Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-08-27

in, yet Betty LumSden felt she would
have given all the world held for her
in exchange for the freedom to run out
into that rain and hide behind it's blind
ing veil from this desolate house and the
terrors 1t held for her
The temptation was so strong upon
her that, with an effort. she turned back
from the door. closed it behind her, and
went back to her vigil by the bed of the
sleeping woman.
Lighting and shading the lamp, she sat
down and' forced herself to read until
subdued sounds from the kitchen told
her that William Vogel had returned
from his weekly shopping expedition to
the local town She laid down her book
and went out to him
Vogei's Return.
He was standing by the table taking
out his parcels, his dripping garments
forming little pools of moisture about
his feet on the brick floor. AS Betty
came out he looked up and favored her
with a smile 1t almost seemed as
though, cross grained in everything, this
man enjoyed the weather that gave the
rest of the world just cause to grumble.
I'm most ready for "a cup o tay, miss,
if you are" he said, in his characteristic
way. 1t meant quite honestly that he
knew that.
And | brought you a bit O. reading.
Seems dull-like here WI no books save
dull trash"
From his inner pocket he drew out
folded newspaper and a couple of gaudy
coored penny periodicals He had never
before showed her so much consideration,
and Betty-the new Betty, who had
learned to suspect the world-dreaded the
Greeks bearing gifts. She thanked him
and took the papers but she did not look
at them He was disappointed in this
she could see that. More than once she
surprised him in a glance of sly curiosity
toward her
- Only when he was gone she seized the
focal paper and saw what he had wished
her to see The paragraph stared up at
her from the page carefully folded to face
the outside.
"YELLOW DRESS AND CHAINS FOR
CONVlCTS.
1.-THE two conVlcts, Ernest Winch and
John Rlnlington, who made daring dash
for liberty from 6Imouth Jail fortnight
ago, have been sentenced by the visiting
magistrates to punishment diet for AZ days
and to wear yellow dress and chains for
period not exceeding six months.
winch, In addition, has been sentenced
to the seVerest foSqIng which Bimouth
has known for 20 years. He is to receive
so Iashes of the cut for his murderous at
tack on the warder who effected his cap
ture."
Betty Lumsden stood staring at the
paper like a woman in a dream.
The yellow -chains-punishmen
diet; they were only so many words to
her. and yet her imagination leaped to all
their hideousness.
With a bitter cry. she bent her head
on her hands and burst into tears
Not for the man in prison. writhng
under this new, this unspeakable humil-
iation alone did she cry. Her tears flowed
for him generously-but she cried for her
self also. Leaning her head there against
the settle where for few brief minutes
the man she loved had sat and been min
istered to by her, she cried with an ach-
ing longing for all that now, it seemed to
her, she never could haVe-that happiness
that seemed the birthright of every WON
anal that a mans love has to give,
mans strong arms TO encompass. The
tears trickled down between her closely
nterlaced fingers, and in that moment
the bitterest, as it seemed, of all her
agony-she knew her heart poured out
like water" dissolved in an agony of long
ing for the wonderful, indefinable What
Might Have Been of wife and mother
that now. alas could never be hers.
IN the inner room the woman on the
bed had opened her eyes; her white lips
moved freely. and sound, faint and I'M
certain as the cry of a newly born infant,
issued from them; but the girl in the
kitchen, her head buried in her hands,
heard nothing.
The woman on the bed did not cry
out again. She lay with staring eyes up
raised to the white roof with its black
bisecting rafter, once more very, very
still.
1t was very cold in Jack Rimington's
cell The slate floor and iron walls
seemed to give out cold as ice walls and
floors might have done, but the man who
sat crouched on his stool in the cor
ner was hardly aware of the cold, though
his teeth chartered and his fingers were
numb He made no effort to move;
movement had become a thing of dread
to him--every movement, however slight
was accompanied by the clank of the tet-
ters about his waist that were fastened
by rveted rings about his ankles. lie
felt something less than human as he
sat there clothed in the uniform of his
disgrace, IN lnOS6 garments blidA NHlS ~
hideously grotesque that even among this
world of grotesquely habited clowns he
stood out "a thing of mockery, conspic-
uous among a thousand.
AS in mirror he saw himself, and only
in the big ape house at the zoo had he
ever seen a sight more abhorrent than
this mental reflection presented to him.
His wizened, furtive. shamed face above
the livery of degradation was less than
human-he was ashamed to stand up
right in this parti- colored livery of dis
grace. Who had designed garment so
hideous-the right side of the jacket and
the right halves of the breeches drab the
left bright canary, to which the addition
of the seven-foot chains adds a subtly
hideous note?
If Betty could see him now-Betty, who
had shrunk from him in recognition
even beforei
Crouching there in the dimness, hun
CRY and cold and full of dull pain, Rim
ngton was suddenly aware that his hands
were wet with his own tears.
Without hopeful Of an impotent ha
tired for every one about him-the young
chaplain with the serene blue eyes and