Daily American telegraph., 1852-02-05

house un0bseryed, stole softly beneath the win
dow, where knew she would be sitting at that
hourn
Something seemed gathering in the old
mans throat, and he reached forward for a
glass of water which placed in his hand.
81 was not mistaken he said, ut length.
"She was there as expected-but at her side,
whispering his black lies in her ear, while his
false lips almost touched her cheek, was Satan,
in the shape of Tom Alling; and she---Rachel
Halliday-she who had stood to me for all
purity and truth, looking up in his face with
that expression of love and trust, which ], like
afool, had thought her face could wear to none
but me! a& $3.50
@The sight maddened me. sprang into the
room and -
He paused, and the great veins in his tenn
pies grew livid and rigid in the effort he made
to control the emotion which these memories
awakened
@You did not" cried Rsbecca, frightened ut
the stern immoyability of his features surely
you did not n-- @
Kill them on the spot!n he interrupted,
hoarsely. "No; have not said that am re-
spectable2 | was not 80 merciful as that.
When she flung herself between me and that
rascal, / turned from him, and blasted her with
my curses. don't know what did or said J;
was mad. All that remember of that scene
is the look Of grief surprise, terror, and pity,
which she gave me, as flung her from my arm,
to which she attempted to cling, and Tom AL
ling's exultng tone, as covering beyond the
reach of my arm with his hand on the handle
of the door, he exclaimed You see, my dear,
that the stories are all true even worse than
was reported
"One thing more | remember: the cold,
sneering rascally, hypocritical face OF my
guardian, when, half an hour later, supported
by his wife-for he had not the courage to
meet me, with such a lie in his mouth, alone
he told me that was beggar; that all prop
erty left by my father had been insufficient to
pay my expenses, and upbraided me with my
dissolute, licentious habits-I, who was as inno-
cent as child! He even taunted me with
having eaten the bread of charity. | did not
stay to hear the details of this villany. for vii
lany knew it to be, but put the climax to the
character it had been their aim for years to
give me, by seizing splendidly- bound copy of
the Bible, which was always ostentatiously
displayed upon the table, and finging it at his
head. That night | left c.. My youth
was but the type, it seems of my future; for in
manhood and old age have been but house
less, homeless wanderer You need not look
NJ STleNeu, Ht Icb hcDGCCdS
half-tearful, halfreproachful glance, 81 am by
no means ungrateful. 1t is good and pleas
ant home you have given me, one in which the
crusty old man grows young again else, you
may depend upon it, you would never have
heard what he has told you tonight; but it is
not the home dreamed about in my youth"
"Did you never go back? Did you never
see her again?n | asked timidly breaking the
silence that followed the old mans words.
"Once more, child. When saw her again,
she lay in her coffin, with her white shroud
folded about her, and the traces of an age of
misery on her thin, sunken face!p
Was that Mr. Renwick! Our granite-faced,
iron-nerved Mr. Renwick, that sat there gazing
into the glowing anthracite with such an ex-
preston of unutterable sorrow in his whole
face and attitude!
Well might we doubt until Rebecca startled
us all by her earnest exclamation
"She tuas innocent She must have been
innocent!n she cried "There was some mis-
take! You left her, and she died Of broken
heart! Was it not so?"
"Worse child; she liued with broken
heart. You are right; she traS innocent of all
sin against me- but the victim of Tom Alling's
villanous schemes. IL seems he had noted the
change in her personal appearance, and marked
her for his prey some months before. His first
care had been to get rid of me; and then he
set to work. By means Of certain tools who
are found in every place, ready to do the devils
work he circulated all manner of lies about
me, and the reason of my absence; while he,
double-and- d-twisted villain that he was. assumed
the part of an aggrieved friend, and made a
feiDt ut defending, or at least excusing me, in
the presence of Rachel, which, knowing the
cool relations that had ever subssted between
us, she in her guilclessness took to be an eyi-
dence of real nobleness of mind and heart
Had only heard her that night: had been
anything but madman should have learned
that it was gratitude for what she deemed his
dsintereste6 friendship for me, that led to that
interview. II was long before | heard from
her again; and then, the fact that she was the
wife Of Tom Alling only confirmed me in my
opinions. Years afterward, when it was all too
late learned my mistake Business called me
to my native State; and while there, visited
C, more to spite myself for the cowardly
feeling that made me vince at the thought OF
it, than for anything else. No one recognised
me; and might have left the village without
any ono being the wiser for my presence if
had not yielded to my desire to visit my fathers
old housekeeper, whom found was living still
could not deceive her Partly my questions
and partly my voice, betrayed me; and from
her learned that which took from me the
sense of injury, and loaded me with that o
guilt.
"Rachel Halliday lay dead in her house
and it was over her coffin that heard how my
own conduct on that night had been brought
against me as proof of the truth of those cal
umnies; how she had struggled against the
united influence of her mother and her friends
until weary and despairing, she had consented
to become Tom Alling's wife; how the ill-got-
ten gains Of my old guardian had been scat
tered to the four winds of heaven, and the wiie
r. -. - = 4 -. Ia loo, ;,Jabted TO nv