Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1906-02-05
| Nil LeSIie'S lIIZ
| MI Loyalty ; :;:;;::



figure in front of her swayed and stag
gered, and the dark eyes grew sud-
denly heavy and closed.
ooh, what is it? You are i'll,
faint?"
The other opened her lips as if to
speak, then fell heavily forward on
Leslie's arm.
Leslie lowered her arm to the grass
and knelt beside her, and looked round
anxiously. The solitude was as in
tense as that which they had just left.
They were still alone together, with
no help near.
Leslie remembered that a small
spring ran from a cleft in the cliff;
and though the thought of going near
the cliff made her heart culver, she
gently let the WOman's head down,
and STOPPING over the cliff: wet her
handkerchief at the rill, and, return
ing, bathed the white face with one
hand while she unfastened the
bosom of the lifeless woman's dress
with the other.
AS she did so, her hand came in
COuJdCI Will SOLuSIuluS hdIu, Jul LII
a second or two she was too intent
upon watching for some sign of re-
covering consciousness in the face on
her knee to look to see what it was;
but presently her eye caught plain
gold locket.
Poor girl" she thought. 'Tt is the
gift of the man who has deserted her,
and she wears it near her heart.
Poor girl! poor girl"
At that moment the white lips
parted and the dark eyes opened.
"Yorke!" she breathed. ''Is it you,
Yorke? Have you come back to me?"
The words struck upon Leslie's ears
at first without any significance. She
scarcely heard them, took them in,
for as pace during which one could
have counted fifty
Then gradually it came upon her
gradually, slowly.
"Yorke! Is it you, Yorke? Have
you come back to me?"
She repeated the words mechanical
| Iy, as one repeats a phrase in
foreign language, the meaning of
which one does not understand. Then
she began to tremble, and a sick dread
fell upon her.
All the time she bathed the white
face and lips, and brushed the dark
hair from the low, handsome fore
cad, doing it mechanically, absentIy.
Yorke! Had this girl said Yorke,
or was she mistaken?
She waited breathlessly, the sick
feeling weighing on her heart, and
presently the full lips opened again,
and again the name was breathed.
There could be no mistake this time.
Leslie heard it plainly.
1t was Yorke.
Her hand trembled; the beautiful
face on her lap grew dim and seemed
far away Then she made an effort
and forced the dread from her heart
and a smile to her lips.
What if the girl, the beautiful girl,
had called upon Yorke? Surely there
was more than one man of that name
in the world-the great, big, wide
world And that woman's Yorke
was not-could not be hers-Leslies
She could have laughed at her wicked,
worse than wicked, foolish, fear!
Could have laughed at it had it not
been for the stress of circumstances.
How could she suspect for a moment
! that her Yorke-the Duke of Roth
bury, her lover, so good, and true, and
stanch-should be the Yorke whom
this woman loved, and who had, by
his own account deserted her?
ooh! 1 wrong him cruelty, wickedly,
even by this momentary doubt" she
told herself "He would not have
doubted me as I have him, though
only for half a second" and her face
| flushed.
But though she reproached herself
her mind was at work, and, against
her will, she remembered how she had
first seen the girl.
| She recalled the scene, the incident
at St. Martins Tower. Yorke had
stood beside her, looking down, and
he had started-yes, and turned pale,
white to the Hps-as the woman's
voice had floated up to them.
Did he know her?
All her being rose in revolt at the
idea-the suspicion. And yet she
remembered his face as it had looked
at that moment She had thought
that he had turned pale with anger
that such a song should have been sung
in her presence, and had loved him
for his anxiety on her account.
She tried to thrust the dawning
suspicion from her as if 1t were some
insidous demon whispering in her ear;
but still she could not forget that the
woman had told her that she had come
down here to Portmaris-had followed
the man she loved to this place-and
Yorke had come down here, had come
down today.
The ravs of the setting sun struck