Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1919-06-19
From the Past
By OTTlIA FRANCES PFEFFER
kcopynsht. 1918. By w.st.r. Newspaper Union,)

| crOucneQ DICK III Tic uiihcS NohhSA "
her boudoir staring aghast, heart
| stricken, at a letter that seemed TO
| seal her doom.
"Oh, to blot out that foolish, reck-
less hour in the past!" her trembling
| lips repeated woefully over and over
| again.
In memory she saw herself the
daughter of man of means, the belle
of the seminary where she was gen
eral favorite Young, confiding, mex
perienced in the ways Of the world,
she had met and fancied she loved
man she had met incidentally. he
had told her that he was Roger Der
went. He had saved her from being
run down by a speeding automobile,
being himself slightly hurt in the res
cue Interest, sympathy in and for
handsome, flashing face had led her to
meeting him clandestinely. He had
| made love furiously, and one day-oh,
that fatal day! ever destined, 1t
seemed, TO shadow all life's calendar.
He had told her that he was called
to distance to settle up an estate.
He had pleaded for a secret marriage
she was to steal to the city, brlef
ceremony, an immediate parting, she
to hasten back to the seminary before
she was missed, he to return in a few
months and go to her father and claim
his bride.
1t was only after Roger Derwent
4t>o+ rI;pa yUard aOrnnrp-
hended that there had been no depth
to the affection she had believed she
felt for him. She had been dazzled,
led to confide in n man who had spe-
ciously developed her gratitude into
what she fancied was love. She was
dumbfounded and frightened every
time she thought of the rash deed of
which she had been guilty. Then one
day two months later her soul froze
with terror, nameless dread, as she
read in daily print of the capture OF
a notorious counterfeiter, Roger Der
went, and from the description she
recognized beyond the shadow of
doubt the identity of her husband.
A few weeks latep she received a
letter addressed to her maiden name
at the seminary. 1t was signed Roger
Derwent y and the contents chilled and
crushed her Audaeiously the man di-
vested himself of all delicacy and
shame. He told her that he was in
nrison that he had married her be-
cause of her fathers wealth, that he
had been sentenced to fen wears penal
servitude and that she must send
thousand dollars to friend at a GER
t.in address ar he would cover her
with contumely and reproach.
Airline manared TO obtain the money
and sent If as,drected. She sold some
of her iewelrv she drew upon her IA
ther for tictItiors wants and there was
n period of half relief. but always the
ynawing dread of later exactions in
mind Then one day she read in
newspaper where Roger Derwent, in
attempting TO escape. had been shot by
a guard while swimming in river
and drowned.
"Freep'
THAT was the one thrilling naean of
deliyerance that seemed to herald in a
new life. Airline left school. Her IA
Their lost his fortune and died.-Then
she was wooed and won by Harold
Ward, the brother of her closest girl
friend, and she realized that'true love
had become her portion at last
And now!
A letter Just delivered was signed
"Roger Derwent," and in the same
handwriting as the one she had first
received. It told her that he had
really ESCAPED guard and river. He
informed her that he had learned of
her second and Illegal marriage and
demanded u second thousand dollars
to be sent TO the same address he had
named to her nearly two years previ
GUS.
It was hours before Airline could
arouse herself from the lethargy of
dark despair into which she had been
cast without seeming ray of hope.
Uybare wore b,t two clear thoughts in