The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1910-06-09
CHAPTER XIV (Continued) .

- HE woman outside heard that
laugh, with all its mockery. con-
tempt and scorn. Il smote her
Ike a blow in the face. tt came
70 her that this was the only answer he
mad vouchsafed to the plea she had
made crouching against the door and
weeping her heart out.
Instantly her sobbIng stopped. Her
race famed with shame and wounded
pride. Outraged womanhood asserted it
self-temporarily, at least Rising to
her feet. she dragged herself TO her own
cabin, flung herself down on the berth
and lay there, dry-eyed. choking. pant
Ing in agony. She had lost him-lost
him forever-just when she had loved
him and he had loved her. The cup Of
JOY that had been held before her lips
had been dashed down; not even ;he
dregs remained to be drained. That
cold, cruel, merciless laugh almost
killed her
Sleep she had none, nor tears. Through
the long night she lay, dry-eyed. wres-
Ting with despair.
And Mornington was in scarcely bet
Ter case. The low moan of pain out
side his door which had woven in and
out OF his thoughts stopped as suddenly
as clock stops when a hand is laid
upon its pendulum; stopped, he realized,
as he laughed. The sudden cessation
or what had been almost a deathcry
startled him.
The current Of his thoughts ceased,
and he listened He heard her rise slow
~. the sound OF her footsteps fade
away, while the faint echo Of a closing
door came to him. She had gone, and
then-silence and darkness, harder 10
FACE than the low cry Of a moment
since.
he had Knocked at her grief in his
neart, overwhelmed her with contempt
IN MS soul, yet the fact that she had
Deen there, he now realized, had been
strangely comforting 10 him She had
deceived him. betrayed him, ruined him.
YET she was perhaps sorry. 1t flashed
INTO his mind that the mate had offered
her no lndlBnlty, that she was raging
against the position IN which she found
EerSelt, and that WOmanlike, ne had
vented her anger upon the unwilling
cause Of il.
He had even grotesque touch OF
sympathy for the mate. lost a second
later at The sudden thought that per-
maps what Mr.. COnant had said about
his future and that Of Susan HubbeU
had some basis in fact.
instantly he decided, in a passion OF
mate. Therefore IL was the more evil
dent that she had been PLAYING with
him, Mornington. He locked his teeth
together and clinched his hands II the
mate had come in the door then. mis-
strength would have stood him in iittIe
stead
She had deliberately ruined him Che
had sought and gained his love. ONLY 10
betray him. If he had kept her a rig
orous prisoner and allowed her no priv
neges unless safeguarded By parole-a
woman parole, woman in love with
some one else, he thought bitterlv-if he
had taken these precautions and she
had outwitted him. IL would have been
cause for modification and burofIia-
ton, perhaps, but II would not have
broken his heart
But he had given her every liberty
every freedom; he had never Testra ir,e5
her or questioned her in the sIirbtagt
degree, and he had given her his heart
OF hearts. his very soul The giving
meant much TO him. It had meant
nothing to her.
And yet! Her picture rose before him. .
her eyes looked upon him; her hands
chung 10 him; the fragrance of her Ii1e
was in the air he breathed He co1,I5
have sworn that she had loved hirn-and
yet she had betrayed him.
And he, too. flung himself down On the
perth and wrestled through the long
watch with all the demons Of pride and
suspicion and anger and jealousy and
nate. Ike the woman separated from
him by a few thin bulkheads, waiting
and hoping for the dawn.