The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1914-01-01
The Bullet That
Killed a Man
BY MARGARET ELDRIDGE

marquis, Lord Tinterton.
A beardless boy of my acquaintance,
Ralph Chester, not more than nineteen
years old, took it into his silly head
to fall in love with me. The worst of
1t was that his father was a strong ad-
herent of the parliament, and this fired
the sympathies of the son. Ralph had
Joined a troop of the psalm singing
Roundheads and was preparing to go
with them to a rendezvous where the
parliamentary forces We're being col
lected. The evening before he left he
pose for we had been neighbors and
our now being on different sides did
not affect our friendliness. What was
my establishment when he told me that
he loved me.
shall never forget the boyish look
on his face as he. spoke the words,
seeming to feel that he was presump-
tuous in addressing one he considered
so superior to himself. A woman is
pleased with any mans devotion, be
he respectable, and 1 confess that |
was secretly pleased. l made my re-
fusal as easy to bear as possible, but
my young lover took it hard.
The war had been fought out in Eng
land, and Cromwell went to Scotland
to suppress the movement against him
there One day a trooper returning
from the war stopped at the gate and,
dismOunting, tramped into the ground
and, knocking at the portal, handed in
a letter for me. l opened it and,
glancing at the bottom, saw the sigma
ture of Ralph Chester. The letter was
accompanied by a little box. Ralph
wrote that he was dying. 4 surgeon
had extracted bullet from his wound
and had promised the poor boy that he
would send it to me. 1t was in the
box.
/ did not at first realize the effect
this grewsome gift would have on me.
1t was some time before l opened the
box and did so at last from n strange
desire that came over me to see the
bullet that had killed a man and that
man my lover. Ii was like any other
bullet. but not so to me. 1t seemed to
be talking to me. telling me a myriad
of things, all about the young man
who had loved me, but whom / had
not loved. I replaced it in the box, re-
solving that l would put it away and
never see it again.
1t was not long before a desire came
to me to take it out and look at it. 1
cse.tn h. n dnn 70
interest myself in other subjects. Lord
Tinterton. who had been fighting I'M
der Prince Rupert, returned and re-
newed his suit. To help me get rid of
the effect of my dead lovers gift |
tried to listen to him. But my heart
was not with Tinterton. and put him
off. l yielded to my desire to see the
bullet and. opening the box. took it
out. 1t seemed TO reproach me- and
for my life could not consider it what
il was-nothing but an inanimate lump
of lead.
My mind every day came under the
strange influence of this inanimate OBJ
iect. 1t was constant reproach to
me that | had turned away love-
What right had to reject that which
was so sacred: Before the memento
came | had considered marrying Tin
terton. though was Indifferent to him
personally. TO be the most natural
thing in the world to do. He had fine
estates and by skillful diplomacy had
saved them from being confiscated by
the protector. My future position as a
marchioneSS would be all that could
be desired. And yet | was deferred
from giving him an affirmative an
swer by this little lump of lead. Or
was it not rather what that lump of
lead represented? 1t did not seem so
to me, though | do not doubt that it
was.
At last l determined TO try to break
the spell by accepting Tinterton. The
evening after doing so, when l went
to my room, tried to keep away from
the drawer of my dresser, where l
kept the bullet. stood looking at the
drawer, using all my will power to
avoid going to it. All to no purpose
i was drawn like a resisting animal
by a rope to the dresser, opened the
drawer and took out the bullet. 1t
lay there in its box, inanimate, yet it
was to me a reproof. l held it i'm my
hands till the tears came into my eyes
Then | put it back in its place and be-
gan to wonder how 1 should recall all
i had said to Tinterton.
l am growing old. King Charles II.
has rni NIL 1oI h. I,
brother James. l am a spinster and
shall always remain a spinster. Tin
terton never forcave me for accept
ing and tlTen rejecting him, for had
no excuse whatever to offer him. Tell
him that l had been forbidden to mar
~ him by a bit of lead, Impossible.
] broke with him without giving him
n reason and have since been consider
ed by him weakling. He has long
been married to another.
l have often wondered wherein Law
the power of the bullet that killed my
Eover. Was it merely an expression of
my feelings? Was it endowed with a
subtle power that came from the man
1t killed? Upon this | still wonder
But whether the spell it exercised is in
itself. in me or the man whose life
1t terminated, it is remorseless Rath-
er, it was renOrseless, for it changed
the course of my life at that period
when | would but for it, have married
and lost my identity in that of my
husband and children.
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