Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1915-04-07
CHAPTER II.
The New Judith.

From sleep as from drugged stupor
Judith Urine awakened struggling
back to consciousness like some ex-
hausted eiver from the black depths
to the scar-smitten surface of a night
bound pool
At first she could by no means rec
ognize her surroundings This rude
chamber of rough plank walls and
primitive furnishings; this wide. hard
coach she shared with her still slum-
bering sister, Rose; the view revealed
by an opep window at the bedside;
fair perspective of tree-clad noun.
tains through which a wide-bosomed
canyon rolled down to an emerald
plain conveyed nothing to her intel
ligence.
A formless sense of some epochal
change in the habits and mental proc
esses of a young lifetime, added to
her confusion.
What, indeed, had become of the
wild thing, Judith Urine of yesterday?
Surely she had little enough in com
mon with this Judith of today, in
whose heart was no more room for
envy. hatred, malice or any uncharit-
ableness. so full was it of love which,
though Ii was focus \ upon the person
of one man, none the less embraced
all the world-even her sister and
successful rival in that one mans af-
fections.
This change had not come upon her
without warning. She had been al
most insensibly aware of its advent
through the gradual softening of that
old Judith's hard and vengeful nature
In the course of the last few days.
But now that the revolution was &C
cumplished, she hardly knew herself
abe hardly knew the world. indeed
so differently did she regard it-not
without something of the wide-eyed
wonderment of a child to find all
things so new and strange and beauti-
full.
And this was the work of Love!
Now the chain of memories was
quite complete, no link lacking in it's
continuity. She recalled clearly every
incident that had marked the slow
Alan Law, from that first day, not yet
q month old, when he had escaped the
fiery deathtrap she had set for him
and repaid her only by risking his life
anew to save her from destruction,
down to this very morning when the
stream from a hydraulic nozzle had
swept over the brink of three hun
dred-foot precipice crimson racing
automobile containing two desperate
men bent upon comprising the death
Of her beloved
BY that act of sheer self-defense
the world was richer for the loss of
two black-hearted blackguards, and
Alan Law might now be considered
safe from further persecution-since
there now remained not one soul loyal
enough to Seneca Urine to prosecute
his private war of vengeance against
Alan. And though that aged mono
maniac had means whereby he might
purchase other scoundrels and cor
rupt them to his hideous purposes,
Judith was determined that he should
never again have any opportunity so
to do. Though Alan, she knew, would
never lift his hand to hinder her
fathers freedom of action, she, Judith,
meant to take such steps as his perse-
cution called for If there were any
Justice in the land-if there were any
alienists capable of discriminating be-
tween Trine's apparent sanity and his
deep-rooted mania-then surely not
many days more should pass into his
tory without witnessing his consign-
nent to an institution for the crimi-
nal insane
She, Judith, would see to that, and
then :.
The woman sighed once more.
Then Rose and Alan would marry
and live happily ever after.
But what of Judith?
She made a small gesture of resis.
nation to her destiny. What became
of her no longer mattered, so that
Alan were made happy in such hap
piness as he coveted
And now the thought stirred her
sharply that what was to be done
must be done quickly, If at all
And the almost level rays of the
declining sun, striking in through the
open window, counseled haste if Judith
were to accomplish her intention or
leaving this place and finding her
father again before nightfalI
With the utmost care she rose from
the bed, crept to the door of the room
tnow recognized as the quarters of tho
foreman of the hydraulic mining o'at-
it) and out into the room adjoinips
And there, pulling the door to gently
behind her, she paused and for many
minutes stood in tensestrung conteto
plation of the man she loved--AIsR
Law, asleep in a chair beside a taDla,
his head pillowed on his folded arms
This was leave-taking between them
and he would never know.
Far better 80: Judith felt she could
not trust herself 10 say farewell t.
him without breaking down and con
Tossing tho utter wretchedness THAI
threatened to oyerwhelm her each
time she forced herself to face the
th6rght that this parting must Be
GnaL