The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1904-03-12

50 "a MA g, den thought
flashing thI ough her brain, and bring.
ling with IL 4 sudden pride the mem.
Eory of the news Feline had 50 silnr 4 s
ton; vii YOU not let me comfort YOU Z.
Tor her loss q, s .5$ III n 4.
III The question made ened him. It was
like pouring q smarting fluid into a
fresh-made wound. All the misery
which had come to them all through
her who still knelt at his feet-ra-
turned to. him. F ! Y: I: II. & r. =. .>. '
"You?" he said you comfort me?
Does one turn. to the nightshade for
healing? Does one seek the poppy, ex-
| cept to drown sorrow in eternal sleep?
Does one, robbed of the soaring lark,
with it's sweet notes.. ask comfort of
the glfttering serpent, whose colors led
it to its doom? So might come to
you, in your bewildering beauty, which
once enthralled me, and which leads
| men to perdition. You say you loved
me! Aye, with passion which has
coiled itself about my life, crushing
from it hope and happiness, all but life
itself Woman, why have you spared
that? Why have you not taken that,
| too?"
| His words came forth with the fren-
| zy of despair.
pierre! Pierre!' cried Marie to her
self, as she stood without the door, her
ear to the keyhole. "You will bear me
| witness-1 am avenging you through
him."
Then she turned, and, entering the
sick room where Avice still knelt, she
touched the girl on the shoulder.
Follow me-" she commanded gen.
thy.
And in another moment the two
forms had glided past the boudoir
door.
For a moment Barbara covered be-
meath the storm of words hurled at
her; then she rose, very pale, to her
feet
"You scorn me-" she said, brokenly,
land I cannot return your scorn. You
hate me, and IL would crawl on my
knees for one crumb of your love!
Milton, is it likely that I would, then,
have brought this misery upon you if
I could have ayerted it? Oh, my love,
MY love, speak to me! Give me one
word-one little word OF comfort"
But the mans heart was steel in his
breast.
LAS you have dealt with her." he
replied, 80 may God deal with you!"
Then, leaving her as though turned
to marble where she stood, he opened
the door, went down the stairs and out
of the house.
She listened until his footsteps died
away, and long, long after stood mo-
tionless, a living statue Of loneliness.
Then varying expression swept across
her face, merging into one of deadly,
malignant hate. In sight of her goal
it had escaped her.
Not yet, not yet! This girl was in
her power; this girls name hers to
brand! this girls very life at her mer-
cy. How beautiful the girl would look
in death! Was she, too, going mad?
Not So! She was a countess, the Earl
of Bertram's widow, and they had
thought her scheming for the poor
little Meredith title and fortune. But
that had served her purpose well, as it
should serve it yet a little longer.
Now this girl was the one obstacle in
from it fOrever-foreyer!
She repeated the words, then glide1
to the door between the rooms and
threw it OPEN
Richard Hayes still lay sleeping, his
expression even in sleep showing
place beside his bed was empty-Aylce
was not there!
For a moment an awful fear was in
Barbara's breast; then she laughed at
her idle folly.
"Shc has returned to her rooms"
she murmured to herself. Il will find
her there"
Up the stairs, along the silent hall,
she sped, fighting against the dull pre-
monition born of her fears.
The door leading into the smaller
| corridor was open. The silence was
oppressive. Barbara's heart beat in
suffocating bounds as she stole swift
ly into the exquisitely appointed rooms
over which brooded the air of deser-
ton that comes only from solitude.
that cannot be simulated even when
| one bushes ones breathing, a silence
that exists, that is a thing palpable.
! underlined, but almost human in it's in
fluence
Ere she crossed the threshold Bar
bara knew the truth, yet she searched
; through every portion of the empty
=; rooms, her heart and brain sickening
| with the mortal terror which possess
| ed her.
! The cage was empty-the bird had
, flown. Where?
! With this question ringing in her
ears until it seemed shrieked aloud by
thousand demons, all pressing on
her heart until they suffocated her.