The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-04-03


the hall empty AS he was hanging his
hat on the rack, young Mrs. Garcia APP
peared from the kitchen. her bang some
what limp. though it was still early in
the day. her face looking small and peak
ed after her exciting nights vigil.
Mariposal was still asleep. she said in
answer. to his query. The sonora had
given her powerful sleeping draught
and had said that the rest would be the
best restorative after such a shock. IF,
after she walked UP. she showed symp-
toms of suffering or prostraton, they
would send for the doctor
A cautious inspection made after dinner
by young Mrs. Garcia resulted IN the In
formation that Mariposa still slept. Bar
ron. who was feverishly DESTROYS to
know how she progressed and also anx-
ious to learn from her the nature of the
lost document, was forced to leave with
out seeing her. A business engagement
of the utmost Importance claimed him at
his office at or he would have awaited
her awakening.
1t was nearly an hour later before this
occurred. The drug the sonora had adj
ministered was heroic remedy. relic of
the days when doctors were a rarity and
the medicine chest of the hardy Spani2rd
contained few but powerful potions The
girl rose, feeling weak. and dizzy. + T
some time she found it difficult to c1llecs
her thoughts and sat on the edge of her
bed eying the disordered room with un-
fort at first absorbed her mind. A fever
burned through her. her head ached, her
limbs felt leaden and stiff.
The sight of the opened desk gave the
flip to her befogged memory. and sud
denly the events of the night rushed back
on her with stunning force. She felt, at
first, that 1t must be dream. But the
rifed desk, with the money which the
Garcias had gthered up and laid In q
glittering heap ON the table. told her of
it's truth. The mans face yellow and
Aabby, with the dark line of the shaven
beard clearly marked on his jaws.
hn friO p
back to her as he had turned in
the first paralyzed moment of fear.
With hot, unsteady hands she searched
through the scattered papers and then
about the room. in the hope that he had
dropped the paper in the struggle. But
all search was fruitless- She remem-
bercd his tearing, it from her grasp as
passage. He had escaped with it. The
irrefutable evidence o. the marriage
was in Essex's hand He had her I'M
der his feet. 1t was the end.
She began to dress slowly and with
constant pauses. Every movement
seemed an effort: every stage of her
toilet doomed colossal before her. The
one horror of the situation kept revolv
ing in her brain, ano she found it inn
possible to detach her thoughts from
it and fix them on anything else. At
the same time she could think of no
way to escape or to hight against it.
Next Sunday it wouiC pe in The Era
Those words seemed written in letters
selves in maddening revolution in her
mind. 1t would be all there. sensa,
scandals had BEEN She saw the tragic
tered hers, the love that had been So
sacred a thing written of with all the
defiling brutality of the common scribe
and his common reader, for all the
She stopped in her dressing and
poed she ner iHs nd till NEXT sunday and
then, when Sunday came, live through
it? There were three days yet before
Sunday. Might not something be done
Of f none gays ghf had e0ua
to help her!
And with that came the thought of
Barron. A flash of relief went through
her. He would help her; he would do
something. She had no idea what, but
something. and, uplirted by the idea.
hall. She felt sudden drop of hope
when she saw that his door was closed.
But she stole up the passage watching
ing to him, only ac;uated by the de-
sire to throw her responsibilities on
him and ask for his help:
The door was aJar and she listened
outside it. There was no sound from
within and no scent of cigar-Smoke. She
tapped softly and receiving no answer
pushed it open and peered fearfully in.
The room was empty The mans
ly. his table Uttered with papers and
books. From the .crevice of the
opened window came the smell and the
sound of the rain, with a chill, bleak
suggestion.
A sudden throttling sense of lonely
helplessness overwhelmed her. She
stood looking blankly about, at the
at an old va1ise gaping open in cor
ner. The room seemed to her to have
a vacated air, and she remembered
speak of going to the mines again soon.
Her mind leaped to the conclusion that
he had gone. Her hopes suddenly fell
around her in ruins. and in his looking
hardly recognized as her own.
Stealing back to her room she sat
down on the bed again. The house was
curiously quiet, and IN this silence her
denly they broke into a burst
of rebellion. She could not bear it. She
She would flee away like ssome hunted
animal and hide, creeping into some dark
distant place and covering there. But
where would she go, and what would she
do? The world outside seemed one vast
menace waiting to spring on her. If her
head would stop aching and the fever
that burned her body and clouded her
brain WOulQ cease LOT moment, she
could think and come to a conclusion.
But now
And suddenly. as she thought, whs-
per seemed to come to her, clear and dis
tinct like a revelation-"You have your
voice!"
1t lifted her to her feet For moment
the pain and confusion of developing i'll
ness left her. and she felt a thrill of re-
turning energy. She had it still, the one
great gift neither enemies nor misfor-
tune could take from her-her voice.
The hope shook her out of the lethargy
of fever, and her mind sprang into ex-
cited action like loosened spring She
went to her desk and placed the gold
back in its bag The five hundred dollars
that had seemed so meaningless had now
use. 1t would take her away to Eu-
rope. With the three hundred she still
had in the bank, it would be enough to
live on. Money went a long way over
there she had heard. She could study
and sing and become famous.
1t all seemed suddenly possible. almost
easy. Only leaving would be hard-fear-
fully. She thought of the door UP the
passage and the voice that in those first
days of her feebleness had called greet
ing to her every morning; the mans deep
voice with its strong. CHEEKY note And
then like a peevish child. sick and unreal
sonable, she foud herself saying:
why does he leave me now when
want him so2''
Meier voice was all she had S,a