The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1910-11-03


hear him muttering thickly to himself.
Impulsively she stepped to the door,
turned the key in the lock, threw 1t
open and entered the brilliantly
lighted luxurious cabin. He had dis
missed the attendants some time
since with orders not to reappear I'M
less he summoned them, and they were
alone. There was no likelihood of any
interruption whatsoever. The man,
who was leaning back in his chair,
bent forward when she opened the
door. He laughed viciously. If she
had reflected, she would have mar
veled at the change that few weeks
had wrought in one whom she had
hitherto deemed worthy of her affec-
ton, but she had eyes and thought for
nothing except the business in hand.
$50 you've come out, have your" he
stammered triumphantly. Come of
your own free Will You've found out
have you, that I am master and you
are coming to heel?"
He whistled to her derisively, whis
tied as If to dog!
who is this?" asked the woman in
a voice carefully suppressed, yet which
shook with wrath.
She held the photograph in its
heavy silver frame up before him.
THAT'S my wife, he said equally,
with no surprise or CONSERVATION.
1--WE haven't lived together for some
years." he went on with drunken good
nature, "or I'd take you back to San
Francisco and introduce you to her"
"Your wife!" exclaimed the woman
in that same low, tense voice. "Then
what am II"
my MISTRESS" said the man, blunt
ly, throwing the last shred of conceal
ment and decency to the winds, "and
a damned obstreperous one at that"
he went on.
Now, the woman believed in no
Providence. but trick got from her
ancestry wrung the words from her
lips.
my God! My God!" she whispered.
"You haven't any," sneered the
man. You told me so yourself" He
laughed. And l believed you.
would have believed anything to get
YOU"
Well, there was no God the woman
| realized, but she would be her own
| god. Her body shrank together a lit
| tie, her hands clenched The feline
was uppermost. She could have sprung
upon him, but she waited, waited for
she knew not what.
Whom the gods destroy" ran the
ancient phrase, they first make mad"
| He rushed to his doom with blind
folly.
| You needn't be jealous of her, my
dear" he mumbled on. 81 used to
think | loved her and we were mar
ried, damned foolishness, as you might
say. She can't hold candle to you,
If you are a little touched" he tapped
his forehead impudently-"in the up
per story"
And this man, this degraded thing,
regarded her as a mad woman. There
might be no God but there was devil
and he stood before her. There might
be no heaven, but there was a hell
and she was In IL.
"On second thoughts" he rambled
on IL couldn't introduce you to her
You aren't respectable and she Is.
He stopped and poured himself an
other drink.
Respectable" he laughed. "To he'll
with responsibility We know better
thing that that! Soul to soul, heart
to heart, the union of equals without
the trammels of conventional bonds
for weaker beings Yes, that's wha
You said"
And she recognized with horror tina
he was quoting her own words.
But IL doesn't go, you see. IT:
all very well in theory, but it doesn'
work out in practice. The world
got some ideas of its own It's beef
holding 'em for a good many thou
sands of years and you can't chang,
EN-. You belong to me now. To hel
, with your equality! You are nothing
, more nor less than my property, an,
> mark you" he reached out tren
bling finger and shook it at her, you
salvation is with me, If cast you of
p you so into the gutter"
g She wondered vaguely how nue.
< more of this she could stand and live
r But don't be afraid" he went o.
with a drunken attempt at reassul
I ance, you are too fine and too hanG
:. some. even if you are cracked, TO
4 that-yet I'm glad to see you've com
a to your senses"
Z He rose heavily as he spoke an
n felt his way around the table han
). over hand. He approached her Sh
q let him do it, She shrank littl
4 closer together every muscle tense ia
action She wos no'fonger a woman
p she was a human tigress and her phi
?. osuphy was gone He was too drum
D. to see it, too incapacitated to TAX
e warning
n That's right" he continued as h
It lurched nearer to her Stay rigl
there. I'm coming to you as fast a
D.. ! can and when | get close to YOU
e. won kiss, and"
H.. ,,-,e i,r h.r eiIa pouy VI