Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1916-10-19
CHAPTER discontinued.

/
Smith did not take the extended hands.
Her own were clasped before her
| II have come to plead with you.
Madame Arnaud-not to judge"
And if promise you-if | tell you
that will do all that lies in my
| power"
Then my errand is accomplished"
Sylvia's hands dropped. 1t struck
| her that this woman had mean soul.
| coarsened with rough contact with the
| world. She could not rise to the high
/ attitudes Of forgiveness and reconcile
! "ton. She could only grasp the ma
terlal things of life. Sylvia caught a
| glance Of her own reflection in the
glass opposite. and she saw how ethe-
real her own beauty had become. After
all. beauty is the outward and visible
sign. Suddenly her name was called
| roughly yet piteously-and her eyes
| sank
That's my husband she said
| sravely. Even in his delirium he is
| always calling for me. The dying are
sacred, are they not? We must for
6A'C thCu as We lOISlN0 Tile uodu.
Yes" Gabrielle assented.
II must go to him But will do
what have promised III will atone
tor him. Perhaps it may soothe him
comfort him to think that the wrong
he has done has been righ.ed-don't
YOU think?"
Perhaps"
But Gabrielle Smith did Let seem
o see the extended hand. There was
hard line about the fine mouth. and
without greeting almost as though
-oaded by an impatient contempt-she
went out of the open French windows
into the brazen glare of the afternoon
Sylvia Arnaud watched the slight MP
right figure vanish into the archwuy
beyond the courtyard She waa vague
~ disconcerted-like an actress left
suddenly without her cue-and be-
meath the tranquil consciousness of viz
tue there stirred the old hatred. the
old mistrust
In the slckroom all was still again.
Ihe blinds were drawn, and in the
green-tfnted shadows Desires face
showed like a white light She went
softly over to his bedside and sat
down. looking at him. His eyes were
closed and he appeared to sleep. A
cold wonder crept over her. He had
changed so completely in those few
months of their married life that the
change ceased to be terrible. This
was not the man whose heeting. I'M
known fascination had caught her rest
less fancy-not even the man she had
grown weary of. He was nothing-a
mere husk of something that had once
been. Still, as she sat there and looked
back on those months. many things
became triumphantly clear to her. She
understood why she had grown weary,
and why WEAKNESS had changed to
nausea. He was bad man. He had
sinned; be had let another suffer for
him, and had pursued his victim with
relentless hatred Her woman's in
stinct had recognized the evil and had
passed judgment. Beside him Rich
ard Farquhar's figure cleaned In the
limelight Of her imagina tion-a cheva-
lier Of the old school. quixotic and
romantic. But she did not love him.
Perhaps there was even somewhere in
her a vague contemplate least.
slightly patronizing pity strengthened
by the knowledge that now his saliva
ton was in her hands. Her thoughts
passed on from him to the implaca BILE,
ruthless man who had come back to
her out of the jaws of death, and to
whom she was going with the sur
render of her whole self And as she
thought Of him invisible hands tore
down the veil, and she saw the pic
ture that he had painted of her-saw
it and shrank from it even though she
knew that it was the insignia of his
power.
Desires eyes opened. They rested
full on her face, and in their recogni-
ton, their pathetic, helpless Worship
she regained herself and the heights of
her virtue. She bent over him.
Are you better, Desire?'
Sylvia" His hand CROPPED feebly
for hers. She touched it kindly. She
would not reproach him. She was for
giving him. He was going to die.
hhu lHeh She Woulu oe lFee she 01Q
not think Of her freedom. 1t was like
a hidden pulse-beating persistently,
feverishly.
II heard you CALL" she said. lis
there anything want? The nurse will
be back in moment"
He caressed her hand with an in
finite tenderness.
"They are going to shoot him at
daybreak, he said very gently. "And