Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1858-11-18
THE FIRST AND THIRD MARRIAGE.
a Canadian ROmance.

Thus you see, my own Hortense, that l
must leave you. shall provide an income of
hundred louis for your expenses Look for
ward constantly to my return and when for
tune again smiles upon me, shall come back,
never again to be separated until DEATH"
The weeping wife could not be comforted. It
was hard that so soon after her marriage, when
the world seemed so bright and gay, and when
wealth and fortune smiled so serenely upon her,
that all should be swept away, and she left like
lone widow to protect herself The husband
was almost distracted with the thought of Ieav-
ing her. His heart had been bound up in his
beautiful Hortense She had been his idol
from boyhood-the bright dream of his exist
ence; and when he had attained the distinction
of one of the merchant princes of Montreal, he
married her, and placed her in the very heart of
luxury.
Misfortunes came on swift wings to the happy
pair. One by one his possessions left him, and
worse than that, others were involved in his af-
fairs, who were less able to lose than himself.
He could not look upon the ruin of those around
him for he had kind heart, and would not
wrong any one for the world. They that lost
by his ill fortune admitted that NJ Valentin was
a strictly honest man and that is great praise
from those who are injured by another's i'll luck
People are but too apt to call it dishonesty.
There was but a single bright spot before n.
Valentin, Australia CLEANED up warm and
golden, and with desperation born of love to
his wife, aud justice to his creditors, he secret
Iy embarked for the land of promise. There
was nine days wonder as to where he was
gone, and to what purpose and then he died
out of the thoughts of the community as thor
oughly as if he hal been dead and buried.
The weeping Hortense removed to another
locality the fashionables who had strained ev-
cry nerve to get invited to the house of the
rich merchant, never paused to ask after his
wife; and lonely and miserable, without friends
or relatives, Hortense dropped and pined, until
the beauty which her husband so praised was
changed into dimuess She never heard from
N. Valentin. No single word had ever eheeIed
her solitude since he left her. As month after
month dragged its slow weight, and no tidings
reached her, her heart utterly sunk within her,
and she believed him dead. What, indeed,
could she think! 1t was better to think so
than to believe him unmindful of her, and day
afler day she watered his memory with tears of
genuine sorrow, sorrow for the beloved dead
She put on the deepest mourning kept her
room for months, and when she finally went out
again, and then only to church, her sorrow
was written plainly in the face, which ifit had
lost some of its beauty, was yet most deeply in
teresting. So at least thought the young Eu-
gene Stanbury, an Englishman of unblemished
character and in prosperous business. He saw
her at church, devised some ingenious expedi-
ent to be introduced, and begged the privilege
of waiting upon her. The lady pleaded her in
ability to entertain company, the impropriety
Of her receiving gentlemen, and thousand rea-
sons why he should not visit her.
He overTuled them all, besought her to waive
all ceremony with him, to consider him as a
deeply attached friend, brother, anything in
short, if he might be permitted 10 see her some
times, and HOrtense, weary of her monotonous
and dreary life at last consented.
Once having renewed the delicious conscious
ness OF protecting presence, she found it hard
to give it up for to mere punctilios Of what the
world would say of her. Indeed, she had long
since shaken hands with the world, and parted
from it. She owed it no favor 1t had no
right to criticise her conduct Thus she reas-
oned while listening to Eugenes impassioned
entreaties that she would lay aside her sorrows
for the dead, and become his wife.
Still she hesitated. She truly believed in
her husbands death; for would he not have
written had he been living OF the many let
ters she had written to him, the many inquiries
she had instituted, no answer could be obtain.
ed. No one knew anything Of NJ Valentin.
III az houA VI AiOie tndi uSudi lOueuneSS ana
trouble, she whispered to herself that, should
Eugene press his suit anew, she would consent
to marry him She liked him, she was weary
of her own life, Gagged and cribbed as she was;
she longed for freedom from the restraint that
poverty and widowhood were constantly i'm
posing upon her; ard all these combined, ope-
rated wonderfully in Eugene's favor. The mar
riage was strictly private; and half Mr. STAN
bury's friends had no suspicion that he had
ever intended to marry at all until she became
his wife.
lie took her to pleasant home, as eomforta-
Die, II not quite as luxurious, as the one she
shared with NJ. Valentin; and all that she could
ask Tor was showered upon her with generous