The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1914-08-20


whole universe seemed to have turned
topsy-turvy since that devastating
hour at Burton's inn. Somehow he
was not able to confine his thoughts
TO Hetty Castleton alone. She seemed
to sink into the background, despite
the absolution he had been so ready,
SO eager to grant her on hearing the
story from Sara's lips. Not that his
resolve to search her out and claim
her in spite of everything was likely
to weaken, but that the absorbing fig
ure of Sara Wrandall stood out most
clearly In his reflections.
What an amazing creature she wasl
He could not drive her out of his
thoughts, even when he tried to con-
centrate them on the one person who
was dearest to him of all in all the
world, his warm-hearted, adorable
Hetty. Strange contrasts suggested
themselves to him as he strode along,
head bent and shoulders hunched. He
could not help contrasting the two
women. He loved Hetty; he would
always love her, of that he was posi-
tive. She was Sara's superior in ev-
cry respect, infinitely SO, he argued.
And yet there was something in Sara
that could crowd this adored one, this
perfect one out of his thoughts for the
time being He found 1t difficult to
concentrate his thoughts on Hetty
Castleton.
How white and Ill Sara had looked
when she said good night to him at
the door! The memory of her dark,
mysterious eyes haunted him; he
could see them in the night about him.
They had been full Of pain; there were
| torrents of tears behind them. They
had glistened as If FURNISHED by the
| fires of fever.
Even as he wrote his long, trium-
phant letter to Hetty Castleton, the
| picture of Sara Wrandall encroached
upon his mental vision. He could not
drive it out He thought of her as
she had appeared to him early in the
| spring; through all the varying stages
of their growing intimacy; through the
| interesting days when he vainly tried
to translate her matchless beauty by
means of wretched pigments; up to
this present hour in which she was
revealed, and yet not revealed, to him.
Her vivid face was always before him.
between his eyes and the thin. white
paper on which he scribbled SO eager.
| ly. Her feverish eyes were looking
into his; she was reading what he
wrote before it appeared on the sur
| face of the sheet!
| His letter to Hetty was triumph
of skill and diplomacy, achieved after
many attempts. He found it hard not
to say too much, and quite as difficult
not to say too little. He spent hours
over this al important missive. At
| last it was finished. He read and re-
read it, searching for the slightest
flaw: a fatal word or suggestion that
might create in her mind the slightest
doubt as to his sincerity. She was
sure to read this letter a great many
times, and always with the view to
finding something between the lines:
such as pity, resignation, an enforced
conception of loyalty, or even faith!
He meant that she should find moth
ing there but love- 1t was full of ten
derness, full of hope, full of promise.
He was coming to her with stead
fast, enduring love in his heart, he
wanted her now more than ever before.
There was no mention of Challis
name used. There was nothing in
the letter that could have betrayed
their joint secret to the most acute
outsider, and yet she would under
stand that he had wrung everything
from Sara's lips. Her secret was his.
He decided that it would not be safe
to anticipate the letter by cable
gram. 1t was not likely that any mes
sage he could send would have the
desired effect. Instead of reassuring
her, in all probability it would create
fresh alarm.
Sleep did not come to him until after
three o'clock. At two he got up and
deliberately added postscript to the
letter he had written. 1t was in the
nature of poignant plea for Sara
Wrandall. Even as he penned these
lines, he shuddered at the thought OF
what she had planned to do to Hetty
Castleton. Staring hard at the black
window before him, the pen still in
his hand, he allowed his thoughts to
dwell SO intimately on the subject oi
his well-meant postscript that hel
ashen face with it's burning eyes
seemed to take shape in the night
beyond. 1t was a long time before
he could get rid of the illusion. After
wards he tried to conjure up Hetty's
face and to drive out the likeness o.
the other woman, and found that he
> could not recall a single feature In the
face of the girl he lovedl
When he reached Southlook in the
morning, he found that nearly all o
!. the doors and windows were boarded
:. up. Wagons were standing in the
D stable yard, laden with trunks ant
, crates. Servants without livery wer,
; scurrying about the halls. There wa'
:. an air of finality about their move
ments.