The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1911-09-22

mneo TO watch very carefully their
next manifestation and use caustic
remedies for their disposal
Mrs. Starr had found that attempts
to destroy those letters were utterly
useless, for they always came back,
and, besides, hating and loathing them
as she did they began to exert over
her mind a marvellous fascination.
Though she quivered when she saw
the muddy red blots on her letter,
she craved to look into it, and she was
no more content with a mere glance
at its Honolulu postmark and at the
neat blue letter head of the other. So
she commenced to read them-linger-
ingly, feeling all the while that with
every word she read she was driving
another nail into the coffin of her hap
piness.
This narrowing desire to contem-
plate those letters came to her most
often at night, and then she would
rise from her husbands side, steal
over to her bureau drawer, and mum
bic away in the dim yellow light the
things the Boy wrote to her before
she killed him.
or course her husband saw her do
ing this one night, and he went over
to her with loving words and caresses,
which, strange TO say, she recoiled
from as if they had been blows.
Perhaps that was why Starr fool
ishly asked her why she was stand
ing there muttering those nonsensical
things" In answer she held her hands
up in front of his face-just exactly
as you would hold a letter for a per-
son 10 read, and Starr saw there was
absolutely nothing in her hands; but
he did not say so to her. He asked
her quietly to read the letter to him,
and thereby wrought his own and her
undoing.
Mrs. Starr read the letters to him
both of them, from the date to
superscription-in a low, metallic
monotone-for all the world as if the
real writing were in her hands.
The letter from the Boy came first,
and before two lines were read Starr
lnew-what only a few people did
know-that his wife had given her
pledge and her kisses to the Boy long
before she gave them to himself.
The Boy said he went down on his
knees in his cabin at night and prayed
to his God to do to him the worst If |
that would only make the happiness
of the woman he loved" Oh, that
was not all he said He wrote things
that 1t is better not to mention or to |
print. And he told of long, clinging
kisses given and taken, kisses that
had taught him why it is the world is
bartered for woman's
kiss"
1t was too, too much for poor Starr
too much for any husband to hear
rom any wife's lips; and because it
was only a phantom, a memory, that
could not be explained away, it
seemed ever SO much the worse.
When Mrs. Starr finished reading
Ter reply to the Boys letter her hus-
)and had collapsed, and was only
iemi-conscious. Then she bent down
md electrified him by pointing with
Ter finger to certain round brown
;plashes, unseen by him, which she
whispered were Blood! Blood"
Starr gave a great cry and rushed
,ut of the bedroom A half an hour
alter, white and shaking, he told the
loctor his wife was crazy and added
ather brokenly that he felt he could
lever bear to see her again"
Up to the very last Mrs. Starr con-
inued to find those letters every day.
;he found them hidden under dainty,
fragrant lingerie in her bureau drawer,
nder her pillow at night, and some
ines even in the very bosom of the
ress she wore. In agony she was
oomed to read them over and over
gain, till she could read no more.
There are people who do not know
yhy Starr and his wife drifted away
rom one another, and who are In Z
lined to call Starr brute
My own opinion is that Providence
topped into the lives OF Starr and his
life and commenced business little
ooner than Is his usual custom.
But the saddest part OF IL all Is
his; For STAIRS sake the woman