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Show ; -- 1 ' 1 - - 17 "T 'WnT? fGl BY UPTON SINCLAIR I J VT bJLL!srlKj AUTHOR OF "THE JUNGLE" gated Into hit face the knew sot which waa worao, tha silent helple&s despair that waa npon it, or the torment and the anffaring that had ifine hefore. She tried still to tooth him, Dcgjring and pleading with him to har mercy upon her. . Ha kd her faintly what he ronld do, and the poor girl, seeing bow weak and exhausted he was, eonld tbink of only the things of tha body, and begged him to try to rest. "It haa been two night since yon hav alept, Darid." he whispered. "I cannot aleep with thft burden npon mjr conl," h answered her; bnt ftill she pleaded with him, begging him at ha lored her, and h yielded to her at last, and broken and helpless as- he was. ah half carried him upstair up-stair rnd laid him npon tli bd at it ke had been a li'.tl child. That seemed to help little, lit-tle, however, for ha only lay totting ftnd meaning, "Oh, God, it moat end; I cannot bear it!"- . . ' Those were the list wordt Helen heard, for the poor girl wat exhausted herself, almost to fainting.; th. UT down, without undressing, and her head had'aearoely touehed'th pillow befor ah , w - asleep. In th meantime, through th long; night-watche Darid lay writhing and erring out for help. ' (To Be Continued.) - Copyright' i eona, and it i over; and oh, why ehonld I lift, vrhat caa I dot" His voice dropped to a moan, and then again there was a long alienee. At last Helen whispered,' ia 4 weak, trembling voice; "David, yon have still love; eaa that be nothing to you I" '! have no right to love." h groaned, "no right to love, and I never had any, For on, all mv life this vision has haunted me I knew that nothing but death eould.have saved her from shame! ' Yes, and I knew, too, that some day I must find her. I have carried car-ried tha terror of that in my heart all these years. Yet I dared to take your love, and dared to flv from my sin; and then there eomes this thunderbolt oh, merciful heaven, it is too much to bear, too much to bear! ' ' He sank down again; poor Helen could find no word I of comfort, no utterance of her own bursting. heart-except the same frantic elaep of her love. s . So the day went by over that shattered shat-tered life, and each hoar the man's despair de-spair grew more black, his grief more hopeless. The girl watched him and followed him about as ,if she had been a child, but she could get him to take no food, and to divert his mind to anything else she dared not even try. He would sit for hours writhing in his torment, and then again he would spring up and pace the room in agitation, though he was too weak to bear that very long. Afterwards the long night came on, and all through it he lay tossing toss-ing and moaning, sometimes shuddering in a kind of paroxysm of grief Helen, though she was weary and almost faint, ing. watching through the whole night, her heart wij4 with her dread. And so the morning came, and another anoth-er day of misery, and in the midst of it David flung himself down npon the sofa and buried his face in his arms and cried out: '"Ohj God, my God, I cannot stand it, my head there ia no hope for me there is no life for me I dare not pray! It is more than I can bear1 I am beaten. I. am lost forever!" forev-er!" And Helen I eannot stand it! Oh,' let me die!" Helen fell down npon np-on ber knees beside him, and tore away his hands from his face and stared at him frantically, exclaiming: "David, it is too cruel. Oh, have mercy npon me, David, if you love me!" ' He stopped and gazed long and earnestly earn-estly into her face, and a look of infinite pity came into his eyes; at last he whispered, in a low voice, "Poor, poor little Helen; oh, Helen, God help you, what can I dot" He paused and afterward after-ward went on tremblingly: "What have you done that you should euffer like thist You are right that it is too cruel it is another eurse that I have to bear! For I knew that I was born to suffering I knew that my life waa broken and dying and yet I dared to take yours into it! And now, what can I do to save yon, Helen: can yon not see that I dare not livet" "David, it is yoa who are killing yourself," the girl moaned in answer. He did not reply, but there came a long, long silence, in which he seemed to be sinking still deeper; and when he went on it was in a shuddering voice that made Helen's heart stop. "Oh, it is no i use he gasped, "it is no use! Listen, Helen, there was another secret that I kept from you, because it was too fearful; fear-ful; but I can keep it no more, I can fight no more!". He stopped; the girl had clutched his arm, and was staring into his face, whispering whis-pering his name hoarsely. At last he went on in his cruel despair,. "I knew this years ago too, and I knew that I was bringing it upon yon the misery of -this wretched, dying body. Oh, it hurty it hurts nowf" And he put his hand over his heart, as a look of pain came into his faee. "It eannot stand much more, my heart," he panted; "the time must come thev told me it would come years ago! And then and then" PART II. "Then said' I, JVoe is me! For I am ' undone . V for mine eyes have een the King, the Lord of Hosts." David's servant drove out early upon up-on the following morning to tell-him of a strange woman who had been' asking ask-ing for tun in the village; they eent the man back for a ddctor, and it was found that the poor creature was really dead. - ' " , - They wished to take the body away, but David would not have it, and 60, late in the afternoon, a grave wasidug by tne lake near the little cottage, and What was left . of Mary was Viried (here. David was too exhauster to eave the house.. and Helen, would not stir fiom his side, so the two eat in silence until the ceremony was over, and the men had gone. . The servant went with them, because the girl said they wished to oe alone; and then the . house settled down to its usual quiet- nees a quietness that frightened Helen Hel-en now. For when she looked at her husband her heart scarcely beat for her terror; - he was ghastlv white, and his lips were , trembling, and though he had not shed . a tear all the day, there was a look of mournful despair on his face that told more ; fearfully than any - words how utterly the soul within him was beaten and crushed. All that day he had been so, and Helen remembered the man that had. been before so strong and eager and brave, her whole soul stood still " with awe; yet as before she could do nothing bnt cling to him, and gaze at 2 him with bursting heart. But at last when the hours had passed and not a move had been made, she asked him faintly: "David, is there no hope? Is it to be like this always t" The man raised his eyes and gazed at her helplessly. ' "Helen," he said, his voice sounding hollow and strange, "what can yon ask of met How can I bear to look about me again, how can ,1 think of living? Oh, that night of horror! Helen, it burns my brain it tortures my soul if will drive me mad!" He buried his face in his Kt.4S again", shaking with emotion. '1 can never forget it," he whis- pt4vECnare'v: must bnit ha J me until I die; I must know that frTaU my years of strugg.e ic this tnat I made, it is this that stands for my life jid it is over, and gone from me forever and finished! Oh, God, was there ever such a horror flashed upon a guilty soul ever such a fiendish torture for a man to bear! And Helen, there was a child, too think how that thought must goad me a child of mine, and I eannot ever aid it it must suffer for its mother's shame. And think, if it were a woman. Helen this madness must go on, and go on forever! Oh, where am I to hide me, and what can I dot" There tune no tears, but only a fearful fear-ful sobbing:' poor Helen whispered frantically, "David, it was not your faultyyou eould not help it surely yoa cannot be responsible for all this.'' ' He did not answer her, bnt after a long silence he went on in a deep, low voice: "H!6n, she was so beautiful! She has lived in my thoughts all these , jyT aa the figure that fused to see, .--o bright and so happy. I used to hear ber singing in church, and the music was a kind of madness to me, because I knew that she loved me. And her home ' was a little, farm house, half buried in ' great trees, and I used to see her there with her flowers. Now oh, think of her now think of her life of shame and agony think of her turned away from ber home, and from all she loved in the world deserted and scorned and helpless help-less thiak of her with child, and of the agony of her degradation! What must she not have suffered to be as she was last night oh, are there tears enough in the world to pay fo iuch a curse, for that twenty years' burden of wretchedness wretched-ness and sint And she was beaten . oh, she was beaten Mary, my poor, poor Mary! And to die in such horror, in drunkenness and madness. And now Th man atopped. because he wa looking at Hejen; the htd not mad a sound, but bei fac had turned so white, and har Upa ware trembling o fearfully that he dared not go on! .,eg'T.e.' Iood' choking cry and burtt out wildly, "Oh, David. Darid it i fiendish -you aav ro right to punish me tot .Oh, hav mercy upon me, for you are killing met You have no right to do it. I tell you it i a crime; you promised me your love, and if you loved me you would live for my sake, you would think of ml A thing eo cruel i ought not to be it eannot be right God could never have meant a human soul to suf-fer suf-fer sol And there mutt be pardon in th ! world, there must b light It cannot all be torture like thit!" She burst Into a flood of tear and flung herself upon David's' bosom, sobbing again and again, "Oh, no, no, it it too fitrful. Oh, aav to. av me :" He did not answer her; aa she looked up st him again she saw th same look of fearful wee. and read the cruel fact that there waa no help, that her own grief and pleadings ware only deepening th man' wretchedness. Sh stared at him for a long time ; and when th spoke to him again it was with a sudden start, and in a atraage, ghastly voico "And then, David, there it no Godt'' H tramblod, but th words choked him a he tried to respond, and ai head dropped r then at least she hoard him moaa, "Oh. how can God fro ay soul from this madnees, how can h deliver m front fuch a ourset" Helen could ssy no more could oay cling to hint and sob In her fright. . So the day patted away, and another night cam; and ttill th erushad and beaten aoal wa writhing In It misery, loat to blacka and despair; and a till Helen read it all in hit white and tortured feature, and drank th full cup of hi soul's aery pain. Thev took no hod of th rim -but it wa Icng after darkness had fallen; and one whan th girl bad gone upswir for a moment the .beard David peeing about and than heard .a stifled cry. Sh mshad dowi, and stopped fhort in tha doorway, for th man was-upon his knees, hi fac uplifted in wild ntrnty. "Oh, God. oh, merciful God." h lobbed, "all th days of any life I niv sought for riehteoutneiit, labored and suffered to keep my soul alive 1 Aad oh, was t all for this wat it to go down in blackness and night, to die a beaten man, cruihed and lostt Oh, I cannot bear it. I cahuot bar it I I cannot it must not be!" H ank forward upon the jfa. and burled hi head in his arm, and th girl could hear . his breathing in the stillness; at last th crept across the room and knelt down beside .him, and whispered softly in hi ear, "You do not giv Ui your heart any mor. David I" It wat, a long time before he answered bar, and then it wat to moan, "Oh, Helen, my heart is broken. I can giv it to no one. One I had strength and faith and could love, liaf now I am lost and ruined, and. there ia nothiig-that can sav in. I dare not live, aud I dare not die, and i know not whero to turn!." , Jl started np suddenly, flatting h'.t hands to hit forehead and staggering - cross the room, crying ont. "Oh, no, it cannot be. oh. it cannot bet There must be some way of fit'din? pardon, tens way of winning right nets for a soul Oh, God, whst can I do for peaeai" - But then arsin he rank down and hid his faei and stobbed nt: "In tbe fac of ti)i tjgh rraar with thia hTTor confronting confront-ing me! She cried for pardon, and none, came.' ' . - - After that there was a lour silence, witl. Hulen crjuehing iq terror by his aide. 8h heard him grcan: "It ia all over, it i.i fin-tahed fin-tahed 1 can fight no more." and then again cam ttillnesj, sod when the lifted him aud ' .. . . . ... - ' ' . . . is |