Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1910-11-22

GO Il SoAAStAlHS WHICH cOulu0 HdppSu,
and yet which she had all along ex
pected. had come to pass.
In her instant of INDIGESTION Marrika
mad got away from her, but she called
the girl back from the door and told
her to say to Mrs. Britton that Mr.
Kerr had called, but that Miss Gilsey
would see him herself
She started with a rush Hallway
down the stairs she stopped, horri-
fed to find what her fingers were do
ing. They were closed around the lit
tie lump thu. the ring made in the
bosom of her gown, and she had not
known it. What if she had rushed in
to Kerr with this extraordinary mani
festation? What if, while she was
talking to him, her hand should con-
tinue to creep up again and yet again
to that place, and close around the
jewel, and make it evident, even in
its hiding place? The time had come
when she must even hide it from her
self. And yet, to creep back up the
stair when she made sure Kerr must
have heard her tumultuous downward
rush! 1t would never do to soundless-
ly retreat She must go back boldly,
as if she had forgotten nothing more
considerable than a pocket handker-
chief
Yet before she reached the top again
| she found herself going tiptoe, as if
she were on an expedition so secret
/ that her own ears should not hear
her footsteps. But she went direct
and unhesitating 1t had come to her
all in a flash where she would put the
sapphire. The little buttoned pocket
of her bath-robe. There it hung in
the bathroom on one unvarying peg,
the most immovable of all her gar
ments, safe from the excursions of
Marrika's needle or brushes, not to be
disturbed for hours to come.
She passed through her bedroom,
through her dressing-room into the
bathroom. The robe was hanging be-
hind the door. 1t took her a moment
to draw out the ring and disentangle
its chain, and while she was doing
this she became aware of movings to
and fro in her bedroom She drew
] the door half open, the better to con-
ceal herself behind it, and at the
same time, through the widened crack
of the jamb, to keep an eye on the
| dressing room, and hurried lest Mar
rika should surprise her But never
| theless she had barely slipped the
ring into the little pocket and re-
| fastened the flap, when Clara opened
| the bedroom door and stood looking
| into the dressing-room.
| Her lifted veil made a fine mist
| above the luster of her eyes. She
! was perfect to the tips of her i'm.
maculate white gloves, and she wore
| the simple, sober look of a person
who thinks himself alone. Then it
! wasn't Flora, Clara was looking for
! She was looking all around-over the
| surface of every object in the room.
| Presently she went up to the dress
ing-table. She laid her gloved hands
| upon it. and looked at the small OBJ
| jects strewn over its top. She took
! step backward and opened the top
drawer. She reached into it, and deli
| cately explored.
| Flora could see the white gloves
| going to and fro among her white
handkerchiefs, could see them find,
| open and examine the contents of her
f, jewel-box. And the only thing that
kept her from shrieking out was the
feeling that this abominable thing
which was being enacted before her
! eyes couldn't be a fact at all.
Clara took out an old pocket-book.
shiny with years, shook from it
shower of receipts. newspaper clip
pings, verses. She let them lie. She
took out a long violet box with a per-
| tuners seal upon it. 1t held a bunch
of dried violets. She took cut a
bonbonniere of gold filigree. 1t was
empty A powder box, a glove box, a
froth of lace, handful of jewelers.
boxes, jewel flung loose into the
drawer. This she pounced upon. 1t
was brooch! She let it fall-turned
| to the chiffonier; upended the two
vases of Venetian glass, lifted the
| lids of jars and boxes, finally came to
the drawers. One by one she took them
out, turned the contents of each rap
| idly over, and left them standing,
! gaping white ruffies and lace upon the
| floor.
Her ey, fell upon the waste basket.
She turned it upside down, and
stopped over the litter. She gathered
it up in her white gloves and dropped
it back. Then, for the first time, she
| glanced at the bathroom door: stood
looking at it, as if it had occurred to
her to look in the soap dish Then
she turned again to the room, to the
dressing-table She put back the
pasteboard jewelers. boxes. the jew
eled pin, the laees, which she shook
out and folded daintily, the glove and
powder boxes. the gold bonbonniere.
the long violet box, the leather pocket
book-each deity and unhesitatingly
in the place from which she had taken
1t, and all the heaps of white hand
| kerchiefs.
One by one she laid back in the
chiffonier drawers the garments, prop
erly and neatly folded. that she had so
hastily snatched out of them. She
slid back the last drawer into the chit
fonier, and rose from her knees,
lightly busting on the front of her
gown: went to the closet door and
\ closed it. She stood before it a mo-
ment with face perplexed and
thoughtful. then turned alertly toward
the outer door,
Flora stood as If she were afraid to
move. while Clara crossed her bed
room. stopped. went On and closed the
outer door behind her. And even
| after that soft little concussion she
| stood still, burning, choking. strug.
Cling with the overwhelming force of
an affront whose import she did not
yet realize.
| Why, she had thought that such
things couldn't happen, She had
! no poa,YofS r,rix-o<e hoIo1C