The Love of Lady Irma

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Lady Irma is the wife of a handsome man who is the object of admiration of all the women, and wherever he appears they flock about him to such an extent that the wife, though assuming that she is not jealous, is afraid that their excessive adulation may turn his head and she will he forgotten. She asks herself if she can hold his love. She, with candor, realizes that she is not more beautiful than most of them, and maybe not as attractive as some. Here she is tortured by fears, although he is devoted to her. Protestations on his part serve but little to ease her mind when she sees him in the midst of a throng of admiring women, and her perturbation is ill-concealed. To her best friend she is about to write her fears, and ask advice, when an idea occurs to her. If he was not so handsome they would possibly not so thoroughly monopolize his attentions. If he could only meet with some disfiguring accident, at this point of her soliloquy a horrible plan presents itself to her mind and she impetuously puts it into effect, engaging the services of a couple of thugs to waylay her husband and sear his face in a manner to disfigure his beauty. For this she pays them a considerable sum. The deed is perpetrated and the affair is enveloped in mystery, as there appeared to be no plain reason for the assault. However, the wounds heal, but he is brutally disfigured for life. It is now that Lady Irma feels the awful weight of remorse, which is not even lightened by the contemptuous attitude of the women at his appearance. This is not the worst torment, for the thugs, appreciating the hold they have on her, use a threat to expose her as a means to extort more money. During one of their visits they are surprised by the husband, who throws them bodily out of the house. Reasoning that he will sooner or later learn the truth, she confesses. He is at first amazed, but upon learning what had induced her step, he forgives her.