Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-12-14
CHAPTER xXIV.-continued.

do you feel better?" Mrs. Herrick
asked her. Then she opened her eyes
wide and saw the walls and the high
arched ceiling of the hall directly
above her, knew herself lying on the
floor, saw above her the figure of
Clara, standing with a bottle of salts,
and then remembered; and, with a
moan, buried her face in Mrs. Her
rick's lap. "Oh, no, no, no; don't
bring me back; 1 don't want to come
back"
Their voices sounding high above
her were speaking. Mrs. Herrick said:
what is that?" Then Clara MUIR
INJURED. Then there was the light
custling of paper. Flora moved her
hand.
Give it to me; want it." She felt
the stiff little square of cardboard be-
tween her fingers, and closed them
around it fast
After little she went upstairs hold
ing tight to the baluster with one
hand and to Mrs. Herrick with the
other. After a little of sitting on the
edge Of her bed she lay down, still
holding to Mrs. Herrick. She felt as
though some cord within her had been
drawn tight, too tight to endure, and
every moment she hoped it would
snap and set her free.
"You don't think I'm mad, do your"
she asked. Her friend earnestly dis
claimed it. "Then things are" Flora
said, everything. Oh, OH" The
memory overwhelmed her. HE took
me there as if by chance! He gave
the sapphire to me for my engage
ment ring. Oh, dreadful! Oh, poor
Harryl"
All that afternoon and all night she
slept fitfully, starting up at intervals,
trembling at nameless horrors.
She Weakened languid and weak. She
lay looking about the room, and, like
a person recovering after a heavy
blow, wondered what had happened.
Then her hand, as with her first
waking thought it had done for the
last week, went to the locket chain
around her neck. Oh, yes, yes; she
had forgotten. The sapphire was
gone. Gone by fraud, gone at kiss
for ever with Harry-no, with Farrell
Wand.
For Harry was not Harry; and Kerr
was not Farrell Wand. He was in
deed an unknown quantity. Since she
had found Harry she had lost both
Kerr's name and his place in her
fairy-tale
She sat up quickened with humilia-
ton. The thing was OF tragedy, it
was a grotesque. Blushing more and
more crimson, struggling with strange
mingled crying and laughter, she
slipped out of the bed, and, still in her
night-gown, ran down the hall, and
knocked on Mrs. Herrick's door, un-
til the dismayed lady opened it.
81 thought it was he" Flora gasped.
Il thought it was he who had taken
HE ring! Why didn't he tell me?
Why did he keep it secret? 1 would
done anything to have saved it for
him. and let Harry get it! Oh, isn't
it cruel? Isn't it pitiful? Isn't 1t RI
dicuLous?"
Mrs. Herrick. who, for the last sc
hours. had so departed from her cur
riculum of safety, and courageously
met many strange appearances, now
was to hear stranger facts. For Flora
had let go completely. and Mrs. Her
rick, without limiting at Mysteries, let
her laugh, let her cry, let her tell
piece by piece. as she could, the story
of the two men, from the night when
Kerr had spoken so strangely at the
club on the virtues of thieves to the
moment when, in the willow walk,
they discovered that the jewel was
gone. Claras part in the affair, and
the price she had exacted, even in
this unnerved momeh., Flora's IN
stinct withheld, to save Mrs. Herrick
the last cruelest toucn. But for the
rest she let Mrs. Herrick have it all