Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-08
(;20lNES

detection. " 'P-'''N VI --'
haven't he returned indifferentlv: "I am
hoC so sure that there is such a thing as mind"
3ne % knew his obstinate moods and remarked
nSh'ly. dare say we recognize it chiefly
from its absence. | saw a woman to-day, how.
ever; VINO must wonder about the nature OF
hlnu; Hhe had father with too much a moth
i er-in-iaw with the wrong kind, and husband
with none at ALL"
~ me ne man man opposite the lamp looked bored, but
MS nostess went on, with the intention Of lead
ing 1 the conversation into personal channel
enc was my friend once-a long time ago in
scho0i' After she left ] saw little of her, and
she had an old, grabbed father, who did not
MAKE nome pleasant for his daughter nor her
guests; one was shy girl with sensitive soul,
anu Cnat 1ather of hers was as impossby un-
pleasant as Magda's, only worse He had a
mama for blood-in the way of ancestry. and he
inaue the child marry little nonentity who
had some wonderful Saxon lineage Why didn't
she rebel! Oh, you never saw her father. He
USED TO go into some sort of blue fit when he
was crossed, and then her mother, poor weak
soul, would get of another kind, and the
girl simply couldn't stand it.
wen, the bridegroom went stark raving mad
on the afternoon of the wedding as they started
on Their bridal journey. 1t was a way his old
,afnlly had-golng mad sooner or later ] be
lleve 1T was awful. They were in a private car
which was side-tracked at some junction to be
attached to another train. She was alone with
hlm, and nobody ever knew the details except
that there had been a quarrel but the porter.
found him trying to kill her with a little Spanish
dagger which she used as paper-cutter. She's
had white lock in her hair ever since Why
what's the matter. Bertie?'
Oh, nothing" the man replied "only pre-.
monitory twinge of the fearful headaches I get
lately" He Withdrew from the crimson glare oi
the lamp.
What happened next?" he asked in con-
strained tone
"They whislted him off to retreat. That
was ten years ago, and, will you believe it, the
foolish creature goes every day of her life to see
him. just If she had loved him? He chases
her out of the room too. Why under the sun
she does it is only coniectured. Some say she
has remorseful notions that if she had not irri-
tatcd him in the quarrel that day of the wed.
ding he would not have lost his mind, and then
too she lives in the same house with his mother,
who keeps up every morbid tendency the poor
girl ever had with her pratings about duty and
atonement She has beautiful clothes and lots
of money but she has always been the most
creature until to-day; thought
she seemed dfferent-younger, somehow. That
was what made think to tell YOU all this:
seeing her unexpectedly beaming, and you,
who have always been so Jolly, looking as if you
had been arrested for robbng bank.
"Some women" she continued meditatively,
wouldn't mind having mad husband if he
could be put away where he couldn't bother, IL
they might also have ermne-lifed cloaks, such
as she sometimes wears"
The man, who had been walking nervously
about the room, turned abruptly. "What did
you say her name was?" he demanded in tone
so unsteady that Mrs Alng, busy with the tea
things, put down cup and looked at him GU
riously Something she in his face affected
her carefully controlled nerves.
'T didn't say" she replied after little hesi-
tation Come and have some tea" But with
the briefest excuses, her companion fastened
out smile Of triumph in his eyes.
Copyright by ]. B. Lppncott Co