Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1905-10-14

t1OIllSter ~cOnlrOlleU nlmSelI Dy
powerful effort. His face looked al
most blue in it's deathly pallor, and
his lips seemed stretched in a taut
line across his teeth. There were
black, indented circles under his eyes,
doubly accentuating the tense, un-
yielding bitterness that broke through
their studied restraint. He was stand
ing with one elbow pressed against
the sharp edge of the mantel-shelf;
in this position, he had been staring
fiXedly at his wife's perfectly impas-
sive face for fully half an hour
rs your decision finaI?" he asked at
last.
Il have said So"
You, then, in so many words. give
me carte blanche to hunt this fellow
down and"
, She interrupted him with an en-
phatic nod.
Hadn't you better reconsider? You
know what l mean when l say that l
will"
Il perfectly understand, Edgar. But
my mind is unalterabie."
HOLSTER sneered. "Of course Your
attitude is thoroughly transparent to
me. You feel confident enough of
your ability to protect this scoundrel
and yourself
The look on his wife's face stopped
him. 1T is unnecessary to prolong
this" she said, rising, you have ia
ken your attitude, which you assert
is final, and II have done the same.
Just one last word: If you ever find
out that you have made a grave mis-
lake, the time will be too late.
shall not ask you to honor me with
your trust again; once is sufficient
nay, superfiuOuS-aS has been demon
strated. Had you seen fit to listen to
me for one moment in reason and
might have been diff
Ierent. But when, on the other hand,
you chose to insult me (from the be-
ginning), and unheard, why then-we
must both submit to the inevitable"
She swept past him as she finished
speaking, and laid her hand on the
dOor-knob.
But HOLSTER intercepted her, TAX
ing her roughly by the arm. Il will
give you one more chance to prove
and establish your innocence in my
eyes," he said Quiveringly. who was
the man, Beatrice?"
The woman's face did not change a
fraction, except perhaps, to grow a
shade whittier and a shade more deter
mined. Il cannot tell you,'' she said.
You will not tell me-"
VERY we'll, then, if that is more
agreeable to you; 1 will not
81 saw his face once, remember, and
the day will come when both you and
he will regret most bitterly that"
I'VE ever lived? Doubtless. The
day is already here" She shook off
his hand and pulled open the door.
HOLSTER followed her out into the
corridor. There's one thing more,'
he insisted, Il have held this back till
the last, hoping that you might come
to your senses without so violent an
incentive, but"
''Well?''
IF you still persist in your present
course, by this time tomorrow, l shall
have to ask you tO-leave my roof"
Beatrice Hollister seemed to sway,
almost imperceptibly for an instant,
and a strange light flashed in her
eyes, but she controlled herself mag
nificently, and acknowledged the
threat with a weary shrug; he should
never know, as long as they both
lived, that he had stabbed her to the
heart.
Hollister went back to the library
and threw himself dejectedly into a
chair. Some of his anger had begun
to wear of and give place to miser-
4f
In all the years of their married life,
she had not once given him cause for
suspicion or distrust until yesterday
And that she had given him no small
cause on that occasion, he could not
doubt. There was the evidence of his
own eyes to damn her-and she had
denied nothing. She had only as
serted her innocence of wrong, abso-