Marion Marlowe Entrapped, or, The Victim of Professional Jealousy — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a _ woman, scornfully. fe * MY QUEEN. Marion held her breath “Tet me out of man at her side. for a second as she heard it. this place at once!” she said, furiously, “I demand that you set me at liberty, ‘sir! What have I done to you that you should treat me so shamefully ?” “Shall I tell you?” hissed a low voice that she now recognized fully. “Shall I tell you what you’ have done, Signorita Ila de Parloa?” | , ; “What, you,’ Carlotta?” cried Marion, aghast. “Fou, a woman, have. stooped to “this hideous crime? Yes, tell me at once, if. & you can, what I have done to deserve it!” She was facing her companion with abso- lute fearlessness now, and, as the woman’ threw off her slouch hat together with a wig and false beard, the two stood glaring % . fiercely at each other in Ee strange apart- _ ment. ~ “T’'ll tell you what you did, you little coun- try innocent!” cried _ Carlotta, furiously. “You robbed me of my laurels as prima donna of our company, then you robbed me of the man whose very shadow I adored, and yes, you goaded me on to such jealous rage that I killed my lover! I killed Clayton _. Graham because you came between us, Mar- » ton Marlowe!” o “Oh, no, never!” cried Marion, who was aghast with horror. “You killed him in a fit of ungovernable temper. It was not be- cause of me—I am innocent, eaglOteer og do ngt choose to think so,” said the “I vowed £0 have re- venge and I have won it—to my sorrow!” The groan of agony that followed these _words almost melted Marion’s heart to pity. ~The woman was vile, she was all that was loathesome and bad, yet God alone knew the 4 depths of her suffering. In another instant she was shaking with sobs; yet her great dark eyes only burned with the agony of hate; there was no tears of relief for the wretched Carlotta. “Why have you brought me here?” de- ~manded Marion again, as soon as she could control herself sufficiently to ask the ques- tion, The answer sent a thrill of horror through every fiber of her body, it was so utterly dia- _ bolical, so apy, cruel and fiendish. 25 a Carlotta raised her head and fixed her burning eyes upon Marion’s face. . “This is an opium den, the best and the worst in the city,” she said, “Men and women come here to live and die. It is better, they think, than dying in prison. [ come here to smoke the drug I want to sleep and dream—to hoarsely. have and dream. dream and sleep. Perhaps I shall find rest for the agony of my soul; perhaps I shall only find torture to the very end; but in either case I want you here to keep me com- pany.” ates | ’ CHAPTER XIII. THE DIABOLICAL BARGAIN. As Carlotta ceased speaking she tapped a curiously shaped bell. In an instant a Chinese servant entered opisciessly. “I want to smoke, John,” said the woman, with a wave of her hand. Marion’s eyes followed the piuien and saw she had pointed toward an “opium layout” on one of the small tables. ‘ The grave girl watched what idikewid with wide-staring eyes. She had not fully realized yet that she was really a prisoner. Carlotta,.as one who was perfectly fami- liar with the place, stepped behind a heavy curtain. When she emerged again she had completely discarded her disguise and was dressed in a long, loose Oriental garment, Without a word to Marion she passed slowly across the room. There was another heavy portiere before her—she disappeared behind it. In a moment the Chinaman followed, car- rying the little table. His movements were so noiseless and cat-like that they were al- most uncanny. Marion walked deliberately ‘toward the curtain and looked behind it, then darted back with an exclamation of horror. What she saw was another room adjoin- ing the one she was in, but this apartment was fitted with curious berth-like beds, and in three of these she saw women sleeping. A glance was enough to show her the full eae of the place, for upon one face w stamped the most hideous ani (L ConliGaooks AS