The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1917-04-19

FROM Ember 1t worries NEON
Ember's account. hope nothing has
happened to him."
"Oh, hope not!"
"You know-I mean about the cause
the morphine?"
81 never guessed until that night,
after he had come down into the
cabin toto drug himself. 1t
was very terrible-that tiny, pitching
cabin. with the swinging, smoking
lamp and the mailman sitting there,
muttering to himself over the glass in
which the morphine was dissolving.
1t happened three times before
the wreck; thought I should go out
of my own mind"
She shuddered, her face tragic and
pitlful For little she sat. head
bowed, brooding.
"Hughl" she cried, looking up to
search his face narrowly-"Hugh.
you've not been pretending"
"Pretendlng?" he repeated, thick
| witted.
"Hugh, l could never forgive you
IL you'd been pretending. 1t would
he too cruel All, but you haven't
been! Tell me you haven't"
II don't understand Pretend
ing what2"
pretending you didn't know who
was-pretending to fall In love with
me lust because you were sorry for
me. to make me think it was me you
loved and not the woman you felt
| bound to take care of, because you'd
you had"
s.Mary, listen to me-" he interrupted.
al swear 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, I 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-I love you only,
Won as YOU are-nOt the poor little
girl of the Commercial House."
~ have loved you always" she said
softly between barely parted lips
"always, Hugh. Even when l thought
Won dead I did believe that
Won were drowned out there. Hugh!
You know that, don't YOU"
81 have never for an instant ques-
toned it."
ST wouldn't be like you to, my
dear: II wouldn't be you, my Hugh.
No other man l ever knew--no let me
saw it!-ever measured up to the
standard you had set for me to wor-
ship. But Hugh you'll understand,
won't you?-about the others"
"Please," he begged-"please don't
harrow yourself so, Mary"
mo: 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 beseechlng me, and-and
I liked them. / was starving for at
lection. Each time, Hugh, 1t 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. / had to tell him so. He
killed himself. . Then Billy Ham
ilton; l became engaged to him; but
he was taken mysteriously from
crowded ship in mid-ocean. A
man named Mitchell Thurston loved
me. 1 liked him; perhaps might
have consented to marry him. He was
assassinated-shot down like a mac
dog in broad daylight-no one ever
Lnew by whom, or why. He hadn't
an enemy In the world we knew
of. And now Drummond II
MARY, Mary!" he pleaded. "Dont
-don't-those things were all acct
dents"
She paid him no heed. She didn't
seem to hear. He tried to take heI
hand, with q mans dull. witless no
ton of the way to comfort distraught
woman: but she snatched II from his
, touch.
"And now"-her voice pealed ou
like a great bell tolling over the mag
nIficent solitude of the forsaker
Islsnd-"and now have 1t to live
through once again; the wonder ant
terror and beauty of love, the agony
, and passion of having you torn from
mel Hughl :. 1 don't believe
1 can endure 1t again. / can't 0eal
this exquisite torture. I'm afraid
shall go madI Unless
unless"-her voice shuddered-Nl nave
the strength, the strength to
"StopT" he cried In desperation
asYou must not go on like this +! Mary
Listen to meT
This time he succeeded in imprison
ing her hand. MARY" he said gently
drawing closer to her. 'listen TO me