Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-09-30

afNAT like whirlwind, the
 N H chill damp smell of the
 dewy balsams in her nos rils. the dust rising ghostlike behind the rapid hoofs. She found David Stires anxious and peevish over her ate coming.
 She felt relief when the old man grew tired and was wheeled to his bedroom.
 Left alone, her reflections returned. She began 10 be tortured. She tried 70 read The printed characters swan beyond her comprehension. At length she drew hood over her head and stole out on to the wide porch. : It was only 9 o'clock, and along the gravel paths that wound among the shrubbery few dim forms were stroll Ing. She caught the scent of cigar and the sound of woman's laugh. The air was crisp and bracing, with : promise of frost and painted leaves. she gazed down across the dark
 slehes toward the town, a struggling
 sign pricked in blinding yellow points. Halfway between, folded in she darkness, lay the green shelf and the cabin to which her thought re- 'lcurred with kind of compulsion. \ There was no moon. but the stars were glowing like tiny green gilt coals. and the yellow road lay plain and clear. With a sudden determination she drew her light cloak closely about her, stepped down, sped across the grass to footpath and so to the road. As she ran on down the curying stretch under the trees the cracking slip of bank paper that lay in her bosom seemed to burn her flesh. She was stealing away to gaze upon the out cast who had shamed and humbled her-going, she knew not why, with burning cheek and hammering heart.
 She slipped through the side trail to the cabin with a choking sensation. She stole to the window and peered in. In the firelight she could see the form, on the bunk, tossing and mutter- ing. Otherwise the place was empty. She lifted the latch softly and en- tered.
 The strained anxiety of Jessica's look relaxed as she gazed about her. She saw the vial on the table. The doctor had been there, then. If he were in serious case, Prendergast would be with him. She threw back her hood, drew one of the chairs to the side of the bunk and sat down, her eyes fixed on his face. The weakness and helplessness of his posture struck through and through her. Two sides of her were struggling in a chaotic combat for mastery.
 "I hate you. hate youv' she siid under her breath, clinching her cold hand. T must hate you! You stole my love and put it under your feet You have disgraced my present and ruined my future! What if you have forgotten the past-your crime? Does that make you the less guilty or me the less wretched?'
 But withal silent voice within hel gave the lie to her vehemence. Some element of her character that had beer rigid and intact was crumbling down An old sweet something that dread full mill had ground and crushed anG annihiated was rising whole and un defiled, superior to any petty distinc tion, regardless of all that lifted com bative in her inheritance, not to bt gainsaid or denied.
 She leaned closer, listening to the in coherent words and broken phrase: borne on the turbid channels of fever But she could not link them together into meaning. Only one name he spoke clearly over and over again-the nam' Hugh Stires-fepeated with the drear! monotony of child coming lesson > She noted the mark across his brow Before her marriage, in her blindness she had used to wonder what it was like. It was not in the least disfgur ing. It gave a touch of the extraor dinary. It was so small she did no wonder that in that ecstatic moment ot her brides kiss she-had not seen it.
 Slowly, half fearfully, she stretched out her hand and laid it on his. As ii at the touch the mutterings ceased