Middletown transcript., 1912-05-11

recollection Oh uSI. ~" Ah
imnossible it was since the other wo'
man had fought so heroically and so
successfully for her honor. Woman
hood demanded her silence. Loyal
ty. honor, compelled her silence.
A dead hand grasped his heart and
the same dead hand grasped hers.
She could see no way out of the diff
ifcu1tv So far as she knew no hui
man soul except old Kirkby and her
self knew this woman's story. She
4could not tell Newbold and she
would have to impose upon Kirkby
the same silence as she herself
exercised. There was absolutely
no way in which the man could
find out. He must cherish his dream
as he would. She would not enlight
en- him, she would not disabuse his
mind, she could not shatter his ideal,
she could not betray his wife. They
might love as the angels Of heaven
and yet be kept forever apart-by
a scruple, an idea, principle, an ab'
stractiQn, honor, a name.
Her mind told her these. things
were idle and foolish, but her soul
would not hear Of it. And in spite OF
her resolutions she felt that even
tually there would be some way. She
would not have been a human Wo-
man if she had not hoped and prayed
that. She believed that God had Gre
ated them for each other, that he
had thrown them together. She was
enough of a fatalist in this instance
at least to accept their intimacy as
the result of His ordination. There
must be some way out of the dilem-
ma.
Yet she knew that he would be
true to his belief and she felt that
she would not be false to her obli-
CATION. What of that? There would
be some way. Perhaps somebody
else knew, and then there flashed
into her mind the writer of the let
tiers. Who was he? Was he yet
alive? Had he any part to play in
this strange tragedy aside from that
he had already assayed?
Sometimes an answer to a secret
query is made openly. At this juno
ture Newbold came back. He
stopped before her unsteadily, his face
now marked not only by the fierce
ness of the storm outside, but by
the iercer grapple Of the storm in
his heart.
'You have a right" he began, ito
know everything now. I can with
hold nothing from you"
He had in his hand a picture and
something yellow that cleaned, in
the light There" he continued ex-
tending them toward her, "is the pic
ture of the poor woman who loved
me and whom I killed, you saw it
once before"
''Yes," she nodded, taking it from
him carefully and looking again in
a strange commixture of pride, re-
sentiment and pity at the bold, some
what coarse, entirely uncultured, yet
handsome face which gave no evil
dence of the moral purpose which
she had displayed.
"And here" said the man offering
the other article, "is something that
no human eye but mine has ever
seen since that day. 1t is locket
l took from her neck. Until you
came 1 wore it next to my heart"
And since then?"
"Since then l have been unworthy
her as / am unworthy you, and 1
have put it aside"
Does it contain another picture?'
eyes"
"of herr" .,,l.s.,-,.
"a mans face"
s'Yours?" zGol
He shook his head.
Look and see," he answered.
press the spring"
Suiting action to word, the next
second Enid Maitland found herself
gazing upon the pictured semblance
of Mr. James Armstrong! She was
utterly unable to suppress an excla-
nation and start Of surprise at the
astonishing revelation. The man
looked at her curiously; he opened
his mouth to question her but she
recovered herself in part at least and
swiftly interrupted him in panic
of terror lest she should betray her
knowledge.
"And what is the picture of anoth-
er man doing in your wife's locket?"
she asked TO gain time, for she very
well knew the reply; knew it, in
deed, better than Newbold himself!
Who as it happened, was equally in
the dark both as to the man and the
reason.
81 don't know" answered the 9TH
er.
''Do you know this MANI"
'T never saw him in my life that
I can recall"
"And have you-did you"
did I suspect my wife?" he asked.
''Never. I had too many evidences
that she loved me and me alone for a
ghost of suspicion to enter my mind.
It may have been a Brother, or her
father in his youth
And why did you wear i?
Because / took it from her dead
heart. Some day ] shall find out who
the man is and when / shall 1 know
there viii be nothing to her discredit
in the knowledge"
Enid Maitland nodded her head.
She closed the locket, laid it on the
table and pushed it away from her.
So this was the man the woman had
loved, who had begged her to go
away with him, this handsome Arm
strong who had come within an ace
of winning her own affection, to
whom she was in some measure
| pledged!
How strangely does fate work out
its purposes. Enid had come from
the Atlantic seaboard to be the Sec
ond woman that both these two men
loved!
If she ever saw Mr.. James Arm
strong again, and she had no doubt
] that she would, she would have some
strange things to say to him She
held in her hands now all the threads
4 of the mvSterv she. was master of