Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1911-06-30
CHAPTER XIV.
The Other Woman.


The world is the book of women
Rousseau.
needed not to be advised that pres
emily there would be a meeting Of
some Of the leading men of the Hud-
son Bay Company at the little gray
stone, dormer-windowed building on
NOtre Dame street. For myself, it
was out of the question to gain admit
lance
In those days all Montreal was iron
shattered after nightfall, resembling
a series of jails; and tonight it
seemed dOubly screened and guarded
None the less, late in the evening,
allowed seeming accident to lead me
in a certain direction. Passing as Oft
en- as | might up and down Notre
Dame street without attracting at
tention, | saw more than one figure
in the semi-darkness enter the low
chateau door. Occasionally a tiny
CLEAN showed at the edge of a shut
ter or at the top of some little win
dow not full screened. AS to what
went on within | could only guess.
! passed the chateau, up and down,
at different times from nine o'clock
until midnight. The streets of Mon
treal at that time made brave pre-
tense of lighting by virtue of the new
gas works; at certain intervals flick
ering and wholly incompetent lights
served to make the gloom more Wis
ible. None the less, as | passed for
the last time, | plainly saw a shaft of
light fall upon the half darkness from
little side door. There emerged
upon the street the figure of woman.
I do not know what led me to cast a
second glance, for certainly my bust
ness was not with ladies, any more
than | would have supposed ladies
had business there; but, victim of
some impulse of curiosity, l walked a
step or two in the same direction as
that taken by the cloaked figure.
Careless as | endeavOred to make
my movements, the yelled lady seemed
to take suspicion or fright. She quick
ened her steps. Accident favored me.
Even as she fled, she caught her skirt
on some object which lay hidden in
the shadows and fell almost at full
length. This | conceived to be OppOr
tunity Warranting my approach.
raised my hat and assured her that
her fight was needless.
She made no direct reply to me, but
as she rose gave utterance to an ex-
presAion of annoyance. Mon Dieu!"
heard her say.
| stood for a moment trying to re-
call where I had heard this same
voice, She turned her face in such
a way that the light Illuminated it..
Then indeed surprise smote me-
Madam Baroness said | laughing,
'it is wholly impossible for you to be
here, yet you are here! Never again
will | say there is no such thing as
chance, no such thing as fate. no such
thing as a miracle!"
She looked at me one brief mo-
ment; then her courage returned.
"Ah, then, my idiot she said,
''since it is to be our fortune always
to meet of dark nights and in impos-
sible ways, give me your arm"
l laughed. I'VE may as well make
treaty If you run again, shall only
follow you
Then / am again your prisoner?"
Madam, | again am yOurs!"
''At least, you improved" said she
"Then come"
Shall / not call a caleche?-the
night is dark"
No, no." hurriedly.
We began a midnight course that
took us quite across the old French
quarter of Montreal. At last she
turned into a small, dark street O
modest one-story residences, iron-shut