Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-07-31
A Marriage Deception.

| Al ldSt TtCOlltCltu NHhJ Hdu Dtel
going to say and told him l wished to h
left alone. He silently took out his care
and laid it on the chimney-piece, ant
\ went, out ItE
/ don't remember how many hours
remained lying on the sofa, with my eye
shut in that strange torpor; but it wa
night when | opened them, and fount
my wife standing by me- See had Lighted
the candles on the chimney-piece, ant
was STOPPING down over me- She started
upright as my eyes opened, but she die
not avoid them. She confronted me
arching back her nymph like figure, anf
leaning her hand on table behind her
felt no emotion at sight of her, bu
looked at her as if she had been pic
ture. Her beauty was splendid. All he
fair COLDER hair was turned off her white
face in sort of glittering aureola. He
great turquois blue eyes hared unde
slightly contracted brows; the nostrils O
her delicate straight nose, and her infan
tine mouth, expressed rage and pain
'Fm glad you are awake, said she
II want you to hear me say | hate you T
II don't care, said l. YEARLY &c
away.
Her face famed outwith the fury thai
was burning in her heart.
- But you do care she cried; you
shall care. / tell you always laughed
at you and despised you | married you
because | thought it would give me a
chance of winning him back-such as
Rad to-day. | got into his family and
toadied them, and made myself their ser
want, only to hear of him, and TO fee
nearer him, and be where he had been
| love him sol l love no one else
in the world-I never did. | would
kill you, and a dozen like
you, 10 save him from fnger-ache.
would rather a thousand times have a
blow from him than a kiss from you-a
hundred million times When | think
of him, and that you are between us, |
hate you-I abhor you How dare you
smile at me? I'll kill you"
| was quite unconscious OF smiling,
but she darted at me and struck at my
throat | caught her hand this tine she
had penknife in it, and felt that she
had pricked me That instructive act OF
selfdefense reused me, and probably
saved my wits, as well as my life When
had mastered her and thrown the knife
away, held her hands in mine till she
put down her face and bit them savagely,
| tied her wrists with my pockethand.
kerchief, and she sank painting on a
chair. All of a sudden the unhappy
creature burst out crying as if her heart
was broken-as it well might be.
l knew afterwards that Ringwood S
cool rejection of her advances, and his
positive refusal to receive her when she
had followed him back to his lodgings
some hours before, were at the bottom of
that frenzy of vituperatiou, and that des-
perate behaviour toward me. She did
not hate me, but was simply mad with
pain, and raved and struck out in her
delirium. / do not believe that she mar
ried me with those deliberately prohigate
intentions she ayowed, but that she
meant and wished to lead a new life,
until the sight of Ringwoods name in
the papers, and the knowledge of his
propinquity, in my absence, revived her
passion for him, in which her good reso-
lutious burnt ike straw, released her
hands, and brought water and put 1t to
her lips; and when she was quiet, through
exhaustion, / advised her to lie down,
hoped she would go TO sleep. As | was
leaving the room, she called me back in
a low, broken voice, and when / stood
beside the sofa on which she lay, she
Joined her hands, and asked me with
streaming eyes to forgive her. | did so
freely. OF course Ringwood was right. |
had no one but myself to thank My in
fatuaticn had been so monstrous that /
could no more complain of the couse-
quences than a man, sober, can com
plain of the consequences of some drum
ken folly.
As for that poor human flower, still
so beautiful and fresh TO the eye, while so
withered at its heart, kind of gloomy
rage seized me as / looked at her and
thought Of the selfish rnhan, unknown,
who had ,orn off this bud to stick in his
butsonhole for an hour, and cast il into
the Kennel Probably this fellow is liv-
ing, respected, and probably will die re-
greited
People seem TO 90 on a curious prin-
ciple with regard 10 one class of crimes.
Evidently by the way they behave TO the
chief actors in certain social tragedies,
they consider the heavier Of not the on
" blame to lie with the corrupted wife,
the tempted daughter, not with the inno-
cent wolf who leaped into the fold, the
gay, good-humored man who tramples
an laws, human and divine, TO serve his
accursed ends.
In the morning l took Fanny away
70 farm house in Kent, place she knew
Of, and chose herself for retreat She
was quiet aud humble, and apparently
broken spirited Before left her she
insisted on telling me her miserable lit