The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1909-04-22

In the lull that followed she told
him something-not all-of the
strange reincarnatioDs of those let
ters, just enough to startie him and
arouse his curiosity immensely; but
he was wise enough at the time not TO
ask to see them or ask anything else
about them Nevertheless he deter
mined to watch very carefully their
next manifestation and use caustie
remedies for their disposal
Mrs. Starr had found that attempts
to destroy those letters were utterly
useless, for they always came back,
and, besides, hating and lOathing them
as she did, they began to exert over
her mind a marvellous fascination.
Though she quivered when she saw
the muddy red blots On her letter,
she craved to look into it, and she was
no more content with a mere glance
at it's Honolulu postmark and at the
neat blue letter head of the other So
she commenced to read them-linger-
ingly. feeling all the while that with
every word she read she was driving
another nail into the coffin of her hap
piness
This narrowing desire to contem
plate those letters came to her most
often at night, and then she would
rise from her husbands side, steal
over to her bureau drawer, and mum
bic away in the dim yellow light the
things the Boy wrote to her before
she killed him.
OF course her husband saw her do
ing this one night, and he went over
to her with loving words and caresses,
which, strange to say, she recoiled
from as if they had been blows.
Perhaps that was why Starr fool
ishly asked her why she was stand
ing there muttering those nonsensical
| things" In answer she held her hands
up in front of his face-just exactly
as you would hold a letter for a per-
| son to read, and Starr saw there was
absolutely nothing in her hands; but
/ he did not say SO to her He asked
! her quietly to read the letter to him,
and thereby wrought his own and her
undOing
! Mrs. Starr read the letters to him
| both of them, from the date to
! superscription-in low, metallic
monotone-for all the world as if the
real writing were in her hands.
The letter from the Boy came first
! and before two lines were read Starr
| kneW-what only a few people did
| knOW-that his wife had given hel
pledge and her kisses to the Boy long
before she gave them to himself
The Boy said he went down on his
| knees in his cabin at night and prayed
to his God to do to him the worst il
that would only make the happiness
| of the woman he loved." Oh, tha
| was not all he said. He wrote thing
that 1t is better not to mention or tc
| print. And he told OF long, clingins
kisses given and taken, kisses tha
had taught him why it is the world is
sometimes bartered for a woman's
| kiss"
1t was too, too much for poor Star
too much for any husband to hea
from any wife's lips; and because i
was only phantom, a memory, tha
| could not be explained away, i
seemed ever so much the worse
her reply to the Boys letter her hus
band had collapsed, and was onl,
semi-conscious. Then she bent dow
and electrified him by pointing witt
her finger to certain round brown
spiashes, unseen by him. which sh
whispered were Blood. Blood"
Starr gave Il great cry and rushe
ont of tho hafrOGu1 half an ho;,
later, white and shaking, he told tn
doctor his wife was crazy, and adde
rather brokenly that he felt he "coul
never bear to see her again"
Up TO the very last Mrs. Starr cor
tinued to find those letters every day
She found them hidden under dainty
fragrant lingerie in her bureau drawer
under her pillow at night, and some
times even in the very bosom of tn
dress she wore. In agony she wa
doomed to read them over and owe
again, till she could read no more.
There are people who do not kno'
why Starr and his wife drifted ava
! from one another, and who are il
clined to call Starr brute
My own opinion is that Providenc
stepped into the lives of Starr and hi
wife and commenced business 8 littl
sooner than is his usual custom.
But the saddest part of 1t all
this: For Starr's sake the woma
would have gone on her hands an
: knees through all the world-so niue
] know.