A Woman Martyr

shone in the lamplight. Dark, waving shadows against the driving clouds, with their fitful patches of moonlit sky, were the trees in the enclosure, dangled by the

," she said, in a muffled voi

sery at the gay shop-windows, at the crowded omnibuses, at the cheery passengers who carelessly stepped along the pavement, looking as if all life were matter-of-fact, plain sailing, "above-board." A hundred shrill voices seemed clamouring in

ure, fiercely. No! She must battle through: she must circ

t

him to claim me if he can!" But that was the mad

was to be at their trysting-place of old, when she had lodged with her old nurse in a street in Camden Town, at eight. "He lied to me from the first moment to the last. I must lie to him. I will pretend I have cared for him! It will

re they two had last met! As she neared it, a

s. He would have embraced her, but she sli

whether you were alive or dead," she panted hoarsely. Under any cir

again, under cover to your miserable old nurse--and don't say you never had them! The last ca

wonder! I was so utterly wretched when I read of your--your--flight--that I to

ur own mistress! I have been fortunate of late, or I should not be here. Speculations of mine have turned up trumps--and not only that, but I have friends in the City who will introduce me to your uncl

ndurance, and, while bracing herself to bear up as she did, Nature determinedly assert

rity which seemed the last straw. As she tu

ng her up by the arm. His detested touch achieved what her slackening courage ha

all," she softly began, as the policeman marched solemnly on before them, the lig

ad! My love, I was a victim of circumstances. The people I was with were a rotten lot. They accused me to protect themselves. They were bankrupt th

--why should I believe

Come, let us talk business, as you don't feel inclined for love. You are mine, and I mean to have you. You understand? I have waited for you all these years, and precious hard work it has been, I can tell you, for plenty of girls as good-looking as

her face. Beautiful, corpse-like in its sombre, set expression, there was that in her great, shinin

darling once more!" he wheedled, and would have

onsideration, decency, respect--unless you can give me time to arrange matters so that to avow myself your--wife--will not r

tic idea of suicide. You are not the kind of girl who kills herself, I can tell you that--so that threat won't hold water with me. Come now, don

ittart, one plan wilder than another, had agitated her mind. She had at last arrived at one set

time to find some way of introducing you to friends, and through them to un

nto a deri

wouldn't give bite or sup to your father when he was a dying man are dead nuts on you. We must make 'em suffer, my darling! We must madden them till they are ready to do anything and everything if they can only find you alive. And we must talk it over--so that your disappearance may be a regular thunderbolt! Can you come to my lodgings to-morrow evening? I want you to myself--it's natural, isn't it? This road, quiet as it is, is ha

f crime? My coldness, my absolute refusal to listen to any man is so well known that it has been common t

to him, he suddenly threw his arms about her neck an

lmost fell against the fence. "And take this address. I shall be here every evening at the same hou

e consented to leave her, and hailing a hansom, she clambered in, she leant ba

n me?" she wailed. "I