Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-04-22

y ~ Ii
airy successes have continued and be.
come greater and more numerou.
with the years that have gone by
but my reputation of coldness and
Indifference to love has kept pace
with my fame. Men have loved me
yet / have never been able to fine
one who could equal that lover ot
an hour.
And to-day we have met again
Years have scattered silver in hit
dark hair. There was haunted Iool
in the eyes which had not been Their,
before. He returned to me freet
from the bonds which had once sep
arated US; his wife is dead; ha,
| been dead a year, and he has come
to ask me to take her place. But |
refused; my pride has always beer
such that I could never accept the
love of man who had loved another
enough to make her his wife
My heart was virgin of any affec
ton. I would not give it in exchange
for one from which the memory O,
another love had taken the fresh
ness. I told him this as gently as /
could, for / saw that he was in ear
nest, and pitied his disappointment
but nothing can express the look OF
terror, despair, agony which swept
F, over his face at my words.
You refuse, you will not MARI,
me; you can't accept my offer. Oh
it can't be so! 1 misunderstood youi
Tell me-tell me it is not so, that i
| is a mistake!"
Moved by the agony of his voice, !
was some time without answering
| but my resolution was taken. Moth
ing could change it. So I at last an
| swered:
Il am deeply grieved that you take
my refusal SO much to heart, but |
can't change it. 1 may not be lile
other women, but the thought tha,
you had loved another, that she hao
your first kisses, that to her you gave
the best of your heart and life, woulG
take from my own existence all the
| bliss your love could bring it. !
would be jealous of the dead.
DO you suppose that the man yo,
would marry would not have hai
other loves? Where is the man who
in his life has had but one love?" hi
objected, his face white and working
"Yes, I know that. But those love,
would not make me jealous, for maj
| does not attach much Importance tt
them. But the love for wife is diff
ferent; it is the companionship OF
years, the devotion of every, day tina,
| T ia1J of 70
that of the two he preferred her!"
He rose at these words and seizet
my arm. His eyes were wild ant
glaring like those of a mad man
and when he spoke his tones, though
| low, sounded with shrill accents tt
my ears:
"You should not think that, for i,
was because L loved you so much, So
passionately, that 1 killed her!"
l started back with the cry:
''Killed her!"
EYES," he laughed, not needing TIL,
sudden horror which must have sweep
over my face. Eyes, 1 killed her tt
have you. After that meeting in your
home, 1 could think of nothing else:
possess you, l must, at any cost
There was an obstacle in the way
my wife-but that was of small con
sideration with a passion like mine
set to work to remove that OBJ
stacle. She began to pine. The slow
poison did it's work, and in two year.
time 1 was free. But 1 waited yeai
before | came to you. I didn't want
to be suspected, you know. But nov
there is no danger; they think sh,
died a natural death, and we are fret
to love one another. Free! Free a.
| last!"
started back terrified, spell-bounG
by horror. And this was the mar
/ had loved! This, murderer! Just
then we were interrupted. Two meI
rushed into the room. The next min
ute my visitor was overpowered anc
handcuffed. Too startled to cry out
1 remained transffxed to the spot
But one of the men drew near to me
and said:
"You must pardon the abrupt way
we invaded your home, but we feared
for your safety. That unfortunate
man is mad, has been mad for the
last eight years. In his madness ht
says he loves you, and that that love
has caused him to murder his WIFE
Then his wife is not dead?" man
aged to say.
mo, but his madness took such {
turn that her life was in danger, ano
she was compelled to have him shu
up in a madhouse. Last week he es
capped, after rObbinp the guard of a I