Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-04-22
MISCELLAN A N Y .
The Voice of the Old Bible.
A NOBLE REVENGE.

The Voice of the Old Bible.
NOBLE RRvENaR.
ssMiserably unfortunate and poor! His wife
and child in actual need of life's comforts! Oh,
Lucius, Lucius am revenged now!" and q
smile, sad even in its triumph, curled over the
beautiful mouth of the speaker.
She was young, so young that you would have
hesitated whether to write her girl or woman,
and her only beauty was in her mouth and eyes.
The one was large, but soft, sweet, flexible, the
responsive instrument on which her soul always
struck its in6nitudes of emotion and feeling
The eyes were large and deep, a translation Of
her soul rather than her heart, as, perhaps eyes
oftenest are.
Up and down her chamber, with that sad,
bitter smile on her lips the lady walked many
times. The velvet carpet, its dark groundwork
piled with Sorrento roses, cushioned her feet
Soft landscapes of the Rhine, intermingled with
wild pictures of Alpine scenery, leaned down to
her from their oval frames; but, needless of the
beauty from her, its mistress walked amid 1t,
her soul wrapped in a JOY which the angels must
have written sin.
And yet you should pity her, for great had
been her wrong. She had the elements OF very
noble nature, too, but her mother had died be-
fore Alice met her tenth summer, and there was
none that understood her deep, emotional ma
ture-her impulsiye poetic, temperament.
Her father was plain, practical farmer, whose
being was absorbed in the few acres which lay
around his yellow-brown homestead, and he re-
garded Alice as remarkably sensible child, be-
cause she always preferred books to dolls and
bonnets She attended the village school until
she was eighteen, for her father was indulgent
Ia H. nd Tod
over the semi-annual school bills, he never had
the heart to withdraw Alice from the studies
she loved There she met Lucius Brante. How
the thoughts of the proud woman reach off to
that hour, and drag it up to the present.
He was poor, an artist, and a school-teacher,
with an earnest aesthetic nature, and much OF
that social magnetism that attracts the sympa-
thies of others.
Alice was his pupil. do not know how it
but both teacher and scholar learned
a lesson that was not in the text book that sum-
mer.
"Alice,n said the young man, brushing away
the curls that leaned over the girls bowed fore
head as they stood by the farm-gate on the last
night of his stay in Meadow Brook, 81 give you
nv heart Take and keep it. must 90 out
into the world and win me name and place
there; then will come back to you."
81 will take and keep it till give both back
to God" answered the girl solemnly, and so
they parted.
She had been true to him-through the dark
of her face comes softer light with
the thought. Then, what temptations thicken-
ed about her when her father died, end she came
to her fashionable aunt's, and entered upon that
new life of wealth and luxury.
D~,ont apd ipnpulc;vo Uracaful and coma
times beautiful, it was not strange she created
an unusual sensation. But the dreaming fair
haired youth, whose rapt eye leaned over his
easel in the fourth story of an old building in
that obscure street of the metropolis, owned the
heart that no princely fortune could have bought.
Alice's relative was an intriguing, worldly wo-
man. She had no children of her own, and
whatever of affection could exist in such ma
ture was bestowed on the orphan. Mr.. Reade
was widower and millionaire and if his life
was leaning down to the shadows of sixty, he
thought that was no reason why he should not
have young and beautiful wife to preside over
his home.
"She'll throw herself away on that handsome
young painter, and starve to death in garrett, "
mused Mrs. Henly, between her lunch and her
lapdog, after long interview with Mr.. Reade.
"ld forbid him the house, but Alice is such q
girl. A little diplomacy will sue
ceed best with her. 1t would only be doing the
child a lifelong favor too. Well see!" signifi-
cantly perforated the portly lady, as she divided
a slice of cake with her canine favorite.
"Alice J"
"Aunt !" and the girls bright face leaned over
the balustrade. M
"Here's letter for you / found among my
l. g.. r 10 70 20
Excuse moi! What, not dressed for the party 2'
frightened at the well-known chirography.
mo; but shall be in half an hour" And
she went back to her room.
No one saw her again that night. The letter
struck out all the light and JOY and faith of her
life.
Two months later there was wedding; and
very gorgeous one at the residence of Mrs.
Henley. Alice was the wife of the millionaire.
Well, he was good, indulgent sort of hus-
band, and loved his young wife better than even
he did his house and his horse, which is saying
great deal, for these were his passions.
And Alicea have given you the keynote to
her life. You can feel the sadness of the heart
hymns amid all the earth glare and luxury thro'
which they rise.
Il les, IL 10 uOuI uOW, W,AuOiuo Oiou-
te," murmurs the lady, as she twined the watch
chain round her white fingers, still pacing up
and down the chamber floor. ''Ohl what a
heart was that you slighted-what love was
that you spurnedl You would never have come
TO what you are now if had been your wife,
NV genius would have stimulated, my affection
would have inspired you'll But You knew was
door, and you thought you would marry rich
woman. Your designs were frustrated finely,
though, weren't theyl In less than d year her
father died insolyent, ,aud you had pretty, help
less girl on your hands, who, if she had strength
to love, hadn't sense to appreciate you. Well,
YOU deserve it all, and Pm glad of it. | would
not give one half-penny of the thousands | pos
sess to save you, or your wife or child, from
And the lady brought down her
clenched hand on the table.
No, not on the table, but on book that lay
there. No wonder the flush and the scorn went
ont from the lady's face, for that book was her
mothers Bible, and the old days, when she read
it at her knee came, like far travellers away
from her hfe's morning, and stood still and re-
about her. She bowed down her
fair face on the old brown cover and wept, and
the angel in her heart lifted his head and whis-
pered, "Forgive even as you would be forgiven" !"
There was long, fierce struggle betwixt the
good and the evil in the soul Of Alice Reade that