Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1909-04-01
IN the full that followed she told

MIN something dI-ct 'uc
strange reincarnations of those let
ters, just enough to startle 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 caustic
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 II, and she was
no more content with mere glance
at its 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 10 say, she recoiled
from as il 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-iust exactly
as you would hold letter for 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 10 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 il the
real writing were in her hands.
The letter from the Boy came first
and before two lines were read Starr
knew-what only few people did
know-that his wife had given her
pledge and her kisses to the Boy long
before she gave them TO himself.
ID n L.
knees in his cabin at night and prayed
to his God to do to him the worst If
that would only make the happiness
of the woman he loved." Oh, that
was not all he said. He wrote things
that it is better not to mention or to
print. And he told of long, clinging
kisses given and taken. kisses that
had taught him why it is the world is
! sometimes bartered for a woman's
kiss"
1t was too, too much for poor Starr
too much for any husband to hear
| from any wife's lips; and because it
was only a phantom, a memory, that
could not be explained away, 1t
seemed ever so much the worse.
When Mrs. Starr finished reading
her reply to the Boys letter her hus.
band had collapsed, and was only
semi-conscious. Then she bent down
and electrified him by pointing with
her finger to certain round brown
splashes, unseen by him, which she
whispered were Blood! Blood"
Starr gave great cry and rushed
out of the bedroom. A half an hour
later, white and shaking, he told the
! doctor his wife was crazy, and added
rather brokenly that he felt he could
never bear to see her again"
| Up to the very last Mrs. Starr con-
tinued to find those letters every day.
j fragrant lingerie in her bureau drawer,
under her pillow at night, and some
times even in the very bosom of the
dress she wore. In agony she was
doomed to read them over and over
again, till she could read no more.
There are people who do not know
why Starr and his wife drifted away
from one another, and who are in
clined to call Starr a brute.
My own opinion is that Providence
stepped into the lives of Starr ard his
wife and commenced business a little
sooner than is his usual custom.
But the saddest part of it all is
this: For Stars sake the woman
would have gone on her hands and
knees through all the world-so much
! know.