Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

398 my mind was deeply concerned over Nita. J could not imagine her volcanic vitality slumping like this. Mammy was clearly disposed not to let me into her mistress’s room; but I was de- termined. She lay propped up high on her big, canopied bed, with its lace draperies and mosquito netting back of her. I paused, shocked. Her face was haggard, her eyes—almost insane, it seemed to me. “Nita!” I cried. “What is it?” “Oh, I can’t keep it from you,” she said. “T have about reached the end of my strength. What do you think I did last night? I sat on the floor all night, my ear pressed against the door, waiting for my husband to come home and kill me!” I sank down on the foot of her a un- able to speak. / “ Mammy was with me. She always i is. Nita went on. “TI think Amédée loved me once,” she said, in a low voice that some- how frightened me. ‘ But when he knew for a certainty that the De Charleu curse had fallen on me, he grew suddenly to watch me and hate me. He is always cour- teous and devoted when in company; but when we are alone—’ She shuddered. “Those scenes! Those wretched scenes! He gets out his big hunting-knife and sharpens it, and taunts me, and tells me how he will wipe out the curse with my blood if I do not have a care.” “My God!”’ I cried. ‘““T would not tell you,” she half au, but I feel that the end is near; and be- sides, I have kept silent for seven years. I must speak or I shall die.” Her words tumbled out. .‘‘ I was sixteen when I mar- xied him, and I did not know what to do.” Her voice rose. ‘‘ He followed me about the streets, stepping out of sight in door- aways and alleys, until 1 was almost mad. “ At last I quit going out except. when he could be‘with me. Then he brought his friends to the house, and compelled me to receive them! And if he thought he de- tected undue warmth in my manner—how can I speak of the awful nights that, have followed when I would sit waiting for him to come back, break in, and kill me.” Now her voice sank to a shuddering whisper. ‘I began at last to wonder when ARGOSY AND RAILROAD MAN’S: MAGAZINE. it would happen. I could picture the whole awful thing. do it with that awful hunting-knife!” She sat up straight. “I hoped I would not struggle and make him scar my face!” She drew a deep, gasping breath, and her eyes had a wild look in them. She stretched her arms in front of her as if to push something from her. ‘““T could see my body as it lay in the drawing-room, in my high-necked robes. I saw the people come and go; then I fol- lowed myself to the vault in the old ceme- tery. Oh, the horror of that vault, with those dead and gone De Charleus! And the darkness!” She fell back on her pil- lows. ‘At this point I would seem to go mad! I would wish that I-could put him there, and stay myself in the light—the beautiful light! At last it has taken pos- session of me.’ She spread her hands and spoke resignedly, then sat up rigidly. “T think of it constantly. I picture it over and over again, and I am always glad, glad when the great iron doors of the vault close on him and I am free from the daily horror that hangs over me.” There was a hectic light on her drawn face. ‘IT do not want to do it! My whole soul and body revolts against it. I have talked with the priest about my unhappi- ness, though I have not told him of my fears. He, good man, cannot give his con- sent that I leave my husband.” She stopped suddenly. I was too horri- fied to speak. “Lately he has lost large sums at gam- bling;-and one night he put up the old house—and lost it. The man who won it told Amédée that we could continue to live in it on condition that he introduce him into our set. It was then that the real tragedy began. Amédée conceived the idea of setting a trap for the man. I was to en- courage his attentions, and when he de- clared himself, I was to ask for Amédée’s written promise of the house. I refused at first—and my husband said he would kill me. He got out his knife—it had been newly sharpened. And—I—promised him! “He often leaves us, that man and me, alone together. Oh, it is a nightmare! I am almost mad. Last night at the recep- comicbooks:.com I knew just what He,would~ \