Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-01-05

les, Out LHereS uOIuluS strange
about it."
perhaps not. Still, I'd like to see
the letter. don't want to read it.
only want to look at If"
''She" wrote. asking ME TO come
down."
Strickland seated himself at the ia
BILE, put his elbow on the table and
rested his chin on his right thumb be
tween that member and the fingers.
When he spoke next the words came
slowly:
"You haven't met her for years; then
she suddenly asks you to come down
to Long Branch to see her. Why didn't
she come to see yOu?"
With terrible. eager insistence, al
though she felt herself slipping, slip
ping down the precipice of her fate,
May Strickland still lied to her hus-
band AS is usual in such cases, her
mind moved at terrible speed, sending
the words almost tripplingly from her
tongue. She had gone too far to re-
treat She must at all costs convince
Robert now! Was that Doris moving
her child's sake she must go on and
on and on!
"She's critically i'll, and she wanted
to see me again" The words came
fast and faster. 80 she had me look
ed up. We used to be quite intimate
in school,"
Quite oblivious of the torture he was
inf hi trio
land continued his unintentionally mer-
CHESS questioning:
GLOW did she manage to write II
she's so ill?'
"Some one wrote for her."
"FrOm what is she sufferingw
What is a terribly dangerous dis
ease? The first thing that entered
May Strickland's mind was "Pneumo-
MIA"
ooh, she's dangerously i'll, then?"
asked Robert.
"Oh, yes" Said May. with an inward
sigh of relief that she had chosen so
we'll. Again the fates decreed that the
Long Branch newsdealer should cross
her life. Strickland said:
"But Burke id thee was no one
there"
Burke
yes" said Robert, Eat the Hender-
son place address. The house he went
to. He said he found only an old
housekeeper."
"Oh, yes, / remember" said May,
and she forced to her face, for a fleet
ing moment, a CHASTITY attempt at a
smile. They said they were going to
remove her TO the hospital today. But,
Robert, your dinner won't be fit to
eat
Never mind about it. I'm not hun
CRY. Just be patient with me few
minutes more
He rose from his seat at the table
and crossed the room to the sofa,
wherein he seated himself For a Sec
Ond he said nothing, while the wife
stood waiting for the next question in
the severe examination. Perhaps she
hoped that it was over But her nerves
were not in condition to stand an add
ed strain Of even second. They
would not permit her to be silent while
Robert sat there meditating. So she
asked:
"What are you thinking about, Rob
ert?"
I'D like to see that letter from Miss
Green" said Strickland.
81 can't show it to you." said May.
1T contains some personal matter that
she wouldn't want any one but me to
know about"
'But she didn't write the letter her
self?"
mo, her mother wrote it for her."
Again the words Of the husband
who. it seemed to the agonized wife,
was acting the part of the grand in
Quisitor. came slowly:
"In other words" he said very de-
liberately, "your friend whom you
haven't seen for years chooses a mo-
ment when she is critically i'll to get
her mother to write to you concerning
matters which your husband daren't
know anything about. Is that correctT
This time there was just a CLEAN of
defiance in Nays voice as she replied:
why do you want to see it?"
81 want to know why, If you had a
letter containing your friends address,
you went to the trouble of copying it
on another piece of paper"
"Who said l copied it on another
piece of paper?" There was a ring Of
well simulated indignation in May
Strickland's tone.
And once again the fateful Burke APP
pears.
Burke" said Robert. HE said the