The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-06-29

-Georgetl George! don't torture
mel Tell me what you mean to do!
Let me know the worst-yes, the
very worst--or you will drive me
mad! Do you want money? Well, 1
have plenty; will give you what you
want! Can say more?"
Money amt everything" George
Laxon answered stolidly, but his
deep-blue eyes flashed for moment
Dorothy drew a sharp breath; her
faculties were slowly coming back to
her. She saw that he had taken the
bait, but she was too clever to let
him see that she understood his drift.
AS she sat there, facing this hand
some, common, vulgar man, she
loathed herself for the folly, the mad
ness that had seized her when she
was just grown to budding girlhood,
the madness that made her forget all
pride and modesty; and plan-with
a cleverness worthy Of better cause
and arrange so that she left her
convent school ostensibly to join her
AOAACt O0b Ill lSolACJ " AJ " JutO ulG~u
whose fancy had been pricked by her
young beauty and who, hearing that
she was a great heiress, never hest
tated to pour forth long stories of i'll
luck, which, coupled with els ex-
traordinary beauty had won him the
girls passionate heart before he could
have begun to hope.
1t was a strange story. George
Laxon, for reasons of his own, though
he had plausible excuse ready for
Dorothy, refused to let their marriage
be known to Sir Robert Immediately;
he took the girl into the heart of the
French capital and there kept her quiz
city hidden while her father thought
of her as safe in her convent school
and the superior imagined her back
in the world, mistress of Knebwell
Hall. 1t was not long before Dorothy
found her mistake She had loved in
the same wild, unreasonable way as
she now loved Gervais, but it could
not last. The dingy life, the sense
of something she did not quite UNDER
stand, all turned her into the cold,
heartless, selfish girl whose indiffer-
ence had given Enid so much unhap-
piness, and who might, had she had
softening influences, have been some
thing altogether better. Still no
thought of shame came to her as she
sat day after day, YEARLY waiting
for her child to be born. Vulgar
scoundrel, ne'er-do-well as he was,
she never dreamed but that George
Laxon was in truth her husband, till
her eyes were suddenly opened, and
such tumult of degradation, horror
and hatred filled her breast as she
herself was hardly conscious of.
The poor creature whom Laxon had
made his wife five years previously,
who through his bad treatment had
fallen into rapid decline and for
whose death he was waiting before he
took Dorothy back boldly to Knebwell
Hall, found her way to the room in
which the beautiful, proud girl had
lived during the past wretched
months, and where just three weeks
before she had become mother.
Even when she was alone and Sc.
cure, Dorothy could not endure to re-
call what followed. She had fright
ened the poor soul away by her pas
sion, and when George Laxon came
in later she turned on him more like
mad woman than young, highly
bred girl whose delicate beauty was
alike the admiration and the curios-
ity of the quarter in which they lived.
She declared that she should re-
turn at once to her father, and know
ing the hold he had upon her, Laxon
was only too relieved to let her go:
1t served his purpose to get rid of
her for time, and he was keenly
alive to the fact that if he resorted
to violence and detained her by force
Dorothy would rouse such a commo-
ton as would bring him into trouble
and spoil his chance of becoming her
real husband and living in luxury.
With cold, trembling hands the girl
had prepared for her instant de-
parture. Her passion was still at
fever heat, and when in an unhappy
moment Laxon called her attention
to the child, holding it forward for
her to caress before she parted from
it, Dorothy with mad, blind rage
pushed him aside, and as he staggered
back the baby slipped from his hold.
fell heavily on the, ironword of the
bed, uttered one feeble cry and then
lay insensibIe.
With all his innate badness, George
Laxon was not cruel man; and as he
beheld Dorothy go hurriedly from the
room without a second thought to
her child--whom for aught she knew
she might have killed-he realized
that there was something stronger in
her nature to grapple with beyond
the excitement. anger and despair Of
a girl.
So it was that Dorothy went back
to her fathers house and took her
place, as we first met her, the gener-
ally admired and much-envied heiress
of Knebwell Hall.
To be Continued.