The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-06-09
CHAPTER VII
Her Shame.

CHAPTER VII.
Her Shame.
Dorothy, Lady Derriman, stood like
a woman turned to stone. Her face
was CHASTITY pale, and her eyes fixed
before her, while one hand clutched
at a post of the door for support.
The man stood opposite, watching her
with a smile on his lips, a nasty, IN
pleasant smile that was like that of
an animal waiting ready to spring on
it's prey at the first opportunity.
Two minutes licked slowly by, and
the old clock hung just inside the
door sounded p~onderously in their
ears; Dorothy noticed in a strange,
vacant way that the larger hand was
broken and pointed in a jagged condi-
ton to the figures.
She kept her eyes fixed before her,
and tried to clear her throat to speak,
but words would not come. The man
seemed to take great pleasure in her
mental torture.
WELL" he broke the silence at
last; "have you nothing to say"
She lifted one hand and loosened
| the lace at her throat; then speech
came.
"You-you said she was Dead" she
answered, her clear, bell-like tones
husky and thick.
81 say many queer things"-he
shrugged his shoulders and leaned
negligently against the door-"but I
like to see people pleased. ! amt one
to disappoint folk, and so as you
wished her dead I took pains to let
you think you'd got yer wish, that's
ALL"
Dorothy's slender fingers closed
spasmodically round the rough wood
of the post. She shuddered as he
| ceased, and a few words broke from
her pallid lips.
@Oh, Heaven! what am I to do?"
"Ah! I've got you now, haven't I?
You see what it is to defy George
Laxon in a hurry. Why didn't you
do as I asked you that morning we
met in the woods? You remember
the morning of the day your father
died"
He paused just an instant before he
said the last word, and Dorothy shiv-
| cred again. There was something
sinister in his manner. but her whole
! brain and mind were fixed on the hor-
rible problem of the moment, her mis-
cry intensified as the i%nstants passed.
mot dead" she said once to her
self, in the same husky voice; mot
dead! What shall I do"
The man only laughed in answer to
this. He took out a pipe and filled it
slowly, while the child put out its
dirty little hands and grasped Dor
othy's lace %sunshade, uttering little
sounds of delight as it played with the
%glittering handle.
AS the nan saw what the baby was
doing he stopped and pulled the sun
shade away.
such things amt for you, al
though your mother"
He stopped.
Dorothy put her hand on his arm.
Hush, hush" she said, in low, ter
rifed tones. Don't"
He shook her hand off roughly.
my tongue is my own; I shall
speak when I like!"
She understood him, and stood
half paralyzed.
II am ruined!" she said, slowly, to
herself. Ruined! 1t is horrible! II
is horrible!"
He put her sunshade in a clean
corner, and lighted his pipe carefully.
1t seemed to give him intense salts
faction to watch her agony of mind.
You don't hold your head SO high
now, my lady, do YOU" he said, after
one or two puffs at his pipe. Nov,
why wouldn't you be reasonable that
day? Things would have been much
better as I wanted than as they are
now. 1 was straight and to the point.
I offered to do the best thing I could.
Make an honest woman"
He did not finish his sentence, for
Dorothy seemed to wake from her
lethargy, and at Lis eliminating in
suit reared herself up in all her beau
ty, and faced him.
How dare you? Coward, cruel,
vile coward that you are! After all
the wrong you did me, have you no
fear? Take carei Bigamy is not a
nice word, and SO surely as you hunt
me down, l will drag you down, too.
Then which will come out the worst,
the man who deliberately plotted and
worked against a foolish, vain child
for l was no more than a child when
when I became, as l thought, your
wife, or the victim Of your sin? How
would all the miserable lies you told
me bear the light Of day? Come, an
swer; am I not right when l tell you
10 beware how YOU try to ruin me?"
He looked at her in sullen admira-
ton.
You were always a handsome girl,
Dolly" he said, after a pause; "but
on my life, you're perfectly beautiful
now. begin to think 1 like you IS
we'll as ever l did,"
she drew back with a shudder, - Z
rar face grew a shade paler.