Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-02-02

Louis. stella, TnaC carrlaSe-On!
listen, beseech you!'' For Stella had
taken the arm which Sir Richard had
in stern silence offered her, and,
though stung through all his soul by
the sight, Louis still spoke calmly and
| humbly.
81 have heard too much of your
| honied words; they can deceive me no
longer!" said Stella, coldly, over her
! shoulder
''This much you shall tell met" ex-
claimed Louis, springing forward, his
face white with passion, his teeth
clinched, and mis- eyes blazing. "And I
ask it from your false lips, Sir Rich
! ard Wildfang.' And as he spoke he
grasped Sir Richards arm. 'How
came you here-both she and your"
"Ask your own conscience" said
Stella, faltering for the first time.
did you not write me a letter."
II did," said Louis.
Enough" exclaimed Sir Richard.
"He confesses his baseness. Leave us
sir, if you have the slightest vestige
of honor rmaining!"
Louis drew himself up, and, casting
a look of scornful contempt upon the
all anxious face of Sir Richard ap-
| pealed to Stella.
Miss Newton, do you also say
'go'?"
81 dol" said Stella.
'You cast me off-forever?"
Forever" said Stella.
He said not another word, but
crossing his arms, stepped from their
path, and watched them with set,
stonelike face, until they were lost
to him around the curve of the road.
He waited even after that for the
space of five minutes, then he turned
and walked with slow, measured pace
up his own carriage entrance.
He slowly climbed the broad stone
steps up which he had, so short a
time since, and SO proudly led his
beautiful Stella, and, with the same
indescribable expression of concen-
trated, deadly calm, pushed open the
door and entered the antique dining
room.
He stood before the fire musing for
few moments, thinking of all he had
lost and the mysterious, inexplicable
manner in which he had lost it, then
without a sigh his sorrow had not
really that distinctness yet-he
walked into his studio
A light was burning there, and the
marbles seemed to grin and mock at
his misery and loneliness, as with
folded arms and absent air he walked
around the room and looked at them.
"Here in this ROOM" he murmured,
Il held her against my heart. Here
her Iips-so false! so cruel!-
told me that she loved me! Here
the sweetest happiness my life has
ever known fell to me- Blessed be
the room-forevermore Those blind
eyes," and he swept his hand before
the sightless marble faces, shall see
no misery, no other love scene here:
| sWore to break them, one and all,
if we were parted. We are parted,
and l will keep my VOW"
AS he spoke he took the heaviest
mallet, and with passion utterly in
describable struck first at one beau
tiful face and then at another, until
the room was filled with the noise OF
falling marble, and the fragments
themselves, as they dropped and
rolled about his feet.
With the mallet in his hand he
went into the garden, made his way
to the shrubbery, where they had
talked so long and joyously, and
raised his destroying mallet before
the face of statue which he and
Stephen had only that day set up
there.
1t was the statue of the mother
and child which he had worked at so
enthusiastically, and which he had
placed ON the very spot in accord
ance with Stella's expressed wish
But as his mallet was swung back
a twinge of regret and remorse struck
across his soul, and with sigh he
let the mallet fall to his side, gazed
up at the plaintive face of the mother,
and murmured:
mo, it is sorrow and despair itself
1t shall stand!"
Then he flung the mallet from him,
and, with dropping head, re-entered
the house.
With the same calf self-possession,
which had settled upon him as the
snow does upon the mountain, he as
cended the stairs, and entering the
room slowly and methodically, put on
his overcoat and heavy walking boots.
Then he descended again, went