Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1917-02-23
The DESTROYING ANGEL
BY Louis Joseph Vance

me. TO make me think it was me you
loved ana not che woman you felt
bound to take care of. because you'd
You had"
"Mary, listen to me-" he interrupted.
II swear I didn't know you. Only,
/ that night on the stage, as Joan
! Thursday, you were that girl again.
/ never dreamed of associating you
with my wife. Dear. didn't know,
believe me. 1t was you who bewitched
me-not the wife for whose sake
/ fought against what thought infatua-
ton for you. loved 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 parted lips
always, Hugh. Even when thought
you dead | did believe that
you were drowned out there. Hugh
You know that, don't you"
81 have never for an instant ques-
toned it,"
sit wouldn't be like you to, my
dear; it wouldn't be you, my Hugh,
No other man ever knew--Eo, let me
say it !-ever measured up to the
standard you had set for me to wor-
ship. But Hugh-you'Il understand,
won't you?-about the others-?"
'Please," he please don't
harrow yourself so, Mary!"
"No; / must tell you. The
world seemed so empty and so lonely,
Hugh: l tried to lose myself in my
work. but it wasn't enough. And those
others came, beseeching me, and-and
I liked them. / 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 dear
boy. but didn't love him and couldn't
marry him. l had to tell him so. He
killed himself. Then Billy Ham
ilton; / became engaged to him; but
he was taken mysteriously from q
crowded ship in mid-ocean. A
man named Mitchell Thurston loved
me. liked him; perhaps ] might
have consented to marry him. He was
assassinated-shOt down like a mad
dog In broad daylight-no one ever
knew by whom, or why. He hadn't
an enemy in the world we knew
Of. And now Drummond II
"Mary, Mary!" he pleaded. ''Don'i
-don't-those things were all acct
dents"
She paid him no heed. She didn'i
seem to hear. He tried to take hel
hand, with a mans dull, witless no
ton of the way to comfort distraught
woman; bat she snatched it from his
: touch.
And now'-her voice pealed out
like a great bell tolling over the mag
nificent solitude of the forsaker
island-"and now have 1t to live
through once again; the wonder and
terror and beauty of love. the agony
and passion Of having you torn from
mel Hughi :. I don't believe
can endure it again. can't bear
this exquisite torture. I'm afraid
shall go madl Unless
unless"-her voice shuddered-'T have
the strength, the strength to-"
"Stop" he cried in desperation.
'You must not go on like this Mary
Listen to me-"
This time he succeeded in imprison-
ing her hand. "Mary," he said gently,
drawing closer to her, 'llsten to me
understand what 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
Momentarily she seemed stunned.
Then she wrenched it from him, at
the same time jumping up and away.
"Noi" she cried. Tending him from
her with sinking arms. "Nol Don't
touch me Don't come near me, Hugh
It's it's DEATH Ny touch is
DEATH I know it now--I had begun
to suspect. now I knowI l am ac-
cursed-doomed to go through life like
pestilence, leaving sorrow and death
in my wake. Hugh!" She con-
trolled herself a trife: "Hugh.
love you more than life; / love you
more than love itseiS But you must
not come near me. Love me If you
must, but o my dear one! 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 deathv'
Before he could utter a syllable in
reply, she turned and fed from him