The Pulaskian., 1917-03-16

me, to make me think it was me you loved and not che woman you felt bound to take care of, because you'd you had"
 Mary, listen to me" he interrupted. q swear I didn't know you. Only, that night on the stage, as Joan Thursday, you were that girl again. I never dreamed of associating you with my wife. Dear, didn't know, believe me. It was you who bewitched me-not the wife for whose sake fought against what thought infatua- tion for you. I loved-I love you only, you as you are-not the poor little girl of the Commercial House."
 'T have loved you always" she said softly between barely pared lips always Hugh. Even when l thought you dead I did believe that you were drowned out there. Hugh ! You know that, don't you"
 q have never for an instant ques- toned 1t"
 "It wouldn't be like you to, my dear; it wouldn't be you, my Hugh. No other man ever knew-no, let me say it t!-ever measured up to the standard you had set for me to wor- ship But Hugh-you'n understand, won't you?-about the others-?"
 "Please," he begged-"please don't harrow yourself so Mary!"
 "Ne; I must tell you. The world seemed so empty and so lonely, Hugh: I tried to lose myself in my work, but it wasn't enough. And those others came beseeching me, and-and I liked them. I was starving for af- lection. Each time, Hugh, it was the same. One by one they were taken from me, strangely, terribly. Poor Tom Custer, first; he was a dear boy, but I didn't love him and couldn't marry him. had to tell him so. He killed himself. Then Billy Ham, ilton; I became engaged to him; but he was taken mysteriously from a crowded ship in mid-ocean. A man named Mitchell Thurston loved me. I liked him; perhaps l might have consented to marry him. He was assassinated-shot down like a mad dog in broad dayiight-no one ever knew by whom, or why. He hadn't of. :. And now Drummond . .!'
 Mary, Mary!" he pleaded. Don't -don't-those things were all acci- dents"
 She paid him no heed. She didn't seem to hear. He tried to take her hand, with a mans dull, witless no tion of the way to comfort a distraught woman; but she snatched it from his touch.
 And now''-her voice pealed out like a great bell tolling over the mag nfficent solitude of the forsaken island-"and now I have it to live through once again; the wonder and terror and beauty of love, the agony and passion of having you torn from mel :. Hugh! :. I don't believe I can endure it again. I can't bear this exquisite torture. I'm afraid shall go madi Unless unless"-her voice shuddered-"I have the strength, the strength to-"
 "Stopw he cried in desperation. | 1OO huot hOI SO OA AahC tAAo 4Aui J Listen to mel"
 This time he succeeded in imprison- ing her hand. Mary" he said gently, drawing closer to her, 'listen to me understand what I say. love you; am your husband nothing can pos sibly come between us. All these other things can be explained. Don't let yourself think for another instant"
 Her eyes, fixed upon the two hands in which he clasped her own, had grown wide and staring with dread. Momentarily she seemed stunned. Then she wrenehed 1t from him. at the same time jumping up and away.
 "No" she cried, lending him from her with shaking arms "No! Don't touch me Don't come near me, Hugh 1 It's ,. it's death! My touch is deathi I know 1t now-I had begun to suspect, now I know! I am ac- cursed-doomed to go through life like pestilence, leaving sorrow and death in my wake. Hughi" She con- trolled herself trif1e: "Hugh, love you more than life; I love you more than love itself. But you must not come near me. Love me if you must, but o my dear onel keep away from me; avoid me, forget me if you can, but at all cost shun me as you would the plague! will not give myself to you to be your deathw Before he could utter a syllable in reply, she turned and fled from him,