The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1905-06-07

What Mr.. jeffrey might have done had
she proved ohdurate and blind to the
enormity of her own guilt do not
know, but that he is innocent of so in.
fluencing her is proved by the shock
he suffered at finding she had taken
her punishment into her own hands"
"Mr. jeffrey will please answer the
question:" insisted the major, where
upon the latter, with great effort, but
with the first appearance Of real can
dor yet seen in him. said earnestly:
Il did nothing to influence her. I
was in no condition to do so l was
benumbed-dead. When first she told
melt was in some words muttered in
her sleep-I thought she was laboring
under some fearful nightmare, but
when she persisted and questioned
like man turned instantly into stone
save for one intolerable throb within.
am still so. Everything passes by me
like dream. She was 80 young, SEEM
ingly so innocent and light hearted. l
loved her! Gentlemen, you have
thought me guilty of my wfe's death,
this young fairylike creature to whom
ascribed all the virtues, and l was
willing, willing that you should think
SO, willing even to face the distrust and
opprebrium of the whole world, and so
was her sister, the noble woman whom
you see before you. rather than that
the full horror of her crime should be
known and name so dear be given up
to execration. We thought we could
keep the secret-we felt that we must
keep the secret. We took an oath-in
French-in the carriage. with the detec-
tives opposite us. She kept it-God
bless her! kept 1t. But it was all
useless-a tiny bit Of lace is found
hanging to lifeless splinter, and all
our efforts, all the hopes and agony of
weeks, are gone for naught The world
will soon know of her awful deed-and
r.
He still loved her. That was appar-
ent in every look. in every word he ut
tered. We marveled in awkward ST.
lence and were glad when the major
said:
1.-THE deed, as take it, was an un.
premeditated one on her part. Is that
why her honor was dearer to you than
your own, and why you could risk the
reputation if not the life of the woman
who you say sacrificed herself to it?'
Eyes, it was unprecedented. She
hardly realized her act. If you must
know her heart through all this dread
f,,l h,7c; 1,ov lie r.,
show you-words which she spent the
last miserable day of her life in writ
Ing. The few lines which l showed
the captain and which have been pub
lished to tie world was an Enclosure
meant for the public eye. The real let
ter, telling the whole terrible truth,
kept for myself and for the sister who
already knew her sin. oh, we did ev
erything we could" And he agair
moaned. But it was in vain; quite in
vain"
There were no signs of subterfuge il
him now, andy we all. unless except Dur
bin, began to yield him credence. Dur
bin never gives credence to anybody
whose name he has once heard asso
ciated with crime.
"And this Pfeiffer was contracted t
her? A man she had secretly marriet
while schoolgirl and who at thi
very critical instant had found his wa,
to the house,
"You shall read her letter 1t wa
meant for me, for me only-but yol
shall see it. | cannot talk of him o
! of her crime. 1t is enough that hav
been unable to think of anything els
since first those dreadful words fel
q from her lips in sleep, thirty-six hour
before she died" Then with the in
consistency of great anguish he sud
denly broke forth into the details b
shrank from and cried:
"She muttered, lying there, that sh
was no bigamist That she had kille
one husband before she married tn
other Killed him in the old hous
and by the method her ancestors ha
taught her. And l, risen on my elbow
} listened, with the sweat ooMng frol
my forehead. but not believing her. Of
not believing her, any more than an
one of you would believe such worC
uttered in a dream by the darli1sg {
II your heart. But when, with Ion
It drawn SIGH she murmured, Murderer
and raised her fists-1ny fists, han(
l. which l had kissed Thousand time
is and sheok them in the air, an awfl
n terrier seized me- and sought 10 sras
them and hold them down, but w.
ct hitadered by some naMeless inner recc
1T under which l could net speak
T. gasp or move. OF course, it was son
n dream horror she was labsrias unde
a nightmare Of unimaginalsle acts al
)" thoughts, but it was one to hold n
ly back; and when she lay quiet aga
and her face resumed it's old sweetne
ls in the moonlight, l found myself sta
J" ing at her almost as if it were true
u what she had said-that word-th
up awful word which no woman cou
I'd use with regard to herself, even
of dreams, Understanding, an eel
from the discordant chord in our ty
ID. weeks married life, rose like the co