The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1901-06-08
CHAPTER xxv-continued..

CHAPTER xxv-tContinued.'
Angry and outraged. she turned
away. But as the mans im%pertinence
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
hcended 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. She had mailed her
letter to BERTHE. but he had neither
come nor sent Oh, God! If
he should be dead-if h should never
see him more!
All that had happened to her the
previous night appeared a dream Love
had brought her only misery. 1t could
Jul OIAll6 IlcI IIllSSIy " IL S4ANS AAS
unless Berthe should return free to
claim her. Words of love from any
other lips were words, indeed, to her
1ndeed, empty n meaningless.
But hope was growing gray. It had
go 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
ropors NJ o,,ch n1oroonf tn hor MIGHT
ibe found, and every day she had met
fresh disappointment.
Last night she had made n more
attempt and 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 soli-
tude Of her room appeared peopled with
phantoms of the past.
II shall go mad-verily I shall go
mad, unless relief comes soon," she
thought. and, rising, YEARLY. FASTENED
from the room. as IL 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 the 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.
j Suddenly, beneath one of the brass
knobs, h saw something moving. She
looked more closely. 1t was q small
spider weaving It's web. She watched
him with a smile upon her lips.
$50 he weaves his Web" she thought.
p'Will you, too. spider, find your VIC
tim?"
As though in answer to her words. a
poor, little frozen fly, which thus far
had escaped the winters frost, came
6uttering near.
1t stumbled into the web. With the
Swiftness Of thought the wary. hungry
waiter and watcher had drawn h al
most invisible threads about the help.
less, fluttering wings and bound 1t 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" she murmured aloud:
and, shuddering as she did so, she
snapped the. slender cords which yet
had bound like steel the frail wings, re-
leased the little prisoner and brushed
the spider to the floor. where she 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
hal hurled him t o the floor, the brass
knob on which had been woven his
web, moved.
She pressed 1t further. 1t flew back.
The blood surged madly to her brain.
With a low sob of intense and over
powering feeling she fell upon her
knees.
At that instant Randolph Chester en-
tered the room.