Sioux City register. [volume] (Sioux City, Iowa) 1858-1871, 1867-06-29

her was easy aud familiar My air castles
seemed to totter to their destruction as ]
narrowly and jeaIously watched them; and
when could endure the sight no longer l
turned to the window, grieved and hear,-sick,
and-shall say it?-stung with jealousy!
Several weeks had now elapsed since my
return to the farmhouse, and the relative
positions of Walter Layard an1 myself had
been defined We were rivals from the out
set, stern and uncompromising and our
mein toward each other was hostile and de-
fant
But conqnered-as I knew I must from
from the beginning. Walter Layard was the
boy-1, the man; and contact with the world
had given me the experience which he lack
ed. Yet this was hardly the reason for my
success. 1t was my stronger nature that
gained the vie DRY and Emily at last yielded
her consent to be my wife, because, as
know now, she could not withstand the i'm
pulsive coerciyn which brought to bear up
on her.
And yet-s.range Inconsistency hardly
dared ask myself whether she really loved
me. Nay, let me sp"ak frankly feared to
ask il Toere were years between Emily
and myself hear heart was fresh and unsul
lied-n,ne was cankered anI care worn ;
love for her was the sole and only green spo,
about it. The truth could not be concealed
| I l., ,4l. g. ~
could not be the same generous sympathy Of
feeling between Emily and myselfas between
her and Walter had | not stood between
them.
She never owne; this to me but it could
be read ia her changing manner, in her
cheeks, where roses boomed less brightly
than before my coming, aud in the dreary,
faded brightness of her eyes. Iivr laugh,
too, was far less musical, and less frequent :;
she was changed, ss dly changed Yet had
won her, and could not help glorying in
the thought. She was to be mlne-minc for
life.
And Walter L,yard-he, zoo, had won
drously altered since be knew OF the rrospec-
tive relations between EMily and myself-
His cheeks grew thin and hollow, bis eyes
dull and sunken, and his voice treDulous
and faint; grief sorrow beyond description,
was gnawing like a canker at his heart. He
moved about the house from day to da7,
pale emaciated, and restless though ,ha
vivid, angry blood often burned in his cheek
when be met me. He and Emily, too, seem
cd to avoid each Others society, rs though
it would add to each painfrl aLd tauta'i-
| ziug bitterness: not to be endured
ILe truth Was as plain to my eyes as
printed page--Wa!ter Layard was slowly
wasting away, dying of broken heart. Tie
door of death seemed uncIosng to him. lie
| fervent prayer was, that he mi sht never rise
from it
Day BY day did the doomed yon,h grow
weaker md more at'enuated. Emily minis.
tered by his bedside increasingly. cared
no, TO forbid her. for | could well atlord to
grant him this consolation. Words, ordlna
| ry forms Of address, rarely passed between
| them bat often. how often have ! seen his
eager eye follow her about the room. intu-
enced, as it seemed to me, by a magnetism
in her presence; and then, as his emotion
grew uncomfortable, he would bury his wan
face in his pillow, and weep bitter tears of
grief He had nothing to live for death
would come rs grateful relief to hm yet
| we'll knew the remedy which would quickly
restore him to life and strength. 1t lay
within my power; but would not, | could
not apply it.
He died at last, and my heart beat more
placidy. For myself might have loved bin;
for Emily, couId not hut hate him, and !
was no, hypocritical enough to griere over
him
We followed him to the grave, Emily. with
tears and sobs which she tried not te restrain,
they raised above his dust. In each case the
feeling was genuine and unfrigned.
And at last tie wish of my heart was ful.
filed, for Emily Barnard now became MY wife.
The stormy turbulence ofmy lie was at al
end; domestic peace and retirement, and
therefore happiness t,r which had yearned,
was attained; and my life passed on quietly
towards its goal, cheeaed and blessed by the
love, as thought. Of my wife. Nay was
hot unreasonable enough to entertain 'ubt
OF her love- She was mine low, lawfully mine,
and her interests must all have been center
ed in me Children, also, were born to Us;
and as they grew up to manhood and woman
hood arcund us, thougts Ike these to which
/ have here given shape, grew foreign to me,
and at length almos, ceased to annoy me-
And still later, stood by the deatlb b Of
my Emily, my w1fe.' at3 s@cssea her last
breath. They left me-, awhile, to mourn over
her, as she lay dead before me; almost a.
beautiful as upon the day when my heart
bounded to greet her, on my return to the
old farm house And then, in an evil mo
ment, some demon whispered in my ear the
hateful, startling query-"Did she ever love
you9'
The same evil genius must have guided NY
hand to gold chain which had often OBJ
served around Emily's neck, though had
always studiously re,raned from questioning
her concerning it. | withdrew it from her 90
som, and discovered iochet attached to it
Ny fingers nsrvously pressed the ring; and
there transcribed with all the painters Gun