Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-12-25

quiet. The horror of this sudden doom
had ~paralyzed him. What had he done
that this thing should happen, this wild
revenge of a woman's passionate heart
which made him a murderer? What had
he done? Had he not been patient and
forDruring, induigent beyond the common
Indulgence of husbands TO fretful wives?
Had he not blunted the edge of wrath
with soft answers? Had he mo- been af-
fectionate and considerable even when love
was dead? And yet because of one hard
speech, wru1g from his irritated nerves,
this wild creature had slain herself.
The two fishermen looked at him curl
ousiy. He saw the dark southern eyes
watching him, saw gravity and restraint
upon those fine olive faces which had
been wont to beam with friendly smiles.
He knew that they suspected evil, but he
was In no mood to undeccive them. He
sat in an npathetic silence, motlonless,
stupefied almost, while the men rowed
slowly round the point in the golden light
of shutdown. He scarcely looked at that
white still figure lying at the bottom OF
the boat, the face hidden under n scarlet
kerchief which one of the men had taken
from his neck. He sat staring at the
rocky shore, the white cleaning light
house, the long ridge Of healthy ground on
the crest Of the hill, the villas, the gar
dens with their glow Of light and color,
the dark masses of foliage clustering here
and there amidst the bright-hued rocks.
He looked at everything except his dead
wife, lying almost at his feet.
There was an inquiry that evening be-
fore the Judge d'Instruction Mt Vile
franche, and he was made to give an &C
count Of his wife's death. He proved a
very bad witness. The minute and SEEM
ingly frivolous questions added his brain.
He told the magistrate how he had looked
round and found the path empty; but he
could not say how his wife had fallen
whether she had flung herself over the
edge or had fallen accidentally, whether
her foo had slipped unawares, whether
she had fallen face forward, or whether
she had dropped backward from the edge
of the cliff. ~
IL tell you again that 1 did not see her
fall" he protested impatiently.
Did you usually walk in advance of
your wife?' asked tho Frenchman. ut
was not very polite to turn your back
upon a lady"
II was worried and out of temper"
"For what r~eason?"
My wife's unhappy jealousy created
reasons where there were none. The peo-
pie know that / was no hnbitually I'M
kind to her"
Yet you gave her an answer which 80
her that she flung herself over
the cliff in her despair"
II fear that it was 3d." he answered,
with the deepest distress depicted in his
haggard face. "She was in a nervous and
irritable condition. l had always borne
that fact in mind until hat moment. She
stung me past endurance by her ground
less j~ealousies. I had been n true and
loyal husband to her from the o of our
marriage. / had never wronged her by so
much as a thought, and yet l could not
talk to a pretty peasant girl, or confess
admiration for any woman l met in
society, without causing an outbreak of
that was almost madness. l bore
with her long and patiently. l remem-
,ered that the circumstances of her child
rood and youth had been adverse, that
Ter nature had been warped and pervert-
| forgave all faults of temper in a
wife who loved me, but this afternoon
almost for the first time since our mar
iage-I spoke unkindly, cruelty perhaps.
have no wish to avoid interrogation, or
o conceal any portion Of the truth"
..You did not push her over the cliff 2"
II did moi. Do / look like a murderer,
# bear the character of a man likely to
ommit murder?"
The examination went on, with cruel
alteration OF almost the SAM questions.
HE Judge d'Instruction was a hard-head-
d legal machine, who believed that the
ruth might be wrung out Of any criminal
y persistent questioning. He suspected
or deemed it his duty to sus-
ect him, and he ordered him to be ar
ested on leaving court SO George Ran
passed the night after his wife's
in the lookup at Villefranche.
What a night that was for a man to
i've through! He sat on a stone bench,
to the level plash-plash Of that
ideless sea ever SO far beneath him.
Ie heard footsteps going up and down
he steep stony street Of that wonderful
Id seaport; he heard the scream of the
ulls and the striking Of the clock on the
rest Of the hill As he sat m~otionless, with
lis elbows on his knees, and his head in
is hands, brooding over that swift, sud-
horror of yesterday.
Could 1t have been an accident? Did
he step backward unawares int slip over
ledge? No: he remembered where
he was standing when he last looked at
er, some distance from the side Of the
lift, standing among the heather and wild
hyme which grew down to the edge Of
he little path. She must have made a
apid rush to the brink after that fatal
peech of his. She had flung her life
way in a single impulse of blind, mad
despair. She had not paused
or an instant to take thought. Alas he
new her so well he had so often seen
hose sudden gusts Of passion; the rush
4 crimson to the pale small face; the
lips striving impotently for
peech; the fury in the dark eyes, and the
mall. nervous hands clenched ~convulsive-
=. He had seen her struggle with the
yemon of anger, and had seen the storm
ass swifter than a tempest-driven cloud
cross the noon. Another moment and
he would burst into tears, fling her arms
round his neck, and implore him to for
i've her.
" love you too wen ever to know hap
she said.
That was her favcrite apology.
1T is only people without passion who
be happy she told him once. "
think that you belong to that
And she was dead ! she whose dndisci-
lined love had SO plagued and tried him.
he was dead and he felt himself her
Alas doubly a murderer. since she had
Mne 49, 49, f.