The Washington times., 1913-05-10
CHAPTER XII.
Stuff of Dreams.
! LONE in a world the thought of
Y which appalled, her. Thomsine
crept into the narrow room.

a LONE IN q world the .tnought OF
~ which appalled, her. Thomsine
|N crept into the narrow room.
where, a lifetime before. she had
enjoyed herself. girl-fashion. In the
gowns and trinkets that now seemed lesa
than dirt
Wearily. as II each gesture were he,
last, she stripped OF the clothes in
which she had lived such mad hours
and drew on a Dight-smock, and crept
shivering into her bed.
Presently she heard her door thrust
open, and trembled lest she see enter
Charlotte or Eleanor, whom she held In
the deeper aversion, for what she had
read in her too knowing eyes.
But she need not have feared, for
Eleanor. who in her turn could read in
Thomsine's eyes. was too clever to
thrust herself upon her at that hour.
Instead the skillful Eleanor. her faith
er's daughter. had dressed in her brav-
est and strolled forth. where she could
her world. To them she casually told
told the story, which, whether she
believed or not, she would have others
believe the veracious narrative OF
Thomsine Musgrove.
But ere she went upon this work, yer.
itably Of mercy and necessity. she had
given orders to her woman. So 1t was
that Thomsine saw enter the room a
brisk and buxom wench, with delicate
food and hot drink-a creature all agape
with admiration for the heroine Of a
nine-day wonder. who assured Mistress
Musgrove that she should sit all day
within call. and she had to name wha,
she lacked.
Ito be left alone. Moment after
moment she lay between sleeping and
waking, while she lived over the past
hours, and saw them hideoulsy illu-
mined with the light of the brutal
knowledge that had been put home
to her.
She saw the world all vile, as those
around her would have her to see it,
No maid was honest, and no man was
honorable. Even Won Kerstenbroock
she had lost in the black pass to which
she now was brought.
The coward1y assassin of Basin Dor
mer, the brutal forcer Of a quarrel on
SO poor a man of straw as she now
knew her brother Wat to be-how
could she have been tricked for a mo-
ment into thinking Of him with graft
tude and kindness? No doubt his
seeming care Of her had been but
screen to some vile end.
She scrubbed her lips with the hem
Of her sheet. oh, IL by that act she
could but rub out the memory of that
Then mercifully Thomsine lost that
memory and all memories in heavy
sleep. and she woke, when by the light
in her chamber she judged the time to
be mid afternoon.
Rested in body and in soul, she be-
came aware of something that she had
lost, and in the same moment realized
that she would not give Ii up without
a struggle. She must believe in Won
Kerstenbroock. the one figure Of SEEM
ing decency In the sordid history Of
the last hours.
For to cease to believe in him was to
give up forever her faith in man and
her trust in the everlasting power Of
goodness.
Just at that moment the buxom wait
ing woman came again into the cham
Der, though quite unbidden.
'Oh. mistress" said she, with an as
sumption of following Thomsine's
thoughts that, at another time. would
have angered Thomsine, heres to-do
indeed,
Captain Aubrey hath come storming
hither. now released from ward. and His
Grace OF Lewchester. they say. become
his pledge. and he is fain to speak with
captain your brother. and no doubt