Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1915-07-08

floor, budding In helpless weakness.
As she fell Wainwright leaped TO her.
caught her In his arms. drew her to
his breast
"Oh. my dear-my dearl" he said
| TREMENDOUSLY. IL knew il! Yes. |
knew it,
Then presently there came a whisper
from the wife, merest breath Of
sound. which told him loudly of her
truth:
"Oh, Cortland. but / meant to go!'
For the time being Wainwright felt
himself the conqueror. He understood
I'm some measure the device by which
the Master Mind had plotted to make
Lucene the instrument of his venge-
ance. He turned to Andrew with. a
smile of exultation ut the utter dis
comfture. as he deemed il. OF his in
genious foe.
II shall dismiss you now, Andrew"
he said. rather superciliously.
The Master Mind, however, showed
no trace of the humility of defeat
"You are to learn, Mr. Wainwright,
that am not quite so easily dis
missed"
Wainwright frowned disdalnfully.
What do you mean?" he demanded.
what has passed." Andrew remark
ed. els merely an incident. Now we
come at last TO the real issue be-
tween u.s.
| Wainwright was plainly perplexed.
THE real lssue?" he repeated.
Andrews eyes flashed ominously and
in his utterance had a new toxic quail
ity.
"Do you suppose that, after four
years of careful planning, / would
| place the issue in the hands of mere
| child?"
"Yet it would seem that you did
commit just that folly"
| Not sor Andrews denial was
spoken with angry vehemence. II
have my chief resource against you
still in readiness, and shall employ it.
Listen, sir! You aspire to high Office,
! Mr. Wainwright. The opposition to
YOU is strong, and it is INSCRIPTIONS.
You have threatened the corporations.
| They know what TO expect from you.
Now. If in the newspapers were to ap-
pear the story Of certain peculiar tai
ents of your wife's relatives, together
with sketch Of your wife's life
MY wifes relativesv Wainwright
exclaimed.
u was Lucene who seized the oppor-
| unity for explanation. Little by little,
| pow that the period Of most frightful
| stress was past. she had been gather
ing some idea Of the truth as to the
manner in which she had served the
Yildictive spirit of the man whom
hitherto she had regarded with a re-
vefentlal gfahHde Though the whole
matter was not yet clear e her by any
means, she nevertheless perceived be-
yond the shadow of doubt that Andrew
hated her husband and that be had
! unanswered deliberately for revenge,
ard that she had been entrapped by
his wiles into the playing Of part
against the man she loved. There was
| 60 her wonderful comfort now In the
fact that her husband had remained
convinced of her faithfulness despite
! all appearance of evil. That he still
| loved her she knew, and the knowl-
, edge revived her spirit to revolt against
! the monstrous pretense induced by
| Andrew She felt that now, at last,
there was indeed an end to hypocrEies
between her and her husband The
secrecy and deceit Of the past had been
punished enough already, perhaps, in
the misery of the present. For the
future there should be only truth be-
tween them. The love Of the man, she
had learned, was big enough to forgive
the wrong she had done him out of
girlish weakness, treacherously be-
guiled by the deft headings of one
whom she esteemed as her kindly
guardian. So at Wainwright's bewil-
dered exclamation, she cried out Gag
erly:
"Oh let me be the one to tell you,
Cortland. Please-please!' She chung
| TO him in tender beseeching and felt Il
new strength from the fond glance OF
his eyes. Yes she went on. with n
| catch of her breath. cts all true about
me. / did wrong-oh, horribly wrongl
| know now. My conscience told me
the truth always. but | fought against
it because lie said / must let you
think my name was Lucene BIount
and that all these awful people were
my relatives. Mr.. Andrew said that
1t was the only way. l let him guide
me. / honored him and loved him for
all he had done for me. and was
sure that what he told me must be
right, even when it seemed wrong TO
me- OF sudden her face whitened.
and the mouth dropped in fear. "Oh.
I'm afraid / can't make you see, and.
if can't / shall die. You know. Cort-
land, trusted him. Why. he has been
like father and mother to me. And
then he said he'd bring me the man I
loved and explained that all this fraud
about my life and relatives was the
only way. He said. If you knew I was