The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1903-09-17

Ory OF the news refine mad 80 snort q
ton, will you not let me comfort you
for her loss?"
| The question maddened him. II was
like pouring a smarting fluid into O
fresh-made wound All the misery
which had come to them-all through
her who still knelt at his feet--re-
turned to him.
You" he said-"you comfort me?
Does one turn to the nightshade for
healing? Does one seek the poppy, ex-
cept to drown sorrow in eternal sleep?
Does one, robbed of the soaring lark.
with its sweet notes, ask comfort OF
the glittering serpent, whose colors led
| 1t to its doom? So might ! come to
you. in your bewildering beauty, which
once enthralled me, and which leads
| men to perdition. You say you loved
me! Aye, with a passion which has
coiled itself about my life, crushing
from 1t hope and happiness, all but life
itself. Woman, why have you spared
that? Why have you not taken that,
too?"
His words came forth with the fren-
zy of despair.
Pierre! Pierre!' cried Marie to her
self, as she stood without the door, her
ear to the keyhole. "You will bear me
witness-I am avenging you through
him"
Then she turned, and, entering the
sick room where Avice still knelt, she
touched the girl on the shoulder.
Follow me-" she commanded gen.
tly.
And In another moment the two
forms had glided past the boudoir
door.
For a moment Barbara covered be-
meath tho storm of words hurled at
her; then she rose, very pale, to her
feet.
"You scorn me-" she said, brokenly,
"and cannot return your scorn. You
hate me, and IL would crawl on my
knees for one crumb of your love!
Milton, is it likely that would, then,
have brought this misery upon you if
| could have averted it? Oh. my love,
my love, speak to me! Give me one
word-one little word of comfort"
But the mans heart was steel in his
breast.
GAS you have dealt with her." he
replied, so may God deal with you!"
Then, leaving her as though turned
to marble where she stood, he opened
the door, went down the stairs and out
of the house.
She listened until his footsteps died
away, and long, long after stood mo-
tionless, a living statue of loneliness.
Then varying expressions swept across
her face, merging into one of deadly,
malignant hate. In sight of her goal
1t had escaped her.
Not yet, not yet! This girl was in
her power; this girls name hers to
brand! this girls very life at her mer-
cy. How beautiful the girl would look
in death! Was she, too, going mad?
Not so! She was countess, the Earl
of Bertram's widow, and they had
thought her scheming for the poor
little Meredith title and fortune. But
that had served her purpose well, as it
should serve it yet little longer.
Now this girl was the one obstacle in
her path. The girl must be removed
from it forever-forever!
She repeated the words, then glided
to the door between the rooms and
threw It open.
Richard Hayes still lay sleeping, his
expression even in sleep showing
something OF his suffering; but the
place beside his bed was empty-Avlce
was not there!
For moment an awful fear was in
Barbara's breast; then she laughed at
her idle folly.
"She has returned to her rooms"
she murmured to herself. "s will find
her there"
Up the stairs. along the silent hall,
she sped, fighting against the dull pre-
monition born of her fears.
The door leading into the smaller
corridor was open. The silence was
oppressive. Barbara's heart beat in
suffocating bounds as she stole swift
ly into the exquisitely appointed rooms
over which brooded the air of deser-
ton that comes only from solitude.
that cannot be simulated even when
one bushes ones breathing, silence
that exists, that is thing palpable.
underlined, but almost human in its in
fluence.
Ere she crossed the threshold Bar
bara knew the truth, yet she searched
through every portion of the empty
rooms, her heart and brain sickening
with the mortal terror which possess
ed her.
The cage was empty-the bird had
flown. Where?
With this question ringing in her
ears until it seemed shrieked aloud by
a thousand demons, all pressing on
her heart until they suffocated her.
she gave one gasping cry and fell
prone upon the floor.
Different Now.
Nf;-troco (GnIi,,ov ufcitNr a., lx,fahnrN