Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-12-31
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4 pillow.
A few minutes afterward he fell
asleep. She stood over him, watching
him with pale face and compressed
lips, and her eyes wandered toward
the pillow which hid the sketch. with
curious expression in them.
She knew as we'll as if he had told
her that it was the face of the girl, the
JOAN" he had been calling upon. 1t
was the face of the girl he loved, she
TOLD herself, and she murmured, ut is
nothing to me, nothing" So assured
was she of this that she repeated it
half dozen times. 1t was nothing to
her. She was simply Miss Mazurka,
late of the Coronet, and at present the
nurse of the Earl of Villiars. In a
short time she would not even be as
slightly connected with him as that.
He would get well and then she would
go. She would go tomorrow if he were
well enough!
AS she stood looking at him with a
strange feeling throbbing and aching
in her heart, he stirred and turned.
| anu III QiStuIUSu IuS
uncovering corner of the sketch.
! Tempted beyond her strength, she
drew it out instantly and looked at it,
Starting violently, she uttered cry
of amazement, which, faint and sup
pressed as it was, reused Stuart vii
liars.
AS he opened his eyes and saw her
standing with the portrait in her hand
his face flushed angrily, but the next
moment he said gently enough:
"Give it to me, please?"
She held the portrait out to him, her
color coming and going, her eyes
downcast, the expression of surprise
and bewilderment still lingering in her
face.
81 could not help it." she faltered,
almost pleadingly "You shook it from
under your pillow, or nearly"
why should you not see it?" he
said, gently his dark eyes fixed on hef
st is beautiful face. is 1t not?"
EYES," she assented, in voice too
soft to be sullen. Eyes, it is beauti
/ full"
| There was silence for a moment,
then she said:
SIS that-the Joan you talked about
so much when you were ill?"
did talk of her?" he said, gravely
and sadly. Eyes, her name was Joan.
Joan what? What was her other
name?"
Joan Ormsby," he said. 1t was SO
long since he had spoken the name
aloud That the sound of it caused him
a pang.
Joan, Joan Ormsby!" she repeated
as if she were impressing the name on
her memory. "And the lady, this Joan
didn't she care for your"
i He WINGED. 1t was on his lips to
ask her to be silent. Every word she
! uttered probed his wound to it's depth
but he remembered her devotion to
him and restrained himself.
81 think, know that she cared for
me-" he said, family.
"And yet she left your" she said, in
a hard, almost sullen voice.
'You know that?"
|
out of your mind. You were always
calling for her and imploring her to
come back"
'was 1? Yes, she left mel"
! "Then she couldn't have cared for
YOU" she said.
"Ah, don't say that" he exclaimed
sharply, as If she had hurt him
I physically; his illness had left him
weak as child and as sensitive.
l But it's true!" she asserted
i doggeuiy. No woman leaves a man
she really cares fort"
mo" he said. You're right! But
but there is my stery about this
woman that neither l nor anyone else
can solve"
CHAPTER xxx.
! Cant find out why she left you?
Miss Mazurka said, raising her eyes
and looking at him for the first time
1 with a puzzled stare Didn't she tell
you? Didn't you ask her? If were a
man, if | had been you, / would have
forced the truth out of her, ali! If
] had killed her afterwards"
Hush" replied Lord villiars, put
i ting out his wasted hand, that
trembled as he extended it. do not
| speak of her like that. For myself,
\ could not ask her, because"-his lips
twitched-"she was dead"
Dead" she exclaimed, AMI sprang
to her feet. Are you out of your
senses still? How do you know? How
did you hear? You have had nc
/ letters"
Hear, No letters." he repeated
You think she died lately, since !
have been here? No, she diei'-hls
voice quivered-"before 1 left Eng
land"
She died-before you left Eng
land!" she echoed, with stony stare
why, + saw her only a few week.
ago"
Stuart Villiars raised himself upon
his elbow and fixed his eyes upon her
with wild gaze, his face white and
working; then he sank back AMI
sighed.
4 "Ah Heaven If In could he tr1,af n