Show AN DOUR IN DADES THE > STpRY OFnYj LETTERS U I I FQr < many minutes Philip Watsonhad I sat motiqnless at his desk in the cozy i veillighted library of a handsome cot I tage in the suburbs of a western city I staring dumbly at the closelywritten pages of a letter that lay open before him He had read and reread it until every word was seared into his brain It seemed too horrible too monstrous fjto be true It must be a dream a hIdeous hid-eous nightmare of the imagination He would awaken soon and find her still 1th tCthe bonny wee bride he had taken to his heart and home only a Kcrt 12 moifths bcfbro V < His Florence gone and left him deserted de-serted foranother manL 0 nIt n-it could not It must not be And yet there was the letter It was her handwriting hand-writing the signature was hers the wordsah what bitter accusing words they werethey too were hers Picking up the letter he read it once more in the stolid hopeless manner in which a condemned murderer listens to his death warrant There was no blaze of indignation noresentment in his eyes as he read these already familiar wordsnothing but dumb despair My Dear Husband would seem strange to address VDU by any other term so for the last time I shall call you that I say the last time and I mean it for when you read thes words the sacred names of husband and wife wilLhave no further meaning for us as I shall then be not in the eyes of the law perhaps but in my heart and in the sight of the being who alone has the right to judge me the wife of another an-other When I stood with you at the altar one brief yednago and trustingly tgave myfuture happiness into your keeping I little dreamed that I should ever be driven to take the step I am about to take I know what the world will say I know that on my weak shoulders win fall all the blame while you will receive re-ceive only pity and condolences 1 yet even that will not suffice to hold me back You and I at least will know the truth but lest in the first bitterness bitter-ness of your resentment you should forget some part of it I will here set it down In the days of our courtshipa thousand thou-sand years ago it seems as I look back at it tonightyou fed me on honeyed words and phrases and poured unceasing unceas-ing flattery into my willing ear After we were wedded and you had grown i weary of me as a child grows weary ota ot-a new toy the Emnty husks of love would have been grateful to my starving starv-ing soul but I did not receive even themnothing but neglect Sometimes you spoke lightly of love and kissed me but not often and when you did I there was in the touch of your lips none I of the warmth the joyous electric thrill of old nothing but the careless and perfunctory performance of a distasteful distaste-ful duty That was all Philip and though it may have signified little to youIt meant much to me life joy honor everything that a roman holds detlIA A starving rat in its desperation will attack even man the starving soul of woman famishing for love will risk all to obtain it The love the companionship com-panionship of a husband is sweeter I than all other but if that be denied her I she must seek elsewhere for the love and sympathy which her heart craves I did not seek it it came to me unsought un-sought and as I possess no longer any share in your love I must needs accept ac-cept that It was you who trampled on the tender buds of womanly affection in my bosom by studied indifference and neglect and then left him to bind them up and watch over and coax them into bloom Yes Philip it is all your own doing do-ing and although it may humble your pride somewhat to find that r have at last taken you at your word unspoken it istrue but none the less a reality I believe and trust you will be happier without me As for myself whatever my future may be I cannot be more miserable than I have been for the past two months neglected and shall I say I despised by the very man fvho had I yowed to love cherish and protect me through life I f 7 1f 1 t y i I 1 bA I I I L J 1 I 1J cc C SHE DROPPED THE LETTER WITH A CONVULSIVE SOB I have borne it in silence as long as I could and nqw I am freeyes Philip Phil-ip free And the terrible pric I must pay for that freedom will tell you how dear it is to me and how much I must have suffered to bring me to this step I have one final request to make of you If in the first utih of your blind ragenotat the trivial loss of an unloved un-loved and unappreciated wife but at the indignity that has been put upon you as husband you feel that you must wipe out the stain on your honp by shedding blood please spare him and kill me alone am to blame LOve was sweet to me I had heardscarcely a word of it from you since our brie honeymoon was over My heart was hungry for Ioye = for your love Philip if I might have had it But no yoU were always to preoccupied too busy i too much taken up with your club or i with politics or with some matter outside i out-side your home to pay any attention to i j poor me The love and sympathy that were rightfull mine you denied me Perhaps you bestowed them on soMeone I soMe-one else I dont know as to that but i I do know that when my famishing i heart asked for bread it received a I stone Do you remember the lasttim you kissed my lips upon returning from your officeBut ofcQurse you do not You have so many more important matters mat-ters to occupy your mind Byroft was right That event was a II little thing the veriest trifle to you tome to-me it was an epoch a milestone marking mark-ing the spot where our pathways diverged di-verged < Aug 7 was the date only two j short months yet thosermontb without J your kisses have been an eternity I I eter-nity to me Do you remember Philip how I sprang to welcome you upon I your return that day and put upmy i I lips for the usual kiss and you tried to I brush me aside with the remark that i it was about time Lgot over such t I schoolgirl foolishness And do you remember how I clung to you until I i got the kissthe last you have ever j i i given me I I j i This is a rambling Incoherent letter I I let-ter but such as it is it has come i straight from my heart A soul writhing writh-ing In agOny does not stop to choose I its h word I do not ask you forgive me there is nothIng to forgive all I I ask of you is to forget me as speedily I aS posslble and when you have sfcc1 > ceeded in doing this it ought not to i I I take long seeing you have already half j I I forgotten me I know you will be far j i I happier than I have ever made you If you wish to send me a parting I word or have any communication for me you may address it to my maiden name care of the general postoffice Chicago and it will reach me safely Once more farewell and may heaven held us both FLORENCE Tossing thej letter on his desk Philip Watson sprang to his feet and began striding up and down the length of the room like a tiger restlessly pacing the rounds of its cage There was a picture of his wife hanging An the wall beside his desk Pausing in front of it he held out his hands as if in5 supplication My God my God lie groaned she 1 Is gone beyond recall and Ihow can I I face the world without her What shall I do f IdoHe stopped speaking and flung himself him-self into the chair at his desk Alerady his mind was made up and seizing paper pa-per and pencil he hastily dashed off the followlng note My Poor Neglected Darling It Is with deepest sorrow I have read your A rl11 I I I L I 0 I < t 0 7 Pr 1 fQir it 1 1 1 t > > Vii J II Vi-i I i i r i ii l Stared Dumbly at the Letter farewell letter and though shocked and II I stunned by the calamity which has fallen upon me I have no words bf reproach re-proach to you It is wholly my fault Your accusing words have stabbed me to the heart but they are trueGod I pity and forgive rethey are true I i have slighted and neglected you l shamefully cruelly neglected you but it was more from thoughtlessness than anything else You are the only woman I ever made love to or cared for and I until I read your letter I knew little of j the requirements of a womans heart I did not realize what a tender plant was I I womans love nor hoi easily crushc I I I am a man and judgedwomans feel j I lags from a mans standpoint Wrapped j I I i up in my business by day and with my club to go to at night I was blindly content and did not think of your lone liness nor of the heart that was breaking j break-ing at home I I remember the occasions of which you speak Business had gone wrong I those two days and I was cross and j irritable I did not mean to treat you j I I as roughly as I did but after it was i I done and the words were said I was too 1 stubborn to take them back A thousand thous-and times since I have been on the I point of asking you to forgive me and i I begini anew but each time the devil of i contrariness that lurks in every mans j i I breast said No let her take the first I i step and I foolishly listened to this ad I vice instead of acting upon the better j Impulses of my nature i I 1 Tonight however I came home two I hours earlier than usual fully resolved to confess my fault but alas I find I I am too late I have forever driven from I my side the woman to whom I was bound by the most sacred of ties the I woman who one year ago placed her life hapniness and her h noif In myI I keeping I have failed in the great trust I took upon myself and there is bt i one way in which I call make rear tin and that is to take myself out Of j the world as quickly as possible and leave you legally free to marry tire man who is now your friend and protector I ector This I shall do When you receive this note I shall be lying dead in my rooms herethe rooms thatonce were ours would to God that they were so stilIwith a bullet through my ulj worthy heart Then you can conic back alone to your old home and follow fol-low me to my last resting place it will be better so and then when I am forgotten for-gotten by the world it will not be long to walt you may go back to him with no breath of scandal to assail your fair name I have failed you in all else I know but I shall not In this Farewell dear wife and when you look upon my dead face I trust you will forgive the past for the sale of the atonement I have made and the love you once bore ra Your repentant PHILIP P 81 shall inclose your letter with this so no one but you will know my reason fon killing myself and as my body will probably not be discovered before you return you can doubtless readily explain your absence in someway some-way without subjecting yourself to criticism or gossip My last anxious wish dear Floience Is to shield yott from any possible censure for the awful aw-ful tep I am about W take takePHILIP l I Philig Watson folded the two letters i together placed them in an envelope i I and addressed it to Florence Fairchild how strange it seemed to write that I name general postoffice Chicago III i Then unlocking a drawer in his desk 4 i he took therefrom a heavy pearlhan T j died revolver which he carefully examined I exam-ined to see thatit was loaded and ready fof use and then placed it alongside i I the letter There I guess everything is ready all Ive got to do now is to step out and I mail this letter and thenthis will end It he grimly remarked toying with the weapon i i At that moment he heard the front door open and a well known footstep I sounded in the hall Dropping the revolver I re-volver he turned and faced his wife i who stepped quickly into the room V i You here she gasptd as she caught sight of her husband pale fac > and staring eyes Yes and you II thought you had gone Avith Avith No I thought I could do it but I I I couldnt A sudden revulsion of feeling feel-ing came over me when I reached the station where he was waiting for me I saw the enormity the wickedness or the stepI was about to take and told him so and said he must never see me again As soon as I had t onv inced him 1 that I meant it and that our foolish I dream was over I hurried hick thinking think-Ing I would be in time to destroy my letter and then I would go on and live out my life here even if It were an unhappy j un-happy one But of course if you have read my letter you will not want me longer as your wife You thought little enough of me before and now Florence he broke in with a choking chok-ing voice whatever you have done it is I that drove you to it It is all my fault that you were led to break your marriage vows Surely Philip you do not think so badly of me as that she exclaimed intones in-tones of mingled reproach and sadness I I have not been untrue to my vows Oh no I could not bring myself to that step while living under the roof to which you brought me a bride I have not allowed him to even kiss my hand It would have been time enough for that ifif I had gone with him but I I listened to his words of love Philip 1 in my heart I have sinned against you and Iam no longer fit to live even with i the husband who despises me I see you have a weapon ready Take it and kill me if you will I shall be willing and even glad to die if you will be happier without me Come Philip I am ready Dont Florence he pleaded please dont talk like that I cannot bear to hear you accuse yourself when my conscience tells me that I alone am to blame for all our past unhappiness I I have made you suffer cruelly and I unjustly but for the past hour I have been through the torments of hell to pay for it I have read your letter Perhaps you would like to read my reply I was about to go out and mail it when you came Inand this weapon was meant for myself not for you He gave her a chair and then tearing tear-ing open the envelope he handed her tl > n t > p Tnftr just written As she read it the hot tears gathered in her eyes and began to roll slowly un tici oheeKS and when she had finished she dropped the letter and with a convulsive sob stretched forth her handstoward her husband and attempted at-tempted to rise but the room swam around her and she would have fallen to the iloor had he not sprung forward and gathered her quickly to his breast For a time she lay In his arms like one dead while he chafed her hands and called her endearingly by name then the color gradually came creeping back to her cheeks and lips and as she looked up into the eyes that were tenderly bending over her she whispered whis-pered I Im so sorry I I Im not replied her husband cutting cut-ting off the rest of her confession with a loverlike kiss It has taught me I how worthless life would be without I you and now that Ive got you safe I under the shelter of my wing once L more Im going to do my best to keep 7 you there W S G |