Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1904-01-05
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''You are awake, my dear| she said,
gently "Ah, you have slept so nicely!
And now, you are thirsty. Wait mo-
ment, dear Rose"
She turned and took up the silver cup
on the stand. A mingling of joy and hor-
ror the most intense, seized the muir
deress by the hearth.
Zone moment, my dear madame" said
M. Merry, hastily, rising and going to-
wards her. 'Let me give it to her."
He took the cup from the hand Of the
countess, glancing back as he did SO, at
Mademoiselle Montauban. Her brilliant
eyes, fixed upon him with an awful fas-
cination, were instantly averted. He
stirred the contents of the cup slowly.
1T appears to me-" he said, with fear
full deliberation, that there is something
here which will do our little invalid no
good. 1 will remove it, if you please,
madame, and bring something different"
And following the stealthy figure of
Mademoiselle Montauban, as it glided
from the apartment, he closed the door
behind him.
They were alone together in the gallery,
lighted only by a single lamp, which but
family revealed that ghostly form, NOV
ing swiftly towards the opposite cham
ber. But, quicker than lightning, his
grasp was upon her arm. Her weird,
white face cleaned awfully upon him
through the dim twilight. But she spoke
no word.
Come with me.'
1t was all he said. There was no pow
er of resistance in the form beside him.
Rapidly those two descended. the stair
case. He entered the library, with her
arm locked in his; then he closed and
locked the door. He stood before her.
She was very still-very white. Only
those terrible eyes burned like live Goals
amid lifeless ashes. He held the cup in
his hand; he made her look at it.
''You know what this is?' he said.
There was no answer.
''You do know. You placed it there.
was a witness of the deed. Unhappy
woman! What evil has that sweet child
done to you? Would you murder your
own acknowledgements Montauban?'
One moment the guilty woman gazed
at him wildly. A gasp, struggle,
faint cry, and she sank in awful con-
vulsions at his feet.
That was fearful night which fol-
lowed, but it was only the commence
ment of season fraught with agony.
The marquis returned to the chateau
iiolti Tic uedtuDeu OIL MS DrOluer, TO uuu
Helen struggling between life and death.
For weeks she lay unconscious of every
thing about her; only coming out of the
dull stupor that wrapt her. to fall. ever
and anon. into those terrible commissions.
in which it seemed that nature must
sink, worn out with the contest. The
agitation produced by this circumstance,
strange and sudden as it was, and the
death of his brother, would have been
beyond his power to bear had it not been
for the inexpressible happiness which it
was permitted him to enjoy in the dis
covery of his long-lost child. How would
he have shuddered had he known the
fearful fate which that sweet child had
so narrowly escaped
But the scenes enacted within the walls
of the chateau that night were mercifully
concealed from him. Fortunately for
Helen Montauban, in the illness which
succeeded the overwhelming denouement
of the dark tragedy wherein she had TAX