. she will tell you what to
think. I have done wrong. 1t seems, in
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