Mexico Missouri message., 1910-07-28

she would seek him.
He was still in the cabin. She could
hear him muttering thickly to himself.
Impulsively she stepped to the door,
turned the key in the lock, threw it
open and entered the brilliantly
lighted luxurious cabin. He had dis
missed the attendants some time
since with orders not to reappear un-
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 am master and you
are coming to heel?"
He whistled to her derisively, whis-
| tied as If to a 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.
I'VE 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, land
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 Godl" 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. II used to
think l loved her and we we're mar
ried, damned foolishness, as you might
say. She can't hold a 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 it.
"On second thoughts" he rambled
on, "I couldn't introduce you to her.
You aren't respectable and she is"
He stopped and poured himself an
other drink
"Respectable!" he laughed. ITO hell
with respectability. We knPw better
thing that that! Soul to soul, heart
to heart, the union of equals without
| Npa ole re hnnAc
for weaker beings Yes, that's what
you said"
And she recognized with horror that
he was quoting her own words.
But it doesn't go, you see. It's
all very we'll in theory, but it doesn't
work out in practice. The worlds
got some ideas of its own. It's been
holding 'em for a good many thou
sands of years and you can't change
'em. You belong to me now. To hell
with your equality! You are nothing
more nor less than my property and
mark you," he reached out a trem-
bling finger and shook it at her, your
salvation is with me. If cast you off,
you go into the gutter"
She wondered vaguely how much
more of this she could stand and live.
"But don't be afraid" he went on
With a drunken attempt at reassur-
ance, you are too fine and too hand
some, even If you are cracked, for
that-yet. I'm glad to see you've come
to your senses"
He rose heavily as he spoke and
felt his way around the table hand
over hand. He approached her. She
let him do it. She shrank a little
closer together, every muscle tense for
action. She was no longer a woman
, she was a human tigress and her phil
osophy was gone. He was too drunk
to see it, too incapacitated to take
warning.
That's right" he continued as he
| II A