Wenona Gilman

“ I have never opened my mouth against it, and I never shall, if you kill me; but you have done your last to Dick. Listen, Ben; he is dying. Do you hear? Dying, Ben, and you are the cause of it. That girl whom you beat, and almost killed, has more love for your own child than you have, for she gave the liberty that she might have secured for his sake; and as there is a God above us, I will protect her with my life! I have been a coward just as long as I shall. As far as I am concerned I am willing to bear anything, but for Dick's sake the end has come. ”

“ Oh, my God, what am I to do?"
"Go for the doctor, quick!" commanded Leonie, "Ben can think that I was locked up, for I swear to you that I will make no attempt to escape. If he undertakes to hurt Dick when he comes home I will find a way to prevent him if I get killed myself for it! Oh, Liz, go! Is it possible that you can stop to think of anything when this poor child is dying?"
"Dying! dying!" repeated the unhappy woman, in an awe-stricken voice. "Now, God hear my vow! If he dies I will kill the man that has caused it, I swear it! ”

“ She fell upon her knees beside him, clasping his hands with both her own.
"Dad," she whispered hoarsely, "there is some secret that connects my life with that of Miss Chandler and Lynde Pyne. Tell me what it is. If you do not, I shall find out for myself, and it would be so much better for me to hear it from you than from a stranger, if it is the dreadful thing that your manner leads me to fear. Dad, tell me."
"I cannot," he gasped. "You must believe me when I tell you that there is nothing! Nothing! Nothing! Oh, Leonie, Leonie, my darling, put this nonsense out of your head. ”

“ A nebulous gleam of light from an almost exhausted candle fell upon Leonie and Liz as they sat silently in the room where Dick lay in a disturbed slumber.
He had been placed upon the almost comfortable bed that Ben Mauprat had used as his exclusive resting-place, and appeared more comfortable than they could have hoped.
An old-fashioned clock upon the mantelpiece tolled the hour of two, and, with a shiver of horror and dread that she could not control, Liz drew nearer to Leonie.
"You go to bed," she whispered in a tone that would not disturb the child. "You must be almost dead!" ”

“ I love you as no man ever loved a woman before. My whole soul seems swallowed up in my passion! I am the betrothed husband of another woman, but you have but to speak the word to make me false to my promise! I will give up everything for you, even to life itself were that necessary. I care not what shadow darkens your existence. Say but the word, promise that you will be my wife, and I will throw aside every consideration for your sake! Leonie, speak to me! ”

“ There are others to whom you are necessary. Leonie, I must tell you, great sin though I am committing in doing so. My darling, I love you with all the soul in my body, with all the strength of my being. Can you not see it? Do you not know it? Leonie, what have I said to cause you to look at me like that?"
"You love me?" she whispered, the words more a breath than an articulation—"you love me?"
"Dearest, can you doubt it? I know that I am the greatest scoundrel living, to tell you so. But how can I see you in such distress and not speak, when my heart is full to overflowing? ”

“ She had meant to say disgrace, but the word was drowned in a horrible groan. She fell into a chair, and holding to the back buried her face upon her arm. Lynde Pyne stood beside her. He laid his hand upon her bowed head, and smoothed the soft hair caressingly.
The expression of his face was one of keenest pain.
"Leonie," he said, pausing between each word as though to control an almost irresistible desire, "you must not speak with such despair. You are not—alone. If a steadfast friendship—the love of a—brother—will be a consolation to you, I offer you myself. Leonie, little girl, trust me." ”

“ Mr. Pryor staggered back as though the officer had threatened to arrest him.
"A girl!" he gasped. "Have you all gone mad? Why, that boy is Neil Lowell, and he worked for me as my private secretary. He is the best fellow in existence, and never did a wrong act in his life!"
"She is a girl, for all that!" returned the officer, serenely.
Andrew Pryor sat down very suddenly. He seemed to be utterly overcome by the intelligence he had received.
His eyes were riveted upon Leonie as though they could never be removed. ”

“ You don't know Ben as I do. He is not the only man in the world that cares nothing for his wife and yet forces her to live with him, because the devil in his nature tells him that it is a good way to torture her. I don't go because I am afraid, like a thousand other poor women who inhabit the world. Some day I know that I shall kill him. If he would confine his beatings to me, I might endure it, but when he treats Dick in the way that he does, there will come a time when the worm will turn, and I, who have been trampled upon, will become a fiend of his own creating. ”

“ Lynde Pyne came to her assistance, and tenderly drew her back into the room, while he closed the door. She raised herself in his arms after a moment of inactivity, like a fiend.
"Let me go there!" she cried, madly. "Let me tell them what he is! He has betrayed me, and publicly in the courtroom I will tell the world what he is. I will pay him for this if it takes my life."
"Calm yourself, dear!" exclaimed Lynde, gently. "There is nothing that you can do against him. Come! You will be summoned to the courtroom in a few minutes for preliminary examination. ”

“ Before Kingsley had an opportunity to reply, Miss Chandler had sprung by him and had caught Leonie's hand in an iron grasp.
"You must be mad!" she whispered hoarsely. "Think what you are doing! You lose every possible hope! There is no doubt but what we can escape if you will only help me. For God's sake keep your wits about you and do the thing you contemplate only when you are overpowered and forced to yield."
But Leonie had no idea of considering any such advice.
She perfectly realized there was not the shadow of a hope for them, and she wanted to preserve that marriage certificate. ”

“ Leonie, what is it?"
"I cannot tell you," she cried hoarsely. "I entreat you to leave me! I will tell you that there is a shadow upon my life, the knowledge of which reached me within the last few hours, that has forever wrecked my happiness. There is no relief that can ever come to me but death! If I love you, it but makes the curse the greater, and the assurance of reciprocation is anguish!" ”

“ Now, Ben, listen to reason! You say that you have a purpose to accomplish. You destroy your chance of doing it, and send yourself to the gallows."
She paused, her strength almost deserting her. She was trembling in every limb, but there was little evidence of weakness about her. She seemed like a marble statue imbued with life and unchangeable resolution.
"I shall not send myself to the gallows!" he exclaimed, his eyes blood-shot, either from the blow on the head, or his rage, Leonie could not quite determine which. "I am going to give that boy the beating that I have promised him. ”

“ The question was asked with a nod of the head to indicate Dick, and Liz glanced in his direction eagerly.
"God knows I hope so," she said, with some degree of color warming her pale cheeks. "I should go mad if he died!"
"You must not say that, Liz. You must not rebel against the will of the Lord. Why should you wish to keep him here for your sake, when your own reason must tell you that it would be for his happiness to be in Heaven?"
"You don't know what it is! You don't know how alone I should be, and how I love him!" cried the woman, passionately.
"Do I not?" answered Leonie, sadly. ”

“ Godfrey Cuyler hesitated, his hands shaking until it was almost impossible for him to hold the portrait. He thrust it into the drawer, and locked it before she knew what he was about.
"It is no one that you know!" he cried, brokenly. "If you love me, you will not ask."
She laid her hands upon his shoulders, and held him firmly.
"Dad," she said, slowly, "you are keeping something from me that you have no right to keep. What is it? What has Miss Chandler to do with me? And who is that woman whose picture you have, who looks so much like the portrait in Lynde Pyne's drawer?" ”

“ There is no other way. I am guilty! I am guilty of all that and more, but if you don't wish the woman whom you have sworn by a solemn oath to make your wife, an ex-convict when that ceremony is performed, you must accept that money and save me. Leonie knows the truth, Ben Mauprat knows it, that woman, Liz, knows, and the letters that Ben had not the sense to destroy, are against me. How can you prove all those things liars without money? ”

“ The house had barely become quiet again than a noiseless step descended the stairs, a light hand turned the key in the door of the library, and Evelyn Chandler once more entered the presence of her sister.
"I have risked my father's displeasure to give you your liberty," said Miss Chandler, coldly. "If you are wise, you will leave here at once and forever. My father is a man whose justice is not tempered with mercy. I tell you frankly that if he can find you he will most certainly punish you as he has threatened to do." ”

“ There is nothing that can ever lift the barrier that lies between you and me, Mr. Pyne. That is as irrevocable as death itself. I am not saving you from Evelyn Chandler to secure you for myself. The reason that makes it almost a crime that she should be your wife, extends to me, and though I have brought you sorrow, I will never bring you disgrace. When you are here I shall find a pretext for remaining out of your presence, for it is much better that we should not meet! ”

“ Leonie heard the closing of the door, and entered immediately.
How dreary and desolate it seemed!
Deliberately she had cut herself from him, leaving herself absolutely alone, with not one human being that she could call her friend.
A great pity for herself surged into her heart, pity for the loneliness of her situation, for the isolation that had been thrust upon her through no fault of her own.
She sat down for a moment, burying her face in her hands; then she lifted it, ghastly with fierce determination.
"This is no time for inactivity or irresolution!" she cried passionately. ”

“ Let me go over those papers with you. Let me see the truth for myself."
Leonie laughed.
There in the stillness of the night it rung out with a little metallic sound that was chilling. She shivered as it ceased.
"I am afraid I could not trust you so far!" she exclaimed, coldly. "A woman who would dare so much as you have already done will bear watching. You will excuse me and take my word for it. I know!" ”

“ Oh, girl, do you know what that means to me? Have you any idea what it means to be all alone in the world with a weight like that upon your conscience?"
"Hush!" cried Leonie, earnestly. "You have not killed Ben. You have only stunned him, and if he returns to consciousness to find us still here, I would not give much for any of our lives. Do you hear me, Liz? Do you not see the necessity of our taking Dick away before he returns to life?" ”

“ Liz lifted her eyes blinded with tears. She kneeled and kissed the hand that supported Dick's head.
"You are an angel!" she whispered. "I had a daughter once, long years ago that might have been like you if she had lived, but she died years ago. That was the cause of Ben's deserting me and running away for all those years when I was little more than a girl myself. Perhaps it would have been better for me if he had never come back!"
A puzzled expression crossed Leonie's face. ”

“ I will die. When a woman is determined upon a thing like that, there are not men enough in the world to prevent it."
"You must not say that, dear," exclaimed Lynde, gently. "He only wants to save your life for your own good. I think I have succeeded in securing bail for you, and you must get well now in order that we can determine what is best to do for you."
"From whom did you get it?" she stammered, faintly.
"From—your sister, whose deepest sympathy you have."
"Leonie?"
The word was a gasp, the expression of the countenance set with horror. ”

“ There is nothing that we can do, but you can go. There is no reason that you should die because we must."
"Do you think I am such a coward that I would leave you here alone? I would rather die with you. No, Liz! If one of us must remain we must all do so, but—I have an idea, Liz. It is a hopeless situation for you anyway, and therefore, it cannot be any worse. Every moment may be precious to us now, and therefore, we must act quickly. We must call upon the police for protection. We must have an officer here and have Ben arrested when he awakens." ”

“ I am the daughter of an ex-convict. Worse than that, my mother died in the Tombs, convicted of theft! I did steal your money, and Leonie Cuyler saw me do it. While there I told her the story of her birth and of mine to force her to keep my secret. That was a great mistake on my part. I should have found another way. Now what are you going to do? If you pose as a martyr I shall tell my story to the world of the tyrant that you are in your family, where even your own wife sits in fear and trembling. ”

“ Godfrey Cuyler's terrible suffering was explained at last.
CHAPTER V.
A pale gray light, like a stray moonbeam glimmering upon the headstone of a grave, crept into the room and softly touched the face of the girl that lay upon the floor in a death-like swoon.
There is an inexplicable something in magnetism that annihilates distance and speaks louder than a human voice.
It has baffled scientists for generations, and will for generations more, yet its presence has been more or less felt by every one, like the influence of a haunting but half-forgotten dream. ”