The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-02-21

She had agreed of course with her
doctor and Jasper Haig to all this.
Yet eve this she could see now must
be something that would have an end
"a purpose. And now-no doubt from
the very situation of loneliness and
time for thought in which she found
herself, certain suspicious which she
had formed took a somewhat mon
strous and disconcerting shape. There
might be something, she sometimes
thought-from various things, from
the servants actions, from her own
self-accepted isolation in the house
that she did not exactly know-not
only about the Gorgam Trust, but
about herselfl
She checked herself when such ideas
came to her. For it was a black, blind
alley in which she had small desire to
grope.
The delights of unmeasured wealth
and luxury Who can reasonably ques-
ton after their universal acceptance
as the goal of life for man-and for
woman certainly no less-through all
the ages, and especially in this? This
is a simple matter of common knowl-
edge and belief which everybody
knows. On the other hand there are
very few who nave been in a position
to observe and appreciate the strange
Illogical, almost hysterical effect
which close Imprisonment has on hui
man nervous systems; to understand
fhn odd n1thrnaIyc ond nonioc ne huc-
terra which penOlogists assure us over
take the most unlikely victims-the
most hardened individuals confined in
prisons, at entirely unexpected inter
walls, in involuntary and almost insane
paroxysms of self-pity.
Considering this, it is possible to ex-
plain, if not to understand, the changed
and changing mental attitude of the
Gorgam Trust, which, denying her no
personal luxury that heart could wish
outside of freedom, yet caused her now
a growing, sharpening fear, a thing she
could not apparently resist, a fear of
being an eternal prisoner of illness
a prisoner in solitary confinement for
life. She was consumed by a desperate
desire to know the TRUTH.
She knew, of course, that her hus-
band would know-would be the one
third person to whom she could posi-
bly, have access, who would have posi-
tive knowledge; and whatever might
have been her reason for her sep
aration from him, she certainly had
that instinct of confidence which
their so-called intuitions often give
to women concerning men, in that
tolerant kindly face of the man
who had come back for some reason,
possibly to see her, into the house of
Adelaide Gorgam. If worse came to
worse, If this sense of ~ungovernable,
blind fear which now and then came
over her, should grow too strong, here
a possibility of understanding, of
possible clearing-up and escape from
hat illogical but irresistible terror
which she was coming so much to
fear.
An attack of such hysteria must, it
seems, have come over her within the
next few days. In some way, probably
through a servant, she must have sent
a message to her husband that she
would like to see him, to ask a favor.
"This is devilish white of your said
he slow-eyed, heavy man whom the
servant ushered in. He had been drink
ng, that was evident. Adelaide Ruth
.rford had difficulty in holding back
Rags from serious in%discretion against I
Ter caller. {
what" she said, talking against
ime-her heart in her mouth. He 5
must be some one she knew, then, or
he doorman would never nave let him t
n. 1t was very unpleasant and en-
larrassing.
$50 we were bored stiff, ehT' he S
.sked, throwing off his outer coat.
Well, we won't be any longer" 1
If Adelaide Rutherford was white at S
hat moment, it was with fear. $
go away /" she cried, with the sim I
ly expressed aversion of a child. I
go away! p he echoed. "Then what
i'd you send for me for?'' he asked, a d
of ugly establishment on his heavy
ace. t
Nothing, nothing 1t was all a mis- I
axe p she cried. II
And yet he did not go Immediately.
lie seemed i%mpervious to what she q
lied to say. II
Listen, sister," he said to her. >
Don't get coy. You and 1 can under !
land each other yet. I know your u
inland you know mine. I'll just
SIX a little bet on that" "
But when she insisted-to the point d
{ calling in the servants, or loosening J,
ne angry Rags upon him-he appar- u
1tly flew into a rage. ,
"Now ~listen," he said again-and his
ICE seemed mottled with anger. Il y
on't know what your game was In :"
ending for me. But you sent, you a
l rather like your looks. e
~, ofrosd - ho sold hic