Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-01-26


 mand it! She would kneel at my feet, and beg of me, if should command it! Shall prove this, your grace?"
 "Oh, assuredly!" replied the regent, with sarcasm which now seemed his only relief. "Assuredly, if Monsieur Las should please. We here in Paris are quite his humble servants
 Law said nothing. He stood with his biting blue eyes still fixed upon Mary Connynge, whose own eyes fal- tered, trying their utmost to escape from his; whose fingers, resting just lightly on the snowy Hollands of the table cloth, moved tremulously; whose limbs appeared ready to sink beneath her. -,s ?. s.
 Come, then, Mary Connynge!" cried Law at last, his teeth setting savagely together. Come, then, traitress and slave, and kneel before me, as you did once before!' --y. Then there ensued a strange and hor- rible spectacle. A hush as of death fell upon the group. Mary Connynge, trembling, halting, yet always advanc- ing, did indeed as her master had bid den! She passed from the head of the table, back of the chair of the regent, who stood gazing with horror in his | eyes; she passed the chair of Aisse, near which Law now stood; she paused 1 in front of him, and stood as though | in dream. Her knees would have in- deed sunk beneath her. She drew l from her bosom silken kerchief, as 1 though she would indeed have per- l f<,V~V,o a fIn been threatened for her. There came neither voice nor motion to those who saw this thing. The sheer force of one strong nature, terrible in the intensity of one supreme moment--this might have been the spell which commanded at the table of the regent. Yet this did occur.
 There came sound which broke the 1 silence, which caused all to start as with swift relief. A sob, short, dry, hard, as from one whose heart is broken, came from beyond the place where Law stood facing the trembling woman. The eyes of all turned upon Will Law, from whom had burst this irrepressible exclamation of agony Will Law, as one grown swiftly old, haggard, broken-dow stood gazing in wide-eyed horror at this woman, so hu- initiated in the presence of all in this brilliantly-lighted hall: before the blazing mirrors which should have re- | f1ected back naught but beauty and l joy; under the twining roses, which should have been the signs manual of undving love; under the smiling cherubs, which should have typified the deities of happy love. Will Law, too, had loved. Perhaps still he loved. This sharp sound served to break also the spell under which Law him. self seemed held. He cast aloft his arms, as in remorse or in despair. Then he extended hand to the woman who would have sunk before him.
 "God forgive me! madam he cried. ''I had forgot. Savage indeed you are and have been, but 'tis not for me to treat you brutally."
 Your grace" said he, turning to- ward the regent, ''I crave your par don. Our explanations shall reach you on the morrow
 He turned and, taking his brother by | the arm, advanced toward the door at l which he had recently entered. palis- ing not to look behind him. Had his eye been more curious as he and his half-fainting brother bowed before passing through the door, it might have seen that which he must long ] have borne in memory.
 I Mary Connynge, trembling, pallid, l utterly broken, never found her way back to the right hand of the regent, She half stumbled into chair near the foot of the table. Her bosom fut- l tered at the base of the throat. Half blindly she reached out her hand to- ward a glass of wine which stood near by, foaming and sparkling, its gem like drops of keen pungency swimming continuously up to the surface. Her hand caught at the slender stem of the glass. Leaning upon her left arm, she half rose as though to put it to her lips. Her head moved, as though she would follow the retreating figure of the man who had thus scornfully used her. All at once, slowly, and then with sudden crash, she sank down upon her seat and fell forward across the table. The fragile glass snapped in her fingers. The amber wine rushed in swift flood across the linen. Tn tho broadening stain there fell and lay blazing the great gem of France.
 (To be continued.)