Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-02-07
CHAPTER xxxII1.
The Mask.

7 was undecided what to do. I could
not make u my mind Quo :ay or me
other. AIRED at the ei.rene point
of my adventures, what logical sou.
ton ought I to give them. was sole
master Of the situation. No more
cornterpo!se! NO more obstacles!
The doctor died Is days after my
arrival in France. Now there was no
one who knew, the secret OF my HE.
If wished I could. confess all to Eve
lyne and Marcadian, or could keep my
lips closed forever. knew that Eve
.lyne, would have welcomed my con-
fession with Joy. / had often caught
her looking searchtngly at me, ard
then she would turn away with g
troubled look In her eyes. II told
her that was her own father Bar
rabas, / should be able to live with her
and my little grand children for the
rest Of my DAYS. or, on the other hand
/ could continue, without risk. now
being Charles Douglass, Addison
Kingsley's successor.
If / we're only to go byrmy feelings.
7 should have decided upon the first
solution. for my cottage was to me
better than any palace on earth and to
be with my daughter and little Pierre
and Suzanne my greatest JOY.
But the voice OF reason drove back
ali sentiment, What right had as
Darrabas. to thrust myself into their
lives? For what selfish sentiment
should stand up in the lives OF
others like the living image OF re.
morse? II once threw aside the mask
which had enabled mo to play my part
each hour of the dav.I should be a
constant reminder Of their SORROWS;
nv disfigured. burned fact would be an
everlasting reminder Of all that had
i,.ppened. and if not for Evelynes
sake. at least for the little ones future.
I felt I should have to remain UNI
known, I should have to show more
I, :,r,rage and "a ~ sentiment aside
To leeYe them and return to America
was the last sacrifice that / should be
called upon to make. would CD back
as I came. I would leave forever the
little cottage, which in the spring
time would have its limbing glycine,
where I he'd lived SO happily. would
leave forever the studio and the un-
finished statue of Life"
s-..,,, have .,e !; firmly to my re-
solve il the climax to my adventures
had not come in an unexpected and ter
rible manner.
I viii he es brief as can in giving
the facts which conclude my story.
Almost every day went to Paris 70
Evelyne's home. The children and !
had become great friends. MY norr1-
Bile face no longer frightened them.
They climbed on my knees and put
their little arms around my neck.
williams death had come as great
shock to Evelyne, and for a tirpe her
life was in danger. The doctor, VINO
smoke without reserve, believing me to
he merely a friend of the family, had
remarked to me:
soon the children will be orphans,
Mr.. Douglass. In Madame's short life
she has undergone so many successive
emotions that her constitution 10
ruined. che is consumed by an Inter
nal suffering which does the most
harm and against which our science
has no remedy. To use simlie, she
Is like lyre that has been strung up
10 IL highest pitch, and one day all
its chords will snap at the same time
under too violent and heart-rending
-notes.
i listened 70 the Doctors confidence
without showing Too much emotion. l
knew that some medical men were
given to exaggerating. How regret
ted after that had not attached the
imnortance to his words that he In
tended to convey!
During the two months that had
lived in the cottage Tape-a-pOeil, the
old retired army officer and scandal