The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1904-03-26

..
/: i Had changed the infants cloth les. Ii
/ this baby died, evidently of humble
parentage, judging from itss garments
let this heartless mother believe AT
hers. t y +,
""The next day the child died. as sl
had supposed. In some. way my mis-.
! tress ''desertion of her baby was ais.
covered, and dark cloud of suspicion
rested upon her head. It was suspect.
ed death had not alone been the result
of exposure, but there was no positive
proof, and she was not held for trial
I'm all this had been actuated by
no malice, but had learned to love the
little helpless thing which had nursed,
and took care to follow its fortunes.
OF that, more hereafter. My mistress
then went upon the stage. She
avenged the wrong which had been
done her, from the highest to the low
est. She spared none.
L It so happened that Pierre was en-.
gagged at the theater when she played.
He was a scene painter-a handsome
and education. She saw him. His
handsome face attracted her. She
smiled upon him. 1t was enough
was forgotten. I went to her. On my
! knees l pleaded with her to give me
! back my lover.
"She laughed in my face, and dis
| missed me. Oh, the wretched days
that followed! Pierre grew pale and
thin. He was her shadow. In vain
| tried to win him back. Her beauty had
bewitched him; he was a slave to do
| her bidding; he worshiped her as a
queen upon her throne. At length
| there came day when she tired of
him. The amusement was growing
dull. Another fly was lowering over
her web, of larger growth and more
brilliant plAmage.
Instead of smiles, Pierre met with
frowns; instead of the sweet glance
of recognition, the cold stare of va
| cancy; instead of the gentle hand
pressure, she drew aside her silken
skirts that he might pass.
"At last he found his way into her
presence only to be repulsed with
scorn. He went out from her and
sent with his own hand a bullet
through his poor, bleeding heart Over
his dead body I swore revenge; over
Int
murdress should rest upon her, as it
deserved. Aye, Barbara Breton!
you now know why have served you"
The two women now stood face to
face, but on one face was the CLEAN
df triumph, on the other a haunted
look, as though her sin was coming
home to her.
But one part of the maids story
seemed to have reached her brain--but
one fact to stand out beyond all 9th
ers-the fact that her child had not
died!
"Tel met" the mother almost
shrieked. docs my child live?'
"You would know, then, the truth?
She lives, but lives rather to curse
than bless her mother. She was taken
from La Madeleine and adopted by
man whom the world knew as her
father. have here the legal papers
which were drawn up at the time.
How I obtained them matters not.
would you see them? Would you
learn who is your child? Would you
know the part you have played in her
young life? Look! Judge for your
SET.
A quick premoni1ion Of the truth
darted through Richard Hayes mind,
even as it flashed through that of Mil
ton Lennox.
The latter's face blanched to dead
ly whiteness. The formers first
thought was of her whom he so loved
| "You will kill her!" he exclaimed,
darting forward
But too late. Barbara had snatched
the paper, and in that brief instant the
name had burned it's way into her
brain.
Her child had been beneath her roof,
! and how had she received it? Her
child-Avice!
| A gray pallor crept over the beauti-
| full face; the paper dropped from her
nerveless fingers; then rallying, she
| snatched the little vial from her bosom
and poured it, drop by drop upon the
ground.
''Oh, Cod" she said, Tin heart !
murdered. herr"
The old sense of suffocation came
air.
Then death came in one gasping sob.
| CHAPTER xxx.