Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1912-04-10

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"
Eyes," she nodded, taking It from
him carefully and looking again in
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, els something that
no human eye but mine has ever
seen since that day. 1t is a locket
l took from her neck. Until you
came I wore it next to my heart"
"And since then?"
''Since then [ have been unworthy
her as I am unworthy you, and
have put it aside"
docs it contain another picture ?"
eyes"
"Of herr"
"a mans face.'
"Yours?"
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 a 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 a 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.
ST don't know" answered the 9TH
er.
"Do you know this MANI"
II never saw him in my life that
I can recall"
'And have you-did you"
did I suspect my wife?" he asked
Never. l 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 it?"
Because [ took it from her dead
heart. Some day I shall find out who
the man is and when I shall I know
there will be nothing to her discredit
in the knowledge"
Enid Maitland nodded her head.
She closed the Iocket, 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
of the mystery, she was master of
all the solutions, and each thread
was a chain that bound her.
"My friend" she said at last with
a deep sigh, ''you must forget this
night and go on as before. You love
me, thank God for that, but honor
and respect interpose between us.
And I love you, and I thank God for
that, too, but for me as we'll the
same barrier rises. Whether we
shall ever surmount these barriers
God alone knows. He brought us
together, he put that love in our
hearts, we will have to leave it to
him to do as he will with us both.
Meanwhile we must go on as be-
fore"
NO." cried the man, "you impose
upon me tasks beyond my strength;
you don't know what love is, you
don't know the heart hunger, the aw-
full madness feel. Think, 1 have been
alone with a recollection for all these
years, a man in the dark, in the night;
and the light comes, you are here.
The first night I brought you here I
walked that room on the other side of
that narrow door like lion pent ur
in bars Of steel. had only my own
love, my own passionate alteration tC
move me then, but now that I know
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