Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1909-09-23

great house in Wildfell, his guest had
dropped remark at the dinner-table
about the taciturn, bloodless manserv-
ant. Matthew Bland.
do you know, Hume, don't like
that MANI" Strangways had said,
! wondering as he spoke if Bonholt
could for any reason, curious as it
seemed, be afraid of Bland Don't
| quite know why, but the feelings
there. I've noticed that he watches
| you when he's in the room, as if
Hume had interrupted him; but, for
| all his disclaimer on that occasion,
Hume was afraid of Matthew Bland.
| AS he sat in the theatre tonight again
and again his thoughts reverted to the
man.
| During the past week or so, in his
nervous, suspicious state, Bonholt
Hume had got it into his head that
the police were watching his move
ments, perhaps were trying to pump
Matthew Bland But if his plans had
not miscarried, that danger was
passed; tomorrow morning Bland
would be out of the country. He had
| induced the man to agree to leave
| England, had paid him large sum to
goa very large sum. He had booked
passage to America for him under
driven him in his motor-car to a sta
| ton many miles from Fellsgarth that
the police might not get wind of
BANDS departure from WildfelI. To-
morrow the great ship would have left
Liverpool with Matthew Bland on
board; tomorrow he would feel safer.
He ought to have got Bland out of
the country long ago, he told himself.
With Bland out of the way, who is
to prove anything?" he whispered to
himself and there was a relief in the
thought. Suspicious are nothing
without proof, and tomorrow Bland
will be out of the range of awkward
questions"
Bonholt Hume sat through the first
two acts of the play, watching Olive
with an odd interest. It was curl
Gus feeling to know that she had been
Philips wife after all, that the old
Hall was hers by right, did she but
realize it! She was playing with
force and passion wonderful in an &C.
tress so inexperienced, holding the
crowded house whilst she was on,
making the triumph of the evening, as
the repeated outbursts of applause
testified.
Such woman would be a danger
Gus enemy, he realized, were she but
to get an inkling of the truth, and
Mr. Hume shivered little in his stall
at the thought.
When the second act was over he
rose from his seat and made his way
behind to find Anthony Strangways.
Going splendidly!" said Strang-
ways, enthusiastically. Tomorrow all
the town will be talking of the new
actress I've discovered The part fits
her like glove. / knew she had only
to find expression of her own tempera-
ment to make her part stand out vivid
ly from the play
Now the third act was almost
through; Bonholt had not gone back
to his STALL He had stayed behind,
talking to Strangways, interested in
watching the working of all this ma.
chinery of illusion. His spirits were
rising with the thought that tomorrow
morning Matthew Bland would have
left England.
On the stage, separated from where
he was standing by the built-up scene,
the climax of the act was being reach
ed.
1t was Olives cue. A breathless
hush had fallen on the great audience,
held by the appeal of the poignant sit
uation that was being unfolded-a
tense waiting moment as the womans
figure appeared on the darkened stage
this woman of the play, wild, way
ward, passionate, who had fitted
through it's scenes like breath of
storm, standing out an impressive,
tragic figure against the background
of suffering and sorrow that was her
destiny-this woman stealing now
through the dusk of wintry twilight
to find, not the consummation of her
hopes, but the man she had loved with
oil Tic pClSoIOH VI ACl Win HdIulC lJ-
ing murdered.
Hidden from sight, Bonholt Hume
watched with startled eyes. Some
thing in the scene, and in the woman
who was playing the part, made him
suddenly catch his breath sharply.
On the stage Olive was not even
aware of the presence of the man
AL, i,,fa fho hoo
as she made her entrance. Now when
when her cue had come the strange,
insistent feeling that the scene she
was enacting was like some expert
ence she had passed through was on
her still more strongly.
Since Stephens words that feeling
had haunted her every time she had
| rehearsed this scene of the play; but,
except at the dress rehearsal it had
| been on bare stage-now the very
setting of the scene, this gloomy, des-
| olate country place, white with Win
| ter's SHOWS, that was a triumph of
scenic art, deepened that elusive
sense of familiarity.
| Surely she had lived through some
such scene as this. She had crossed
| to where the body of her lover lay;
| for q moment she stood speeches.
after that one sobbing, stifled cry,
staring down at the figure there. Her
attitude, that was the very abandon
ment of grief, the look on her face
| family revealed in the perfectly con-
veyed illusion of wintry twilight, her
frozen silence of horror--all sent a