The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-11-20

COnVeyeu U YOU, IL yOu Will dioW me-
letter containing an order on the
Government, and check on the bank.
You must arrange to meet Warren
somewhere and give him the ninety
pounds that will make him safe from
detection"
But, Miss Milne, why give him all
your money? Why can't you go your
self for it? And why all this mystery
with me?"
81 don't know" she said. 'T did not
mean to be mysterious when l came
down here tonight. The fact is, | am
intensely miserable. Ny life has been
one gigantic failure, and now | am
beginning to feel it. l am absolutely
alone in the world. When society
kicked me out swore society should
regret it. Since then my hand has
been against every mans, and every
mans hand against me, and every wo-
mans too. for the matter of that-and
they are the harder of the two. But
society has had the better of it. Since
my boy died." (She paused for
some seconds.) "Ah, 1 had great
schemes for him: he would have
avenged his mother I read night and
day the sneers of atheists. the dreams
Of the republicans, the plottings and
orguments of the dynamiters. l would
have saturated him with them, had
he lived, and he would have been
thorn in society's side.'
"Then it was we'll he died." could
not help saying.
Perhaps-perhaps; but don't
know. He would have been a man,
and a man only requires moderate
amount of sense, and the pluck to
think differently to other people, to
be successful"
Then, after a pause, and very SER
iously: 81 wish I was with him with
out the shock of getting there"
But, tell me, have you no fear of
death apart from the momentary
shock?"
None. Had there been half the de-
sign in the world that religious peo-
pie believe in, should have been dead
long since"
"Why?"
Because I have failed as a woman,
and ought to have been taken back to
the factory again years ago, to begin
at the other end-the potato end. Pos
SlDlN liloh6 SOOu POtoSoCO.
"'Tis strange to hear a woman talk
like this!"
"Why? Have you such wonderful
fear of death. DR.. Rigby? Do you
think it a thing to be avoided by
everybody"
mo, not by everybody. Now. for
instance-who shall I save? Take
Warren, before he came under your
influence. / thought, when l heard
he had committed suicide, that is was
for everybody concerned (himself in
cluded) a very wise and polite STEP"
81 thought so. too: but let us change
this interesting subject; I want to
talk to you of something else. Now,
YOU must not mind telling me-this
Miss Phillips, or Pelham, or whatever
she calls herself, are you still in love
with herr"
Miss Milne did not look up; If she
had done so the moonlight would have
been sufficient to show her the tell
tale blood rushing to my face, and no
reply would have been necessary. But
she sat with her hands on her knees,
gazing out to sea.
"Why do you ask? Why broash the
SuDleCI, WlleH you hhOW do illuSh oo l.
do?" l said, taking no notice Of the
covert insolence of the question.
ct ask" she said, mot because |
want to know, for do know, but be-
cause it was a convenient and conven-
tional way of opening a conversation
that I must have with you, however
painful it may be to both of u.s."
"It can not be other than painful to
us, and if you will excuse me l would
much rather not continue it,"
had risen to my feet. and was fully
determined to leave her If she con-
tinued. The same feeling that used to
take possession of me in London,
when she was annOunced-an almost
superstitious dread of her-came back
to me with double force.
She rose to her feet and spoke very
deliberately. "Wait," she said. "We
have agreed that the capacity for do
ing good and the CO pacity for doing
evil go hand in hand. On these
grounds, especially if | assure you that
it Is not my Intention to injure you,
think you ought to sit down and listen
to me-"
| have, throughout my narrative,
tried to give some faint idea of this
many-sided woman, but at every
eventful turn I have had-'f I would
be correctly underst ood-to throw my
self upon the sympathetic help of my
readers IMAGINATION; and now that I
am approaching the most critical part
Of it. find myself more than ever de-
rerdert upon his assistance. When
Miss Milne rose to her full height, and
dalihorate chara cteristic
speech of hers. there was. teit, moth
ing for me but to sit down; not that
I feared her, though I did that. but
because she had. as | have limited,