Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-01

She gave him languishing glance. "How
should remember, dear, you have not told me
for--ah, so many days"
with all my heart" he answered. and Mad
anne sighed and fell to musing, well content to be
wooed thus, her mood of the moment being
peaceful and composed.
"Do you know what am thinkingY asked
Madame suddenly.
! Motel me, dear"
"I am wishing had met you years ago, that
we had married, that 1 was-ah, do not laugh at
me- Frank--that was another, the mother Of
your child"
"Katel" He stared at her in swift dismay, bat
| Madame was serious.
She continued dreamily: "Really, dear, / have
always longed to have child; every woman does
think. Do you know, when see babies with
their nurses in the street I often stop to speak
to them and kiss their hands. Their little hands
appeal to 80, so small and crumpled-up they
are, when they stretch out to me they make me
feel tight here;" she put her hand to her heart
Cressngham felt shocked, Just as shocked he
would had he listened to better woman utter
ing blasphemy. He found something actually
revolving in the idea of Madame as a mother
Getting to his feet he paced the floor in silence
until Bellar returned with Madame's tea.
The man vouchsafed piece Of information as
he entered. "At midnight, Monseigneur, Mon
sieur WIN come for Madame"
After an excellent dinner, Madame puffed a
cigarette She called her lover to her.
kiss me-" she commanded
He brushed her forehead with his lips.
A sudden rage possessed her at his coldness
and quite beside herself she struck him sharply
on the mouth.
He started back maddened at the blow, but
second Madame repented.
But Cressingham, white with anger, and in
spite of her whimpering entreaties, hurried from
| the room, banging the door fiercely behind him.
An hour of meditation made him remorseful,
| Ill ,bo LoI h,,kr 10 pnn-
ment's temper, and had instantly repented. H.
was a man, she only woman; he should have
pardoned her. Even as he relented, there came
soft tapping at the outer door. He turned in
time to see enter the apartment two women
thicky veiled, behind them Won oeltjen, his fin
ger on his lip.
Bellair made a comprehensive gesture, and the
women brushing by Cressngham, entered Mad
ame's room noiseless as phantoms, closing the
door soundlessly behind them. short pause
succeeded, then harp quickly-smothered cry
and long silence, which no one cared to break.
| Cressingham felt boiling in his heart mixture
of wild impulses, some of which madly urged him
to help Madame, some to rush away, away, any
where anywhere in or out Of the world, so that
he might rid his brain of thought, and rest.
As in horrid dream he saw the women pres
emily emerge from the room bearing Madame
body like a corpse between them.
She was utterly unconscious, and rested in their
grasp so still and helpless that his heart cried
out in very pity for her state, the more perhaps
because her face had lost great part of its beau
ty in the pallor of the drug.
He watched them bear her carefully away, and
noted half-dazed, that the house was wrapped in
silence that the clocks hands almost stood at
two. One dim consolation only seemed remain
ing: presently he would be alone.
But that too faded. Won Oeltjen approached
him.
Better put on your thickest coat" he muir
mured "the night is bitter cold"
What" said Cresing.am stupidly ~ am
wanted too?"
'Why. certainly! Hasten, please"
Soon he found himself in carriage seated be-
side the Count, carriage that bore them swiftly
and unfalteringly through the gloom