The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-07-14
BOOK III.
The House of Doom.
CHAPTER XIV.
.who VIII Tell the Man Inside There p


CHAPTER XIV.
"Who VIII Tell the Man Inside There?"
Later I saw this letter 1t was like no
other that has ever come under my eye.
Written at intervals, as her hand had pow
er or her misery found words. it bore on
Its face all the evidences of that rest
less, suffering spirit which for thrty-six
hours drove her in frenzy about her room.
and caused Loretta to say, in her effort to
describe her mistress face as it appeared
to her at the end of this awful time TT
was as If blight had passed over it. Once
gay and animated beyond the power Of
any one to describe, it had become a
ghosts face, with the glare Of some aw-
full resolve upon it, T give this letter
just as it was Observation-Disclosures para
graphs, broken sentences, unfinished words
and all. The breaks show where she laid
down her pen, possibly for that wild pa
pacing Of the floor which left such unmis-
taxable signs behind it.
1t opens abruptly:
II killed him. I am all that said was,
and you can never again give me a thought
save in the way of curSing and to bewail
the day I came into your life But you
cannot hate me more than I hate myself,
my wicked self. who, seeing an obstacle
in the way to happiness. stamped it out Of
existence, and so forfeited all right to hap
piness forever.
1T was so easy Had it been a hard
thing to do; had it been necessary to lay.
hand on knife or lift a pistol might have
realized the act and paused. But just
little spring which a child's hand could
manage-Who. feeling for it, could help
pressing 1t, If only to see
II was always a reckless girl, mad for
pleasure and without any thought Of con-
sequences. When school bored me, took
all my books out Of my desk, called upon
my mates TO do the same, and, stacking
them up into sort of rostrum in field
where we played, first delivered an ora
ton from them in which reverence for my
teachers had small part, then tore them
into pieces and burned them in full sight
of my admiring school-fellows. I was
dismissed, but not with disgrace. Teach
ers and scholars bewailed my departure,
not because they liked me. or because of
any good they had found in me, but be-
cause my money had thrown luster on
them and on the whole establishment.
This was when I was II, and it was on &C
count of this reckless escapade that 1 was
sent west and kept so long from home and
all my fatterers. My guardian meant
we'll by this, but in saving me from one
pitfall he plunged me into another. I
grew up without Cora and also without
any idea Of the requirements of my posi-
ton or what might anticipate from the
world when the time came for me to enter
L
those about me; but had little or no idea
of the amount, what that money would
do for me when I returned to Washington.
So, in an evil day, and when was just 49,,
/ fell in love, or thought I did, with a
man-(Oh. Francis. imagine 1t, now that
/ have seen youD-of sufficient attraction
to satisfy one whose prospects were linz
tied to contracted experience In some
small town, but no more fitted to content
me after seeing Washington life than If
he had been a common farm hand or the
most ordinary Of clerks in a country store.
But was young. ignorant and self-willed,
and thought because my cheek burned I'M
der his look that he was the man of men,
and suited@to benny husband. That Is,
If ] thought at all, which is not likely; for
I was In feverish whirl, and just fol-
lowed the impulse Of the moment, which
was to be with him whenever could
without attracting the teachers atten-
ton. And this, alas! was only too often.
for he was the brother of one Of our store
keepers, visitor in Owosso, and often in
the store where we girls went. Why the
teachers did not notice how often we
needed things there, I do not know. But
they did not, and matters went on and
Il cannot write of those days, and you
do not want to hear about them. They
seem impossible to me now, and almost
as II 1t had all happened to some one else
so completely have 7 forgotten the mar
except as the source and cause of an i'm.
measurable horror. Yet he was not baG
himself; only ordinary and humdrum. In.
deed, believe he was very good in ways
or so his brother once assured me. We
would not have been married in the way
we were II he had not wanted to go to the
Klondike for the purpose Of making
money and making it quickly, so that hi;
means might match mine.
Il do not know which of us two was
most to blame for that roarriooa
urged it because he was going so far ava,
and wanted to be sure of me. accented
1T because 1t seemed to be romantic ant
because 1t pleased me to have my owr
way In spite of my hard old guardian ant
the teachers, who were always pryins
about, and the girls, who went silly owe
hin-for he was really handsom,
In his way-and who thought, Cat leas
many Of them did, that he cared for then
when he cared only for mo. g. 49, a.
II have hated black eyes for a year, HI
had black eyes. .. ...Ei
II forgot Cora, or, rather, did not lie
any remembrance Of her hinder me- Sh
was very shadowy person to me in thos
days. had not seen her since we were bot
children, hnd as for her letters-they wer
almost a. bore to me; she lived such a diff
ferent life from mine and wrote of $
many things had no interest in. On m
knees ask her pardon now. never un
derstood her. ] never understood my
self. was light las thistledown and blow
by every breeze. There came a gust on
day which blew me into the mouth of he'll
am lowering there yet and am sinkine
Francis, sinking-Save me- I love you
IL s--......
TT was all planned by him-I have n
head for such things. Sadie helped him
Sadie was my friend--but Sadie had nc
much to say about it, for he seemed t
know just how to arrange it all so ths