The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1910-09-02


suit reared herself up Ia all her beau
ty. and faced him
q HOY dare you. Coward; cruel,
vile coward that you are. After all
tie wrong you did me. have you no
sear? Take care! Bigamy is not
nice word, and so surely as you hunt
me down. / will drag you dow, 100.
Then which will come out the worst,
the man who deliberately plotted and
worked against foolish. vain child
for I was no more than child when
when I became. as 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 / not right when / tell you
to beware how you try to ruin me?"
He looked at her in sullen admira-
ton.
You were always handsome girl,
Dolly, he said, after pause; shut
ON my life, you're perfectly beautiful
now. begin to think like you IS
well as ever did"
She drew back with shudder, and
her face grew a shade paler.
a.Geor~r- George! don't torture
me! 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, /
have plenty: l will give you what you
want. Can say more?v
Money amt everything George
Laxon answered stolidly, but his
deep-blue eyes flashed for moment.
Dorothy drew 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
nes@ 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 q better cause
and arrange so that she left her
convent school ostensibly to Join her
home, but in reality to fly to this man
whose fancy had been pricAed by her
young beauty and who, hearing that
she was a great heiress, never hest
ftated to pour forth long stories of i'll
luck, which. coupled with lis ex-
traordinary beauty had won him the
girls passionate heart before he could
have begun to hope
It was strange story. George
Laxon, for reasons of his own, though
he had a 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 qui-
city hidden while her father thought
i of her as safe in her convent school
and the superior imagined her back
in the world, mistress of Knebwell
Hail. It 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 oe 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.
wSo through his bad treatment had
fallen into a 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 a mother.
Even when she was alone and se-f
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
a mad woman than a young, highly
bred girl whose delicate beauty was
alike the admiration and the curios-
ity of the quarter in which they lived.
SIZE declared that she should re-
turn at once to her father and Lnou,
ing the hold he had upon her. Laxon
was only too relieved to let her go;
It served his purpose to get rid OF
her for a time. and he was keenly
alive to the fact that if he resorted
to violence and detained her by force
Dorothy would rouse such commo-
ton as would bring him into trouble
and spoil his chance of becoming her
real husband and living in luxury.
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