Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-28
CHAPTER XLVI.
A Wnman's Heart


The hard, cold face had softened slight
ly. 1t seemed to Ravenspur that there
was something akin to a smile in Coun-
tess F1avios eyes when once more they
We're alone in the dra wing room together.
Let us try and forget that dreadful
scene" she said, ''as Will try and forget
what hard, misunderstood life mine has
been"
ut must have been terrible" Raven
spur exclaimed, land yet there was not a
man In Europe for whom 1 had a higher
regard than 1 had for your husband To
me he was the soul of honor. l always
found him generous and liberal-minded /
have seen him do the most spontaneous
acts of kindness to strangers. 1t seemed
hard to think that he was wholly bad.
He was an enigma the countess re-
piled. In his brain lay curious vein
of madness which vented itself upon me.
No one else suffered, and. indeed no one
knew that l suffered, with the solitary
exception of that poor lost soul who is
lying at deaths door upstairs. When l
fled from my fathers house. knowing that
I had cut myself off entirely from my
own flesh and blood. Silva followed me.
From the first he began to see how l was
suffering. From the first he began to en-
terrain a malignant hatred of my hus-
band"
And finally poisoned him. Ravenspur
suggested.
"Ah. there you are wrong" the coun-
tess exclaimed. With all the earnest
ness In my power / want to impress upon
you that my husband poisoned himself.
AS you have been informed, for genera
tons there had been feud between the
Descartis and my husbands family.
After my marriage 1t would have been
an easy matter for my father to summon
some of his retainers and command them
to avenge the honor and dignity of the
family My father chose not to do 1t. He
was satisfied with the solemn assurance
that only one child of his remained The
summons was sent out by Silva He did
not tell me. l did not know in the least
what he was doing till afterward. But
the sign went forth and my husband
received his warning. There was no eS-
cape for him and he knew it. That is
why he took his own lie. No doubt in
doing he was actuated by some ex-
traordinary motive, for. with all his
faults, he was no coward: but even from
beyond the grave he prosecuted me. His
body was found in circumstances that
pointed to me as the murderess. Oh,
you may start and shrink, but what tell
you is absolutely true. The whole thing
was planned, with diabolical ingenuity,
by the count on the night of his death.
Had it not been for Silva l should have
gone down to my grave execrated by all
who knew me-
expostulated. 1T was proved that you
were in Florence at the, time
That was where Silva's cunning and
ingenuity came in. During the few hours
that preceded and followed that tragic
event l saw nobody. L was utterly worn
out and Frustrated. / could not drag my
self from my bed. But nobody saw me,
for l had given strict orders that L was
not to be disturbed. 1 did not know then
that my sister was alive. In fact l had
got into such a state that l had no in
terest in anything. At that time my
sister Maria was taking a holiday in
Florence and Silva was aware of the
fact. When I ask you to notice the ex-
traordinary likeness between us you will
have no trouble in guessing what hap
pened. Silva was In a position to bring
over scores of people from Florence who
swore that l was in that town at the
time of the tragedy 1t was bold thing
to do, and nobody guessed, nobody
doubted the sincerity of the witnesses,
and thus my life was saved.
1T Is most extraordinary story.
Raverspur murmured. But, really, there
is no reason for you to justify yourself
any further. We know that you are alb
solutely innocent of any sort of crime.
l know now what kind of life Flavio
led you. Had l been aware at the time